Cantonese Loanwords : Conflicting Faithfulness in VC Rime Constraints

This paper focuses on the ways in which English loanwords are brought into line with four phonotactic constraints that restrict the possible combinations of nuclear vowels and coda consonants in Cantonese Chinese. It is found that three of the four constraints are strictly enforced in loans. Repairs change either the vowel or the coda consonant. Parallel to Mandarin, changes in vowel height features ([high], [ATR]) as opposed to changes in vowel backness are employed. Coda consonant changes obey a dorsal > coronal > labial faithfulness hierarchy that mirrors the typology of coda mergers discovered by Chen (1973) for many Chinese dialects. While changes in both the vowel and coda consonant occur, on-line adaptations favor changing the coda and preserving the vowel and suggest that the relative phonetic salience of the nuclear vowel to the coda consonant still plays a role in these adaptations.Aquest article se centra en la manera com els anglicismes del xinès cantonès conflueixen en l'adaptació a través de quatre condicions fonotàctiques que restringeixen les combinacions possibles de vocals i de consonants a la rima. Tres d'aquestes quatre condicions són estrictament inevitables. L'arranjament fa canviar la vocal del nucli o la consonant de la coda. Tal com passa en mandarí, s'utilitzen canvis en els trets d'altura de les vocals ([alt], [AA]) com a oposició als canvis en el tret de posterioritat. Els canvis en les consonants de la coda obeeixen una jerarquia de fidelitat dorsal > coronal > labial que reflecteix la tipologia de reducció o simplificació de codes descoberta per Chen (1973) per a molts dialectes xinesos. Encara que es produeixin canvis en la vocal i en la consonant de la coda, les adaptacions directes afavoreixen els canvis en la coda però no en la vocal. Això suggereix que la prominència relativa de la vocal del nucli respecte a la consonant de la coda encara juga un paper important en aquestes adaptacions

Variegated VC Rime Restrictions in Sinitic Languages

In this study, we consider a non-Markedness-based account for VC rime phonotactics in Sinitic languages, with special reference to Taiwanese Southern Min and Hakka. Rime gaps in Chinese languages have been customarily analyzed as co-occurrence markedness constraints. But analyses along this line not only overgenerate by predicting unattested gaps, but also fail to motivate those phonotactic constraints in a principled fashion. By adopting Hsieh's (2010) duration-based account, we present further phonetic evidence to show that phonotactics of Chinese VC combinations may be attributed to: (i) low perceptibility of coda consonants due to absence of release, and (ii) decreased vowel distinctiveness as a result of vowel reduction. One of the new findings in this study is that the perceptual difficulties are further exacerbated by the relatively shorter duration of Taiwanese checked syllables, if compared with those of Hakka and Cantonese. Also, salient F2 transitions (vowel gliding) may occur to enhance the place of articulation of a stop coda in Taiwanese. Therefore, rime gaps are normally found in contexts whereby (i) VC coarticulation is weak and (ii) vowel distinctiveness cannot be maintained. In sum, the results of our acoustic studies suggest that the duration-based approach offers a more straightforward account for why Taiwanese has more rime gaps than Hakka and Cantonese do

The effects of phonological neighborhoods on spoken word recognition in Mandarin Chinese

Spoken word recognition is influenced by words similar to the target word with one phoneme difference (neighbors). In English, words with many neighbors (high neighborhood density) are processed more slowly or less accurately than words with few neighbors. However, little is known about the effects in Mandarin Chinese. The present study examined the effects of neighborhood density and the definition of neighbors in Mandarin Chinese, using an auditory naming task with word sets differing in density levels (high vs. low) and neighbor types (words with neighbors with a nasal final consonant vs. words without such nasal-final neighbors). Results showed an inhibitory effect of high neighborhood density on reaction times and a difference between nasal-final neighbors and vowel-final neighbors. The findings suggest that neighbors compete and inhibit word access in Mandarin Chinese. Yet, other factors at the sublexical level may also play a role in the process

A formal study of syllable, tone, stress and domain in Chinese languages

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1990.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-207).by San Duanmu.Ph.D

Phonological acquisition in three languages : a cross-sectional study in English, Mandarin and Malay.

The complex multiracial/multilingual situation of Malaysia poses challenges for local professionals, such as speech and language therapists, who work with children. The present cross-sectional study investigated ethnic Chinese children's simultaneous phonological acquisition of English, Mandarin and Malay, which are the three major local languages for the Malaysian Chinese population. The aims were to provide preliminary normative data on phonological acquisition for this population, as well as to investigate processes underlying multilingual phonological acquisition. Sixty-four pre-school children aged between 2;06-4;05 were recruited. A single-word naming test, a word consistency production subtest and an intonation imitation sub-test were devised for each of the three languages. Particular attention was paid to the characteristics of the local adult speech varieties as the benchmark for assessing and analyzing the children's responses on the tests. This sociolinguistic dimension has often been neglected in previous research with similar populations, where non-local, e.g. "standard" adult varieties have been taken to be the language model for the children being studied. The children's phonological acquisition was analysed in term of consonants, vowels, syllable structures, word production consistency, intonation and tones (Mandarin only). Overall, significant developmental trends were evident for all three languages. Most phonological components under study were acquired by 4;00-4;05. Similar phonological milestones were achieved as those reported in the literature for monolingual and bilingual peers acquiring the same languages, though some qualitative and quantitative differences were observed. Overall, the patterns of phonological development that were identified reflect the interaction of common cross-linguistic tendencies with the specific characteristics of the three ambient languages. As well as having clinical implications, the present findings contribute to the development of theory and models for multilingual phonological acquisition. The reliability and validity of the test battery indicate that it will prove a valuable tool for speech and language therapy practice and for future research

The systematicity of vowel realizations in Hong Kong English.

Law, Wai Ling.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-180).Abstract also in Chinese.Title Page --- p.iAbstract --- p.ii摘要 --- p.iiiAcknowledgements --- p.ivTable of Contents --- p.v-viiChapter 1 Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- The focus of this thesis --- p.4Chapter 1.3 --- The structure of this thesis --- p.4Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.6Chapter 2.1 --- A changing scene: The use of English worldwide --- p.6Chapter 2.1.1 --- Some old pictures and present fallacies --- p.7Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- Fallacy one - Native English(es) as the starting point and the end point --- p.8Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Fallacy two - The stability of native models --- p.10Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Fallacy three - The unarguable definite intelligibility of native varieties --- p.13Chapter 2.1.2 --- English as an international language - The legitimacy of New Englishes --- p.15Chapter 2.2 --- Theoretical frameworks and research findings on HKE --- p.18Chapter 2.2.1 --- Approaches in describing the systems of non-native varieties --- p.18Chapter 2.2.2 --- The phonology of HKE --- p.20Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- The significance of L1 transfer from Cantonese --- p.20Chapter 2.2.2.2 --- HKE as an independent phonological system --- p.26Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- The importance of scrutiny of phonological factors --- p.32Chapter 2.2.3 --- The need for a variation analysis of HKE in bridging the gap --- p.37Chapter 2.2.4 --- Pilot studies --- p.45Chapter 2.3 --- English and Cantonese Phonologies --- p.48Chapter 2.3.1 --- English phonology --- p.48Chapter 2.3.2 --- Cantonese phonology --- p.51Chapter 2.4 --- Research questions --- p.60Chapter Chapter 3 --- Methodology --- p.65Chapter 3.1 --- Research setting & selection of participants --- p.65Chapter 3.2 --- The participants --- p.69Chapter 3.3 --- Research design --- p.71Chapter 3.3.1 --- Data collection --- p.71Chapter 3.3.2 --- Procedures --- p.73Chapter 3.3.3 --- Data processing --- p.74Chapter 3.3.4 --- Data analysis --- p.76Chapter Chapter 4 --- Results --- p.85Chapter 4.1 --- Description of the analysis --- p.85Chapter 4.2 --- Independent variables - Effects of factor groups on vowel productions --- p.97Chapter 4.2.1 --- Proficiency --- p.97Chapter 4.2.2 --- Speaker --- p.98Chapter 4.2.3 --- Stress --- p.101Chapter 4.2.4 --- Number of syllables --- p.102Chapter 4.2.5 --- Preceding phonological environment --- p.103Chapter 4.2.6 --- Following phonological environment --- p.113Chapter 4.3 --- Dependent variables - The effects of interactions of factor groups on vowel realizations --- p.116Chapter 4.3.1 --- Long vowels --- p.116Chapter 4.3.2 --- Diphthongs --- p.118Chapter 4.3.3 --- Short vowels --- p.120Chapter 4.4 --- A comparison of behaviour of long vowels，diphthongs and short vowels --- p.123Chapter Chapter --- 5 Discussion --- p.129Chapter 5.1 --- Addressing the research questions --- p.130Chapter 5.2 --- Following phonological environment --- p.133Chapter 5.2.1 --- L1 transfer from Cantonese --- p.133Chapter 5.2.1.1 --- Transfer of Cantonese phonological rules and phonotactic constraints --- p.134Chapter 5.2.1.2 --- Effect of sonority distance --- p.140Chapter 5.2.1.3 --- Further evidence on interaction of Cantonese and English phonology --- p.146Chapter 5.3 --- Preceding phonological environment --- p.147Chapter 5.4 --- Stress --- p.151Chapter 5.5 --- Number of syllables --- p.153Chapter 5.6 --- Ranking of constraints in HKE phonology --- p.154Chapter 5.7 --- Implications of insignificance of proficiency and speaker --- p.156Chapter Chapter 6 --- "Implications, Limitations，Directions of Future Research and Conclusion" --- p.159Chapter 6.1 --- Implications --- p.159Chapter 6.1.1 --- Future investigations into New Englishes --- p.160Chapter 6.1.2 --- Language planning --- p.162Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations of the present study --- p.165Chapter 6.3 --- Directions of future research --- p.167Chapter 6.4 --- Conclusion --- p.169References --- p.170Appendix 1 Questionnaire of personal information --- p.181Appendix 2 Conversational interview prompting questions --- p.18

A phonological study on English loanwords in Mandarin Chinese

The general opinion about the way English borrowings enter Mandarin is that English words are preferably integrated into Mandarin via calquing, which includes a special case called Phonetic-Semantic Matching (PSM) (Zuckermann 2004), meaning words being phonetically assimilated and semantically transferred at the same time. The reason for that is that Mandarin is written in Chinese characters, which each has a single-syllable pronunciation and a self-contained meaning, and the meaning achieved by the selection of characters may match the original English words. There are some cases which are agreed by many scholars to be PSM. However, as this study demonstrates, the semantics of the borrowing and the original word do not really match, the relation considered to be “artificial” by Novotná (1967). This study analyses a corpus of 600 established English loanwords in Mandarin to test the hypothesis that semantic matching is not a significant factor in the loanword adaptation process because there is no semantic relation between the borrowed words and the characters used to record them. To measure the phonological similarity between the English input and the Mandarin output, one of the models in adult second language perception, the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best 1995a), is used as the framework to judge the phonemic matching between the English word and the adapted Mandarin outcome. The meanings of the characters used in recording the loanwords are referred in The Dictionary of Modern Chinese to see whether there are cases of semantic matching. The phonotactic adaptation of illicit sound sequences is also analysed in Optimality Theory (McCarthy 2002) to give an account of phonetic-phonological analysis of the adaptation process. Thus, the percentage of Phono-Semantic Matching is obtained in the corpus. As the corpus investigation shows, the loanwords that can match up both the phonological and the semantic quality of the original words are very few. The most commonly acknowledged phono-semantic matching cases are only phonetic loanwords. In conclusion, this paper argues that the semantic resource of Chinese writing system is not used as a major factor in the integration of loanwords. Borrowing between languages with different writing systems is not much different than borrowing between languages with same writing system or without a writing system. Though Chinese writing system interferes with the borrowing, it is the linguistic factors that determine the borrowing process and results. Chinese characters are, by a large proportion, conventional graphic signs with a phonetic value being the more significant factor in loanword integration process

Feature Geometry of Vowels and Co-occurrence Restrictions in Cantonese

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