| ROA: | 854 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neutral Tones in Disyllabic Sequences Across Chinese Dialects: An OT Account |
| Authors: | Mingxing Li |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 66 |
| Abstract: | This thesis attempts to give an overview of neutral tone among Chinese dialects within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). The following topics are discussed: (i) The Unmarked Value of Neutral Tone. This thesis tries to find out the unmarked value of neutral tone, and give an OT analysis of this unmarkedness. Analysis is also made on the difference between neutral tones and full tones in terms of unmarked value. (ii) Full-tone-related Neutral Tone and Long Neutral Tone. It is reported that in some dialects ¡°neutral tones¡± are related to the full tone of the syllable concerned. In other dialects, neutral tones are reported to be long, rather than short. This paper tries to analyze these problems. (ii) Realization Patterns of Neutral Tone Values. Neutral tone values are divergent among dialects, with different realization patterns concerning the relationship between neutral tone and its neighboring tone. In this paper, I summarize three realization patterns with different ranking of certain OT constraints. This thesis contains six chapters. An introduction is given before Chapter 1. Chapter 1 gives a unified account of the markedness status of H for neutral tone and the unmarked status of H for full tones. Chapter 2 discusses the ¡°full-tone-related neutral tones¡± attested in dialects, adopting the constraints proposed in Chapter 1. Chapter 3 deals with long neutral tones, which violate the constraints proposed in Chapter 1. Chapter 4 focuses on the domain of neutral tone realization and provides reanalysis of Mandarin neutral tone through constraint ranking. In Chapter 5, three patterns of neutral tone realization are detailed with examples. Chapter 6 concludes the paper with a summary. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | Phonology, Chinese tonology |
| Article: | Version 1 |