Chapter 3 Methodology
3.6 The Procedure of Data Collection
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3.6 The Procedure of Data Collection
In this study, each subject was tested twice on separate days, with quantitative tests coming prior to qualitative.
Also, stylistic tests start with a conversation of casual style, through a passage reading of intermediate formality, and to a character reading of high formality.
Afterwards, 29 of the 32 subjects were interviewed for their language attitudes, starting with an evaluation of their stereotypical impression toward the Hakka dialect, moving on to their descriptions and explanations for their subjective judgments on the Hakka people and the target phonetic variant, and their opinions about the necessity of the association between Hakka ethnic identity, and their Hakka proficiency and their frequency of using Hakka.
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Chapter Four Data Analysis
In this chapter, the phonetic variation of Mandarin /ɕ/ by linguistic and non-linguistic factors are described and analyzed.
4.1 General distributions of the Two Variants of / ɕ/
Table 4 shows the distribution of the two variants of /ɕ/ in general.
Table 4. General distributions of the two variants of /ɕ/
(numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 4, the nonstandard form [s] takes nearly one-fifth of the subjects’ phonetic realization of /ɕ/.
4.1.1 Distributions of the two variants of / ɕ/ by formality
It was predicted that the use of the nonstandard form [s] would decrease with the increase of formality. Table 5 shows the distribution of [s] in the three different styles:
conversation (CON, hereafter in this chapter), reading passages (RP, hereafter in this chapter), and reading characters (RC, hereafter in this chapter).
Linguistic Variants
% (freq)
[
ɕ]
[s] TotalAll 81.0% (5860) 19.0% (1384) 100% (7244)
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Table 5. Distributions of the two variants of /ɕ/ by formality (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 5, the subjects’ use of [s], as predicted, decreases as formality increase. To be specific, [s]% is the highest in CON (27.0%), which is of lowest formality; in contrast, when the formality increase s in RP and in RC, [s]% decreases nearly 12.0% and 16.0%, respectively. In other words, although the gap between the [s]% in CON is not particular large, it seems to be true that formality is as influential factor to subjects’ use of the non-standard form [s].
4.1.2 D
istributions of the two variants of /ɕ/ by social/geographical factors It was predicted that the subjects’ use of [s] is controlled by geographical features of the place in which they live and their social characteristics.Variants of / ɕ/
Formality [
ɕ]
[s] TotalConversation 73.0% (2020) 27.0% (744) 100% (2764) Reading passages 84.9% (2850) 15.1% (510) 100% (3360) Reading characters 88.6% (990) 11.4% (130) 100% (1120)
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Table 6. Distributions of the two variants of /ɕ/ by social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
Linguistic Variants Social/
Geographical factors
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According to Table 6, subjects of different social/geographical backgrounds show different patterns in using [s]. First, when geographical area is taken into consideration, subjects of Chungli City use [s] significantly more often than those of Taoyuan City (30.7% vs. 7.7%). This result seems to be derived from the causes that Chungli City, in comparison with Taoyuan City, is a place with larger population size and higher population density of Hakka people, which would invite its Hakka
residents to use their mother tongue more frequently, which in turn would offer a higher possibility for Hakka dialect to intrude and influence Hakka people’s use of Mandarin. Moreover, as described in Chapter One, since Chungli City is a city of manufacturing industry, it is more likely that its residents take related occupations in this vocational field, which demands more frequent use of the Low Language, Hakka, instead of the High Language, Mandarin, which in turn may leave traces of Hakka dialect in those Hakka people’s use of Mandarin. In contrast, Taoyuan City, is the administration center of Taoyuan County and a place of service and financial industry, which would invite more use of Mandarin and less use of Hakka dialect, and thus leave less Hakka trace in their Mandarin performance.
Next, when comparing the two age groups’ use of [s], the older group scores significantly higher [s]% (31.6%) than the younger group (4.9%). This phenomenon may be because those older subjects use Hakka as their mother tongue, but younger subjects use Mandarin Chinese as their major communication tool in most domains of communication. Besides, older age group for example, may hold more positive language attitude than the younger ones. These younger subjects may use Mandarin Chinese frequently in school, and thus their frequency of using Hakka decreases; and their low frequencies of using Hakka may induce lower competence of Hakka, therefore, [s]%, as a trace of Hakka competence, is decreased.
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Unlike , the influences of geographical area and age, gender shows only moderate impact on the subjects’ use of [s], with the males, against this researcher’s expectation, using less [s] than the females (14.4% vs. 23.6%, respectively). This result may be because most Hakka females in these cities work in their hometown, where they have more chances to use Hakka, but males usually work in big cities, such as Taipei, in which, Mandarin Chinese is the major language. Therefore, more Hakka traces in Mandarin are left by females than by males.
As for the effect of the subjects’ education level, the two education groups resemble each other with almost identical [s]% (19.1% of HE and 19.0% of LE). In other words, education level is not a valid social factor to the subjects’ use of [s]. A possible reason why the effect of education level is blurry is due to the fact that many of the lower education subjects recruited for this study are with high school degree, and only a few of them are from education level lower than high school. Besides, since colleges and universities are excessive, with many of them offering academic trainings not too different from that in high school in Taiwan, it is hard to ensure that subjects with bachelor degree actually behave differently from those with lower degrees.
4.1.3 Distributions of the two variants of / ɕ/ by social/geographical factors and formality
It was anticipated that the subjects of different social/geographical backgrounds would still comply to the demands of situational formality, with the use of [s]
increasing with the decrease of formality. Table 7 presents the results of data analyses.
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Table 7. Distributions of [s]% by social/geographical factors and formality (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 7, all social/geographical groups, as expected, yield a consistent pattern in their use of [s], with [s]% decreasing formality increases. Beyond this pattern, it is also noticed that some of those social/geographical groups show greater stylistic discrepancy between [s]% in CON and that in the two reading styles.
For example, the discordance between [s]% in CON and RP is 18% by Chungli subjects, 13% by older subjects, 16% by female subjects, 13% by subjects of HE, and 11% by LE; but the decrease of [s] is less than 10% by the other groups. This result may be Chungli subjects’ proficiency in Mandarin and frequency of using Mandarin Formality
Social/
Geographical factors
Conversation Reading passages Reading characters [
ɕ]
[s] Total [ɕ]
[s] Total [ɕ]
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are lower than those of Taoyuan subjects. Next, most of the subjects of older age is more fluent in Hakka than in Mandarin, but it is the opposite for subjects of younger age.
As for gender differences, it was noticed that the female subjects yield a more conspicuous gap between CON and RP than the male subjects. One possible
explanation is that female subjects, since most of them work in their hometown, use Hakka dialect more often than Mandarin and have higher proficiency in Hakka than in Mandarin. Therefore, in their production of /ɕ/, dialectal interference appears, which makes them use [s] more frequently. On the other hands, male subjects, since they have better competence in Mandarin and use it more frequently, they use far less [s] in conversation and even less in the two reading styles.
Lately, both education groups show mild stylistic difference in their use of [s].
As mentioned above, since many of the subjects of the lower education group are with high school degree, whose ability, currently in Taiwan, is not too different from that of those people with college degree, it is conjectured that the two education groups’
competence and performance in every aspect are not too different from each other.
4.2 Distributions of [s]% by Syllable Structures
The following table is going to show the total distribution of [s] by open and close syllables in general, by social/geographical factors, and by styles.
4.2.1 General distributions of [s]% by syllable structures The result of data analyses are given in Table 8.
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Table 8. General distributions of [s]% by syllable structures (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 8, [s] is used more frequently in close syllable than in open syllable, with a gap of 9%.
4.2.2 Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures and formality
It was anticipated that situational formality would cast influences on the use of [s] across different syllable structures. Table 9 shows the distributions of [s] by syllable structures in three styles.Table 9. Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures and formality (for styles, CON= Conversation, RP= Reading passages, RC=
Reading characters ; numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 9, the use of [s] in either one of the two syllable structures does not reflect stylistic difference. Next, although the subjects do use more [s] in close syllable than in open syllable, the gap between the two is not conspicuous in any
Syllable
% Structures
(freq)
#[s]+V# #[s]+V+N# Total
All 45.5% (628) 54.5% (754) 100% (1382)
Syllable structures Formality
#[s]+V# #[s]+V+N# Total CON 44.7% (333) 55.3% (411) 100% (744) RP 45.5% (232) 54.5% (278) 100% (510)
RC 47.6% (62) 52.4% (68) 100% (130)
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of the three styles.
4.2.3 Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures and social/geographical factors
It was expected that the use of [s] in different syllable structures is related with the subjects’ social backgrounds. Table 10 presents the results of data analyses.37
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Table 10. Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures and
social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 10, all social/geographical groups extend the same pattern: [s]
is used more frequently in close syllable than in open syllable. The result may because Syllable
Structures Social/
geographical factors
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close syllable with nasal sounds will become more difficulties to subjects to pronounce than open syllable. Also, among those social/geographical groups, the younger age group presents the sharpest difference between using [s] in the two
syllable structures as sharp as (36.2%).
In comparing the two groups of each social/geographical factor, it is noticed that the influence of age is powerful with the gap of [s]% in cross-syllable structure comparison being large by the younger group (36.2%), but it is fairly small by the older group (5.6%). As for the others, the cross-group difference are low. In other words, among all external factors, age is the only one that is strongly related to the subjects’ use of [s] in either syllable structure.
4.2.4 Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures, formality, and
social/geographical factors
It was presumed that the subjects’ use of [s] is related with syllable structure,situational formality, and the subjects’ social backgrounds. Related data are given in Table 11.
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Table 11. Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures, formality, and
social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
According to Table 11, most groups (except the younger group) show no significant stylistic variation in their use of [s] in either syllable structure. As for the younger group, it is found that this group, in their use of [s] in either syllable structure, yields moderate stylistic difference.
Formality Syllable
Social/ Structures geographical
factors
Conversation Reading passages Reading characters
Open
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4.2.5 Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures with the interactions of
social/geographical factors
This section examines the influences of syllable structure on [s]% by situational formality and the interactions of any two of the social/geographical factors. It was expected that the syllable structure would influence the phonetic manifestation of /ɕ/, with /ɕ/ being more likely to be realized as [s] in closed syllable than in open syllable.The result of data analyses are given in Table 12.
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Table 12. Distributions of [s]% by syllable structures and the interactions of social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
Syllable
Structure
Social
/Geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low
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According to Table 12, when the four social/geographical factors are taken into consideration individually, it is noticed (1) that syllable structure does not influence the speakers from either city in their use of [s], with either city showing almost identical [s]% in the two syllable structures; (2) that syllable structure does not cause significant change in either age group’s use of [s], with the older age group using mildly more [s] in open syllable than in closed syllable, while the younger group the opposite; (3) that syllable structure does not change either gender’s use of [s], with the male group using more [s] in open syllable than in close syllable, while the female group behaving reversely; and (4) that syllable structure gives insignificant impact on either education group’s use of [s], with either education group showing almost identical [s]% in the two syllable structures. Generally speaking, syllable structure is not influential to any social/geographical group’s use of [s].
When the interactions of any two of the four social social/geographical factors are taken into consideration, it is found, again, that for each subgroup, syllable structure is not an effective factor to change the speakers’ use of [s].
4.2.6 Distributions of [s]% by syllable structure, formality, and the interactions
of social/geographical factors
It was hypothesized that the subjects would show stylistic variation in their useof [s] in different syllable structures, and such differences would be related with the subjects’ social/geographical characteristics. Table 13 shows related data in
conversation, Table 14 those in reading passages, and Table 15 those in reading characters.
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Table 13. Distributions of [s]% in Conversation by syllable structure and interactions of social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
Syllable Structures
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low
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Table 14. Distributions of [s]% in Reading Passages by syllable structures and the interactions of social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
Syllable Structure
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender
Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low‧
Table 15. Distributions of [s]% in Reading Characters by syllable structures and the interactions of social/geographical factors (numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
Syllable Structure
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender
Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low‧ 國
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According to Tables 13 to 15, only one contrastively more conspicuous difference is located: the speakers of lower education level in Chungli show more [s]% in open syllable (33.4%) than in closed syllable (23.0%). In sum, formality is not powerful in any social/geographical group’s and any subgroup’s use of [s] in the two syllable structures.
4.3 Distributions of [s]% by the Advancement of the Preceding Vowels
This section examines the influences of the advancement of the vowelspreceding /ɕ/. These vowels are categorized as [-back, +back] (including [i], [y], [e], and [a]), [-back, -front] (i.e.[ə]) , and [+back, -front] (including [u], [o], [ʅ], and [ɿ]).
4.3.1 General distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels
It was expected that the advancement of the following vowels would influenceson the phonetic manifestation of /ɕ/. To be specific, /ɕ/ is more likely to be realized as [s] when the preceding vowels are [-back,+front] or [-front,-back]. The results of data analyses are given in Table 16.
Table 16. General distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels (numbers in patterns are frequencies of [s] )
According to Table 16, the subjects as a whole use more [s] when the vowels preceding /ɕ/ are [-back] than when the preceding vowels are [+back] (66.6% vs.
33.4%, respectively). Further, among the vowels that are [-back], those that are
[-back] [+back]
[+front] [-front] [-front]
42.6% (374) 24.0% (210)
33.4% (291) 66.6% (584)
100% (875)
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[+front] induce more [s] than those that are [-front] (42.6% vs. 24.0%,
respectively). These results indicate that the advancement of the vowels preceding /ɕ/
is influential to /ɕ/’s being realized as [s]. In other words, forward assimilation of place of articulation seems to be a persuasive explanation.
4.3.2 Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels and formality
The distributions of [s] by preceding vowels is expected to be controlled by situational formality. Since in reading characters there is no preceding vowels, in this section, only the use of [s] in CON and that in RP are analyzed. Related data are given in Table 17.
Table 17. Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels and formality (numbers in patterns are frequencies of [s])
According to Table 17, [s], in either style, as expected, appears more often after vowels that are [-back] than after those that are [+back]. Again, the
advancement of the preceding vowels is effective, despite stylistic difference.
Moreover, in conversation, [s]% is higher when after vowels that are either [-back, +front] or [+back, -front]; however, in reading passages, [s]% still
scores the highest after vowels that are [-back, +front], but [s]% is about the same
Formality Conversation Reading passages
Advancement
of Preceding vowels
[-back] [+back] [-back] [+back]
[+front] [-front] [-front] [+front] [-front] [-front]
[s]%
38.9%
(204)
22.3%
(118)
38.8%
(206)
49.1%
(170)
26.5%
(92)
24.4%
(85) 61.2%
(322)
75.6%
(262)
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when /ɕ/ comes after the other two kinds of vowels. In here, situational formality is still effective.
4.3.3 Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels and social/geographical factors
This section examine the influence of vowel advancement to the use of [s]
under social controls: the four social/geographical factors. The results of data analyses are given in Table 18.
Table 18. Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the precedingvowels and social/geographical factors (APV= Advancement of the
Preceding Vowels; numbers in patterns are frequencies of [s]) APV
Social/
Geographical factors
[-back] [+back]
[+front] [-front] [-front]
Place Taoyuan 41.0% (78) 27.3% (52)
31.5% (60) 68.3% (130)
Chungli 43.2% (296) 23.0% (158)
33.7% (231) 66.2% (454)
Age Old 43.4% (333) 22.7% (174)
33.9% (259) 66.1% (507)
Young 37.6% (41) 33.0% (36)
29.3% (32) 70.6% (77)
Gender Male 40.9% (134) 25.9% (84)
33.3% (109) 66.5% (218)
Female 43.7% (240) 22.9% (126)
33.2% (182) 66.6% (366)
Education Level
Higher Education
44.0% (195) 23.7% (105)
32.2% (143) 67.7% (300)
Lower Education
41.4% (179) 24.3% (105)
34.2% (148) 65.7% (284)
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According to Table 18, when both the advancement of the preceding vowels and the social/geographical factors are taken into considerations, it is found that all social/geographical groups, except the younger group, share a pattern: [s]% is higher when /ɕ/ comes after vowels of [-back] than when /ɕ/ follows vowels of [+back].
However, when both [back] and [front] are considered, most of the eight
social/geographical groups, except the younger group, show high [s]% when the preceding vowels are [-back, +front], less when the vowels are
[+back, -front], and the least when the vowels are [-back, -front]. It seems reasonable to think that for the sake of assimilation, [s]% is higher when the
precedings are [-back, +front] than when the preceding vowels are [+back, -front].
However, it is unclear why [s]% is the lowest when the preceding vowels are [-back, -front]. In other words, it seems not the case that the fronter the preceding vowel is, the higher the [s]%.
4.3.4 Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels, formality, and social/geographical factors
This section investigates the impact of vowel advancement on the distributions of [s] by the five external factors, (namely, formality, geographical factor, age, gender, and education level.) Related data are given in Table 19.
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Table 19. Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels, formality, and social/geographical factors (APV= Advancement of the Preceding Vowels; the number in patterns are frequencies of [s])
According to Table 19, several patterns are located. First, when when the vowels preceding /ɕ/ are categorized into [+back] and [-back], all of the Formality
APV Social/
Geographical factors
Conversation Reading passages [-back] [+back] [-back] [+back]
[+front] [-front] [-front] [+front] [-front] [-front]
Place Taoyuan City
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social/geographical groups show conspicuous stylistic variation. Next, when /ɕ/
following vowels that are [-back], all groups score considerably higher [s]% in RP than in CON. These findings are opposite to the researcher’s expectation that the percentage of non-standard forms would be decreased when formality increases.
Moreover, when the preceding vowels are [+back], all of the eight groups, as expected, decrease considerably their use of [s] when formality increases. This result may be explained by the fact that the density of the target characters is much higher in RP than in CON. For example, in RP, there is a sentence containing 9 target
characters at the same time.
4.3.5 Distributions of [s]% by advancement of the preceding vowels and the interactions of the social/geographical factors
This section examines the relationship between the impacts of the advancement of the vowels coming in front of /ɕ/ and the interactions of the external factors on the emergence of [s]. It was expected that subjects of different social backgrounds would use [s] differently when the advancement of the preceding vowels changes. Related data are given in Table 20.
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Table 20. Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels and the interactions of social/geographical factors (APV= Advancement of Preceding Vowels; numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
APV
Social/Geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low
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Table 20 (continued)
APV
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan
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Table 20 (continued)
APV
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan
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According to Table 20, when the vowels preceding /ɕ/ are categorized by the feature of [back], it is noticed that none of the social/geographical groups and
subgroups show significant difference in conversation, as well as in their [s]% in front of the two vowel types. Exactly the same pattern is located when the vowels
preceding /ɕ/ are categorized as [+front] vs. [-front], and when the advancement of those vowels are grouped as [+front,-back], [-front,-back], and [-front,+back]. In other words, [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels is free from
social/geographical controls.
4.3.6 Distributions of [s]% by the advancement of the preceding vowels, formality, and the interactions of the social/geographical factors
This section examine the relationship between the use of [s], the advancement of the preceding vowels, and the interactions of social, geographical, and situational factors. Related data in CON are given in Table 21, and those in ready passages are listed in Table 22.
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Table 21. Distributions of [s]% in Conversation by the advancement of the preceding vowels and the interactions of social/geographical factors (
APV=
Advancement of Preceding Vowels;
numbers in parentheses are frequencies)APV
Social/geographical
factorsGeographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low
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Table 21 (continued)
APV
Social/geographical factors
Geographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan
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Table 21 (continued)
APV
Social/geographical
factorsGeographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan
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Table 22. Distributions of [s]% in Reading Passages by the advancement of the preceding vowels and the interactions of social/geographical factors (APV=
Advancement of Preceding Vowels;numbers in parentheses are frequencies)
APV
Social/geographical
factorsGeographical Area Age Gender Education Level
Taoyuan Chungli Old Young Male Female High Low