The Falling of the Rising Tone in Mandarin Chinese (original) (raw)
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THE AVOIDANCE OF THE THIRD TONE SANDHI IN MANDARIN CHINESE
Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 1997
An optimality-theoretic analysis of third tone sandhi (TS) domains of Mandarin is proposed in preference to other approaches. This constraint-based analysis provides a descriptively better solution to questions such as why it is possible for a preposition to resist tone sandhi in certain structures, a long-standing problem in tone sandhi studies. The paper shows that this resistance to tone sandhi is dependent on both syntactic structures and syntactic categories. In this study, Mandarin tone sandhi domains are related to constituent strength representations, which are direct mappings of syntactic structures. An unspecified order of strong/weak values of constituent strength for a prepositional phrase is proposed. To define a TS domain, several constraints related to metrical factors, constituent strength, the tone sandhi domain grouping direction, and output condition are shown to interact with each other. The optimal tone sandhi domain representation is always the one which violates the lowest-ranked constraints and violates any single constraint to the least degree possible, compared to other representations. The avoidance of tone sandhi by an element, whether it is a preposition or another category, is the result of interactions of the constraints. The variability of surface tone patterns comes from more than one optimal output, from speaking rate or style, and from two possible kinds of competition due to the unspecified constituent strength.
THE PHONETIC CHANGE OF TONE SANDHI IN SHANGHAI CHINESE
In Shanghai Chinese, " (broad) tone sandhi " occurs in a polysyllabic expression (i.e., word or phrase) in which the overall pitch of the tonal domain is determined by the tone of the initial syllable, and the F0 contour constantly falls from the second or third syllable. Although it is assumed that the phonetic realization of the pitch-fall in non-initial syllables differs across generations, this assumption is not supported by any objective data because the falling pattern in the newest variety (New Shanghai) has not been investigated in detail. To test this assumption, this study examines the phonetic realization of pitch-fall in New Shanghai. The results show that the rate of fall is very fast at first but rapidly decreases as time goes on, which is clearly different from the falling pattern in the older variety (Middle Shanghai). These results support the idea that the (default) low tone in non-initial syllables has changed from a " weak " target in Middle Shanghai to a " strong " one in New Shanghai.
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An acoustically-based description is given of the isolation tones and right-dominant tone sandhi in disyllabic words of a male speaker of the Chinese Oūjiāng 甌江 Wu吳 dialect of Wencheng 文成. His seven isolation tones show typical Wu complexity, comprising two mid-level, two rising, two falling-rising and one depressed level pitch shapes. Typical too is his three-way voicing contrast in syllable-Onset stops. However, the typical Wu relationship between tonal register and phonemic Onset voicing is shown to be disrupted, Onset voicing no longer correlating with tonal pitch height. The word-final tones in sandhi are shown to be straightforwardly related, phonologically and phonetically, to the isolation tones, with biuniqueness preserved. The realization of the word-initial tones in sandhi, on the other hand, involves complex mergers conditioned by largely non-phonetic factors related to historical tone categories, resulting in five extra sandhi tones that do not occur in isolation. It is...
Testing the Role of Phonetic Naturalness in Mandarin Tone Sandhi
Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 2006
It has long been noted that phonological patterning is influenced by phonetic factors. But phonologists diverge on whether phonetic motivations take effect in synchronic or diachronic phonology. This article aims to tease apart the two theories by investigating native Mandarin speakers' applications of two tone sandhi processes to novel words: the phonetically motivated contour reduction 213 21/__T (T 213) and the neutralizing 213 35/__213 whose phonetic motivations are less clear. Twenty Mandarin subjects were asked to produce two monosyllables they heard as disyllabic words. Five groups of disyllabic words were tested: AO-AO (AO=actual occurring morpheme) where the disyllable is also a real word, AO-AO' where the disyllable is nonoccurring, AO-AG (AG=accidental gap in Mandarin lexicon -legal syllable and tone but non-existent combination), AG-AO, and AG-AG. The first syllable is always 213, and the second syllable has one of the four tones in Mandarin. Results show that speakers apply the phonetically more natural 213 21 sandhi more quickly and with greater accuracy than the 213 35 sandhi. Theoretically, the study supports the direct relevance of phonetics to synchronic phonology by showing that there is a psychological advantage to phonetically natural patterns. Methodologically, it complements existing research paradigms that test the nature of the phonology-phonetics relationship, e.g., the study of phonological acquisition and the artificial language paradigm; when extended to other Chinese dialects, it can also provide insights into the long-standing mystery of how Chinese speakers internalise complicated tone sandhi patterns that sometimes involve opacity, near-neutralization, and syntactic dependency.
Chinese Tone Sandhi and Prosody
roa.rutgers.edu
Tone sandhi is a common occurrence in different varieties, the most famous being Mandarin Chinese, in which a third tone (high-low-high, or falling-rising) followed by another third tone becomes a low-high or rising tone. Traditional accounts of tonal assimilation are argued against, in that they fail to account for the specific outcome of the changed tone, and especially fail when applied to other Chinese dialects with much more complex tone sandhi phenomena.
An In-progress Tone Change Lanzhou Dialect YI,Li
YI, Li
This paper probes an ongoing tone change in Lanzhou dialect, a northwest Chinese Mandarin. The tone change appears in two related ways: 'T1a' is changing from a falling contour to a level contour; 'T2' and 'T3' are merging. We offer an analysis from both a social perspective (age, gender and education) and a phonetic perspective (acoustics and perception of tones). Then we propose that the phonologization of T1a is due to the tone sandhi in disyllabic words, which then triggers the merger of T2 and T3.
Sandhi Sans Derivation: Third Tone Patterns in Mandarin Chinese
2009
Traditionally represented as "T3->T2/__T3", a categorical tone change from a low-dipping tone (T3) to a high-rising tone (T2), the well-studied phenomenon of Mandarin third tone sandhi has been somewhat of a theoretical thorn. Most analyses of third tone sandhi are derivational in nature and non-derivational accounts, often based on ad-hoc constraints and dubious assumptions regarding sandhi domains, quickly run into problems. This paper proposes a non-derivational OT account rooted in a toneme deletion analysis which appeals to well-established principles of tonal markedness and their interaction with the OCP. In addition, a new observation is presented. Mandarin third tones do not undergo sandhi in prosodically prominent environments.
How to pronounce a low tone: A lesson from Kaifeng Mandarin
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2018
A multi-speaker acoustic study on citation tones in Kaifeng Mandarin, referred to as LH, HL, H and L, shows that L is realized as three different subtypes by different speakers, i.e. dipping, falling and falling with lengthening, while generally being longer than the other three tones and frequently spoken with creaky voice in part of the vowel. This inter-speaker variation is reflected in the different transcriptions of Kaifeng L that have been given in the literature. We argue that a L-tone is intrinsically less salient than a H-tone, due to a lack of phonetic space in the low pitch range as well as to a potential ambiguity between contextual low pitch around f0 peaks and low pitch due to L-tones, and thus more likely to be enhanced.