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Article published In:
International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 4:2 (2017) ► pp.273–307

From pitch contour variation to tone change

An analysis of the phonological representations of the tones in Taiwan Mandarin

| The University of Auckland

This study illustrates how three level tones might have developed diachronically by comparing two synchronic Mandarin dialects. In Standard Mandarin (SM), the four lexical tones are denoted as /H, LH, L, HL/ or /H, R, L, F/ phonologically. However, based on evidence from two acoustic experiments, this study proposes that the four lexical tones in Taiwan Mandarin (TM) should be analyzed as /H, M, L, HM/, with /H, HM/ in a high register and /M, L/ in a low register. The proposed tonal structure can account for all the tone sandhi in TM using the framework of Optimality theory, and the register difference plays an important role in the analyses. Also, the new TM tonal representation has an advantage in explaining the absence of the SM Tone 2 Sandhi. The new tonal representations illuminate how pitch contour differences might have developed into structural tone changes.

Keywords: tone, Taiwan Mandarin, tone change, contour variations, tonal representation, tone sandhi
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Phonological representations of Standard Mandarin lexical tones
    • 1.2Taiwan Mandarin
  • 2.The pitch targets of the TM lexical tones
    • 2.1Methods
      • 2.1.1Material
      • 2.1.2Subjects
      • 2.1.3Procedures
      • 2.1.4Data analysis
    • 2.2Results
      • 2.2.1Pitch targets
        • 2.2.1.1Tone 2: Rising or dipping?
        • 2.2.1.2Tone 3: Falling or dipping?
      • 2.2.2Targeted pitch range
    • 2.3Summary of the findings
  • 3.Proposed phonological representations
    • 3.1Tonal inventory
    • 3.2Tone 3 Sandhi
    • 3.3Tone 2 Sandhi in Standard Mandarin
    • 3.4Special Tone 2 Sandhi in Taiwan Mandarin
  • 4.General discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.16016.hua
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