Extension to the segmental domain

The foregoing modification of phonological theory had the obvious good consequence that tonal phenomena could be accounted for very nicely, whereas previously tone was largely outside the grasp of the theory. The impact of autosegmental phonology was much more profound than that, however. The obvious thing to wonder is, if tones are separate from the rest of the segment, then perhaps segments themselves are not such monolithic, unstructured entities. And so investigators looked for evidence for a similar separation of segmental features.