Distribution of the two types of neutral tones

This analysis is better than the previous ones because it also treats the finality of neutral tone as relevant to invisibility while maintaining the positional restrictions of base tone:

it can only appear in final positions of a phrase.

4.2 Tonal neutralization in Standard Mandarin

Standard Mandarin is probably the best studied language in the literature of neutral tones. The threshold of relevant research can be traced back to Y. R. Chao’s studies.

Two types of neutral tones are distinguished in the literature ― inherent neutral tone on the one hand, and non-inherent neutral tone on the other. Inherent neutral tones assume a lexicalized status of neutral tone, while non-inherent neutral tones can be argued as a postlexical process. This section address these two types of neutral tone, as well as their distinction both theoretically and empirically. Introduction and distribution of these two types of neutral tone are given in the first section (§ 4.2.1). §4.2.2 offers an analysis of the asymmetry between the two types of neutral tones, under the framework of stratal OT.

4.2.1 Distribution of the two types of neutral tones

Standard Mandarin has the famous four-toned system, including T1, a high level, T2, a rising, T3, a dipping or low falling, and T4, a falling, as detailed in (40).

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(40) Distinct lexical tones in Standard Mandarin

Category T1 T2 T3 T4

Value 55 35 21~214 51

As is well-known, there are a large number of grammatical words characteristic of carrying none of those four lexical tones, even in citation. Instead, these words have a so-called inherent neutral tone, which is firmly established and usually deemed the base form or citation form. That is, syllables carrying an inherent neutral tone have already lexicalized the status of being neutral-toned, and therefore this type of neutral tones is usually prescriptively marked in the dictionaries.

Inherent neutral tones can be analyzed as underlyingly toneless. They are fleshed out in the surface form with the pitch contour either spreading from the preceding full tone, derived from the interpolation between the preceding lexical tone and a boundary tone, or acquired from an unmarked target, which is a mid-low in Standard Mandarin.

This can be schematized in (41).

(41) Inherent Neutral tone: underlying toneless

Function words bearing an inherent neutral tone normally belong to the following categories; (42) gives some example sentences where inherent neutral tones occur. The superscripted 0 denotes the realization of neutral tone.

(43) Function words with inherent neutral tone in Standard Mandarin a. Sentence-final particles

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le⁰ Realization of state, currently relevant state

de⁰ Assertion

a⁰ Smooth-alert, adhortative

ma⁰ Interrogative, used in yes or no questions ba⁰ Imperative, used for confirmation

ne⁰ Continued state

de⁰ (Adjectival) modifier marker, possessive marker c. Aspect markers

le⁰ Perfective marker zhe⁰ Continuous marker

guo⁰ Experiential perfect marker

(44) Inherent neutral tones carried by sentence-final particles in connected speech

(45) Inherent neutral tones carried by modifier markers in connected speech a. Ni³ jin¹tian¹ hao³=ma⁰

You today fine=SFP

‘How’s today?’

b. Tai⁴=duo¹ ren²=le⁰=a⁰

Too=many person=SFP=SFP

‘There are too many people, you know?’

c. Shui⁴zhao²=le⁰=ne⁰

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(46)Inherent neutral tones carried by aspect markers in connected speech

Neutral tones can also be non-inherent in Standard Mandarin, espexically in mainland Standard Mandarin, the variety spoken in mainland China². A non-inherent tone, by definition, refers to derived tonelessness. That is, words surfacing with a non-inherent neutral tone in the connected speech have a distinct lexical tone in citation. This can be depicted in (47).

(47) Non-inherent neutral tone: derived tonelessness

Function words bearing a non-inherent neutral tone normally belong to two categories:

2 Non-inherent neutral tone is not prevailing or even does not exist in Taiwan Mandarin, the variety of Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan.

b. Shi² sin¹=de⁰=o⁰

COP new-MOD=SFP

‘It is new, you know that?’

c. Na⁵ zo²tian¹ mai³-lai²=de⁰ na⁴=jian⁴ Take yesterday buy-DIR=MOD that=CL

‘Go get the one I bought yesterday.’

a. Zeng⁴ chi¹-zhe⁰ fan⁴=ne⁰

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directional complements and object pronoun. (48) illustrates their original lexical tones with the citation form. These contrastive full tones are lost altogether in the connected speech, as shown in (49-50). Again, the superscripted 0 denotes the realization of neutral tone.

(48) Some types of function words

a. Directional complements

lai² ‘towards the speaker’

qu⁴ ‘away from the speaker’

xia⁴ ‘downward’

‘S/he was arrested by the police.’

c. Ba³=hua⁴ shuo¹-xia⁰-qu⁰

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The remaining categories of grammatical words (i.e. classifiers, phasal complements, and numerals) are prominent function words, meaning that in no circumstance do they bear either a inherent neutral tone or non-inherent neutral tone. This is shown by the forms in citation (51) and the forms in connected speech (52-54).

(51) Some types of function words in citation forms

a. Phasal complements

wan² ‘finished, done for’

hao³ ‘properly done, well set’

dao⁴ ‘at, to, attached, acquired, ’ diao⁴ realization of lost

b. Classifiers

ben³ for books

ban¹ for a flight, train or bus at a particular time liang⁴ for vehicle

kuai⁴ for a clump or blob of thing that usually has some weight tiao² for long, soft piece of thing; for songs

duo³ for flowers

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(52) No neutralization for phasal complements

(53) No neutralization for classifiers

(54) No neutralization for numerals

a. Chi¹-wan² fan⁶ zai⁴ shuo¹=ba⁰ Eat-PHA meal not.until to.discuss=SFP

‘(I will) have dinner first and then sort it out.’ S/he get.lost-ASP two=CL umbrella

‘S/he has lost two umbrellas.’

c. Mai³-le⁰ hao³ji³=tiao² yu² Buy-ASP several=CL fish

‘I bought several fish.’

a. Yi¹=dui⁴ zu²qiu²dui⁴ you³=shi²-yi¹=wui⁴ dui⁴yuan² One-massifier football.team there.be=ten-one=CL member ‘A football team consisits of eleven members.’

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Put aside the underlying vs. derived distinction between inherent and non-inherent neutral tones, it seems that standard Mandarin is a parallel case to that of Taiwanese ― the threshold of tonal neutralization is set at the category with degree of grammaticalization equal to 3, as shown in (55).

(55) General distribution of tonal neutralization

NUM PHA

One may jump into conclusion that such a scenario suggests ranking ALIGN-R(ω, Fnc≤2) above SP-MAX-X⁰. This analysis, however, does not capture the picture of Standard Mandarin. As I shall argue next, the analysis of the grammatical words in Standard Mandarin would not be complete if we do not take into consideration the distinction between the two types of neutral tones.