CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 Theoretical Background
2.4.5 Cophonology Theory
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2.4.5 Cophonology Theory
The Theory of Cophonology (Orgun, 1996, Anttila, 1997, and Inkelas & Zoll, 2007) accounts for the nature of the diversity, such as registers, dialects, and free variations, within a language. This theory deals with language-internal diversity by way of re-ranking a set of unspecified constraints. There are different phonological systems that co-exist in a language, and the differences between them lie in reranking constraints in different morphological or grammatical structures.
In the Cophonology model, constraints are general and purely phonological and are not indexed for specific contexts. The core concept of Cophonology can be schematized as in (24).
(24) A grammar lattice of language L (Inkelas and Zoll, 2007) Master Ranking
Cons1 >> {Cons2, Cons3}
Copohonology A Cophonology B
Cons1 >> Cons2 >> Cons3 Cons1 >> Cons3 >> Cons2
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In a grammar lattice, the core grammar of a language L is placed in the superordinate note, that is, ‘Master Ranking’. Constraints in the core grammar are partially ranked.
That is, Cons1 dominates Cons2 and Cons3, but the ranking of Cons2 and Cons3 are not specified. Such specification is determined in the two subgrammars in language L, they are, Cophonology A and Cophonology B. In Cophonology A, Cons2 dominates Cons3, while in Cophonology B, Cons 3 dominates Cons2. Variations in language L are accounted for by these different rankings.
This concept of cophonology will be employed in analyzing Mandarin focal tone sandhi in section 4. Variations of focal tone sandhi are observed in different syntactic structures, where constraints are reranked.
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CHAPTER 3
DATA ANALYSIS
This chapter analyzes the data from Taiwan youngsters who were born in the 1990s, and proposes certain generalizations about Mandarin focal tone sandhi. Three types of syntactic structures will be discussed, including adverbs and auxiliary verbs in a simple sentence, the flat structure, and the others. I will also define the size of the focal phrase.
3.1 Data Collection
This thesis investigates focal tone sandhi based on data from youngsters, who were born in the 1990s. The studies of Shih (1990) and Hsiao (1991, 1995) were done over twenty years ago, so the intuition of the young generation would be quite different from that of the earlier generation. The intuition of the young generation about focal tone sandhi is the primary concern in this study. We restrict our attention to contrastive focus. Other kinds of focus, for instance informational focus (Li, 2009), will not be tested in this study because it does not contradict with a set of stated or predicted alternatives in an explicit way. Consider (1) and (2) for comparison.
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(1) Informational Focus
Q: zhangH sanH yaoHL quHL naL?
‘Where will Zhangsan go?’
A: zhangH sanH yaoHL quHL faHL guoLH.
‘Zhangsan will go to France.’
(2) Contrastive Focus
Q: zhangH sanH yaoHL quHL meiL guoLH ma?
‘Will Zhangsan go to the United States?’
A: buHL, zhangH sanH yaoHL quHL faHL guoLH.
‘Zhangsan will go to France.’
In the above examples, fa guo in (1) is an informational focus and fa guo in (2) is a contrastive focus. In (1), there is no explicit contrast with reference to fa guo, whereas In (2), fa guo contradicts with the stated alternative, mei guo. With the explicit contrast, informants may be easier to aware what and where the focus is.
In this thesis, I use question-answer pairs to test the informants. The rationale underlying this test is that a ‘natural’ response to a question should have the same presupposition as the question, that is, the question and answer should have equivalent
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focus structures (Chomsky 1971, Jackendoff, 1972). In this study we make a slight revision. That is, all the pairs include two elements in essence: an interrogative sentence and a response with negation and statement, as shown in (3).
(3) Question-answer Pairs
Q: shiHL xiaoL liL maiL mianHL baoH ma?
‘Is it bread which Small Li buys?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL mianHL baoH, shiHL xiaoL liL maiL shuiL jiaoL.
‘No, it’s not bread. It is dumplings which Small Li buys.”
The purpose of the interrogative sentence is to arouse the attention of the informants and, more importantly, give them a context to stimulate their production of focal tone sandhi patterns. As for the response, it negates what is asked previously and then re-describes the statement with the correct target, and so indicates where the contrastive focus lies. In (3), the focus is not on mian bao ‘bread’ but on shui jiao
‘dumplings’ instead. This statement is introduced by the emphatic shi ‘it is’, which is similar to the English cleft construction. In addition, abstract and abstruse contexts are avoided for fear that informants cannot get the meaning.
The underlined sentence is our target sentence in this study. At first, informants
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are requested to read the questions and the answers in their mind so that they may familiarize themselves with the context and also realize what the focus is. When the informants are ready and have no problem in reading the test words, the underlined sentences are read at normal speed for recording. In all the examples below, the focus is indicated in the schematic in bold typeface.
3.2 Type A: Adverbs and Auxiliary Verbs in a Simple Sentence
Adverbs and auxiliary verbs may be classified as one category since their syntactic behaviors are similar. Adverbs in Mandarin usually occur in pre-predicate position, after the subject or after the topic (if there is no subject), as in (4a). Auxiliary verbs also occur in a pre-predicate position, as in (4b). To test the focal tone sandhi of such words, we have chosen the following members which bear a base tone, as shown in (4).
(4) Adverbs and Auxiliary Verbs
Examples & gloss
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Example (5a) and (5b) illustrate the focal tone sandhi patterns of adverb zhi and auxiliary verb ken, respectively.
(5) Focused Adverbs and Auxiliary Verbs
a. Q: shiHL xiaoL liL buHL zhiL maiL yuL sanL ma?
‘Does Small Li not only want to buy umbrellas?’
A: shiHL xiaoL liL zhiL maiL yuL sanL. (LH.L)(LH.L)(LH.L) ‘Small Li only wants to buy umbrellas.’
b. Q: shiHL xiaoL liL buHL kenL maiL yuL sanL ma?
‘Is Small Mei unwilling to buy umbrellas?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL buHL kenL,
shiHL xiaoL liL kenL maiL yuL sanL. (LH.L)(LH.L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not that he’s unwilling. Small Li is willing to buy umbrellas.’
Notice that adverbs differ from auxiliary verbs in the lack of verb-like properties.
Although an auxiliary verb must occur with a full-fledged verb, it may occur along with the subject in a context in which the verb is omitted, as in an answer to yes-no question. This implies that there is no context in which an adverb may occur alone
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with the subject of a verb. In (5a), no negation sentence like bu shi bu zhi is provided;
instead, the answer is given to the informants in a straightforward way.
As shown in (5a) and (5b), respectively, both zhi and ken are at the left edge of the focal phrase and change to a LH tone. They form a disyllabic foot with the main verbs instead of the subjects. This fact indicates that the foot formation starts at the focused adverb and auxiliary verb. In addition, semantic constraints could play a role in the focal phrasing for a focused adverb and auxiliary verb. Take zhi for instance.
Since it is a predicate-modifying adverb, it modifies the entire predicate phrase but not the subject. Thus, it forms a disyllabic foot with the main verb mai3.
When the focal adverb zhi is followed by the verb phrase xiang mai ‘want to buy’, the foot formation still starts at the focal adverbs.
(6) Focused Adverb zhi
Q: shiHL xiaoL liL buHL zhiL xiangL maiL yuL sanL ma?
‘Does Small Li not only want to buy umbrellas?’
A: shiHL xiaoL liL zhiL xiangL maiL yuL sanL. (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L) (LH.L) ‘Small Li only wants to buy umbrellas.’
As in (6), zhi forms a trisyllabic foot with the verb phrase xiang mai. The focused
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element zhi is at the left edge of the focal phrase and undergoes tone sandhi. The subject xiao li does not form a trisyllabic foot with zhi but forms a disyllabic foot itself.
In short, when adverbs and auxiliary verbs are focused, they are at the left edge of the focal phrase. The foot formation starts at the focused adverbs and auxiliary verbs, so they undergo tone sandhi.
3.3 Type B: the Flat Structure
This section discusses sentence structures that are syntactically considered as flat structures, such as repetition and coordination. We first examine how odd-numbered syllables in a flat structure are grouped with respect to tone sandhi domains. The relevant examples are given in (7). All the elements in (7) have a base tone and the emphatic elements are in boldface.
(7) Numeral Repetition
Q: shiHL wuL wuL wuL wuL wuL ma?
‘Is it 55555?’
a. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL wuL juiL wuL wuL. ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 55955.’
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b. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL juiL wuL wuL wuL. (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 59555.’
c. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL wuL wuL juiL wuL. ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) ‘No, it’s not. It is 55595.’
The surface tone patterns of the five consecutive same numbers in the interrogative sentence could be (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L), ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) or (LH.LH.LH.LH.L). All of the readings are acceptable without the interference of focus. However, only one reading is acceptable when contrastive focus occurs in numeral repetition. When the focus is on the number jui in (7a) and (7b), the focused syllables retain the base tone2
2 This finding is identical to Wee’s (2010) study on Tianjin focal tone sandhi. Wee discovers that any
. Therefore, the surface tone patterns of (7a) and (7b) are ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) and (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L), respectively. This result indicates that the focused element is located at the right edge of the focal phrase and that foot formation ends at the focused element. Notice that in (7c), the only acceptable reading is ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L). The plausible explanation for this is that in Mandarin, the last syllable is forbidden being isolated as a monosyllabic foot. Thus, the penultimate syllable inevitably forms a disyllabic foot with the last syllable.
syllable in a given string that receives focal stress will retain its citation tone in Tianjin. The effect of focal stress is that it creates a rhythmic break which effectively determines prosodic constituency.
a. /RRR/ → HRR b. /LLL/ → RLL c. /RRR/ → RHR d. /LLL/ → LRL
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Similar focal phrasing takes place in coordination structures. Equally, all of the syllables in the following instances have a base tone. The possible regular reading could be (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L), ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) or (LH.LH.LH.LH.L). When focus occurs in coordination structure, only one reading is acceptable.
(8) Coordination Structure
a. Q: shiHL MaL JiangL HaoL LiL XuL ma?
‘Is it Ma, Jiang, Hao, Li, Xu?’ (last names) A: buHL, buLH shiHL JiangL,
shiHL MaL LuL HaoL LiL XuL. (LH.L)((LH. LH.) L)
‘No, it’s not Jiang. It is Ma, Lu, Hao, Li, Xu.’
b. Q: shiHL maL gouL yiL shuL niaoL ma?
‘Is it horses, dogs, ants, rats, and birds?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL huL,
shiHL maL gouL huL shuL niaoL. ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) ‘No, it’s not ants. It is horses, dogs, tigers, rats, and birds.’
In (8a), Lu is where the focus lies and it forms a disyllabic foot with the monosyllabic word Ma. As for (8b), the focused syllable hu, which is located in the middle of the
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five sequential monosyllabic words, forms a trisyllabic foot with ma and gou. Both
Lu and hu retain their base tones. Based on the instances above, the focused syllable
would still be at the right position in a foot. This fact confirms the previous assumption that foot formation ends at focused syllables.
When a focused element is of more than one syllable, the focal tone sandhi patterns still accord with the previous assumption. Examples (9a) to (9c) show the focal tone sandhi patterns of disyllabic focal elements in different sentence positions.
(9) Disyllabic Numeral Repetition
Q: shiHL wuL wuL wuL wuL wuL ma?
‘Is it 55555?’
a. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL juiL juiL wuL wuL wuL. (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 99555.’
b. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL juiL juiL wuL wuL. ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 59955.’
c. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL wuL wuL juiL juiL. ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 55599.’
d. A: buHL, buLH shiHL, shiHL wuL wuL juiL juiL wuL. (LH.L)((LH.LH.)L)
‘No, it’s not. It is 55995.’
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The focal elements are jui jui. As seen in (9a), (9b) and (9c), the second focal syllable, number jui, retains its base tone. This fact indicates that the foot formation ends at the last focal element no matter how many focal syllables exist in a sentence. Notice that in (9d), the focal syllables form a group with the last syllable to create a trisyllabic foot. Again, this is an undesirable foot formation pattern, as it is not permissible for the last syllable to remain isolated in Mandarin. In the next section we will look at how focus affects foot formation with respect to other types of sentence.
3.4 Type C: Other Types of Sentences
Aside from Type A and Type B, this study investigates other types of sentences.
The pattern which is common among the informants is considered the unmarked reading, whereas the pattern which appears less frequently is considered the marked reading. Section 3.3.1 will discuss the unmarked focal tone sandhi while section 3.3.2 the marked focal tone sandhi.
3.4.1 Unmarked Focal Tone Sandhi Patterns
The unmarked focal tone sandhi is discussed in this section. Focused elements are examined in the following order: subjects, verbs, and objects. First consider the
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focused subjects, as in (10).
(10) Focused Subjects a. Q: shiHL maoH yaoL xiaoL baoLma?
‘Is it cats which bite Small Bao?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL maoH, shiHL guoL yaoL xiaoL baoL. (LH.L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not cats. It is dogs which bite Small Bao.’
b. Q: shiHL xiaoL mingLH maiL xiaoL shuoH ma?
‘Is it Small Ming who buys novels?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL xiaoL mingL,
shiHL xiaoL meiL maiL xiaoL shuoH. (LH.L)(LH.(L.H))
‘No, it’s not Small Ming. It is Small Mei who buys novels.’
In (10a), the monosyllabic focal subject guo forms a disyllabic foot with the verb,
yao, and undergoes tone sandhi. In (10b), since the disyllabic subject xiao mei
contains a pair of immediate constituents, it forms a disyllabic foot. The verb mai and the object xiao shuo together construct a trisyllabic foot. Based on the above examples, it appears that foot formation starts at the focused element. Because subjects are usually in sentence-initial positions, foot formation would start with the subjects in non-focal readings. Hence, the focal readings in (10a) and (10a) are inevitably the
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same as non-focal readings. Let us now look at the situation where the verb and object are under focus.
(11) Focused Verbs
Q: shiHL gouL zhuiH nuL renLH ma?
‘Do dogs chase women?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL zhuiH, shiHL gouL yaoL nuL renLH. (L)(LH.(L.LH)) ‘No, it’s not chasing (that the dogs do). Dogs bite the boss.’
The non-focal reading in (11) is (LH.L)(LH.L). The subject guo and the verb yao form a disyllabic foot while the object nu ren form another disyllabic foot. However, the focal verb yao in (11) forms a trisyllabic foot with the object nu ren, located at the left edge of the trisyllabic foot. This causes yao to change to a LH, which is different from non-focal reading.
(12) Focused Objects
a. Q: shiHL niL youL yuL yiH ma?
‘Is it raincoats which you have?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL yuL yiH, shiHL niL youL yuL sanL. (LH.L)(LH.L)
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‘No, it’s not raincoats. It is umbrellas which you have.’
b. Q: shiHL nuL youL maiL shouL lianHL ma?
‘Is it bracelets which (my) girlfriend buys?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL shouL lianHL,
shiHL nuL youL maiL shouL biaoL. ((LH.LH.)L) (LH.L)
‘No, it’s not bracelets. It is watches which (my) girlfriend buys.’
The focal tone patterns of objects, illustrated in (12), are similar to those of the subjects in (10) and the verbs in (11), respectively. As for the focused yu san in (12a) and shou biao in (12b), they are in sentence-final positions. The focused object does not form a foot with the verb. Take (12b) for instance. The phrasing pattern is ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L) but not (LH.L)(L.(LH.L)). This fact indicates that the foot formation starts with the focused element and includes the following syllables, so the focused element undergoes tone sandhi.
The focal phrasing patterns can be predicted by Shih’s and Hsiao’s proposals, when the focal boundary is placed at the left side of the focal element. However, their proposals have problems in (13).
(13) Q: shiHL niL maiL chiL ma?
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‘Is it rulers which you buy?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL chiL, shiHL niL maiL biL. (LH.(LH.L)) (cf.*(LH.L.)(L))
‘No, it’s not rulers. It is pens which you buy.’
In (13), the focal boundary does not occur at the left edge of the focused monosyllabic object bi, which is thus able to join with the verb first and the subject to form a trisyllabic foot. This phenomenon could be attributed to the prosodic constraint in Mandarin that a monosyllabic foot cannot occur in sentence-final position.
3.4.2 Marked Focal Tone Sandhi Patterns
Let us now turn to the marked focal tone sandhi patterns. Some data from 3.4.1 are reanalyzed here for comparison. The following examples display the tone sandhi patterns of the focused subject.
(14) Focused Subjects a. Q: shiHL maoH yaoL xiaoL baoL ma?
‘Is it cats which bite Small Bao?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL maoH, shiHL guoL yaoL xiaoL baoL. (L)(L.(LH.L))
‘No, it’s not cats. It is dogs which bite Small Bao.’
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b. Q: shiHL xiaoL mingLH maiL shuiL guoL ma?
‘Is it Small Ming who buys fruits?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL xiaoL mingLH,
shiHL xiaoL meiL maiL shuiL guoL. (LH.L)(L.(LH.L))
‘No, it’s not Small Ming. It is Small Mei who buys fruits.’
As we can see, when the subject is emphasized, the subject retains its base tone. In (14a), the non-focal reading is (LH.L)(LH.L), but in focal reading the focal boundary is placed at the right edge of the focused subject; guo thus forms a monosyllabic foot and retains a low tone. Similarly, in (14b), the non-focal reading is ((LH.LH.)L)(LH.L), but in focal reading the focal boundary appears after the focused subject xiao mei, which form a disyllabic foot and the second syllable mei does not undergo tone sandhi. In addition, we also observe that the focal syllables can be followed by a short prosodic pause, causing prosodic restructuring and stopping foot formation after the focused elements.
(15) Focused Verbs
a. Q: shiHL xiaoL liL maiHL xiaoL maoH ma?
‘Does Small Li sell kittens?’
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A: buHL, buLH shiHL maiHL,
shiHL xiaoL liL maiL xiaoL maoH. ((LH.LH.)L)(L.H)
‘No, it’s not selling (that Small Li does). Small Li buys kittens.’
b. Q: shiHL gouL zhuiH laoL banL ma?
‘Do dogs chase the boss?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL zhuiH, shiHL gouL yaoL laoL banL. (LH.L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not chasing (that the dogs do). Dogs bite the boss.’
The same phenomenon is observed when the verb is under focus. The phrasing pattern in (15a) is different from the regular reading, (LH.L)(LH.(L.H)). In (15a), the focused verb mai forms a trisyllabic foot with the subject xiao li and maintains a base tone. The focused verb mai does not form a trisyllabic foot with the object xiao mao.
As a result, xiao mao can only form a disyllabic foot. In (15b), the verb yao does not form a trisyllabic foot with the object lao ban. Instead, it is located at the right edge of the disyllabic foot. The focal tone sandhi pattern ends up just matching the regular reading, (LH.L)(LH.L).
Even though the sentence lacks a subject, as (16) illustrates, some speakers perform pause after the focused verb mai. The focused verb mai is isolated as a monosyllabic foot and retains a base tone. The focal reading is thus different from the
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regular reading, (LH.L)(LH.L).
(16) Focused Verb in Subjectless Sentence Q: shiHL maiHL xiaoL miL jiuL ma?
‘(Do you) sell rice wine?’
A: buHL, buLH shiHL maiHL, shiHL maiL xiaoL miL jiuL. (L)(L.(LH.L))
‘No, it’s not selling (that I do). (I) buy rice wine.’
Now let us turn to focused objects, as in (17).
(17) Focused Objects
a. Q: shiHL niL youL yuL yiH ma?
‘Is it raincoats which you have?
A: buHL, buLH shiHL yuL yiH, shi4 niL youL yuL sanL. (LH.L)(LH.L)
‘No, it’s not raincoats. It is umbrellas which you have.’
b. Q: shiHL nuL youL maiL shouL lianHL ma?
‘Is it bracelets which (my) girlfriend buys?
‘Is it bracelets which (my) girlfriend buys?