ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the local interpretation, reflecting the microsynchrony of articulatory gestures and introduces the notions of phasepoints and lag. The description of synchronization between two events on two tiers requires the specification of one phasepoint variable for each of the events, and possibly an additional random variable for the description of the absolute time lag between the phasepoints. The chapter explores the global interpretation, reflecting the large-scale structural properties of speech, but built compositionally from local interpretations. The intended interpretation of a feature is the set of time intervals in which the feature is present in the utterance. The chapter looks at the ideas of autosegmental phonology embodied in features and feature geometry from a broader perspective. It overviews the commonly used strategies for dealing with the domains: underspecification and the use of hidden variables.
