Topic-170: Explaining the Problem with Linguistic Explanations The phonetics of the individual gives explanation to a number of such complex issues. For example, take the case of assimilation - it happens because there is a tendency in pronunciation for adjacent sounds to share phonetic properties (at individual level. This explanation is even more impressive if we state it as a formal constraint (in Optimality theory) on sequences of sounds as the following AGREE(x): Adjacent output segments have the same value of the feature x. It means that assimilation exists when adjacent segments share features. In simple words we can say that the adjacent sounds would influence the sounds in the neighborhood and that the tendency to assimilate (a cross-linguistic generalization) exists because there is a tendency to assimilate (reified as a specific explanatory principle. The private phonetic knowledge of the individual answers fora more satisfying way to explain language sound patterns.
