2. Literature Review
2.2 Previous Studies
2.2.3 The Differences in Previous Studies
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
13
the rising tone needs some explanation. Wu H. (2006) observes that stressed syllables whose onsets are sonorants or voiced stops tend to be associated with the rising tone.
Therefore, Wu H. (2006) suggests that the choice of the rising tone results from the influence of depressor consonants, namely, sonorants and voiced obstruents. In general, the depressor consonants have a lowering effect on a following tone. This phenomenon is called ‘tonal depressing effect’, and is commonly found in languages.
2.2.3 The Differences in Previous Studies
In terms of the tones that correspond to the English stressed syllables, Wu C.
(2006) finds that the high level tone and the high falling tone are preferred. However, Wu H. (2006) observed that the high level tone and the rising tone are preferred, and that the high falling tone is the most disprefferred. Regarding the unstressed syllables, Wu C. (2006) includes epenthetic syllables, while Wu H. (2006) does not discuss them. This thesis reexamines the relationship between stress and tone in
English-to-Mandarin loanwords.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
15
CHAPTER 3
A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS
3.1 Basics of the Corpus
The present corpus contains a collection of Mandarin loanwords, with a total of 833 tone loans from the monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic English words. The data are mainly collected from Guo Yu Ri Bao Wai Lai Yu Ci Dian (1981). This paper focuses on three kinds of information, namely, the tones that correspond to the
English stressed and unstressed syllables, the English segments, and the different tone loans of each English word.
This corpus codes the tones that correspond to the English stressed and unstressed syllables for the investigation of the relationship between English stress and Mandarin tones. Moreover, it codes the segments of English words for the
examination of the interaction between segmental features and tones. Finally, it codes the different tone loans of each English word for the comparison of the more and less frequently used tone loans.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
16
The present corpus utilizes the format in Microsoft Office ExcelTM 2003, as given below.
(1) The present corpus
Microsoft Office ExcelTM 2003 is familiar to the public. The advantages of it are as follows. First, this program is convenient for the establishment of a small-sized database. It also serves as a convenient tool to update information and to sort tones according to the corresponding stressed or unstressed syllables. Second, due to its portability, the present corpus can be operated as long as a computer is available.
Third, the corpus can be shared easily for academic research.
In this corpus, the monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic English words are
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
17
respectively coded in separate categories. Each of the English words is serially numbered, as in (2), (3), and (4).
(2) Serial #: GYRB-M-006 (3) Serial #: GYRB-D-008 (4) Serial #: GYRB-T-010
The abbreviation ‘GYRB’ stands for Guo Yu Ri Bao Wai Lai Yu Ci Dian. The following letters, ‘M’, ‘D’, and ‘T’, stand for the monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic English words, respectively. The number that follows ‘M’ in (1) refers to the sixth English word in the monosyllabic category. The number following ‘D’ in (2) refers to the eighth English word in the disyllabic category. The number following ‘T’
in (3) refers to the tenth English word in the trisyllabic category.
The linearty of English syllables ar ecoded. ‘1st’, ‘2nd’, and ‘3rd’ are
respectively labeled to the first, second, and third English syllables. In addition, each of the English syllables is labeled as 1 , 2, or 3, meaning ‘primary stress’, ‘secondary stress’, or ‘unstressed’, respectively. The examples are given below.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
18
(5) Coding of English stress
Serial # EW 1st 2nd
GYRB-D-028 bingo 1 3
GYRB-D-157 cartoon 3 1
The abbreviation ‘EW’ stands for ‘English word’. As for bingo, English stress is located in the first syllable, so it is coded as 1 in the column referring to the first syllable. Its second syllable is unstressed, so it is coded as 3 in the column indicating the second syllable.
With regard to the coding of the four Mandarin tones, this study follows the convention in Wu C. (2006), in which the four tones in Mandarin Chinese are respectively represented as H, MH, L, and HL, as shown in (6). ‘LW’ stands for
‘Mandarin loanword’. The examples in (5) are further illustrated in (6).
(6) Coding of tones in Mandarin loanwords
Serial # EW 1st 2nd LW 1st 2nd
GYRB-D-028 bingo 1 3 賓果 H L
GYRB-D-157 cartoon 3 1 卡通 L H
Concerning the coding of the English segments, the IPA symbols are adopted. In addition, the segments are coded on the basis of syllable structure, namely, onset,
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
19
nucleus, and coda. The following is an example of a monosyllabic English word.
(7) Coding of English segments
EW Serial #
Spelling Onset Nucleus Coda
GYRB-M-039 ton tH √ n
The present corpus is different from the corpora established in the previous studies in that it collects as many tone loans of each English word as possible. This assumption is that the different tone loans of each English word may reflect an acceptable range of tone loans, as they show the alternations in tonal choices.
Therefore, in some cases, there may be a one-to-one relationship between an English word and its corresponding tone loan, whereas in other cases, there may be a
one-to-many relationship between an English word and its tone loans. In cases of the one-to-many relationship, each of the loan forms is labeled numerally, as exemplified in (8).
(8) Coding of different tone loans of ‘martini’
Serial # EW LW1 LW2
GYRB-T-023 martini 馬丁尼 L.H.MH 馬蒂尼 M.HL.MH
‧
In the example above, the segmental information is omitted. The borrowed English word, martini, has two tone loans, respectively labeled as LW1 and LW2.
Statistically speaking, there are 120 monosyllabic English words in the present corpus.
73 of them show a one-to-one relationship between the English word and the tone loan, while 47 have at least more than one Mandarin tone loan. In total, there are 188 tone loans adapted from the monosyllabic English words. In addition, there are 298 disyllabic English words. 193 of them show a one-to-one relationship between the English word and the tone loan, while 105 of them show a one-to-many relationship.
Totally, there are 450 tone loans adapted from the diyllabic English words. Moreover, there are 102 trisyllabic English words. 53 of them have only one tone loan, while 49 have more than one tone loan. There are totally 195 tone loans adapted from the trisyllabic English words.
In this study, the distinction between a one-to-one and a one-to-many
relationship is based on tonal differences rather than orthographic ones. Take 迪斯可 /ti.sˆ.kHF/ (MH.H.L) and 狄斯可 /ti.sˆ.kHF/ (MH.H.L) for example. They appear as two different entries in the dictionary. However, both are adapted from the same English word disco /dIÂsko/, and they have same segmental sequences and same tonal pattern. The only difference between them lies in orthography. That is, the only one difference between them is the Chinese character that corresponds to the English
‧
(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.
3.3 Mandarin Tones and English Onsets
In this section, we investigate the interaction between the tones and the voicing feature of the onsets in the English stressed syllables. We respectively examine the tones corresponding to the English stressed syllables whose onsets are voiced obstruents, sonorants, voiceless obstruents, and zero onset. The observations reveal that the tonal adaptation of the English stressed syllables is the result of the interaction between maintenance of an H pitch from the English stress and voice enhancement.
In addition, since the use of the L-tone for the English stressed syllables is found in a small amount of data, I consider it the tone most dispreferred by English stress.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
27
As shown in Table 3.6, the L-tone accounts for only 17.55% of the tones
corresponding to the monosyllabic English words, and accounts for only 15.96% of the tones corresponding to the stressed syllables in the disyllabic English words. The L-tone also accounts for only 16.92% of the tones corresponding to the stressed syllables in the trisyllabic English words. In general, the percentages in monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic English words are low and similar. Thus, association with the most dispreferred tone, namely, the L-tone, is considered exceptions, and will not be discussed further.
Table 3.6: Number and Percentage of the L-tone L-tone
Number Percentage Monosyllabic EW 33 17.55%
Disyllabic EW 71 15.96%
Trisyllabic EW 33 16.92%
Moreover, the tonal choices of English-to-Mandarin loanwords are influenced by Chinese orthography and word meanings. Therefore, some relevant criteria are
adopted to analyze the corpus so that the non-phonological factors can be excluded.
The analysis may be separated into two conditions based on what tones are available
‧
to be chosen for the syllables in the Mandarin loanwords. For the first condition, the H-tone, the MH-tone, and the HL-tone are all available for tonal adaptation. For the second condition, only the two tones, the MH-tone and the HL-tone, are available.
We adopt three criteria to distinguish the available and the non-available tones.
First of all, we refer to a tone as a non-available tone if its association with the syllable leads to a systematic or an accidental gap. Second, we regard the tone as a non-available one if its association with the syllable only gives rise to invalid Chinese words, such as a word with a low word frequency1, a verb, an interjection, an
onomatopoeic word, or a noun referring to kinship. The present corpus reveals that words of these kinds are avoided. Exceptions account for very minor data, namely, only 8.92%. One possible explanation is that the majority of the borrowed English words are nouns, so the Chinese characters with non-noun forms are dispreferred.
Third, a tone is considered non-available if its association with the syllable only leads to the Chinese words with negative meanings only. In the present corpus, only one example, 威士忌 /wei.߈.t˛i/ (H.HL.HL) adapted from whiskey, is found to use a word only with negative meanings. In 威士忌 /wei.߈.t˛i/ (H.HL.HL), the word corresponding to the English unstressed syllable, 忌 /t˛i/ (HL), only has two
negative meanings, ‘being jealous’ and ‘to avoid’. In other words, most of the Chinese
1 The coding of word frequencies is based on the Corpus of Word Frequencies of Modern Mandarin Chinese, which is established by Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (中研院現代漢語語料庫 詞頻統計). In this thesis, a word frequency smaller than ‘one’ is considered low.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
29
loanwords adapt Chinese words with positive or neutral meanings.
3.3.1. Voiced Obstruents
We begin with the examination on the tones corresponding to the English stressed syllables with voiced obstruent onsets. The result is exhibited below.
Table 3.7: Tonal Adaptation of the English Stressed Syllables with Voiced
Obstruent Onsets
The First Condition The Second Condition
H, MH, HL MH, HL
H MH HL MH HL
Monosyllabic EW 6 4 0 1 0
Disyllabic EW 14 10 0 4 0
Trisyllabic EW 5 3 0 0 0
Total 25 17 0 5 0
As shown in Table 3.7, under the first condition, namely, the H-tone, the MH-tone, and the HL-tone are all available, 25 of the 42 tokens are adapted as the H-tone, and 17 of them are adapted as the MH-tone. The selection of the HL-tone is not found.That is, 59.52% of the tones are adapted as the H-tone. 40.48% are adapted
‧
as the MH-tone. Based on the result that nearly a half of the data are realized as the H-tone, and that the other half are realized as the MH-tone, we refer to the H-tone and the MH-tone as alternative tonal adaptations of the English stressed syllables whose onsets are voiced obstruents. The examples are provided in (9). Boldface indicates the correspondents of English stress; the epenthetic syllables are underlined.
(9)
(i) Adaptation of the H-tone
a. GYRB-M-007 valve /vQlv/ 伐 /fa/ H
b. GYRB-M-088 gene /dZiÂn/ 基因 /t˛i.in/ H.H c. GYRB-D-032 Beatles /biÂtl6z/ 披頭四 /pHi.tHou.sˆ/ H.MH.HL d. GYRB-T-001 Balboa /bAlbo´/ 巴波亞 /pa.pwo.ja/ H.H.HL (ii) Adaptation of the MH-tone
e. GYRB-M-007 valve /vQlv/ 閥 /fa/ MH
f. GYRB-M-090 jeep /dZiÂp/ 吉普 /t˛i.pHu / MH.L g. GYRB-D-088 Disney /dIÂznI/ 迪士尼 /ti.߈.ni/ MH.HL.MH h. GYRB-T-102 vitamin /vaÂIt´mIn/ 維他命 /wei.tHa.miN/ MH.H.HL
In (9), the H-tone, the MH-tone, and the HL-tone are all available for the corresponding stressed syllables. Take valve for example. It is adapted with the H-tone, namely, 伐 /fa/ (H), as in (9a). It is also adapted with the MH-tone, namely,
‧
avoided. In addition, gene is adapted with the H-tone, namely, 基 /t˛i/, as in (9b), whereas jeep is adapted with the MH-tone, namely, 吉 /t˛i/ (MH), as in (9f). The HL-tone, like 際 /t˛i/ (HL), is valid, but it is not selected neither by (9b) nor by (9f).We may thus refer to the H-tone as realization of the most faithful mapping from the pitch accent H of the English stressed syllables. At the same time, we see the MH-tone as the realization of voice enhancement (Hsieh and Kenstowicz 2006, Kim 2006), as discussed below.
According to Bao (1999), a mid tone has dual characteristics. One is a low tone of the high register, namely, [H, l]; the other is a high tone of the low register, namely, [L, h]. Hsu (2008) indicates that only one of the two characteristics is present in a language. Specifically speaking, Hsu (2008) investigates Xiamen, and refers to the mid tone in Xiamen as a high tone of the low register. Following Hsu (2008), we propose that the mid tone in Mandarin Chinese belongs to a low register. In addition, according to voice enhancement (Hsieh and Kenstowicz 2006, Kim 2006), a syllable is assigned to the higher pitch register when the onset is [-voiced], and a syllable is assigned to the lower pitch register when the onset is [+voiced]. Hence, regarding the MH-tone in Mandarin Chinese, its left-edge pitch is low-registered. Therefore, we assume that the selection of the MH-tone is the realization of voice enhancement, the
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
32
cause of which is the onset of the stressed syllable in a borrowed English word and
cause of which is the onset of the stressed syllable in a borrowed English word and