Tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation in Fuzhou Min

This study examines the completeness of Fuzhou tonal neutralisation and its interaction with tonal coarticulation. In Fuzhou, Tone 44, 242 and 53 are allegedly neutralised into Tone 44 preceding Tone 53. Acoustic data, analysed with Linear Mixed Modelling, show no significant difference in pitch height between neutralised tones, suggesting complete neutralisation in production. A forcedchoice identification test reveals that Fuzhou speakers are unable to distinguish these neutralised tones perceptually. Further acoustic data show how the output of categorical tone sandhi may be modified by tonal coarticulation, with dissimilatory effects superimposed on the sandhi tone.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from International Phonetic Association: London via https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2015/Papers/ICPHS0939.pd

Analyzing Nanjing Tones and Sandhi: Statistical Modelling Methods

In this study, we used growth curve analysis to model the surface f0 contours of the sandhi tones, and we also modelled the underlying pitch target of sandhi tones and their corresponding citation tones in Nanjing Chinese. The underlying pitch targets of reported sandhi tones showed neutralization with reported base tones in most cases, but the surface f0 contours of each pair were not neutralized. Our results provided acoustic evidence for the debate over the existence of some tone sandhi rules in Nanjing Chinese based on impressionistic data. Finally, transcription modification of some monosyllabic Nanjing Chinese tones was recommended based on the transformation of the results of the statistical modelling of the acoustic data

An acoustic comparison between two pairs of assimilatory and dissimilatory tone sandhi processes in Nanjing Mandarin in categoricalness/ gradience

The current study aims to investigate the categoricalness versus gradience of tone sandhi application in assimilatory and dissimilatory tone sandhi processes, within the setting of one language. Our hypotheses were that (a) assimilatory processes can be gradient, based on their articulatory motivation; and (b) dissimilatory processes should always be categorical, hence never show any gradient application, based on Ohala's “hypercorrection” theory. We selected in Nanjing Mandarin two pairs of comparable assimilatory and dissimilatory tone sandhi processes based on previous researchers' observations. Results show a near-categorical assimilatory Sandhi 1 and a gradient assimilatory Sandhi 3, congruent with the prediction that assimilatory processes are allowed to apply in a gradient fashion. Though we found that dissimilatory Sandhi 4 is a categorical process, our observation of gradience in dissimilatory Sandhi 2 suggests that dissimilatory changes can also occur in a gradient way, which contradicts the prediction by the “hyper-correction” account

No More Conflicting Directionality: Metrical Conditions on Tianjin Chinese Trisyllabic Tone Sandhi

Tianjin Chinese (hereafter Tianjin) exhibits complex interactions among its disyllabic tone sandhi rules, leading to both left-to-right and right-to-left rule applications in trisyllabic sequences (e.g. Chen 1986, X. Wang 2003, Lin 2008). Which directionality to adopt for each particular sequence is arbitrary and cannot be accounted for by any known principles. In addition, some disyllabic tone sandhi rules do not always apply in trisyllabic sequences. Based on the results of a multi-speaker acoustic study, we propose that both issues can be attributed to interactions of metrical structures, sandhi rules, and tonal complexity. We claim that Tianjin tone sandhi applies when both metrical and tonal complexity conditions are satisfied, thereby removing the need for conflicting directionality

A unified approach to Tianjin trisyllabic tone sandhi: Metrical conditions and tonal complexity

Tianjin (Chinese) exhibits complex interactions among its disyllabic tone sandhi rules, leading to both left-to-right and right-to-left rule applications in trisyllabic sequences (cf. Chen 1986, X. Wang 2003). Which directionality to adopt for each particular trisyllabic sequence is arbitrary and cannot be accounted for by any known principles. Based on data from a recent acoustic study, our phonological analysis demonstrates that the seemingly ungoverned directionality is only apparent and that Tianjin tone sandhi rules apply only from left to right when both metrical and tonal complexity conditions are satisfied, thereby providing a unified account.

Migration, local identity and change in Tianjin tone sandhi

Four variable disyllabic tone sandhi patterns are traditionally identified in Tianjin (Li & Liu 1985). The present study focuses on two of these tone sandhi variables, referred to as (FF) and (FL) after their input patterns of 'falling falling' (HL.HL) and 'falling low' (HL.LL) respectively. The data are drawn from 76 sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Tianjin in 2014-16. In line with other reports (Shi & Wang 2004, Gao & Lu 2003), the study indicates that (FF) has decreased in frequency over time, while (FL) has increased in frequency. But the social motivations for the rise and the decline of these variables have not previously been investigated. I propose that the social motivations of the changes might be interaction of Standardization and Tianjin community's effort to keep local identity, especially at the period when a large number of migrants rushed into the city. (FF) displays a linear decrease of the local variant in apparent time, probably due to its status as a stereotype (Labov, 1972) of 'old-fashioned' Tianjin identity and speech (Han 1993). Different from (FF), (FL) has never been stigmatized, so it is available for 'recycling' (Dubois & Horvath 2000) as a positive marker (Labov, 1972) of 'new' Tianjin identity

Tianjin Mandarin

Tianjin Mandarin is a member of the northern Mandarin Chinese family (ISO 693-3: [cmn]). It is spoken in the urban areas of the Tianjin Municipality (CN-12) in the People’s Republic of China, which is about 120 kilometers to the southeast of Beijing. Existing studies on Tianjin Mandarin have focused mainly on its tonal aspects, especially its intriguing tone sandhi system, with few studies examining the segmental aspects (on tone, see e.g., Li & Liu, 1985; Shi, 1986; Liu, 1993; Lu, 1997; Wang & Jiang, 1997; Chen, 2000; Liu & Gao, 2003; Ma, 2005; Ma & Jia, 2006; Zhang & Liu, 2011; Li & Chen, 2016; on segmental aspects, see e.g., Han, 1993a, 1993b; Wee, Yan, & Chen, 2005). As also noted in Wee et al. (2005), this is probably due to the similarity in segmental structures between Tianjin Mandarin and Standard Chinese, especially among speakers of the younger generation, and what differentiates the two Mandarin varieties is most notably their tonal systems. The aim of the present description is therefore to provide a systematic phonetic description of both segmental and tonal aspects of Tianjin Mandarin, with main focus on the tonal aspects.Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Crosslinguistic trends in tone change A review of tone change studies in East and Southeast Asia

Ground-breaking studies on how Bangkok Thai tones have changed over the past 100 years (Pittayaporn 2007, 2018; Zhu et al. 2015) reveal a pattern that Zhu et al. (2015) term the “clockwise tone shift cycle:” low > falling > high level or rising-falling > rising > falling-rising or low. The present study addresses three follow-up questions: (1) Are tone changes like those seen in Bangkok Thai also attested in other languages? (2) What other tone changes are repeated across multiple languages? (3) What phonetic biases are most likely to be the origins of the reported changes? A typological review of 52 tone change studies across 45 Sinitic, Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Tibeto-Burman languages reveals that clockwise changes are by far the most common. The paper concludes by exploring how tonal truncation (Xu 2017) generates synchronic variation that matches the diachronic patterns; this suggests that truncation is a key mechanism in tone change

An acoustic study of contextual tonal variation in Tianjin Mandarin

Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Observing the contribution of both underlying and surface representations: Evidence from priming and event-related potentials

This dissertation aims to uncover the role of the acoustic input (the surface representation) and the abstract linguistic representation (the underlying representation) as listeners map the signal during spoken word recognition. To examine these issues, tone sandhi, a tonal alternation phenomenon in which a tone changes to a different tone in certain phonological environments, is investigated. This dissertation first examined how productive Mandarin tone 3 sandhi words (T3 → T2/___T3) are processed and represented. An auditory priming lexical decision experiment was conducted in which each disyllabic tone 3 sandhi target was preceded by a tone 2 monosyllable (surface-tone overlap), a tone 3 monosyllable (underlying-tone overlap), or an unrelated monosyllable (unrelated control). Lexical decision RTs showed a tone 3 (underlying-tone overlap) facilitation effect for both high and low frequency words. A second priming study investigated the processing and representation of the more complex and less productive Taiwanese tone sandhi. Lexical decision RTs, examining sandhi 24 → 33 and 51 → 55, showed that while both sandhi types exhibited facilitatory priming effects, underlying tone primes showed significantly more facilitation than surface primes for sandhi 24 → 33, while surface tone primes showed significantly more facilitation than underlying primes for sandhi 51 → 55, with both effects modulated by frequency. A third study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine Mandarin tone 3 sandhi. Using an oddball paradigm, participants passively listened to either Tone 2 standards ([tʂu2 je4] /tʂu2 je4/), Tone 3 standards ([tʂu3 je4] /tʂu3 je4/), Tone Sandhi standards ([tʂu2 jen3] /tʂu3 jen3/), or Mix standards (i.e., both tone 3 sandhi and tone 3 words), occasionally interspersed with a tone 2 word [tʂu2] (i.e., the deviant). Results showed a mismatch negativity (MMN) in the Tone 2 condition but not in the Sandhi condition, suggesting different neural processing mechanisms for Tone 2 and Sandhi words. Together, the current data suggest that the underlying tone contributes more to the processing of productive tone sandhi and the surface tone contributes more to the processing of less productive tone sandhi. In general, this dissertation provides evidence for the representation and processing of words that involve phonological alternation, both within the same language and across different languages