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Title:
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On the Nature of Mandarin Tone and Tone Sandhi
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Author:
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Hua Lin
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://web.uvic.ca/ling/lin/
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Victoria
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1992
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Phonology
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Subject Language(s):
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Chinese, Mandarin
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Director(s):
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Abstract:
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In this dissertation, a unified non-linear analysis of Mandarin tone and tone sandhi is proposed. It first argues that in deep structure, Mandarin tones have the following representation: HHH for T1, MHH for T2, LLM for T3, HML for T4, and L for T0; except for T0, all are represented using three tonemes. Among other merits, such a representation allows for a consistent, unified and more general analysis of all Mandarin tone sandhi processes including the well-known Third Tone Sandhi, Half Third Sandhi and Fourth Tone Sandhi processes; all the processes are first accountable by a single Tone Reduction Principle whereby a tone is reduce by one or more tonemes when it does not stand alone.
Under this analysis, two types of tone sandhi processes are identified: The first (involving the Half Third and the Fourth Tone sandhi) is more phonetic in nature and should not be regarded as tone sandhi per se while the second (involving the Third Tone Sandhi in part and the Neutral Tone Sandhi, see below) is genuine sandhi in the sense the a tonal value is affected by an adjacent tonal value. This account yields interesting insights into the neutral tone variation, which is seen as first triggered by the same OCP rule as that caused the Third Tone Sandhi, and then by feature spreading through tonal co-articulation. Finally, the Tone Reduction Principle proposed in this analysis is found at work producing not only synchronic, phonetic results in Mandarin but also more drastic dischronic changes in other Chinese languages, yielding typologically very different sandhi processes among them.
Lengthy discussion on toneme as the timing unit, the Mandarin syllable structure, its weight and its dual tasks of bearing the tonal features on the one hand and the segmental features on the other can also be found in this dissertation.
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