THE PROSODY-SYNTAX INTERACTION IN THE "YI-BU-QI-BA" RULE: A MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED TONE CHANGE IN MANDARIN CHINESE

THE PROSODY-SYNTAX INTERACTION IN THE "YI-BU-QI-BA" RULE: A MORPHOLOGICALLY CONDITIONED TONE CHANGE IN MANDARIN CHINESE Public Deposited

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Wang, Chunmeng
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Linguistics

Abstract

This thesis investigates the prosody-syntax interaction in morpheme specific tone change, presents a systematic comparison between tone Sandhi and tone change, and proposes a new rule-based analysis for the Mandarin "yi-bu-qi-ba" rule. The empirical data is the comparison between Mandarin 3rd Tone Sandhi (3TS) of numeral morpheme wu (`five') and yi (`one') tone change (YTC). Data shows that syntax and prosody do not function the same way in predicting 3TS and YTC. The basic domain of 3TS is a foot whereas the domain of YTC is a phonological word (pword). This thesis also contributes a new analysis for the "yi-bu-qi-ba" rule, with three major claims: (1) YTC only applies when yi is the first element of a pword except in the string of digits. (2) BTC only applies when bu is the first element of a pword. (3) No tone change rule applies to qi and ba any more.

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