From non-uniqueness to the best solution in phonemic analysis: evidence from Chengdu Chinese

Abstract The “non-uniqueness” theory assumes that there is no best solution in phonemic analysis; rather, competing solutions can co-exist, each having its own advantages (Chao, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 4: 363–398, 1934). The theory is based on the assumption that there is no common set of criteria to evaluate alternative solutions. I argue instead that such a set of criteria can be established and it is possible to find the best solution. The criteria include riming properties, rime structure, constraints on syllable gaps, phonemic economy, phonetics, syllable sizes, and feature theory. I illustrate the proposal with Chengdu. Four analyses are compared, the “CGV” segmentation, the “CV” segmentation, the “finest” segmentation, and the “CVX” segmentation, and CVX is shown to be the best.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139724/1/40655_2017_Article_30.pd

Re-examining Contour Tone Units in Chinese Languages

Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on The Typology of Tone Languages (1992

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

Metrical Structure and Tone: Evidence from Mandarin and Shanghai

A well-known problem in Chinese phonology is that in some dialects most regular syllables keep their underlying tones, but in others the initial syllable determines the tonal pattern of a multisyllabic domain. Mandarin and Shanghai, two of the most studied dialects, best represent the contrast. Duanmu (1993) proposes that the two dialects differ in syllable structure but otherwise obey the same phonological constraints, including moraic trochee. However, a number of problems remain, such as questions regarding the metrical counting units, the predicted weight of a syllable and its phonetic duration, the economy of underlying tones, the mechanism of tone deletion, and the relation between weight and stress. This article offers a solution to the problems. The main proposal is that Chinese is both mora-counting and syllable-counting, in that a heavy syllable forms a bimoraic trochee, which I call M-foot, yet a minimal word must be a disyllabic trochee, which I call S-foot. In addition, both Mandarin and Shanghai are subject to tonal polarity, which is independently found in African languages. I also discuss the implication of the S-foot for metrical theory and other consequences of the present analysis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43000/1/10831_2004_Article_189505.pd

“Tense” and “Lax” Stops in Korean

Korean is thought to be unique in having three kinds of voiceless stops: aspirated /p h t h k h /, tense /p* t* k*/, and lax /p t k/. The contrast between tense and lax stops raises two theoretical problems. First, to distinguish them either a new feature [tense] is needed, or the contrast in voicing (or aspiration) must be increased from two to three. Either way there is a large increase in the number of possible stops in the world's languages, but the expansion lacks support beyond Korean. Second, initial aspirated and tense consonants correlate with a high tone, and lax and voiced consonants correlate with a low tone. The correlation cannot be explained in the standard tonogenesis model (voiceless-high and voiced-low). We argue instead that (a) underlyingly "tense" stops are regular voiceless unaspirated stops, and "lax" stops are regular voiced stops, (b) there is no compelling evidence for a new distinctive feature, and (c) the consonant-tone correlation is another case of voiceless-high and voiced-low. We conclude that Korean does not have an unusual phonology, and there is no need to complicate feature theory.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42997/1/10831_2004_Article_5147651.pd

Linguistics

Contains table of contents for Section 4, an introduction and abstracts on eight doctoral dissertations

Rime length, stress, and association domains

Every regular Chinese syllable has a syllable tone (the tone we get when the syllable is read in isolation). In some Chinese languages, the tonal pattern of a multisyllabic expression is basically a concatenation of the syllable tones. In other Chinese languages, the tonal pattern of a multisyllabic expression is determined solely by the initial syllable. I call the former M -languages (represented by Mandarin) and the latter S -languages (represented by Shanghai). I argue that there is an additional difference in rime structures between the two language groups. In S-languages, all rimes are simple, i.e., there are no underlying diphthongs or codas. In M-languages, all regular rimes are heavy. I further argue that a syllable keeps its underlying tones only if it has stress. Independent metrical evidence tells us that heavy rimes may carry inherent stress. Thus, in M-languages, all regular syllables are stressed and retain their underlying tones (which may or may not undergo further changes). In contrast, in S-languages, regular rimes do not carry inherent stress; instead, only those syllables that are assigned stress by rule can keep their underlying tones and hence head a multisyllabic tonal domain.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42998/1/10831_2005_Article_BF01440582.pd

Phonologically motivated word order movement: Evidence from Chinese compounds

published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Recursive Constraint Evaluation in Optimality Theory: Evidence from Cyclic Compounds in Shanghai

An important assumption in Optimality Theory is parallelism, and a proper analysis of cyclic effects is crucial. I examine a typical case of cyclicity, namely, stress in Shanghai compounds, where the layers of embedding are in principle unlimited. I show that alignment constraints are inadequate. Instead, identity constraints are needed, in particular Stress-ID which requires that stress locations in the immediate constituents of a compound be the same as when the constituents occur alone. In addition, Stress-ID (and other constraints) must be checked recursively, namely, at every layer of syntactic bracketing. This analysis incorporates the essential properties of the cycle and can therefore handle all cyclic cases. Finally, I discuss the compatibility of recursive constraint evaluation with parallelism, and the remaining differences between a cyclic analysis and recursive constraint evaluation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43293/1/11049_2004_Article_122584.pd