Distribution of the Four Tones

(MH.H.L) are considered one loan form in the present corpus. The reason for this distinction is that the main concern of this study is the tonal adaptation in the loanwords. The orthographic alternations are not a target for discussion, so they are not taken into account.

3.2 Distribution of the Four Tones

3.2.1 Loanwords from Monosyllabic English Words

Table 3.1 summarizes the statistical result of the tonal adaptation of monosyllabic English words.

Table 3.1: Tonal Adaptation of the Monosyllabic EWs

Tone Number Percentage

H 61 32.45%

MH 47 25.00%

L 33 17.55%

HL 47 25.00%

Total 188 ≈ 100.00%

As shown in Table 3.1, the H-tone accounts for the highest percentage of the data, namely, 32.45%. The L-tone takes up the lowest percentage, namely, 17.55%. The MH-tone and the HL-tone account equally for the same percentage of the data, that is,

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

22

25.00%. In other words, the H-tone is the most favored tone in correspondence to English stress, the L-tone is the least favored tone, and the MH-tone and the HL-tone are in between.

3.2.2 Loanwords from Disyllabic English Words

In this section, we take a look at the distribution of tones that respectively correspond to the stressed and unstressed syllables of disyllabic English words. First, see the statistical result of the English stressed syllables, as shown in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2: Tonal Adaptation of the Stressed Syllables in Disyllabic EWs

Tone Number Percentage

H 150 33.71%

MH 116 26.07%

L 71 15.96%

HL 108 24.27%

Total 445 ≈ 100.00%

The result shown in Table 3.2 is similar to the one in Table 3.1. Here, the H-tone is also the most preferred tone, accounting for 33.71%. The L-tone is the least

preferred choice, taking up 15.96%. Both the MH-tone and the HL-tone are in between. They account for a similar percentage, namely 26.07% and 24.27%

‧

Second, Table 3.3 provides the statistical result of the English unstressed syllables.

Table 3.3: Tonal Adaptation of the Unstressed Syllables in Disyllabic EWs

Tone Number Percentage

H 123 27.64%

MH 131 29.44%

L 68 15.28%

HL 123 27.64%

Total 445 ≈ 100.00%

As shown in Table 3.3, the L-tone accounts for the lowest percentage of the data, namely, 15.28%, while the MH-tone accounts for the highest percentage, namely, 29.44%. In fact, the pitch of the unstressed syllable is lower than that of the stressed one in an English disyllabic word. Thus, the statistical result above brings about a difficulty in explanation if we assume that the lower pitch in an English word corresponds to a lower tone in the Mandarin loanword. We will explore more on the distribution of the four Mandarin tones corresponding to the English unstressed syllables by examining the Mandarin loanwords from trisyllabic English words in the following section.

‧

3.2.3 Loanwords from Trisyllabic English Words

In this section, we examine the distribution of the tones that respectively

correspond to the stressed and unstressed syllables of trisyllabic English words. First, we look at the statistical result of the tonal adaptation of the English stressed syllables, as shown in Table 3.4.

Table 3.4: Tonal Adaptation of the Stressed Syllables in Trisyllabic EWs

Tone Number Percentage

Table 3.4 shows that the percentage for the H-tone is similar to that of the HL-tone. However, the percentage for the H-tone is still higher than that of the HL-tone. The L-tone accounts for the minority of the data. The percentages of the MH-tone and HL-tone are between the highest and the lowest percentages. In other words, the result shown here is consistent with the results shown in Table 3.1 and Table 3.2.

Concerning the tones corresponding to the English unstressed syllables, the

‧

statistical result is given in Table 3.5.

Table 3.5: Tonal Adaptation of the Unstressed Syllables in Trisyllabic EWs

Tone Number Percentage

H 102 27.15%

MH 93 24.73%

L 63 16.67%

HL 118 31.45%

Total 376 ≈ 100.00%

Table 3.5 shows that the L-tone accounts for the lowest percentage of the data, which is opposite to our expectation. Just as the dilemma presented in Table 3.3 in 3.2.2, the statistical result here also leads to a difficulty in explanation here if we assume that a lower pitch in an English word corresponds to a lower tone in the Mandarin loanword.

We will offer in 3.5 a solution to Table 3.3 and Table 3.5 by examining the data in the aspect of relative relation of the tones corresponding to the English stressed and unstressed syllables.

In general, the examination of the distribution of the four Mandarin tones corresponding to the English stressed syllables reveals that the H-tone is the most preferred tone, and that the L-tone is the most dispreferred tone, and tha the MH-tone and the HL-tone are in between. Following Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986), Goldsmith (1976), Liberman (1975), and Pierrehumbert (1980), we assume that

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

26

English has a pitch accent H in neutral intonation and H is associated with a lexically stressed syllable. Therefore, some implications can be drawn from Table 3.1, Table 3.2, and table 3.4. First, with a high pitch on the left and right edges, the H-tone is the most preferred because it is the most faithful mapping from the pitch accent H of the English stressed syllables. Second, without an H on both edges, the L-tone is the least preferred tone because it is the least faithful mapping from the pitch accent H. Finally, with a high pitch on only one side, the MH-tone and the HL-tone are worse than the H-tone, but they are better than the L-tone. As a result, the MH-tone and the HL-tone are between the most preferred and most dispreferred tonal choices for English stress.