3. The Corpus Data
3.2 Introduction to the Corpus
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24 Chapter 3 Data Collection
3.1 Data Collection
As discussed in the previous chapter, the faster the speech rate, the wider the D.
In Shih (1986), it is presumed that D is the IP at the presto speech rate. Cheng (1987) and Hsiao (1991) also support the view that TS applies cyclically up to the IP, or simultaneously to the IP at a relatively fast speech rate. Therefore, this thesis constructed a corpus of third tone sequences recorded from four Taiwan Mandarin native speakers (two females and two males, three of them at the age of 25, one of them 27). The author presumed that TS is more likely to apply to the IP level at a speech rate faster that the presto, which, grounded on the musical tempo, is 168 to 200 beats per minute. Hence, the four informants were asked to read sentences made of sequences of third tones at a speech rate of above 200 beats (or words) per minute, which is termed as the prestissimo speech rate. The recording process depended on the tempo of a metronome to control the speech rate of the informants.
3.2 Introduction to the Corpus
The corpus comprises 324 sentence tokens (81 sentences*4 speakers) containing 6 to 24 syllables and 49 types of syntactic structures, which are shown in (23) and (24) (see Appendix for a full list of tokens for each sentence structure).
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(23) Number of sentences of different lengths
Number of syllables Number of sentential tokens
6 32
(24) Syntactic structures and sentence tokens in the corpus
Types of sentential structures No. of
tokens
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This thesis adopts the prosodic hierarchy proposed by Nespor & Vogel (1986) as in (22), assuming that TS cyclically applies to the Ds on the following four levels: the PhWd, the C, the PhP and the IP level. First of all, the phonological word here refers to the prosodic unit that is “coextensive with the terminal node of the syntactic tree”
(Nespor & Vogel, 1986, p.116). In other words, one PhWd occupies one terminal node of the syntactic tree, as exemplified in (25). They are marked as the lexical categories like N, V, ADJ, ADV and P etc. in the corpus. We can also say that a PhWd is a stem.
Therefore, affixes like -li3 “inside” and de (possessive suffix) etc. do not form independent PhWds. They must be attached to other stems to form PhWds. In (25), the PhWds are xiao3 “small”, lao3 shu3 “mouse”, yao3 “bite” and lao3 hu3 “tiger”.
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(25) “A small mouse bites a small tiger.”
xiao3 lao3 shu3 yao3 xiao3 lao3 hu3
The corpus data indicate that TS still tends to start applying cyclically from the PhWd level. This is observed in syntactic binary-branching phrases in which the left terminal nodes end with the third tone and the right terminal nodes begin with at least two successive third tone syllables, as in (26). If TS starts on the PhWd level, TS for
the final syllable on the left branch will be blocked, producing a tone pattern such as
“3 2 3”; if TS skips the PhWd level and applies to a higher level, a tone pattern as “2
2 3” will be produced. The total number of these binary branching structures is 624.
(26)
UT (…3) (3 3…)
Li3 xiao3 jie3 “Miss Li”
xiao3 lao3 shu3 “small mouse”
hao3 hao3 zou3 lu4 “walk properly”
mai3 bao3 yang3 pin3 “buy skin care products”
As for the clitic group (C) level, the clitics in the corpus include pronouns and classifiers. A clitic group is assumed to contain a nonclitic word plus, if there are any, one or more clitic words. It should be noted that this thesis assumes Hung (1987) and Lin (2006)’s hypothesis that prepositions are co-verbs, which can be assumed to be
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lexical words rather than function words; thus, the phrasing of prepositions is not to be considered on the clitic group level.
The total number of clitic tokens in the corpus is 20, as shown in (27). On this level, the analysis examines how a clitic word cliticizes to a nonclitic word to form a D, and how forming a D on the clitic group level can account for the TS patterns in the corpus. For every sequence of a non-clitic word plus a clitic word, if the last syllable of the left adjacent non-clitic word, such as gei3 “give” or wu3 “five” in (28a) and (28b), carries a sandhi tone, the clitic shows left-cliticization. Right-cliticization is
shown (29), where the pronoun wo3 “I” is cliticized to the adjacent verb xiang3
“want” on its right. The clitics are boldfaced in (28) and (29).
(27) Clitic tokens in the corpus Pronouns Classifiers Total
12 8 20
(28) Left-cliticization of clitics a. “give some water”
gei3 dian3 shui3
UR 3 3 3
PhWd-D (3) (2) (3)
C-D (2 3) (3)
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b. “five kinds of antipruritic powder”
wu3 zhong3 zhi3 yang3 fen3
After the C level is the PhP level. A PhP, as defined by Nespor & Vogel (1986), includes a head X and all elements on its nonrecursive side within Xmax. In syntax, the recursive side refers to “the side of the head on which internal arguments or
complements in the X’-theoretic sense occur” (Giorgi and Longobardi, 1991, p.98).
The nonrecursive side refers to the opposite side of the recursive side. For instance, if the complement of a verb head is located on the right side of the head, the right side is the recursive side, and the left side is the nonrecursive side.
Furthermore, they propose a PhP reconstruction rule that says, besides the inclusion of all the Cs on its nonrecursive side within the maximal projection, the head optionally includes the first complement on its recursive side to form a wider phonological phrase; and that this complement must be a nonbranching PhP. It should be noted that the branchingness here refers to that of the prosodic structure, not the
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syntactic structure. For instances, in (30a), the verb head qing3 “ask” cannot form a wider PhP with the sentence complement because the boldfaced sentence complement branches in terms of its PhP structure. In (30b), the verb head xi3 “take” optionally forms a wider PhP with its complement leng3 shui3 zao3 “cold shower”, which does not branch in terms of the PhP structure. (The round brackets indicate PhP
boundaries.)
(30) PhP reconstruction
a. With a branching complement
(qing3) (biao3 jie3) (wang3 bei3 zou3)
“ask Cousin to walk toward the north”
b. With a nonbranching complement
(xi3 (leng3 shui3 zao3))
“take a cold shower”
The following analysis inspects the above definition of the PhP by observing how well the definition can describe the TS domain on the PhP level. The total number of verb head tokens is 584. The verb heads are classified into 5 types, as in (31), based on two parameters: (a) whether the head has a recursive side or a
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nonrecursive side, or both sides, and (b) whether the prosodic structure of the first complement on the recursive side branches or not. The syntactic structures for each type of V heads are listed in (32). Again, it should be noted that the branchingness in (31) refers to the branchingness of the phonological phrase structure, while the branchingness in (32) refers to the branchingness of the syntactic phrase structure.
Accordingly, in (31), the total number of tokens of the verb heads with nonrecursive sides and that of the verb heads with a nonrecursive side and a prosodically branching complement do not perfectly match with those in (32). An example is shown in (33).
(31) Classification of the verb heads in the corpus
[±branching] Complement No. of Tokens
With a recursive side - 252
+ 140
With a nonrecursive side 76
With both sides - 92
+ 24
Total No. of V heads 584
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[+branching] Complement [-branching]
Complement
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In (33), the syntactic structure is drawn above different levels of prosodic domain derivation. As you can see, in the syntactic structure, the PP branches, so the verb head pao3 “run” has a syntactically branching nonrecursive side. However, in
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terms of the prosodic structure, on the PhP level, wang3 bei3 “toward the north”
forms one PhP; thus, the verb head pao3 “run” has a prosodically nonbranching nonrecursive side.
(33) Mismatch between prosodic and syntactic branchingness (e.g. “run toward the north to the store”)
wang3 bei3 pao3 dao4 dian4 li3
UT 3 3 3 4 4 3
PhWd-D (3) (3) (3) (4) (4 3)
C-D (3) (3) (3) (4) (4 3)
PhP-D (2 3) (3) (4 4 3)
IP-D (2 2 3 4 4 3)
Inf.3&4 2 2 3 4 4 3
In order to investigate whether the definition of the PhP in Nespor & Vogel (1986) can account for the PhP construction and reconstruction as Taiwan Mandarin TS
domain, the analysis in the PhP section aims to find out (a) if the head obligatorily includes all the Cs on its nonrecursive side within the maximal projection; (b) if the head obligatorily includes, optionally includes or obligatorily not includes the Cs on the recursive side, and (c) if the adjoined first complement on the recursive side branches or not with regard to its prosodic structure.
For each VP that has either a recursive or a nonrecursive side but not both, the
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tone of the two syllables—the final syllable on the left branch and the initial syllable of the right branch—are examined, as in (34). The V heads are boldfaced.
(34) The branching VPs of the analysis
UT (…3) (3…)
Head + complement yao3 xiao3 lao3 hu3 “bite small mice”
xiang3 liao3 jie3 “want to know”
liao3 jie3 shen3 lao3 ban3 “know Boss Shen”
Modifier + head wang3 bei3 zou3 “walk toward the north”
gan3 jin3 zhao3 “quickly find”
For a verb head and its complement, if the final third tone on the left branch undergoes TS on account of the first third tone on the right branch, the verb head can be said to include the complement on its recursive side to form a wider PhP. Likewise, for a verb head with its modifier(s), if the final third tone on the left branch carries a sandhi tone, the verb head can be said to join the C(s) on its nonrecursive side to form a PhP.
For a verb head that has both a recursive and a nonrecursive side, as in (35), if the surface tone pattern is like the one shown in (36), we claim that the head forms a
PhP by itself, because whether the head zhao3 “find” forms a PhP with wang3 bei3
“toward the north” or ye3 mao1 “wild cats”, the correct surface tone cannot be
derived.
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“search for wild cats toward the north”
(36) With neither sides
biao3 jie3 wang3 bei3 zhao3 ye3 mao1
“Cousin finds wild cats toward the north.”
UT 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
(37) With the nonrecursive side and with/without the recursive side biao3 jie3 wang3 bei3 zhao3 ye3 mao1
“Cousin finds wild cats toward the north.”
UT 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
If the head forms a PhP with the nonrecursive side on the PhP level, a different tone pattern would be produced, as in (37). The verb head phrasing in (37) can be treated as forming a PhP only with the nonrecursive side or with both sides, because the same tone pattern can be predicted either way. PhP-D (1) shows that the
preposition head wang3 “toward” first forms a PhP with bei3 “north” on its recursive side, and the verb head zhao3 “find” forms a wider PhP with the nonbranching PhP
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wang3 bei3 “toward the north” on its nonrecursive side. PhP-D (2) shows that the
preposition head wang3 “toward” first forms a PhP with bei3 “north” on its recursive side, and the verb head zhao3 “find” forms a PhP with the nonbranching PhP wang3 bei3 “toward the north” as well as ye3 mao1 “wild cats” on its recursive side. Either
way, the surface tone pattern is different from the one in (36).
On the other hand, the verb head in (38) only forms a PhP with ye3 mao1 “wild cats” on the recursive side and not with the prepositional phrase wang3 bei3 “toward the north” on the nonrecursive side. Still, the surface tone pattern in (36) cannot be derived. Therefore, to derive the surface tone pattern in (36), we assume that the head does not form a PhP with any elements on the nonrecursive or the recursive side.
(38) With the recursive side but not the nonrecursive side biao3 jie3 wang3 bei3 zhao3 ye3 mao1
“Cousin finds wild cats toward the north.”
UT 3 3 3 3 3 3 1
Although the surface tone pattern in (36) can also be derived if we treat the derivation as simultaneous TS application within the IP, if we hypothesize that the head optionally, rather than obligatorily, forms a PhP with a C on the branching nonrecursive side, the surface tone pattern in (36) can also be predicted. Whether this
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overlapping of output via cyclic and simultaneous application of TS is a marked or unmarked phenomenon can be explored by future research.
Additionally, while investigating the construction of VPs on the PhP level, the preposition problem that has arisen in the previous structure is also examined by looking at the interaction between the PPs (as modifiers of the VP) and the VPs in the process of prosodic phrasing on the PhP level. Since this thesis adopts Hung (1987) and Lin (2006)’s view that prepositions are co-verbs (i.e. nonclitics), the phrasing of the preposition heads starts on the PhP level, not on the C level; and that the
construction and reconstruction of the PPs should follow the definition of the PhP mentioned earlier. That is to say, a preposition head may include or not include the Cs on its recursive side, as shown in the phrasing of wang3 “toward” in (36) to (38). In this way, the difference regarding the direction of cliticization of the classifiers and the prepositions as pointed out in Hsiao (1991) is explained by treating them as distinct categories. Classifiers are clitics, so they must cliticize to nonclitics to form clitic groups on the C level; prepositions are nonclitics, so they do not cliticize to other nonclitics to form clitic groups. They may stand alone as independent PhPs, or form larger PhPs based on the rule of construction and reconstruction of the PhP.
Having determined the formation of the PhWd, the C and the PhP, we can now discuss the definition of the IP. Nespor & Vogel (1986) regards the IP boundaries as
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the endpoints of intonational contours or the positions where potential pauses can take place in a sentence. They specify that all the PhPs in a sentence can be an IP. For instance, the PhPs in (38) are biao3 jie3 “cousin”, wang3 “toward”, bei3 “north”, zhao3 xiao3 mao1 “find wild cats”, and each of them may stand as an IP based on this
definition. The IP(s) of a sentence may also be restructured according to the length, rate of speech, style of speech and semantic prominence, two of which are related to this thesis. First, the role that length plays in restructuring an IP is observed in that, despite that a PhP may form an IP, we do not pause so frequently in natural speech.
There seems to be a minimal length of an IP that makes it sound more natural, however, the precise length is still unknown. The second factor that influences the reconstruction of an IP is the rate of speech. It is pointed out that the faster the speech rate, the longer the IP is likely to be. Since the definition given above still seems to be inadequate for determining the boundaries of the IP, this thesis also adopts Selkirk (1984)’s SUC and uses the length of a foot to restrict the formation of the IP.
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41 Chapter 4 Findings and Analysis
4.1 The Prosodic Hierarchy
4.1.1 The Phonological Word (PhWd)
Previous studies have assumed that at a very fast speech rate TS may apply cyclically to the IP or simultaneously within the IP, so the corpus data were collected at the speech rate of 200 beats per minutes, in order to see how IPs are formed. The result in (39) shows that, even at the prestissimo speech rate, TS still tends to apply cyclically from the PhWd level in Taiwan Mandarin. In the binary branching phrases analyzed, 75% of the final syllables of the left PhWds remain their third tones, because the first syllables of the right PhWds undergo TS on the PhWd level and carry sandhi tones, blocking the TS environment. In (40), the surface tones of the binary branching phrases that satisfy the requirement of (26) show that TS applies to the D on the PhWd level before the other higher levels in the prosodic hierarchy because the TS environment of the syllables on the left branch (i.e. xiao3 “small” in (40a), Li3 “Li”, xiang3 “want” and Shen3 “Shen” in (40b)) is blocked by the TS on the PhWd level. The rest of the syllables after Shen3 lao3 ban3 “Boss Shen” are omitted due to the lack of space.
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Simultaneous TS 2.4% (15)
Unknown 22.6% (140)
Total 100% (624)
(40) TS starting from the PhWd level
a. “The cousin cooked the small mouse and let the teacher eat.”
biao3 jie3 ba3 xiao3 lao3 shu3 zhu3 gei3 lao3 shi1 chi1
In (41), the tones on the right branch do not satisfy the requirement in (26) because the first two syllables on the right branch do not carry successive third tones. Thus, whether TS applies to the PhWd level or skips the PhWd level cannot be observed from the surface tone pattern. This is found in 22.6% of the binary branching structures.
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(41) “Boss gives wild cats water.”
lao3 ban3 gei3 ye3 mao1 shui3
UT 2 3 2 3 1 3
PhWd-D (2 3) (3) (3 1) (3)
↓Intermediate derivation
ST 2 3 2 3 1 3
In 2.4% of the binary branching phrases analyzed, cyclic application of TS from the PhWd level fails to describe the collected surface tone patterns, as illustrated in (42). The predicted surface tone patterns all differ from the collected tone patterns from the informants. Although these tone patterns do not show the influence of the D formation on the PhWd level, they show that simultaneous application of TS occurs, which will be discussed in section 4.2.
(42) TS skipping PhWd level application a. “give the mouse water”
gei3 lao3 shu3 shui3
UT 3 3 3 3
PhWd-D (3) (2 3) (3)
ST 3 2 2 3
Inf.2 2 2 2 3
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b. “Cousin gives Boss small wild cats.”
biao3 jie3 gei3 lao3 ban3 xiao3 ye3 mao1
4.1.2 Clitic Group (C)
According to the definition of Nespor & Vogel (1986), a clitic group contains a nonclitic plus, if there are any, one or more clitics. The result in (43) shows that every clitic token must cliticize either to its left or its right PhWd to form a C. 40% of the clitics cliticize to the left PhWd to form Cs; 55% of them cliticize to the right. The remaining tone pattern that accounts for 5% of the data does not show the influence of D formation on the C level, because TS is assumed to apply simultaneously within the IP.
(43) Direction of cliticization in the corpus
Direction of Cliticization No. of Tokens
Leftward 40% (8)
Rightward 55% (11)
Non-cliticization 0
Simultaneous TS 5% (1)
Total No. of clitics 100% (20)
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If we look at the direction of each third-tone-bearing clitics separately (i.e.
pronouns and classifiers), as in (44), it can be seen that classifiers only cliticize to the left, as in (45). The classifiers, zhong3 “kind” and dian3 “some”, all cliticize to their left PhWds, wu3 “five” and gei3 “give”, to form Cs.
(44) Clitic tokens in the corpus
Direction Total
Leftward Rightward Simultaneous TS
Pronouns 1 10 1 12
Classifier 8 0 0 8
Total 72
(45) Left-cliticization
a. “buy five kinds of antipruritic powder”
mai3 wu3 zhong3 zhi3 yang3 fen3
UT 3 3 3 3 3 3
PhWd-D (3) (3) (3) (2 3) (3)
C-D (3) (2 3) (2 3) (3)
↓Intermediate derivation
Inf.1-4 3 2 3 2 2 3
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b. “give some cold water”
gei3 dian3 leng3 shui3
UT 3 3 3 3
PhWd-D (3) (3) (2 3)
C-D (2 3) (2 3)
↓Intermediate derivation
Inf. 1-4 2 3 2 3
According to Nespor & Vogel (1986), there are two kinds of clitics: the
directional clitics and the non-directional clitics. The directional clitics are found in
Greek possessives, which are so called because they have shown phonological dependency on an element of a certain side (either their left or right); and that the direction of cliticization must be seen as an inherent property of them. They also mentioned that joining a directional clitic in another PhWd to form a C “regroups the
terminal elements of the syntactic tree in such a way that the resulting constituent need not be isomorphic to any constituent of syntactic tree” (Nespor & Vogel, 1986,
p.155). Based on the observation of the behavior of Mandarin classifiers in the
p.155). Based on the observation of the behavior of Mandarin classifiers in the