The Nature of Variation in Tone Sandhi Patterns of Shanghai and Wuxi Wu

by Hanbo Yan

Overview

This book conducts a thorough investigation of the variation in tone sandhi patterns of Shanghai and Wuxi Wu using quantitative rating experiments. Although Shanghai Wu has been well documented, to date there has never been any quantitative study that systematically investigates the factors that influence variability – a research gap this book fills. Further, Wuxi Wu is investigated as an additional case that demonstrates the unique phonological nature of tone sandhi, and how it changes how speakers learn and internalize the variable tone sandhi pattern. The findings presented here will shed new light on important issues of wordhood, the interface of morphosyntax and phonology, and the formal model of variability in phonology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789811061813
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	10/16/2017
Series:	Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

​Dr. Hanbo Yan currently works at Shanghai International Studies University. His main research interest is in experimental phonology, particularly in how native speakers’ tacit knowledge is reflected in their phonological behavior. Further interests include the phonetics-phonology interface and morphosyntax-phonology interface.

Table of Contents

Chapter I Introduction to Tone Sandhi Varation1.1 Background and Purpose 1.2 Overview of the Dissertation 1.3 Significance of the Dissertation 1.4 Variation in Phonology 1.5 Variation in Tone Sandhi Chapter II Shanghai and Wuxi Tone Sandhi 2.1 Shanghai Tone Sandhi Patterns 2.2 Wuxi Tone Sandhi Patterns 2.3 Shanghai&Wuxi Tone Sandhi Comparison 2.4 Summary Chapter III Factors Affecting Tone Sandhi Application 3.1 Lexical Frequency 3.2 Semantic Transparency 3.3 Syntactic Structure 3.4 Morpheme Length Chapter IV Experimental Investigation of The Nature of Tone Sandhi Variation in Shanghai 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Research Questions 4.3 Methodology 4.4 Data Analysis 4.5 Results 4.6 Discussion Chapter V Experimental Investigation of the Nature of Tone Sandhi Variation in Wuxi5.1 Introduction 5.2 Research questions 5.3 Methodology 5.4 Data analysis 5.5 Results 5.6 Discussion Chapter VI General Discussion and Concluding Remarks 6.1 Comparison between Shanghai and Wuxi Tone Sandhi Variation 6.2 Summary of Findings 6.3 Future ResearchReferences