[Dissertation] The Prosodic Morphology and Phonology of Affixation in Taiwanese and Other Chinese Languages

Table of contents :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
Chapter 2 PHONOLOGY OF AFFIX-TRIGGERED RULES IN TAIWANESE AND OTHER CHINESE LANGUAGES
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Affix-triggered rules in Taiwanese: The data
2.2.1 The domain of rules
2.2.2 The lexical affix vs. the phrasal affix
2.2.3 Obligatory vs. optional rules
2.3 Phonological representation of Taiwanese affix triggered rules
2.3.1 Gemination analysis: A proposal
2.3.2 Against a resyllabification analysis
2.4 Affix-triggered rules in other Chinese languages
2.4.1 Mandarin
2.4.2 Kejia, Cantonese, and Nanchang
2.5 Conclusions
Chapter 3THE PHONETICS AND THE DOMAIN OF GEMINATION IN TAIWANESE
3.1 Introduction: Absolute vs. relative duration
3.2 Phonetic study of Taiwanese gemination
3.2.1 Method
3.2.2 Results and discussion
3.3 The domain of gemination
3.3.1 The role of stress in gemination
3.3.2 Morphological properties of gemination triggers
3.3.2.1 Lexical affixes
3.3.2.2 Phrasal affixes
3.3.2.3 Sentential affixes
3.3.3 Degenerate syllables
3.4 Conclusions
Chapter 4 REDUPLICATION IN CHINESE LANGUAGES
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Adjective reduplication in Chinese: The data
4.2.1 The most common structures
4.2.2 Other structures
4.3 A prosodic morphology approach to reduplication
4.3.1 The base in reduplication— syllable or morpheme?
4.3.2 A unified account of adjective reduplication-suffixation
4.3.2.1 XX compounds
4.3.2.1.1 Changes in grammatical category
4.3.2.1.2 Neutral tones
4.3.2.2 XXX compounds
4.3.2.3 XXYY, XXY, and XYY compounds
4.4 Prosodic constraints on reduplication
4.4.1 Upper limit of input
4.4.2 Upper limit of output
4.5 Conclusions
Chapter 5 CHINESE ONOMATOPOEIA AND SECRET LANGUAGES
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Chinese syllable structure
5.3 Onomatopoeia
5.3.1 Onomatopoeia: The data
5.3.2 Formation of onomatopoeia: A proposal
5.3.2.1 The Recoverability Principle
5.3.2.2 Cyclicity
5.3.2.3 Place node delinking
5.3.2.4 Against a prefixation analysis
5.4 Secret languages
5.4.1 Secret languages: The data
5.4.2 Previous analyses
5.4.2.1 Prespecification analysis
5.4.2.2 Substitution analysis
5.4.2.3 Feature recycling analysis
5.4.3 Formation of secret languages: A proposal
5.4.3.1 The Recoverability Principle
5.4.3.2 Cyclicity
5.4.3.3 The Maximality Principle
5.4.3.4 Prosodic template
5.5 Conclusions
Chapter 6 CONCLUSIONS AND TOPICS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
6.1 Conclusions and topics for further research
APPENDIX: STATISTICAL RESULTS OF THE PHONETIC STUDY
REFERENCES

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The prosodic morphology and phonology of affixation in Taiwanese and other Chinese languages Chiang, Wen-yu, Ph.D. University of Delaware, 1992

UMI

300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, M I 48106

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THE PROSODIC MORPHOLOGY AND PHONOLOGY OF AFFIXATION IN TAIWANESE AND OTHER CHINESE LANGUAGES

by Wen-yu Chiang

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics December 1992 Copyright 1992 Wen-yu Chiang All Rights Reserved

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THE PROSODIC MORPHOLOGY AND PHONOLOGY OF AFFIXATION IN TAIWANESE AND OTHER CHINESE LANGUAGES by Wen-yu Chiang

Approved: William J. Frawley,'Ph.D. Acting Chairman of the Department of Linguistics

Approved: Carol E. HoffeckerA Ph.D. Associate Provost//tor Graduate Studies

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I certify that I have that in my opinion it professional standard as a dissertation for Philosophy. Signed:

J

read this dissertation and meets the academic and required by the University the degree of Doctor of

__________________________________

Irene B. Vogel,tfPh.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have that in my opinion it professional standard as a dissertation for Philosophy.

read this dissertation and meets the academic and required by the University the degree of Doctor of

Signed: William J. Frawley, Ph7l/. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have that in my opinion it professional standard as a dissertation for Philosophy.

read this dissertation and meets the academic and required by the University the degree of Doctor of

Signed: Brlan-^ Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have that in my opinion it professional standard as a dissertation for Philosophy. Signed:

read this dissertation and meets the academic and required by the University the degree of Doctor of

____________________________________

Moira Yip, PhyD. Member of dissertation committee

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout my years as a graduate student, reading other linguists' acknowledgments has always encouraged and delighted me as an experience of sharing happy and unhappy feelings.

I always dreamed of the day when I would reach

the stage of writing my acknowledgments signalling the end of my struggle. I would like to take this chance to thank many people who have contributed to the final version of this dissertation.

First of all, I would like to express my

great and sincere gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Irene Vogel, for her valuable comments, guidance, patience, assistance, and encouragement.

Irene's critical

reading of and detailed comments on my earlier drafts provoked substantial revisions with respect to theoretical implications and organization.

Without her high

standards, this dissertation would be much less satisfactory. I am also very grateful to Moira Yip, the outside member of my committee, for her kind assistance and insightful comments.

I benefited greatly from discussing iv

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Chinese phonology with her at Brandeis University during my year as a visiting student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I also would like to thank the other two members of my committee, William J. Frawley and Brian D. McHugh, for their

comments

on

some

points

made in this

dissertation. I am grateful to John McCarthy, Lisa Selkirk, and John Kingston for their generosity with ideas and time during my stay at Amherst.

John McCarthy's humor,

availability, and broad knowledge of language data and linguistic theory made my visit at UMass an excellent experience.

Discussing prosodic phonology with Lisa

Selkirk was very helpful and inspirational.

John

Kingston's kind and patient assistance on my phonetic study made my study of Taiwanese gemination more thorough. Many friends in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Delaware, Ali Aljaafreh, Barbara Bullock, S. J. Hannahs, Pau-San Hoh, Bobbi Jaquet, and, most importantly, Zhi-Jie Wang, shared happiness with me. Memories of the time we spent together will last all my life.

It was also a great experience to discuss phonology

with them. I thank friends at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who offered their warm friendship, and

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vi discussed linguistics with me.

These friends are Veena

Dwivedi, Jingqi Fu, Jay Padgett, Paul Portner, Xiaoping Teng, and Tong Shen. Other friends, both in and outside the field of linguistics, also shared my ups and downs in writing this dissertation.

I benefited from discussing phonology and

life with Yen-Hwei Lin and Shih-Ping Wang.

Sincere

gratitude goes to Hwei-Hua Chao, Kuo-chang Jane, Su-kuei Lai, Chao-mei Li, Ray-ming Lin, Kuo-chen Lu, Ma-li Ou, Ying-Yu Sheu, Li-May Sung, Hubert Truckenbrodt, Chi-Huang Weng, and particularly Chih-Chen Tang for their generosity with their time and encouragement.

I also thank Wei-Pin

Hu for talking with me about poetry, politics, and philosophy, when I wanted to enjoy something other than linguistics. Many thanks go to Pau-San Hoh and Lynn Palermo for editing the final version of this dissertation. I am especially grateful to Jhy-chern Liu, the most influential and unforgettable friend that I have ever had.

What we shared together at the University of

Delaware and what we owe to each other goes beyond words. Finally, I would like to express my great gratitude to my family.

My uncles and aunts show their

concern for me all the time. listener.

My brother is always a good

I thank my grandparents for my warmest

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vii childhood memories and for so much happiness.

Most of

all, I would like to express my infinite gratitude to my parents who have supported me in every respect, and who have always had confidence in me.

Whenever I am facing

difficulties, it is their encouragement that gives me hope.

Without them, I could never have finished this

dissertation or achieved what I have so far.

With

gratitude for their everlasting love, I dedicate this dissertation to them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF F I G U R E S ......................................... xi LIST OF T A B L E S ........................................ xii A B S T R A C T ............................................. xiii Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION ........................................

1.1 2

Overview.................................. 1

PHONOLOGY OF AFFIX-TRIGGERED RULES IN TAIWANESE AND OTHER CHINESE LANGUAGES ..........................

2.1 2.2

1

13

Introduction.......... * .................. 13 Affix-Triggered Rules in Taiwanese: The Data . 15 2.2.1 The Domain of R u l e s ................ 16 2.2.2 The Lexical Affix vs. the Phrasal Affix 20 2.2.3 Obligatory vs. Optional Rules ........ 23

2.3

Phonological Representation of Taiwanese Affix-Triggered Rules .....................

27

2.3.1 Gemination Analysis: A Proposal . . . . 29 2.3.2 Against a Resyllabification Analysis . . 43 2.4

Affix-Triggered Rules in Other Chinese L a n g u a g e s ................................47 2.4.1 Mandarin............................48 2.4.2 Kejia, Cantonese, and Nanchang ........ 50

2.5

Conclusions.............................. 60

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XX

THE PHONETICS AND THE DOMAIN OF GEMINATION IN T A I W A N E S E ........................................ 69 3.1 3.2

Introduction: Absolute vs. RelativeDuration Phonetic Study of Taiwanese Gemination. . . .

. 69 71

3.2.1 M e th o d................................ 71 3.2.2 Results and Discussion.................75 3.3

The Domain of Gemination..................... 83 3.3.1 The Role of Stress in Gemination . . . . 84 3.3.2 Morphological Properties of Gemination Triggers.............................. 90 3.3.2.1 3.3.2.2 3.3.2.3

Lexical Affixes ............. 92 Phrasal Affixes............... 99 Sentential A f f i x e s .......... 104

3.3.3 Degenerate Syllables ............... 3.4

Conclusions................................ Ill

REDUPLICATION IN CHINESE LANGUAGES ............. 4.1 4.2

107

119

Introduction................................ 119 Adjective Reduplication in Chinese: The Data 121 4.2.1 The Most Common Structures............ 121 4.2.2 Other Structures ................... 128

4.3

A Prosodic Morphology Approach to Reduplication ...........................

131

4.3.1 The Base in Reduplication— Syllable or M o r p h e m e ? ........................... 136 4.3.2 A Unified Account of Adjective Reduplication— Suffixation .......... 138 4.3.2.1

XX Compounds

4.3.2.1.1 4.3.2.1.2 4.3.2.1.3 4.3.2.2 4.3.2.3

.............

139

Changes in Grammatical C a t e g o r y .............. 139 Neutral T o n e s .......... 141 Suffixation in Noun and Verb Reduplication . . 142

XXX Compounds ............. XXYY, XXY, and XYY Compounds

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144 149

X

4.4

Prosodic Constraints on Reduplication

. . .

155

4.4.1 Upper Limit of I n p u t ..........156 4.4.2 Upper Limit of O u t p u t ........159 4.5 5

C on c lusions................................ 172

CHINESEONOMATOPOEIA

AND SECRET LANGUAGES

. . . .

183

5.1 5.2

Introduction................................ 183 Chinese Syllable Structure ................ 185

5.3

Onomatopoeia................................ 188 5.3.1 Onomatopoeia: The D a t a ........189 5.3.2 Formation of Onomatopoeia: A Proposal 5.3.2.1 5.3.2.2 5.3.2.3 5.3.2.4

5.4

The RecoverabilityPrinciple Cyclicity ................. Place Node Delinking . . . . Against a Prefixation Analysis

194 198 200 207 211

Secret Languages ..........................

214

5.4.1 Secret Languages: The D a t a ....214 5.4.2 Previous analyses .................

218

5.4.2.1 5.4.2.2 5.4.2.3

Prespecification Analysis . . 218 Substitution Analysis . . . . 228 Feature Recycling Analysis . 232

5.4.3 Formation of Secret Languages: A Proposal............................. 237 5.4.3.1 5.4.3.2 5.4.3.3 5.4.3.4 5.5 6

The Recoverability Principle Cyclicity ................. The Maximality Principle . . Prosodic Template ..........

C o n c l u si o ns ................................ 251

CONCLUSIONS AND TOPICS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

6.1

239 242 244 247

...

260

Conclusions and Topics for Further Research

260

APPENDIX:

STATISTICAL RESULTS OF THE PHONETIC STUDY

272

R E F E R E N C E S .............................................278

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for consonant differences ...................

76

Figure 3.2

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for vowel differences........................ 77

Figure 3.3

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for manner differences .....................

xi

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78

LIST OF TABLES Table A. Table A.

Table A.

Table A. Table A.

Table A.

Table A.

Table A. Table A.

Mean score of consonant relative duration in four groups .......................

272

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in relative duration of consonants ...........................

273

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in consonant relative duration among subjects ...............

273

Mean score of vowel relative duration in four groups ...........................

274

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in relative duration of vowels ...............................

275

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in vowel relative duration among subjects ...............

275

Mean score of relative duration of fake geminates, true geminates, and syllableinitial consonants in four groups with respect to manner .....................

276

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in manner ...........

277

Scheffe's statistics for the significance of the difference in manner among subjects 277

xii

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ABSTRACT While Chinese is commonly believed to show a paucity of morphological processes, this investigation sheds light on a number of aspects of affixation occurring across a variety of Chinese languages, and thus contributes to the burgeoning study of the morphologyphonology interface in natural languages. Chapter 2 examines gemination, stop voicing, and spirantization, all of which operate in the presence of Vinitial 'Affixes' in Taiwanese.

Based on gemination split

and segmental sandhi in Taiwanese, a gemination analysis is proposed as being more tenable than either resyllabification or ambisyllabification.

Although

geminates do not appear in its consonant inventory, Taiwanese is presented as a case where derived geminates result from universal principles, such as those governing rule ordering in lexical phonology, the two-root representation of gemination, and structure preservation. Chapter 3 shows that significant differences existing between the phonetic realization of fake and true geminates in Taiwanese are determined by the prosodic xiii

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xiv structures in which they are contained.

An investigation

of the geminate-triggers shows that morphologically they are V-initial suffixes serving as heads, and prosodically they are degenerate syllables. Chapter 4 provides a comprehensive study of Chinese reduplication with respect to (a) its derivational process, (b) its interaction with other suffixes, and (c) prosodic constraints on the input and output of reduplicated forms.

Chinese reduplicated forms present

several properties that have not been revealed in previous cross-linguistic studies: (a) Chinese is the only language where suffixation applies to a prosodic base in reduplication; (b) owing to prosodic constraints, Chinese allows a maximum of two cycles of suffixation; and (c) suffixation can apply simultaneously to two prosodic constituents serving as bases. Chapter 5 presents a unified account for the seeming diverse data of onomatopoeia and secret languages, using the principles of (a) cyclic application of suffixation to a prosodic constituent, (b) cyclic or noncyclic application of Melodic Overwriting, (c) the Recoverability Principle and Maximality Principle that constrain replacement process by blocking Melodic Overwriting, and (d) prosodic template mapping that requires the final output to surface as a fixed form.

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1

Overview Throughout the centuries, Chinese philosophy has

been concerned with the search for Unity which underlies apparent diversity, so that even seeming opposites can be reconciled through the revelation of some common ground between them.

This search for Unity also represents the

dominant theme of the present study of Chinese languages. By uncovering the general principles operating at the interface of Chinese phonology and morphology, the following investigation not only integrates the variations in affixation across Chinese languages but also presents Chinese as an important case for study.

While Chinese is

commonly believed to show a paucity of morphological processes, this investigation sheds light on a number of aspects of affixation occurring across a variety of Chinese languages, and thus contributes to the burgeoning study of the morphology-phonology interface in natural languages. 1

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2 The recent interest in the morphology-phonology interface is due in part to the development of lexical phonology (cf. Kiparsky, 1982, 1985; Mohanan, 1986), prosodic morphology (cf. McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990, forthcoming), and prosodic phonology (cf. Inkelas, 1989; Nespor and Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1978).

However, while

lexical phonology and prosodic phonology have previously been treated as distinct frameworks with their own sets of assumptions, this study will incorporate certain aspects of lexical phonology into a prosodic analysis.1 The first of these lexical phonological concepts is that of rule ordering, i.e., that obligatory rules must apply before optional ones, and that (morphological) domain-sensitive rules apply before rules that are insensitive to such domains.

In this analysis, the

domains of rule application will be distinguished, not in terms of lexical or postlexical levels, but in terms of prosodic constituents. Secondly, in analyzing the derivation of reduplication, the concept of cyclicity borrowed from lexical phonology will be introduced into prosodic morphology.

The fundamental tenets of prosodic morphology

(McCarthy & Prince, 1990) are: (a) the Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis, which states that Mora (p) , syllable (o), foot (F), prosodic word (W), and so on, define the templates of

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3 the morphology; (b) the Template Satisfaction Condition, which holds that the principles of universal or languagespecific prosody determine the obligatory satisfaction of templatic constraints; and (c) the Prosodic Circumscription of Domains, which states that a word can be circumscribed as a domain for morphological processes— or more specifically, that the minimal word within a domain can be chosen for morphological operations. The purpose of cyclicity is to allow the same rule to apply more than once when a larger domain is created. Departing, then, from the basic premise in prosodic morphology theory which holds that a fixed template is specified for prefixation or suffixation in word formation, this study will show that suffixation (to a prosodic constituent) need not be specified as a process involving a fixed template.

Instead, suffixation can

apply more than once, subject to certain prosodic constraints that set an upper limit on the output. This study will also introduce the concept of cyclicity to Melodic Overwriting (MO), which is a replacement process (cf. McCarthy and Prince, 1990, for MO). Although MO has been defined as a morphological operation (i.e., the melody as a melodic morpheme), its application can be regarded as phonological.

It will be

shown here that each application of suffixation provides a

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4

domain for MO.

Therefore, the application of MO can be

cyclic, and as such, analogous to the cyclic domain in lexical phonology, in which each application of a morphological process provides a domain for a phonological rule.

The cases presented in this study in terms of

cyclic MO differ from those investigated in McCarthy and Prince (1990) in which MO applies only once. In addition to incorporating particular aspects of lexical phonology to a prosodic framework, this study will make several contributions to prosodic theory. First, a language without underlying geminates will be shown to have a pattern of interaction between gemination, lenition, and degemination similar to that of a language containing underlying geminates; however, the two may differ in which association line must be delinked in degemination.

Specifically, in the language without

underlying geminates, the delinking may be blocked by a general principle occurring in the earlier derivation (e.g., the Onset Principle (cf. Ito, 1989)). Second, significant differences between the phonetic realization of fake geminates (which are derived from morphological concatenation), and true geminates, (which are derived from affixation) will be shown to exist in Taiwanese.2

This study will reveal that what,

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5 in fact, determines the phonetic realization of a geminate is the prosodic structure in which it is contained. Third, in Chinese, a degenerate syllable will be defined in terms of both morphological and phonological criteria.

Whereas Selkirk (1981) and Ito (1989) define a

degenerate syllable as one lacking a nucleus, degenerate syllables in Chinese will be treated here as a V-initial morphological head grouped as 'Affix'. Fourth, the upper limit of input and output in Chinese reduplication will be defined in terms of prosodic constituents.

Thus Maximality, a concept used in prosodic

phonology, will play a crucial role in governing Chinese adjective reduplication.

The study of Chinese

reduplication provides an interesting case in the role of Maximality in word formation.

In the literature,

Maximality operates as a general principle in syllabification (cf. Ito, 1989; Prince, 1985) but less commonly in word formation.

By contrast, Minimality (cf.

Ito, 1990; McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990, forthcoming) commonly plays a crucial role in word formation, requiring the minimal stem or word, defined in terms of prosodic constituents, as the target template.

Thus, it will be

seen that a study of Chinese reduplication can contribute to our understanding of Maximality.

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6 This study will also contribute to replacement theory by showing that MO can be blocked by general principles such as the Recoverability Principle (RP) (cf. McCarthy, 1981) and the Maximality Principle (MP) (cf. Ito, 1989; Prince, 1985; Yip, 1991).

The RP prohibits the

deletion of segmental information, while the MP of syllabification requires the maximal onset sequence CG (consonant + glide).

In addition to these two principles,

the cyclic or noncyclic MO, together with the Strong Domain Hypothesis (cf. Borowsky, 1986; Kiparsky, 1985; Myers, 1991) and template mapping, derive the data in question. This dissertation will also contribute to empirical aspects of language study.

In particular, this

study presents a set of data not previously shown in research literature, including Taiwanese segmental sandhi within the domain not involving V-initial affixes, as well as Cantonese affix-triggered processes.

In addition, the

study provides an extensive compilation and analysis of data presently available from the literature, most of which has received scant attention until this point.

The

data on various reduplicated forms and onomatopoetic words are particularly interesting in that the patterns shown by these two phenomena have not yet been found in other languages.

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7 The body of this dissertation is essentially divided into two parts: Chapters 2 and 3 will deal with the interface between morphology and phonology in the Vinitial suffixes.

Chapters 4 and 5 will discuss the

morphology-phonology interface in adjective reduplication involving affixation. More specifically, Chapter 2 will examine three phonological processes (gemination, stop voicing, and spirantization), all of which operate in the presence of V-initial 'Affixes' in Taiwanese.

Based on gemination

split and segmental sandhi in Taiwanese, a gemination analysis is proposed as being more tenable than either resyllabification (cf. Wang, 1991; Yip, 1980) or ambisyllabification.

Even though geminates do not appear

in the consonant inventory of Taiwanese, this analysis presents Taiwanese as a case in which derived geminates are the product of universal principles, such as the concept of rule ordering in lexical phonology (cf. Kiparksy, 1982; 1985), the two-root representation of gemination (cf. Selkirk, 1990), and structure preservation (cf. Kiparsky, 1985; Myers, 1991).

In addition to the

above three processes, a proposed degemination process is attributed here to the delinking caused by spirantization. The degemination analysis will be shown to have a stronger theoretical foundation than a resyllabification analysis.

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8 Finally, processes involving V-initial affixes will be examined in other Chinese languages. Chapter 3 will proceed to verify the gemination analysis through a study in which the phonetic realization of a true geminate is examined through a comparison between fake geminates, true geminates, and single consonants.

To avoid the possibility of absolute duration

obscuring results because of differences in morphological structure, the principle of relative duration will be used to determine the phonetic realization of these consonants. The relative duration of these consonants will be shown to fall into a three-way contrast: fake geminates are significantly longer than true geminates, which in turn, are longer than single consonants.

This contrast is the

result of differences in their prosodic structures.

In

order to illustrate why a gemination-trigger and its preceding syllable form a phonological word (cf. Inkelas, 1989; Nespor and Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1978, 1986) for definitions of the phonological word), the remainder of the chapter will investigate the morphological properties of these geminate-triggers, and conclude that morphologically they are suffixes serving as heads, and prosodically they are degenerate syllables.

This

discussion will provide evidence to support the claim, mentioned in Chapter 2, that the domain within which

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gemination, stop voicing, and spirantization apply cannot be defined in terms of lexical and postlexical distinctions; rather, it must be defined in prosodic terms. Chapter 4 will examine another type of affix, one involved in the process of reduplication.

This chapter

will provide a comprehensive study of Chinese reduplication with respect to (a) its derivational process, (b) its interaction with other suffixes, and (c) prosodic constraints on the input and output of reduplicated forms.

By drawing parallels between

reduplicated forms and real suffixes, the first part of this chapter will show that various reduplicated forms are the product of a single process of suffixation to a prosodic constituent.

According to this account, certain

affixes traditionally considered to be infixes will instead be analyzed as suffixes by using prosodic theory. This analysis will present Chinese as an empirically significant case in the study of cross-linguistic reduplication processes, because suffixation to a prosodic constituent has not previously been found to occur in reduplication cross-1inguistically (e.g., McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990, forthcoming). The other central topic of Chapter 4 is the role of prosodic constraints in word formation, particularly in

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10 reduplication.

It will be shown that syllable

reduplication input must be limited to two syllables, and that the interaction of affixation and syllable reduplication cannot produce a form exceeding four syllables. Chapter 5 will present onomatopoeia and secret languages, two sets of data involving fixed material at the segmental level, to support the claim made in Chapter 4 that Chinese adjective reduplication involves cyclic application of suffixation.

A unified account will be

presented for this seemingly diverse array of data, using the principles of (a) cyclic application of suffixation to a prosodic constituent, (b) cyclic or noncyclic application of MO, and (c) blocking by the RP, and the MP. In addition, the proposed analysis will be shown to be theoretically and empirically preferable to other solutions for formation of secret languages (i.e., prespecification (Yip, 1982), substitution (Bao, 1990), and feature recycling (Duanmu, 1990)).

These two

phenomena provide evidence that universal principles, rather than language-specific principles, must operate to derive reduplicated forms with fixed melody/melodies. Finally, chapter 6 will summarize the major findings in this dissertation and provide some topics for further research, particularly focusing on aspects which

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11

may contribute to prosodic theory.

The conclusion is that

although the recent development of prosodic theory of natural languages advances the theories of the morphologyphonology interface by using simple principles to account for diverse cross-linguistic phenomena, the level at which prosodic structure appears in relation to the grammatical components remains unclear.

In order to discover the

answer, the search for Unity must become a motivating force in cross-linguistic inquiry.

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NOTES

1Recently, several studies have been done, incorporating prosodic theories into lexical phonology (e.g., Inkelas, 1989; Hannahs, 1991; Vogel, to appear). 2True geminates are usually referred to the underlying geminates (Goldsmith, 1990). Although in Taiwanese geminates are not underlying, I use the term •true geminates' to differentiate them from the other type of geminates which is created by morphological concatenation of two identical consonants. Following the term used in Hayes (1986), I refer to the latter type as •fake geminates'.

12

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Chapter 2 PHONOLOGY OF AFFIX-TRIGGERED RULES IN TAIWANESE AND OTHER CHINESE LANGUAGES 2.1

Introduction This chapter will address the issue of the

phonological representation of affix-triggered rules in Taiwanese, with the purpose of arriving at some key generalizations about derived geminates.1 The affixtriggered rules to be studied here include gemination, stop voicing and spirantization (cf. Wang, 1991 for spirantization). Presently, one type of affix-triggered phenomenon, which is considered to be a gemination process in this study (also cf. Chiang, 1990), is regarded by other researchers to be resyllabification (Wang, 1991; Yip, 1980) or ambisyllabification.2'3 The analysis of Taiwanese segmental sandhi proposed here will verify that it is gemination and not resyllabification or ambisyllabification which is involved in the affix-triggered phenomenon in question.

I will

show that the process of gemination must also be posited in the derivation of split consonants. 13

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14 Following the presentation of external evidence of gemination from split consonants, I will discuss the interaction of gemination with stop voicing and spirantization, both of which also occur within the same domain (i.e., when a stem is followed by a V-initial affix). Because no geminates exist in the consonant inventory of Taiwanese, segmental sandhi, both in the domain that involves the affixes and that which does not, will be investigated in order to verify the claim that voiced stop geminates are generated.4 The domain where gemination, stop voicing, and spirantization apply will be defined in prosodic terms (cf. Chapter 3).

Yet, the

principles governing rule ordering in certain models of lexical phonology (e.g., Kiparsky, 1982, 1985) will still be shown to apply.

In addition, the two-root

representation of geminates (cf. Selkirk, 199 0) and structure preservation (cf. Kiparsky, 1985; Myers, 1991)— a repair strategy (Paradis, 1988a,b)— will be used to account for domain-sensitive processes. Degemination, another affix-triggered process which has received scant attention, will be discussed as well.

It will be shown that spirantization causes

degemination because of the violation of a well-formed multiple linking constraint required by Homogeneous Linking in the two-root theory, an analysis more tenable

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15 theoretically than the resyllabification analysis. Data from other languages (i.e., Mandarin, Kejia, Cantonese, and Nanchang), each exhibiting unique characteristics, will be presented and compared to Taiwanese.

2.2

Affix-triggered rules in Taiwanese: The data

This section presents the data on Taiwanese phonology needed to examine gemination, stop voicing, and spirantization.

I will show that stop voicing and

spirantization occur when a stem is followed by a Vinitial affix (i.e., in the domain involving V-initial affixes) (section 2.2.1).

This domain can be further

differentiated, gemination split being shown to occur in the presence of phrasal affixes but not lexical affixes (section 2.2.2).

Moreover, these affix-triggered

processes can be distinguished according to whether they are obligatory or optional in this domain (section 2.2.3). Next, I will compare the affix-triggered processes in the domain involving the V-initial affixes with those in the domain without this subgroup of affixes.

The

comparison yields interesting similarities in the motivation for and effects of certain process in both domains. For ease of exposition, I will refer to the domain

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16 involving the V-initial affix as the "stem-affix domain" and to forms containing the V-initial affix as af fix units."

"stem-

Similarly, the terms "stem-stem domain" and

a "stem-stem unit" will be used in the context where a Vinitial affix is not present.

The argument that these V-

initial affixes must be defined in prosodic terms will be postponed until Chapter 3.

2.2.1

The domain of rules

In Taiwanese, a host of lexical items exhibit the same phonological processes even though they are seldom unified under a single category.

These include lexical

affixes, phrasal affixes, and sentential affixes.5 I will argue in Chapter 3 that it is theoretically advantageous to treat all of these lexical items as a single grammatical category.

For now, however, I will

simply refer to the phonological processes undergone by all of them as affix-triggered processes. The examples in (1) show the three types of affixtriggered processes involving different types of affixes.6,7

(The hyphen is used here to represent

lexical affixation or compounding.)

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17 (1)

lexical affixes a. a53 as a suffix i. tiam-a — > store-Suf 1store'

tiam

ii.

ab ba or a Ba

ap-a — > box-Suf 'box'

xna

b. a53 as a linking morpheme (L) asp -a-ma — > gol] I]a grandfather-L-grandmother 'ancestor' (2)

phrasal affixes a. the classifier (CL) e i. tsit31 e33 one Cl 1one person1 vs.

ii.

lang — > person

tsil31

le33

tsit31 ao33 tsui — > * tsil31 lao33 one Cl water 'one cup of water'

b. the adjective marker (AM) (sandhi tone 33 and 2nd type of neutral tone) i. tsin55 # e33 ko-su # tsl a tsio — > true AM story very few — > tsin55 # ne33 'There are very few true stories.' ii.

ko-su # si tsin55 # e55 story is true AM — > tsin55 # ne55 'The story is true.'

c. the relative marker (RM) (sandhi tone 33) i tsia o-a-tsian55 # e33 si-tsun # s/he eat oyster-omelette RM time — > tsian55 # ne33 'when s/he is/was eating oyster-omelette'

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18 d. the possessive marker (PM) (underlying tone 13 and sandhi tone 33) i. tsit pun this Cl — > lan55 # 'This book ii. — >

tshet # si lan55 # e13 book is we PM ne13 is ours.

tse # si lan55 e33 this is our PM lan55 ne33 •This is our book.'

tset book

#

e. the nominalizer (Nom) (second type of neutral tone) gua I

khuan-tio see

li be Prog sell

tiam55 # cutting-board

Nom — > tiam55 # me55 'I saw a person who was selling cuttingboards.1 f. the address marker (ADM) (second type of neutral tone) a33-lan33 -e33 li be khi Pre-Lan-ADM you want go — > lan33-ne33 'A-lan, where are you going?1

to-ui where

g. aspectual marker (ASM) (second type of neutral tone) i. gua lim55 # a — > lim55 # ma55 I drink ASM 'I have drunk something already.1 ii. — > (3)

gua tsia ba I eat full bl)33 # I)a33 'I have eaten.1

bl]33 rice

#

a ASM

sentential affixes — e*g., o (first-type neutral tone) (OM = object marker) kin khi ka i # tsiap31 hurry go OM him/her pick-up — > tsiab31 # bo 'Hurry to go pick up him/her.1

#o Par

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19 In (2ai), the classifier e triggers gemination in Taiwanese— along with stop voicing (or spirantization)— whereas other V-initial classifiers (e.g., au 'measure word for bowl' in (2aii)) do not.

Examples (4) and (5)

provide yet another contrast with these grammatical markers, as the name prefix a (in (4)) and the morpheme i 'medical science' (in (5)) do not trigger gemination of the final segment of the preceding morpheme. (4)

li be tsim33 a33-bun # bo you want kiss Pre-Bun Par — > * tsim33 ma33 'Do you want to kiss A-Bun?' ti=>I)33 i55 --> * tiol]33 I)i55 Chinese medical science 'traditional Chinese medical science'

(5)

Furthermore, none of the V-initial function words (i.e., pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions) trigger gemination in Taiwanese.

The summary in (6) shows which V-initial

morphemes trigger gemination (marked 'yes') and which do not ('no'). (6) gemination triggers morphemes content words no

function words ^

prefixes adverbs pronouns conjunctions no

infixes suffixes grammatical markers sentential particles yes

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20

2.2.2 The lexical affix vs. the phrasal affix In this section, I will provide independent evidence that the affix-triggered processes described above must be considered gemination.

Crucial evidence

comes from processes triggered by phrasal affixes such as the Taiwanese e, illustrated below.

The transcription

conforms to the analysis proposed later in section 2.3. (7)

a. tiam31 a.

e13

— >

tiam31 me13 or tiam31 be13

— >

lin55 ne13 or lin55

le13

— >

ial]33 I)e13

or lal)33

ge13

ab31

or a31

Be13

PM store 'store1s 1 e13 b. lin53 your PM 'yours1 c. lal]33 e13 people PM 'other peo£] d. ap31 box PM •box' e. tshat31 e13 thief PM 'thief's 1 f. gek31 e13 jade PM 'iade's' g. a?31 e13 PM duck 'duck's 1 h. i33 e13 s/he PM 'her/his f e13 i. tshiu33 tree PM 'tree's ' j . pua13 e13 plate PM 'plate's f

s1 — >

be13

— >

tshal31

le13

— >

geg31 ge13

— >

a?31

e13

— >

i33

ye13

— >

tshiu33

— >

pua13 e13

or ge31

we13

Among the consonants, only p, t, k, m, n, I], ? occur

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ye13

21

syllable-finally. unreleased.

Syllable-final p, t, and k are

In (7a-c), where a syllable ends in a nasal,

this nasal spreads to the next V-initial syllable.

The

second part of such a spread nasal can further change into its corresponding homorganic oral stop.

This phenomenon,

commonly known as gemination split, creates a variant of gemination (e.g., mb in (7a)).

In (7d-f), which involve

syllable-final obstruents, the final oral stop not only spreads to the following syllable, but also undergoes voicing.

Note that the three-way contrast in stops (i.e.,

aspirated voiceless stops, unaspirated voiceless stops, and voiced stops) has a gap in the alveolars, in that the phoneme d is absent from the inventory; thus, the sonorant 1 contrasts with the phonemes th and t.8 When the syllable-final consonant is t, stop voicing results in 1 . In addition to stop voicing, spirantization optionally applies to the syllable-final stops, followed by degemination which delinks the final consonant of the first syllable.9 In syllables ending with a glottal stop as in (7g), however, no change occurs.

In (7h) and (7i),

we can see that the syllable-final [+high] segment spreads to the next syllable.

Conversely, such spreading does not

occur in syllables ending with non-high segments. Finally, in (7j), the nasal vowel spreads its nasality to the V-initial syllable.10

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22

Note that gemination split occurs only with the phrasal affix, and not the lexical affix.

Processes

triggered by the lexical affixes (e.g., the diminutive suffix a53) are illustrated in (8) .11 (8 )

a. tiam31 a53 store Suf 'store• b. tshin31 a53 scale Suf 'scale1 c. bal]53 a53 mosquito Suf 'mosquito1 d. ap31 a53 box Suf 'box' e. tshat31 a53 thief Suf 'thief' f. gek31 a53 jade Suf 'jade' g. a?31 a53 Suf duck 'duck' h. i53 a53 Suf chair 'chair' i. tshiu33 a53 tree Suf 'tree' j . pua13 a53 plate Suf 'plate'

— >

tiam55

ma53

— >

t.shin55

na53

— >

bal]55 I]a53

— >

ab33 ba53 or a33 Ba53

— >

tshal33

— >

geg33 ga53

— >

a55

a53

— >

i55

ya53

— >

tshiu33

— >

pua33 a53

la53 or

233

y a 53

wa53

While the sentential affix undergoes the same processes as the phrasal affix, it does not trigger gemination split. The processes involving the lexical affix and the phrasal affix are summarized in (9) and (10).12,13

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23 (9)

phonological processes triggered by a53 and e a. b. c. d.

(10)

2.2.3

Gemination: e.g., tiam a — > tiam ma 'store* Stop Voicing (SV): e.g., ap a — > ab ba 'box * Spirantization: e.g., ap a — > a 0a 'box' Nasal Vowel Spreading (NVS) e.g., pua — > pua a 'plate'

phonological rules only triggered by e Gemination Split e.g., lin e — > lin ne or lin le you (pi.) PM 'yours'

Obligatory vs. optional rules

In the domain of stem-affix units, as we have seen in section 2.2.1, gemination manifests itself as a spreading of the syllable-final consonant to the following V-initial affixes, and stop voicing is obligatory.

In

cases where gemination does not occur in the presence of phrasal or sentential affixes, a glottal stop can be optionally inserted in the onset (e.g., ap31 e13 — > ap31 e13 or ap31 ?e13 'box').14

The affix-triggered process

of spirantization (e.g., ap a — > a 0a 'box'), however, occurs only optionally within this domain (as in the stemstem domain). Significant parallels can be found in the processes occurring within the domains of stem-affix units and stem-stem units.

In both domains, onsets are created

for V-initial syllables, through consonant spreading with

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24 stem-affix units and through glottal stop insertion with stem-stem units.

The latter case is illustrated by (11).

Just as consonant spreading is optional with phrasal and sentential affixes, glottal stop insertion is optional with stems. (11)

giap pick up

a? duck

— > giap ?a? or giap 'pick up the duck'

a?

Another similarity between the two domains concerns stop voicing.

We have already seen in (7) and

(8) how a geminate such as pp undergoes stop voicing to become bb in the domain of stem-affix units.

In the same

manner, stem-stem units undergo stop voicing (but through voicing assimilation), as shown in (12).15

(Recall that

the three-way contrast in stops has a gap in the alveolar voiced stop.

Here, the phoneme 1 contrasts with b, and

g-)

(12)

a.

tsap be — > mixed rice-soup

b. tshit lal)

tsab be 'mixed rice-soup'

— >

tshil lal) or tshid larj one basket 'one basket' c. si=>k gi=>k — > si=>g gi^k cheap jade 'cheap jade'

Note, however, that the effect of stop voicing is different when two identical voiceless stops are involved in the stem-stem domains:

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25 a. sip wet b. pat eight c. lak six

po — > cloth tin — > treasure kok — > country

* * *

sib bo 'wet cloth' pad din 'eight treasures lag g=>k 'six countries'

Since pp does not become bb in the stem-stem domain as it does in the stem-affix domain, it becomes evident that stop voicing is domain-sensitive. Within the stem-stem domain (as in (14)), an intervocalic voiceless syllable-initial stop also does not undergo stop voicing. — > a. a pa Pre father — > b. ka to cut cutter — > c. bi k=>k America country

* * *

a ba 'father' ka do 'scissor bi g=k 'America

Similarly, syllable-final unreleased voiceless stops do not become voiced or spirantized, as shown in (15). (15)

giap a? — > * giab a? pick up duck — > * giap a? •pick up the duck'

In contrast, spirantization applies optionally to intervocalic syllable-initial labial and velar consonants between two stems, as shown in (16) . However, the actual application of these two rules varies from one speaker to another, and is possibly sensitive to speech rate.

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26 (16)

a. ga ground

ba meat

b. sui beautiful

— >

gi^k jade

ga Ba 'ground meat1

— >

sui yiok 'beautiful jade'

In both stem-stem and stem-affix domains, spirantization yields single spirants; however, additional mechanism is involved in the latter domain.

Because, in the stem-affix

domain, spirantization changes only one half of a geminate, the syllable-final consonant must be delinked to avoid violation of the Multiple Linking Constraint in tworoot theory.

(For further discussion, cf. section 2.3.)

In (17), the processes that occur in each domain are summarized. (17)

a. stem-affix i. lexical affixes gemination: stop voicing: spirantization: ii.

obligatory obligatory optional

phrasal and sentential affixes gemination: stop voicing: spirantization:

optional optional optional

b. stem-stem glottal stop insertion: stop voicing: spirantization: voicing assimilation:

optional nonapplicable optional obligatory

We see here that gemination and stop voicing are domain-

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27 sensitive while spirantization is not.

2.3 Phonological representation of Taiwanese affixtriggered rules The recent literature on Taiwanese phonology shows disagreement on the issue of whether gemination, resyllabification or even ambisyllabification occurs in the phonological rule triggered by the diminutive suffix a.

In (18), "a" is used to represent a syllable-final

consonant.

The first two representations are given in

(18a) and (18b) using the root node to represent timing in accordance with Selkirk's (1990) two-root theory.16 In (18c), I have retained the use of C or V to avoid confusion with the root node representation in McCarthy and Prince's (1986) one-root theory. (18)

a. gemination a

o

\

b.

Rt \

/ \

Rt / a

Rt I a

resyllabification o

o

\

/ \

Rt

Rt

\ / a

Rt

I a

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c.

ambisyllabification

In terms of syllabification, (18a) predicts the maintenance of the closed syllable after spreading of the consonant from the first syllable, while in (18b), with the delinking of the final consonant, the syllable becomes open.

In terms of timing, the representation in (18a)

predicts a longer duration of o than in (18b) because two root slots in the skeletal tier are presumably longer than one slot.

The ambisyllabic representation in (18c)

indicates the sharing of the same consonant across two syllables while only one timing slot is involved. The controversy over the phonological representation of the diminutive affix a53-triggered processes basically derives from the fact that the absolute durations of nasals and stops (cf. Wang, 1991 for stops) are shorter than those of fake geminates derived by

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29 morphological concatenation of two identical consonants. At first glance, resyllabification or ambisyllabification seems plausible in accounting for the short duration (i.e., one single consonant).

However, in the following

sections, I will provide evidence that gemination is the phonological representation of the affix-triggered process in question, and show the advantages of such an analysis over resyllabification and ambisyllabification.

2.3.1

Gemination analysis: A proposal First, we discuss the process of gemination.

To

support the claim that V-initial affixes cause a syllablefinal nasal to lengthen, we need to show the existence of two distinct slots for the phonological representation: one in the final root node of the first syllable, and the other in the onset of the second syllable.

The argument

presented here is based on the gemination split of nasals in Taiwanese (as illustrated in (7)), where the phrasal affix e causes its preceding syllable to spread to the final consonant (e.g., tiam e -> tiam me 'store').

The

second part of the geminate undergoes further change, and surfaces as mb.

This gemination split of nasals in

Taiwanese violates the Gemination-Inalterability Hypothesis (GIH), which states that (a) a geminate cannot be split by epenthesis, and (b) a rule cannot affect one

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30 half of the geminate without simultaneously affecting the other half (e.g., Guerssel, 1978; Hayes, 1986; Kenstowicz and Pyle, 1973).

However, according to Schein and

Steriade (1986) and Selkirk (1990), the violation of the GIH is possible only when the partial change of a geminate applies to laryngeal or nasal features.

Taiwanese split

geminate thus represents a case in which partial change of a geminate applies to nasal features, and is derived as follows. A root node must be inserted in the onset of the vowel-initial affix, as in (19a), as called for by the Onset Principle (OP) (c.f. Ito, 1989 for OP).

Once the

root node is present, OP motivates the spreading of a root node to an onsetless affix, deriving a geminate represented as two roots, as in (19b). This proposed approach treats the spreading as free, which allows it to occur in any final segment of the syllable preceding a Vinitial suffix.

Any ill-formed phoneme created by

spreading is subject to SP, which requires the repair of the onset by delinking it from the root.

For example, the

spreading of the vowels a, e, and o, because of their respective feature combinations, cannot create possible consonants; therefore, SP induces the delinking of the ill-formed onset, as shown in (20).17 In deriving a split geminate, partial change of a

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31 geminate occurs to the second half of the geminate by delinking its nasal feature.

Within the two-root

framework, we derive the sequence mb, nd, and I]g, as in (21 ) . (19)

a. Root insertion a

\

Rt I con son

/ Rt

a \

t

Rt I a

b. Root spreading

\

(20)

Rt Lcon son

/ \

Rt

Rt

Delinking

con place I [-high] (21)

Gemination split a

\

/

Rt place

Rt

Rt

nas

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32 Of these three consonant sequences, those which are alveolar must undergo yet another process in order to surface in the correct form, nl.

The ill-formed segment d

is transformed into the homorganic phoneme 1 through SP which serves as a repair strategy by correcting an illformed output.

Note that the [+con] specification is

added to the second half of the double-linked structure through the repair of d to 1, resulting in an ill-formed multiple linking, since the Homogeneous Linking Constraint in two-root theory does not allow stricture features to change in only half of a geminate.

However, if the

consequent delinking applied to eliminate the i n ­ formedness, the result would be an incorrect form consisting of only a single consonant (i.e., n). Therefore, I suggest that since SP serves as a repair strategy intended to preserve the underlying phoneme, once it applies, the resultant form cannot undergo any further repair, even if it is ill-formed according to the multiple linking constraint.

I propose that this blocking is

constrained by 'double repair blockage' which stipulates that any structure, which has undergone SP, cannot be further repaired.

Consequently, nl cannot be transformed

into n through delinking. From the above discussion, we have seen that Taiwanese split geminate (in which two consonants share

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33 the place node but differ in the nasal features) must be represented as consisting of two timing slots.

This fact

concerning gemination split thus invalidates the ambisyllabification analysis, because a single C cannot have two different specifications for the nasal feature. Turning now to the representation of stops, we must examine how stop voicing and spirantization interact with gemination.

The following is a proposal for the

derivation of these processes. After root insertion and root spreading as we have already seen in (19), stop voicing applies to the second half of the voiceless stop geminate, changing the laryngeal feature from [-voice] to [+voice], as in (22). Because only the laryngeal feature participates in the change, this process yields pb, td, and kg without violating Homogeneous Stricture Linking.

Just as we have

seen in the case of Taiwanese gemination split, SP motivates the repair of the ill-formed alveolar td into tl.

The addition (induced by SP) of [+cont] to the second

half of a geminate creates an ill-formed structure, as it violates Homogeneous Stricture Linking.

However, because

of 'double repair blockage' as I proposed earlier, tl cannot undergo further repair; otherwise, an incorrect result t would be generated.

Following the repair

strategy required by SP, voicing assimilation operates,

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34 changing the first half of a geminate into a voiced stop, as shown in (23) . The voiced stop geminate is thus created through stop voicing and voicing assimilation. (22)

Stop voicing

Rt j +con -son \

Rt i a

Rt I 1 +con -son

lary I -voice I

Rt 1 I +con -son i 1 lary 1 1 -voice (23)

Rt I a

Rt i 1 +con -son i 1 lary I 1 +voice

Voicing assimilation o

o Rt Rt 1 1 1 ! +con +con -son -son I i i 1 lary lary r 1 '. " - 1 1 -voice +voice

Rt i 1 a

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35 1

Rt Rt I I 1 1 +con +con -son -son i i 1 1 lary lary . / \ +voice

Rt 1 1 a

Finally, since spirantization applies to an intervocalic voiced stop that occupies the onset position within the stexti-stexn unit, it operates on the second half of the geminate (i.e., the onset) within the stem-affix unit, and creates an ill-formed phonological representation according to two-root theory.

In other

words, after [cont] in the onset becomes [+con] in a feature-filling manner, the place node becomes dependent on the [+con] as called for by Place-Stricture Dependency in two-root theory (PSD requires the place node to depend on a specified [cont] node), as shown in (24a). But the specification of the [cont] feature is not identical in each half, creating an ill-formed multiple linking according to Homogeneous Stricture Linking.

The repair

strategy then applies, eliminating the link to the onset consonant, as shown in (24b).

In (24b), since delinking

is blocked by the OP, it cannot apply to the segment on the right, and shift to the left syllable.

The result is

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36 a loss of a Place specification, and consequently, a Root node.

As the remaining node, the onset becomes a

spirantized consonant.

The whole process of

spirantization thus creates degemination of the voiced stops.

(Note that 11, already a [+cont] segment, does not

undergo spirantization like bb and gg.) (24)

a. Spirantization o

o

Rt

Rt

I

I

+con -son

+con -son

Rt

I

a

\ cont / I

a

\ Rt i 1 +con -son I ! cont

Rt 1 i +con -son i 1 +cont

Rt I a

Rt 1 1 +con -son 1 +cont

Rt I a

place Degemination o \ Rt i 1 +con -son 1 cont

\

place

Delinking is blocked by the Onset Principle

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37 1

+con -son

Rt I +con -son

cont

+cont

Rt

Rt I a

'place

The analysis proposed here has several advantages on theoretical grounds.

First, treating gemination as a

process that applies early is congruent with the universal condition stating that the onset should be filled as soon as possible in the derivation (cf. Steriade, 1982). Second, the sequence of the processes described here conforms to the generalization about rule ordering (cf. Kiparsky, 1982, 1985), according to which domainsensitive rules (i.e., rules triggered by affixes) apply before rules that are insensitive to such domains.

In my

analysis, the processes triggered by V-initial affixes, root spreading and stop voicing, precede spirantization, which applies across the board.

The distinction between

these two different domains is not made at the lexical and postlexical levels because (a) the V-initial affix is not necessarily a lexical affix, but can be phrasal or sentential, (b) the V-initial prefix does not trigger the

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38 three processes, and (c) gemination-triggering V-initial affix can attach to a prosodic constituent without necessarily forming an existing word (cf. Chapter 3 for further discussion). Furthermore, stems need not be further differentiated as bound or free, since phonological changes are not sensitive to this distinction.

Therefore, in this analysis, although domain

is defined in terms of prosodic constituents, the general rule ordering restriction is still observed. The third advantage of the proposed analysis is that domain-sensitive processes have been minimized. Since Taiwanese does not have underlying geminates, their derivation may not be as clear-cut as that of underlying geminates in other languages.

Because voicing

assimilation is obligatory in the stem-stem domain, we might expect it to apply in the stem-affix domain.

To

verify its occurrence in both domains, we must first consider whether a partial change of the laryngeal feature is well motivated.

Can we just refer to the melody tier,

and change the voiceless stop into a voiced geminate in one step, without involving voicing assimilation, as shown in (25) ?18

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39 (25)

Stop voicing o N Rt 1 1 +con -son \

Rt 1 1 +con -son

Rt I a

/ lary I -voice I P i

\ Rt I 1 +con -son \

Rt 1 1 +con -son /

Rt I a

lary I +voice I b

This solution does not seem plausible for several reasons.

First of all, if stop voicing used the melody

tier as its point of reference, then voicing assimilation would become a domain-sensitive rule operating only within the stem-stem domain.

This would increase the number of

domain-sensitive segmental processes in the language. Second, since voicing assimilation, which applies to a cluster of stops with different laryngeal features, is more common cross-linguistically than a rule that

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40 changes voiceless stop geminates to voiced ones, it would be preferable to derive bb through an intermediate stage (e.g., pp -> pb -> bb).19 Using the melody tier as reference, however, would render a two-step derivation impossible, because the intermediate stage could not be generated. Furthermore, if the melody tier were also used as the point of reference for spirantization, spirantized geminates, such as pp, rarely found in natural languages, would be generated.

To avoid the derivation of such

forms, a separate point of reference, the root node, would be required for spirantization.

Positing separate points

of reference for stop voicing and spirantization would complicate the analysis unnecessarily. These arguments against deriving voiced stops in one step by referring to the melody tier increase the plausibility of Taiwanese voiced stop geminates being derived in two steps: domain-sensitive voicing of one half of the geminate, followed by domain-insensitive voicing assimilation. (26)

The rule ordering is summarized as in (26).

Rule ordering in Taiwanese segmental sandhi

Rule l: gemination — domain-sensitive, obligatory Rule 2: stop voicing — domain-sensitive, obligatory Rule 3: voicing assimilation — domain-insensitive, obligatory Rule 4: spirantization — domain-insensitive, optional

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41 Apart from the advantages mentioned above, this analysis also provides a significant contrast to what has been observed about the interaction of gemination, degemination, and lenition in other languages.

While

degemination results in the delinking of the first half of a geminate in Taiwanese, it is the second half which is delinked in Finnish (cf. Selkirk, 1990), as illustrated in (27)(=(49) in Selkirk, 1990).

In Taiwanese, the delinking

of the syllable-initial consonant is blocked by the OP, since this consonant is created to conform precisely this principle.

On the other hand, the syllable-initial

consonant in Finnish already exists in the underlying form.

Since it is not derived by virtue of the OP,

delinking is not blocked. (27) Gradation with geminates, and degemination a. Rt +cons -son \

Rt +cons -son

b. *

Rt +cons -son

/

\

-contj i i Place c . Rt +con -son \

-cont i i Place

Rt icons ison

Rt +cons +son

-contj i i Place d . Rt +cons -son i i -cont i i Place

/

0

Selkirk observes that in Finnish (Vainikka, 1988),

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42 as well as Old French (Jakobs & Wetzels, 1989), geminates are degeminated in the same contexts where a single segment undergoes sonorantization or spirantization.

For

example, Finnish undergoes 'gradation,' which weakens a stop in the onset of a closed syllable when the stop is adjacent to a sonorant (e.g., tapa/tavan 'custom', halpa/halvan 'cheap' (v is a sonorant continuant)).

In

the same phonological environment, a geminate stop is simplified (e.g., lappu/lapun 'piece of paper', muuttaa/muutan 'move/I move').

According to Selkirk, gradation applies to the onset of the geminate, and creates an ill-formed multiple linking as defined by Homogeneous Stricture Linking.

In

other words, [-cont] is not linked to an identical [+son] specification, as shown in (27b). The repair strategy applies to delink to the onset consonant, as shown in (27c). The difference between Finnish and Taiwanese, then, is that in the former, the onset is eliminated, while in the latter, the elimination of an onset is blocked by the OP, causing the first half of the geminate to be delinked.

Thus, the remaining onset has a [+cont]

specification and surfaces as a spirantized stop, while in Finnish the onset is unlenited. From the contrast between Taiwanese, on the one hand, and Finnish and Old French, on the other hand, we

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43 may make the following generalization about degemination in languages that have only derived geminates, which can be referred to as 'onset delinking blockage': if a geminate is derived by some general principle (e.g., the OP), delinking cannot affect the derived half of the geminate, even if it is the part which causes i n ­ formedness of the multiple linking.

On the other hand, in

languages such as Finnish and Old French, it is the illformed part that is deleted.

Note that, in Finnish, after

the delinking of the onset, however, the remaining consonant is still syllabified as an onset (e.g., p in lapu (derived from lappu 'piece of paper')).

Thus, we can

conclude that the OP is present in both types of languages, but with differences in the way it interacts with multiple linkings.

2.3.2

Against a resyllabification analysis Based on the fact that the duration of spirantized

stops is shorter than double consonants in fake geminates, Wang (1991) claims that gemination does not apply to the affix-triggers; rather, a spirantization rule applies first, followed by a resyllabification rule, as shown in (28) .

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This ordering, however, raises three problems. First, recall that between two stems, spirantization may occur optionally with an intervocalic syllable-initial consonant.

Applying spirantization first in the stem-

affix domain requires defining the two types of intervocalic phonological contexts in which it can occur: syllable-final consonants in the domain of stem-affix forms, and syllable-initial consonants in other contexts. This artificial division of what is essentially a single process makes it clear that it is preferable to treat spirantization as a rule applying in the same phonological context in two different domains. Second, Wang's rule ordering delays the application of onset insertion.

Moreover, spirantization,

although an optional rule, occurs before obligatory gemination, which violates the generalizations about rule ordering mentioned in section 2.3.1. The other weakness in Wang's analysis is that his

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45 delinking proposal is not well motivated.

According to

Wang, the presence of the neutralized tones 55 and 33 supports his resyllabification analysis since these tones indicate that the syllables preceding the affix a53 are open.

Checked syllables, on the other hand, bear only the

shorter tone.

(A syllable ending with m, n,

I)

, or a vowel

is traditionally called a free syllable, in contrast to checked syllables that end with p, t, k, and ?.)

In this

way, Wang claims to show that resyllabification has effected a transfer of the syllable-final consonant to the onset of the affix a53. However, data on the phrasal affix e show the unreliability of tonal phenomena as indicators of open or checked syllables.

Even though the

tones preceding the affix e should undergo tone sandhi according to the resyllabification analysis, in reality, they remain unchanged.20 In addition, problems arise in relation to a resyllabification analysis.

S.-P. Wang (p.c) and Yip

(1980) use the preference for CV syllables (i.e., open syllables) in Chinese languages to support their analysis. The gradual historical change in final consonants (cf. Chen & Wang, 1975) seems to lend support to their preference for a CV structure.

However, the preference

for certain syllable structures in the domain of affixation goes in the opposite direction, that is,

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46 towards CVC.

The majority of er diminutive suffixes in

the Mandarin family, for example, contract with their preceding syllables (cf. Lin, 1989), as exemplified in (29). (See Wang (forthcoming) for a detailed discussion of phonological changes triggered by the suffix er.) (29) Mandarin er suffixation (data from Lin, 1989) + r -> i d r a. i 'clothes1 + r -> iidr b. ii 1rain1 + r -> par c. pa 'rake' + r -> tier d. lie 'moon' + r -> par e. pan 1board1 + r -> kur f. kun 'roll' g. khwai + r -> khwar 'lump' + r -> yar h. yag 'sheep' + r -> kour 'dog' i. kou + r -> yaur 'waist' j. yaw Outside Mandarin, the phenomenon of syllable contraction is also seen in some Wu languages (cf. Lin, 1989). Syllable contraction creates many CVC words with two common characteristics: (a) they do not follow the preferred syllable structure and (b) they are never monomorphemic. The gemination rule shares, in these respects, a similarity with the syllable contraction rule in that CVC syllable structure is preserved in the first syllable, and geminates do not exist in underlying morphemes in Taiwanese.

Since affixation provides a

domain in which CVC structure is frequently and productively created, the preference for CV structure as an argument may be doubtful. One can argue that er

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47 suffixation creates a CVC in which the last C is a sonorant, and, as such, can be regarded to some extent as vowel-like.

But even if that is true, a statement must be

added to that effect, so the motivation for resyllabification becomes, at best, stipulative.

By

contrast, the degemination proposed in this chapter is determined by the multiple-linking principles, and need not be based on the syllable structure. The other justification for the CV preference comes from loan phonology, where the CV structure is prevalent.

This is merely a tendency, however, which

varies from one language to another.

In Cantonese loan

phonology (Yip, 1991), for example, the English word 'copy' is transformed into Cantonese as containing a geminate pp.

khap55 phi35,

Thus, arguments relying on the

CV preference in the loan phonology are not particularly strong.

2.4

Affix-triggered rules in other Chinese languages Below I will present an analysis of other

languages— Mandarin, Kejia, Cantonese, and Nanchang which contrast with Taiwanese in terms of the phonological changes triggered by affixes.

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48 2.4.1

Mandarin The phonological rules triggered by the sentential

particle a in Mandarin are given below (cf. PutonghuaMinnanfangyan-Cidian (1982) (Dictionary of Mandarin and the South Min Dialect)).

The IPA system is used for

transcription rather than the standardized pinyin.21 (30)

Gemination: sentential particle a

a. pa a -> climb Par b . thie a -> stick on Par c. gu= a -> pass Par d . tshii a -> go Par e. mai a -> buy Par f. khu a -> cry Par g . khan a -> see Par h . syal] a -> think Par

pa ya •Climb!' thie ya 'Stick on (something)! gu= ya 'Pass!' tshii ya 'Go! ' mai ya 'Buy!' khu wa 'Cry!' khan na 'See!' syal] I)a 'Think about it!'

In (30a-c), y occurs as a default segment when the first syllable ends with a [-high] segment (Chao, 1968), and is optionally inserted into the onset of the sentence particle a.

In (30d), the filled-in onset is not the

[thigh] segment u, but y.

In (30e) and (30f), syllable-

final [thigh] segments in the first syllable become y and w, respectively, in the onset of the particle.

In (30g)

and (3Oh), the syllable-final consonants n and I] are the ones that spread.

(In Mandarin, these two consonants

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49 occur syllable-finally.) Mandarin affix-triggered processes are derived through the following rules: segment spreading as required by the OP, followed by default y insertion which occurs when a preceding syllable ends with a [-high] segment; or when the spreading of the segment in the preceding syllable creates an ill-formed syllable. The derivation process in Mandarin is similar to that in Taiwanese.

In Mandarin, however, the default y

fills the empty slot left by the delinking of an illformed onset, as shown in (31). (31)

a. Delinking a

Rt

Rt I a

[-con] I [place] I [-high]

b. Default filling-in o

o Rt

I [-con] I

[place] I [-high]

Rt

Rt

I y t

I a

Default y insertion can also occur when the segment that

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50 spreads is the [+high, +round] ii.

Since this vowel only

co-occurs with e, the derived syllable ua is ill-formed, even though the spreading of the [+high] vowel u creates a possible onset.

This ill-formedness can be repaired by

SP, which induces the detachment of the onset.

In such

case, the default y then fills the empty slot of the onset.

2.4.2

Kejia, Cantonese, and Nanchang Unlike Mandarin, in which nasals n and T) are the

only consonants to appear syllable-finally, Kejia (Chung, 1989), Cantonese, and Nanchang (Xiong, 1982) have syllable-final obstruents like Taiwanese.

However, they

differ from Taiwanese in that their stops only show a twoway contrast in the laryngeal feature: aspirated vs. unaspirated voiceless stops.

This characteristic may

cause the differences in their behavior with respect to stop voicing in other languages with syllable-final obstruents. Kejia belongs to a branch of the Chinese language spoken mostly in Guandong (Canton), Guanxi, and Taiwan. The following examples are taken from Chung (1989),22 (32) Kejia gemination a. tar)33 e31 -> tal]33 l)e31 'nail' b. phan11 e31 -> phan11 ne31 'plate'

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51 c. kam33 e31 -> kam33 me31 'orange' d. mak5 e31 -> mak5 ke31 'wheat' e. tet3 e31 -> tet3 te31 'iron' f. ap3 e31 -> ap3 pe31 'duck' g. su55 e31 -> su5S we31 'tree' h. pi33 e31 -> pi33 ye31 'cup' Kejia differs from Taiwanese in that Kejia affix-triggered processes only involve root spreading, generating voiceless geminates pp, tt, and Kk, rather than voiced ones.

As I mentioned earlier, there are no voiced stops

in the Kejia consonant inventory to contrast with the other types of stops.

The absence of stop voicing, then,

can be

attributed tothe fact that

non-existing phonemes

cannot

be created inthe domain-sensitive rule.

Cantonese, one of the Yue languages spoken in Guandong (Canton) and Hongkong, exhibits the following phonological changes triggered by the V-initial sentential particle a.23'24

(33) Cantonese gemination a. kam m kam a — > kam ma dare not dare Par 'Dare or not?' b. nan m nan a — > nan na difficult not difficult Par 'Difficult or not?' c. lal] m laD a — > lal) I]a cold not cold Par 'Cold or not?' d. hou m hou a — > hou wa good not good Par 'Is that O.K?' e. tsai m tsai a — > tsai ya be not be Par 'Is (someone) there?'

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52 f. Jii m £u £ — > Ju ya lose not lose Par 'Lose or not?' g. me m me a — > me ya crooked not crooked Par •Is it crooked?' h. tsip m tsip a — > tsip ?a pick up not pick up Par 'Pick up or not?' m vit a — > yit ?a i. yit hot not hot Par 'Hot or not?' m tak a — > tak ?a j- tak can not can Par 'Can you?1 Cantonese exhibits similarity with Mandarin; (a) [+son] segments such as m, n, g , y, and w undergo root spreading (e.g., (33a-e)), (b) the default y, rather than u, occurs in the onset when the preceding syllable ends with [thigh] u (e.g., (33f)), and (c) the glide y optionally fills in the onset position of the V-initial particle when the preceding syllable ends with a [-con] segment other than i or u (e.g., (33g)).

Cantonese, however, has syllable-

final obstruents which are lacking in Mandarin.

Of these

obstruents, syllable-final p, t, and k do not undergo root spreading as they do in Kejia and Taiwanese, instead, a glottal stop is inserted in an onset for the sentential particle a (e.g., (33h-j)). To account for this difference— that is, that only nasals and [+high] segments can spread— we must specify the feature [+son] for root spreading in Cantonese, unlike the other Chinese languages where there is no need for

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53 such feature restriction prior to spreading.

(Similar to

other Chinese languages, after spreading, the feature combination of the [-high] vowels in Cantonese does not create possible consonants, so delinking applies in order to eliminate the resulting ill-formed onsets as called for by SP). The Cantonese case, then, raises the question of whether an alternative approach, i.e., prespecification of the features prior to spreading, could also apply in other Chinese languages.

According to this alternative account,

in languages other than Cantonese, two features (i.e., [+high] for i, u, and

and [+cons] for n and I)), would

H,

be prespecified to undergo spreading from the last segment of the preceding syllable, as motivated by the OP.

This

process is shown in (34). (34)

Root spreading a . consonants o

a

\

Rt I [+con]

/ Rt t

\ Rt I a

1 a

a

\

Rt L--- - " [+con]

/ Rt

\

Rt I a

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54 b. high vowels a \

Rt I [-con] I [place]

/ Rt

\

t

Rt I a

[+hi!gh] I a

.a

Rt Rt u - - " ' [-con] I [place] .1

Rt I a

[thigh]

This approach would specify that in Cantonese, the features which can spread are [-con, thigh] and [tcon, tson]. According to this account, [-high] segment would not spread, nor would it be eliminated by SP, unlike what we have seen in the free spreading approach.

The

prespecification of the features is less desirable theoretically because it involves more mechanisms than free spreading does.

Even if we prespecified the features

so that the onset created by spreading of [-high] segments were not eliminated by SP, we would still need SP to rule out forms such as the nonexisting phoneme d in Taiwanese, and ill-formed syllable such as ua in Mandarin and

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55 Cantonese. Furthermore, since [+high] segments and consonants cannot be grouped into the natural class [+syll] as they are in the SPE framework (cf. Chomsky and Halle, 1968), we would need two sets of rules to state the process of spreading as we have seen in (34)— which would increase the complexity of rule application.

Thus, we must exclude

the possibility of treating spreading as a process involving the prespecification of features. Finally, we turn to Nanchang (Xiong, 1982), a Gan language spoken in Nanchang located in Jiangxi Province.25

In this language, only the consonants n,

t, and ? occur in the syllable-final position.

I) ,

As in

Taiwanese, the syllable-final consonant undergoes root spreading.

The particles a, o, and e become la, lo, and

le, respectively, when they appear after a syllable ending with t.

The default y is optionally inserted into the

onset position of these particles when the preceding syllable ends with either a [-high] segment or a glottal stop following a [-high] segment. One special phenomenon observed by Xiong (1982) is that a [+high] segment preceding a glottal stop can spread its features to the onset of the sentential particle a, thus crossing over the glottal stop.

Since ? does not

have place features and the spreading of the place node

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56 from the preceding segment is not blocked (Steriade, 1987) , the [+high] segment spreads its features as if the glottal stop were not present.

This phenomenon is

exemplified in (35) by a stem u? in the rime preceding the particle a. (35) Rt u U "" [place]

Rt

Rt

Rt a

?

In this example, the place features representing u pass over the transparent glottal stop and link to the empty root node of the following syllable.

Nanchang thus allows

the last segment containing a place feature to spread, a characteristic not found in other Chinese languages. Our discussion of the processes involved with the domain of stem-affix forms in various Chinese languages is summarized in (36).

(Gem = gemination, SV = stop voicing,

and Spi = spirantization)

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57 (36) Nasal

Obstruent

[+high]

Taiwanese

Gem

Gem SV Spi

Gem

Mandarin

Gem

Kejia

Gem

Gem

Cantonese

Gem

? insertion Gem

y insertion

Nanchang

Gem

Gem SV

y insertion

Gem

Other

y insertion

Gem

Gem

Based on this analysis of affix-triggered processes in Chinese languages, three generalizations can be made.

First, syllable-final [+son] segments (i.e.,

nasals and the [+high] segments) behave consistently across these languages: specifically, they spread to the onset of the V-initial affix.

Where syllable-final

obstruents are concerned, however, the languages fall into two groups.

In Cantonese, a glottal stop in inserted in

the onset, while in all the other languages, the preceding syllable-final obstruents spread to fill the onset.

Stop

voicing also occurs in all the other languages except Kejia, whose inventory does not contain voiced obstruents. Nanchang also lacks voiced stops; however, unlike Kejia, in which p, t, and k can take the syllable-final position, Nanchang has only one syllable-final obstruent, t.

After

stop voicing applies to tt, SP transforms tt into 11.

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58 The second generalization is that Chinese languages are parameterized according to whether the default y is inserted in the onset position when the preceding syllable-final segment is not a nasal, an obstruent, or a [+high] segment.

Taiwanese and Kejia do

not require y insertion, possibly because in these two languages, the [+high] segment is syllabified in the rime (cf. Bao, 1990; Lin, 1989; Chapter 5 for Taiwanese; Chung, 1989 for Kejia).

Although the root spreading required by

the OP may create [+high] segments in the onset, the subsequent process usually avoids violation of the syllable structure. The third generalization concerns the place feature of the spreading segment.

In Taiwanese and

Nanchang, a syllable-final glottal stop does not spread to V-initial affixes.26 In Nanchang, however, the glottal stop does not prevent its preceding [+high] segment from spreading.

In all Chinese languages, the last segment of

a syllable containing the place feature spreads to the following syllable.

Nanchang is the only language where

this place-node-containing segment is not necessarily in the syllable-final position. Before we move on to the conclusions, more discussion about SP is in order.

Based on the first two

generalizations about affix-triggered rules in Chinese

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59 languages, we have seen the significant role of SP in determining final output and, possibly, rule application. SP eliminates any nonexisting phonemes (e.g., d in Taiwanese), and any output violating the co-occurrence restrictions (e.g., iia in Mandarin and Cantonese). Furthermore, after SP changes the split geminate nd to nl, the multiple linking of nl becomes ill-formed since the Homogeneous Linking Constraint disallows conflicting [cont] features in a geminate.

Even so, this ill-formed

structure cannot become n through delinking.

Because SP

has already applied, any further repair is blocked. In the derivation of domain-sensitive root spreading, SP does not prevent the creation of geminates not existing in Chinese languages, or segments not occurring in the onset position in a particular language (e.g., I]).27

Thus, the OP must override SP.

Finally,

SP does not affect domain-insensitive process such as spirantization.

This operation of SP in Chinese languages

illustrates that the distinction between the two types of prosodic domains is parallel to the distinction between lexical and postlexical domains.

That is, in lexical

phonology, SP only operates at the lexical level (cf. Kiparsky, 1982, 1985).

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2.5

Conclusions In this chapter, several major points have been

made regarding the morphology-phonology interface.

First,

based on gemination split and the investigation of the segmental sandhi in Taiwanese, I have argued that one of the three affix-triggered processes discussed must involve gemination for both syllable final nasals and obstruents.28

Evidence for nasal geminates comes from

the gemination split caused by the phrasal affix e, which shows that two slots are needed for the representation of the process.

The evidence for voiced stop geminates comes

from rule ordering: by ordering the processes as gemination -> stop voicing -> voicing assimilation -> spirantization -> degemination, we minimize the domainsensitive rules and also follow the generalization about ordering seen in lexical phonology. The second point is that in this analysis, the concepts of rule ordering and SP are sensitive to two domains, just as they are in lexical phonology.

The

difference is that here, these domains are defined according to prosodic, rather than lexical constituents. With respect to rule ordering, obligatory processes apply before optional ones, and domain-sensitive processes before domain-insensitive ones.

Similarly, SP repairs

nonexisting phonemes and ill-formed syllables in the

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61 domain-sensitive process (i.e., stop voicing), while no such restriction exists in the domain-insensitive process (i.e., spirantization). The third point concerns degemination.

Although

Taiwanese does not contain underlying geminates, it exhibits a pattern of interaction between lenition (i.e., spirantization) and degemination similar to that seen in languages which have underlying geminates.

However, since

geminates in Taiwanese are derived as called for by the OP, delinking of the onset is blocked.

Instead, the other

half of the consonant (i.e., syllable-final one) is delinked.

Furthermore, degemination, as a delinking

process, differs from the delinking process proposed in resyllabification.

The major difference between

degemination and resyllabification rests on the motivation for delinking.

Degemination is structurally determined by

the Multiple Linking Constraint, such as the one proposed in two-root theory, so that the delinking itself may be a consequence of a universal constraint and need not refer to other phenomena such as syllable structure. Resyllabification, on the other hand, is motivated by other evidence, such as language-specific syllable structure (e.g., CV preference in Chinese).

I have shown

why such an argument is not well-supported.29 The last central point focuses on SP, which plays

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62 two roles in the literature: as a blocking mechanism to prevent the creation of ill-formed structures, and as a repair strategy to fix an ill-formed output.

It is the

second function that has been used in deriving the output of the affix-triggered processes.

The crucial points made

about SP are that (a) the structure repaired by SP cannot be further changed even though it may creates ill-formed multiple linking as we have seen in the case of the split geminate, and (b) SP is present in domain-sensitive processes, except when it is overridden by the OP. Since I have argued in this chapter that affixtriggered process generate geminate nasals and voiced stops, we will proceed to investigate the distinction between fake and true geminates.

By examining the

morphological and phonological properties of the gemination-triggers, we will see that because V-initial affixes are actually 'degenerate' syllables, they undergo special phonological processes not observed in stems.

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NOTES 1The literature on Chinese phonology tends to treat Taiwanese as identical to, or closely related to, Amoy (Xiamen). Although Taiwanese and Amoy both belong to the South Min branch of the Chinese language family, they differ substantially in their vocabulary as a result of the intensive contact of Taiwanese with many other languages. 2Wang (1991) only studies oral stops and claims that stop voicing does not apply to the V-initial suffix a53. Instead, spirantization occurs and causes resyllabification. Later, Wang (p.c.) considers stop voicing and spirantization free variation, and both trigger resyllabification. 3Lin (1989) in footnote 8 of Chapter 3 states the possibility that the derived voiced consonant is an ambisyllabic nongeminate consonant. *The inventory of Taiwanese consonants is as follows: Bilabial Alveolar Palato- Velar alveolar Stop ph p b th t kh k g Affricate tsh ts Nasal m n g Fricative s h Lateral 1

Glottal ?

5For arguments that (b) and (c) are phrasal affixes and sentential affixes, see Chiang (1990); Huang (1987) ; Chapter 3. 6Gemination occurs without having to access the tone form that is involved in the V-initial suffix. For example, some phrasal affixes may have two tone forms, depending on their position within a tone group. These phrasal affixes will trigger gemination in any phonological environment, regardless of their tone forms. 63

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64 Taiwanese is considered to have five or seven tones, depending on whether or not the HM and the ML tones in checked syllables are treated like those in free syllables. I assume that these two tones are different, giving Taiwanese seven tones. Except for a few inherently toneless morphemes, each fully toned morpheme (equal to a syllable) has both an underlying form and a sandhi form. A string of speech is divided into syntacticallyconditioned "tone groups" within which all syllables but the last one undergo a regular tone change to appear in the sandhi form (Chen, 1985, 1987; Cheng, 1968, 1973; Cheng & Cheng, 1977). The regular tone change applies to free syllables according to a "South Min Tone Circle" as in (ia), and applies to checked syllables as in (ib): (The Arabic numerals represent the pitch scale, e.g., 53 is the equivalent of HM tone, c.f. Chen, 1985, 1987) (i)

a. free syllable

b.

checked syllable

13

3 1 --- > 53

^ 33. \ 55 31

53 --- > 31

(

53' Two types of neutral tones exist in Taiwanese. They will be specified in the text as: (a) a morpheme that is toneless (usually appearing phonetically with a low tone) and which is not influenced by the preceding tone, and (b) a morpheme whose tone assimilates to the tone which immediately precedes it. Throughout this dissertation, the ends of tone groups will be marked by 1#1. Only when necessary will the tone of each morpheme be provided. ®The previous literature treats 1 as a flap (cf. Cheng, 1968; Wang, 1991). I will consider it a sonorant here on the basis of spectrographic data from my phonetic study. 9Since voiceless spirants are never generated in Taiwanese, spirantization must be ordered after stop voicing. Therefore, even though consonant(s) can undergo either stop voicing or spirantization within the stemaffix unit, spirantization can be considered as an optional rule, while stop voicing is obligatory.

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65 10In the vowel inventory, six oral vowels i, e,^ a,^o, = , u contrast with their counterpart nasal vowels 1, e, a, 6, = , u. 11The glottal stop deletion (GSD) in (8g) is not a segmental rule but, rather, is caused by the tonal change. Glottal stop deletion deletes a glottal stop from syllable final position if the tone associated with it is the sandhi tone. The tone of the syllable that precedes a53 must undergo regular tone sandhi (ST) first. Then GSD follows as a consequence of the sandhi tone. Finally, a53 triggers another tone sandhi, given below in (i). a?31

a53

ST — >

a?53

a53

GSD — >

a53

a53

ST — >

a55

a53

In contrast with the lexical suffix a, other gemination triggers always follow a tone group boundary and therefore the morpheme preceding them always appears as an underlying tone. Their preceding morphemes thus do not undergo GSD. 12Nasal Vowel Spreading is not relevant to the present discussion. 13Since the prevocalic high segments in Taiwanese are in the rime rather than in the onset, the spreading of the high segment to the onset represents an exceptional case. This, however, does not pose a problem for two reasons. First, geminates are underlying phonemes in Taiwanese. Second, phonetically, the derived forms ya and wa differ from the underlying ia and ua. 14Thanks to S.-P. Wang (p.c.) for pointing out that glottal stop insertion with the V-initial phrasal affix is optional. 15In (12b), two possibilities exist: the unreleased t either fully assimilates to 1 or becomes d due to the voicing assimilation. 16Following McCarthy and Prince (1986), Selkirk's two root theory assumes that there is no need to include C, V, or X in a skeletal tier, since the skeleta of templatic morphology are argued to consist of only prosodic constituents such as the foot, syllable, and mora. Rather, the root tier serves as the interface between

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66

feature representation and the prosodic structure of the skeleton. Although I adopt the two root theory for the phonological representation of gemination in this chapter, I do not include the mora as a prosodic constituent under the syllable. Instead, the onset and the rime are used to represent the constituents. For a discussion of Chinese syllable structure, cf. Chapter 5. 17An alternative approach restricts which features can spread into the onset of the following syllable. This approach, however, would increase complexity of the analysis (cf. section 2.4.2). 18If we follow the account by Hayes (1986) and Schein & Steriade (1986) in which the rule can refer to the association line as in (i), spirantization is blocked in the geminate, since only one part of the association line meets the requirement.

0 Rt I [cont ] — > [+cont ]/ [-con]________ [-con ] The two-root theory makes a single rule possible. There is no need to refer to the association line because the phonological representation is sufficient. 190hala (1983) observes that voiced stop geminates have a strong tendency to become voiceless. We would expect that a voicing rule would not usually occur with geminates, since phonetically speaking, it is difficult to hold voicing throughout geminates. 20The checked tone of the syllable may become longer when stop voicing or spirantization applies, but this change cannot be phonological, but instead, phonetic implementation. 21Gemination and y insertion are optional rules in Mandarin. 22The other literature on Kejia gemination is Luo (1984) and Yuan et al. (1983).

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67 23The data pertaining to Cantonese is from three informants. The speech of the Cantonese informants I consulted was recorded and analyzed with Macintosh software for spectrographic analysis. 24The Cantonese particle a can be pronounced as 6 (P.-S. Hoh, p.c.). 25Examples are not given here, since the data source (i.e., Xiong, 1982) does not provide the examples, but only the description of the phonological changes. 26From the data provided by Chung (1989), it is not clear whether the glottal stop falls into the same pattern as the other languages do. 27The segment I] can be an onset in some languages, such as Shanghainese (T. Shen (p.c.), Chaoyang (Zhang, 1979)) . 28An alternative phonological representation within the one-root framework (Hayes, 1989, 1990; Hyman, 1985; McCarthy & Prince, 1986) is not as desirable. The first argument in favor of two-root theory is that it provides a more unified account of onset filling with respect to the number of root nodes. This can be seen in languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Nanchang, where a default y is inserted to the V-initial affix if the stem does not end with consonants or [+high] segments. Both root spreading and default y insertion are represented as in (ia) and (ib) by using the one-root theory. (Each segment in the rime is assumed to be a mora.) (i)

a. Root spreading a

/

a

/ Mf \ M

// \

M

/ I I / Rt Rt Rt /

I Rt

III/

I

n a n a b. Default y insertion

°\M / \M / I / Rt Rt

I Rt

Y t

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68

In one-root theory, the geminate in (ia) only contains one root node, whereas in (ib) the y insertion adds another root node to the onset. Since both root spreading and default y insertion are motivated by the Onset Principle, one-root theory does not capture the similar pattern between these two with respect to the root node. By contrast, two-root theory can capture the similarities between these two processes by using two root nodes. The second argument is that one-root theory cannot provide a unified account for spirantization within stemstern and stem-affix forms. As we have already seen, spirantization within the non-affix domains applies to an intervocalic onset, as shown earlier in (16). Spirantization in the affix domain is thus blocked in geminates if we refer to the association line. On the other hand, if we refer to the melodic tier, we generate the spirantized geminates (e.g., ap a -> ab ba -> aP Pa •box'), which seem to be rare cross-linguistically. (For a discussion of interaction of spirantization and gemination, cf. Schein and Steriade, 1986). The third argument concerns the representation of the gemination split. The one-root theory can account for the gemination split with two possible structures, one following McCarthy & Prince's proposal (1986) and the other one Hayes*(1989) coindexing theory. These two proposed structures are subject to criticisms based on laryngeal fission expressed by Selkirk (1990). For details, see Selkirk (1990). 29Another possible distinction is that in the degemination analysis, a geminate must surface in the output of the derivation prior to degemination. By contrast, according to resyllabification, a geminate does not necessarily surface in the same manner.

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Chapter 3 THE PHONETICS AND THE DOMAIN OF GEMINATION IN TAIWANESE

3.1

Introduction: Absolute vs. relative duration

As diverse as the research on geminates is, little attention has been paid to a fundamental discrepancy between the phonological representations of true and fake geminates, and their phonetic realizations. Phonologically, true and fake geminates are both represented as double root structures, as shown in (la) and (lb). (1)

a. true geminate Rt \

Rt / a

b. fake geminate Rt Rt II a a

Yet, phonetically, they may differ in duration, a fact that the phonological representations given in (1) fail to capture. To explain this discrepancy, I will present in this chapter an account of Taiwanese gemination which 69

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70 attributes this discrepancy to differences in prosodic structure.

The following analysis will show that true

geminates are contained within a phonological word, whereas fake geminates occur at the boundaries of two separate phonological words (cf. Inkelas, 1989; Nespor and Vogel, 1986; Selkirk, 1978 for definitions of the phonological word). This prosodic difference is apparent from phonetic data, which indicate that true geminates are significantly longer in relative duration than single consonants, but significantly shorter in relative duration than fake geminates.

In this study, the concept of

relative duration will be crucial in evaluating the claims about different types of consonants.

Relative duration is

the duration of a segment relative to the string it is part of. (2)

The formula used here is the following: Relative duration = duration of segment (msec.)/ duration of string (msec.)

In explaining how single consonants, true geminates, and fake geminates can be determined phonetically and phonologically, I will present the results of a phonetic study, followed by a discussion of the morphological and phonological properties of geminate-triggers.

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71 3.2

Phonetic study of Taiwanese gemination In this section, I will first discuss the methods

and results of the phonetic study, and then propose that the differences in phonetic realization between a fake and a true geminate are attributed to the prosodic structures in which they are contained.

3.2.1

Method Three adult native Taiwanese speakers took part in

the experiment: two males (BWY and NHC) and one female (CLL). They were asked to read aloud four groups of sentences written in Chinese characters, each consisting of four minimal pairs and six distractors.

In the

following discussion, I will refer to these four groups as kma, gp, kme, and tsp, respectively, based on the consonants in the first syllable of each minimal pair (e.g., kirn, giap). The vowels a and e in the kma and kme groups, respectively, were included to distinguish between elements of the two groups which contain the same consonants.

Speakers were asked to translate the Chinese

characters into their most natural Taiwanese equivalents, repeating each group five times.

The structure in all

groups followed this pattern: "Gua kua tio "____ •* tsit ldng e gi." 'I have seen the two Chinese characters _ I

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72 As shown in (3), the minimal pairs in each

group

provide the following four structures: (a) fake geminates (e.g., mm created by concatenation of two morphemes), (b) true geminates (e.g., mm created by the spreading of the syllable-final consonant to the following onset, (c) a single consonant in the onset (e.g., m in the onset of the second syllable, and (d) a single consonant in the syllable-final position (e.g., syllable-final m of the first syllable).

I will refer to (c) and (d) as syllable-

initial and syllable-final, respectively. (3)

a. kma group i.

kirn33 ma53 golden horse 'golden horse' ii. kim55 a53 -> gold Suf 'gold' iii. khi55 ma53 start yard 'at least' iv. kim33 a31? golden duck 'golden duck'

kirn33 ma53

b . gp group i.

ii.

iii.

qiap53 ba53-so pick dried meat floss -> giab ba (voicing assimilation) 'pick the meat' qiap31 a55 tao -> giab33 ba55 pick Suf head or gia Pa 'clip's head' gia33 ba53-tiam hold cutting-board 'hold the cutting-board high'

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73 c. kme group i. kin55 me55 -> kim me fast grab (place assimilation) •grab fast' ii. kim55 e55 -> kim me gold AM 'gold' 55 in. si”53 me” four grip •four grips' iv. kim33 e13 gold shoe 'golden shoes1 •

•

•

*

d . tsp group i. tsap31 be13 mixed rice-soup -> tsab be (voicing assimilation) •mixed rice-soup' ii. tsap31 e13 -> tsab be or tsa pe ten Cl 'ten' iii. tsa33 be53 hold back horse 'hold back a horse1 Examples (3a) and (3b) contain the diminutive suffix a, while (3c) and (3d) contain the affix e (as an adjective marker and as a classifier, respectively). Furthermore, (3a) and (3c) contain a nasal consonant while (3b) and (3d) contain a stop.

Since a Taiwanese syllable can only

end with the consonants m, n, I), p, t, k, and ?, I am using m and p to represent the whole set, as we could expect them to reveal any significant differences between nasals and stops.

The two groups containing stops (i.e.,

gp and tsp) consist of only three minimal pairs.

The

fourth one was omitted because of the difficulty of

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74 measuring the duration of labial stops due to the presence of the glottal stop that native speakers usually insert before a V-initial lexical item.

This difficulty does not

exist in syllables ending in nasals because of the distinctive spectrographic patterns between nasals and glottal stops. Note that the gp group is different from the other groups in that its minimal pairs consist of three syllables, of which the first two were measured.

This was

done to avoid the involvement ba? 'meat1, which, in the syllable final position of a tone group, occurs with a glottal stop— thus shortening the vowel significantly. However, this phenomenon does not appear in the second syllable of a three-syllable phrase.1 The relative duration of double consonants (e.g., mm) or single consonants (e.g., m) is the percentage of their duration relative to that of the two syllables (e.g., im(m)a). Since the onset of the first syllable may be different, elimination of the onset makes the four minimal pairs comparable.

Furthermore, the percentage of

the vowel duration against the total duration of the two syllables (minus the onset of the first syllable) was determined in order to serve as comparison for the consonant.

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75 Mean score, standard deviation, standard error, and the significance of the differences in the percentage duration of the consonants and the vowels were computed with Super Anova Macintosh Software.

Pairwise comparisons

of whether or not the difference is significant (p < 0.05) were made between speakers and between groups, following Scheffe's Statistics.

3.2.2

Results and discussion The mean scores of relative consonant and vowel

durations in the first syllable of the three subtypes in each of the four groups (i.e., fake geminate, true geminate, and syllable-initial) are given in Figures 3.1 and 3.2. in graphs with 95% confidence error bars.

The

differences between stops and nasals are shown in Figure 3.3. (For details, see Appendix).

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76

.45

Cell Means of Ss

.35

-

.25

-

.15

-

fake geminates

Figure 3.1

true geminates

0

kma

■

9P

A

kme

•

tsp

syllable initial

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for

consonant differences

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77

Cell Means of vowel length

.45

.25

-

O

kma

■

9P

A

kme

•

tsp

-

fake geminates

Figure 3.2

true geminates

syllable initial

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for

vowel differences

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78

.45

Cell Means ol Ss

.35

.25

-

-

stop

Figure 3.3

O

fake geminates

■

true geminates

A

syllable initial

nasal

Graph with 95% confidence error bars for

manner differences

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79 The results seen in the above Figures reveal several major patterns.

The relative duration of a true

geminate is both significantly shorter than a fake geminate and longer than a syllable-initial consonant, (p=0.0001).

In three out of four groups (kma, gp, and

tsap) the relative duration of consonants undergoing the affix-triggered rule (31.84%, 18.70%, 19.57%, respectively) is significantly different from what it is in the single consonant case (23.01%, 13.81%, and 14.21%). The kme group also shows a near-significant difference (i.e., 28.27% versus 23.54%), (p=0.0718). Second, the relative vowel duration of the first syllable in true geminates (21.34%, 38.13%, 24.32%, and 27.89%) is significantly longer in all four groups than it is in fake geminates (17.04%, 25.10%, 18.48%, and 21.13%) and significantly shorter than it is in syllable-initial position (31.98%, 42.56%, 31.72%, and 43.98%), (p=0.0001). Thus, the ordering of relative duration of vowels (in percentage terms from least to most) is the exact opposite of that of consonant duration among the four groups. In addition, there exists a substantial difference in relative duration between nasals and stops across three groups (i.e., fake geminates, true geminates, and syllable initial).

That is, the relative length of stops (29.41%,

19.14%, and 14.02%, respectively) is significantly shorter

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80 than that of nasals (39.10%, 30.06%, and 23.28%, respectively), (p=0.0001). Note that the relative durations of syllable-final and syllable-initial single nasals are similar.

That is,

the relative consonant durations of the fourth minimal pair containing nasals (i.e., kim a? 'golden duck1 and kim e 'golden shoes') are 26.07% and 24.23%, respectively— which is not significantly different from those of the third minimal pair (i.e., khi ma 'at least' (23.01%) and si me 'four grips' (23.54%)), (p=0.0819, and P=0.9831, respectively). Because the syllable-final consonant does not differ significantly from the syllable-initial consonant, the three-way contrast between fake geminates, true geminates, and single consonants can be maintained, regardless of the single consonant's position.

Given such

empirical findings, we have reason to believe that a consonant preceding an affix is long.

The question that

arises now is how we can account for the difference in relative duration between fake and true geminates. Obviously, the case is not to be found at the root level, where both types of geminates are represented as double root structures.

Instead, I propose that their difference

depends on their prosodic structure.

The three-way

contrast mentioned above and shown in (4), is exemplified by the kma group in the phonetic study. (PW = Phonological

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Word)

(For discussion of the phonological word in

Taiwanese, cf. section 3.3.) (4)

a.

fake

geminate _

/T\

Rt I 1 ^ k

b.

Rt I 1 i

Rt I 1 m --

PW

\

n u

/ Rt I \ m1

\ Rt | a1 >

true geminate a

a

/ | \ Rt Rt Rt

I

I

k i m

Rt

Rt

**-

H—

PW

Rt

I

PW

a

single consonant —

r ~

^

\

L - ' ' '' '

\c /

c.

/ .Rt

/ Rt i 1 ^m

v.

u \

Rt i 1 a ^

Fake geminates, as in (4a), are generated from stem-stern forms.

At the root level, two consonants are created by

morphological concatenation to yield a double root structure.

At the prosodic level, the stem-stem unit

comprises two independent phonological words.

Pre­

boundary lengthening in fake geminates thus causes the relatively longer duration of a double consonant at the phonetic level.

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82 True geminates, as in (4b), on the other hand, are generated from stem-affix forms.

At the root level, the

consonant in the syllable final position of the stem spreads to the onset of the next syllable to produce a double-linked structure.

At the prosodic level, there is

no phonological word boundary between the stem and its affix because they are compressed into a phonological word.

Since there is only a single consonant in (4c), it

shows the shortest relative duration of the three groups. The relative duration of vowels in the four groups is exactly the opposite of that of consonant duration. That is, the relative vowel duration of the first syllable in the single consonant case is the longest, and in the fake geminate case it is the shortest.

We can regard the

relative duration of vowels and consonants as being inversely related. Furthermore, there exists a substantial relative duration difference between nasal and stop consonants in the groups of fake geminates, true geminates, and single consonants.

Since this difference is consistent across

all three groups, we can conclude that it is due to the nature of the sound type.

That is, nasals, being vowel­

like, tend to have longer durations than obstruents (Chen and Wang, 1975).

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83 In conclusion, true geminates (both nasals and non-spirantized stops) can be phonologically long but phonetically shorter than expected, because of the boundary differences as called for by prosodic constituents.

3.3

The domain of gemination The preceding analysis of the phonetic data has

led to the conclusion that true geminates are contained in one phonological word while fake geminates occur at the boundaries of two separate phonological words.

Since this

proposal indicates a difference between a stem and an affix, we must study the morphological behavior of affixes in Chinese in order to establish the properties of true geminates. True gemination, as will be shown below, occurs only with a subgroup of affixes.

By identifying the

properties of this subgroup, we can explain why gemination takes place to produce true geminates.

The following

analysis indicates that, because these affixes are vowel initial and hence onsetless, the final consonant of the preceding morpheme spreads to the onset of these affixes at the segmental level.

I propose that affixes which

undergo such repairs are 'degenerate1. In the following sections, I will examine the relevant lexical, phrasal,

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84 and sentential affixes.

Prior to that, however, I will

argue in section 3.3.1. that any analysis that uses stress as the basis for defining the domain where gemination can apply (e.g., Duanmu (1990) for Mandarin; Yip (1980) for Mandarin and Taiwanese) is untenable on either empirical or theoretical grounds.

3.3.1

The role of stress in gemination In Yip's (1980) stress-based analysis of Mandarin

and Taiwanese, a foot in either language consists of the leftmost fully toned syllable plus any number of toneless syllables.

Within a foot, only the first fully toned

syllable is labelled as a "strong” (s) node, while the toneless syllables are all labelled "weak" (w), as shown in (5a).

Feet can be further mapped onto a word tree

labelled as in (5b). (5)

a.

Foot (F)

b. Word (W) W

F s

/

s

w

tan13 sin 'Mr. Tan1

w

w

w

s

se

F

F

F

siu33 lai33 'swim here5

tsia55

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85 The only exception to the sw foot structure is the ws foot which contains a syllable labelled 'w', followed by affix a53, which is labelled 's' in Taiwanese,

yip's stress-

based analysis uses the foot to define the domain within which gemination can apply, whether it is labelled ws as in (5a), or sw as in (6b). (5)

a.

Before

a53

b.

Before neutral tone

F'

/

F

\

w I F

s I F

s

/

\

w

Within this domain, gemination of thefinalconsonant

of

the preceding syllable applies obligatorily before a53 in Taiwanese and optionally before a neutral toned V-initial syllable in Taiwanese and Mandarin.2 Therefore, the difference between (7a) and (7b) is that the Taiwanese compound word 'scale box' is represented as two feet, and 'small scale' as one foot.

Gemination takes place within

a foot in (7b) but not across feet in (7a). (7)

a. two feet — > no gemination W

w

/ w i 1

F I tshin31 scale

\ s

i I F i i3’

box

— >

/ i 1

w

F

\ s 1

F

tshin31 na31 'scale box'

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86

b. one foot — > gemination

w

s

F

F

tshin55 scale

-- >

a53 Suf

w

s

F

F

tshin55 na53 'small scale1

Yip's definition of foot, as we have seen above, is based exclusively on stress which directly refers to the tonecarrying segment as s and neutral-tone segment as w, except when it contains the suffix a.

Such a stress-based

account of gemination is inadequate, however, for a number of reasons. First, let us consider fully toned V-initial morphemes such as the classifier e, the adjective marker (AM) e, the possessive marker (PM) e, and the relative marker (RM) e.

If we follow Yip's definition of foot,

each of these grammatical markers is fully toned— and is, therefore, a foot.

However, since these grammatical

markers trigger gemination of their preceding syllable, we can see that gemination does apply across two feet, as shown in (8).

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87 (8)

,W N

W x

s

/

!\

w

w

I

II

F

F

I

s

w

F

I I

kim e tsua golden AM paper 'golden paper'

~ >

'

s

l\

w

s

I

I

I

F

F

F

I

kim

I I

me tsua

A second problem with Yip's stress-based analysis arises with object pronouns which can appear either with a full tone (i.e., stressed) or a neutral tone assimilating to itspreceding

tone(i.e., unstressed),

not causegemination in (9)

a.

though they do

either tone form, as shown

in (9):

object pronoun with a full tone i. gua lam55 i33 # e si-tsun # I embrace him/her RM time — > * lam55 mi33 'When I am/was embracing him/her,' ii.

gua that53 i33 #e si-tsun # I kick him/her RM time — > * thal53 li33 'When I am/was kicking him/her,'

b. object pronoun with a neutral tone i. gua I — > 'When ii.

lam53 # i # e si-tsun # embrace him/her RM time * lam53 # mi33 I am/was embracing him/her,'

gua I — > 'When

that31 # i # e si-tsun # kick him/her RM time * thal31 # li11 I am/was kicking him/her,'

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88

These object pronouns are tonally the same as AM and RM in that they have two tone forms (full tone and neutral tone) ; however, they are segmentally different from AM and RM in that they do not involve gemination.

The problem

with the stress-based proposal, therefore, lies in the way it forces object pronouns, AM and RM, to be treated identically in order to maintain its stress-defined domain. My final argument against the stress-based analysis concerns gemination across Chinese languages. Despite substantial differences in tone sandhi and stress systems among various Chinese languages, their similarity lies in the consistent occurrence of gemination triggered by a V-initial affix that functions as a head (cf. section 3.3.2).

A survey of V-initial gemination triggers across

Chinese languages is provided in (10).

All sub-families

are represented in the survey (with Taiwanese data being used for illustration in the following sections).3 In (10), '+' represents the existence of V-initial lexical affixes (LA), phrasal affixes (PA), and sentential affixes (SA) .

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89 (10)

Gemination triggers in Chinese languages

Language family

language

LA

PA

SA

Mandarin

Mandarin Mancheng

+

+ +

Wu

Taixing

+

+

Gan

Nanchang Lichuang

+

+ +

North Min South Min

Fuzhounese Taiwanese

+ +

+

+ +

Yue Kej ia

Cantonese Kejia in Taiwan

+

+

+ +

With respect to what triggers gemination, languages such as Mandarin, in which stress is relatively more salient, are not distinguished from the languages in which stress is not overtly attested.

In Mandarin, the gemination-

triggering sentential particle a happens to be neutraltoned, but it has tone and may even be stressed for emphasis in other languages such Cantonese. On the basis of the above arguments we must reject a stress-defined domain of gemination in Taiwanese and other Chinese languages.

That is, the problems which it

poses make it untenable, both empirically and theoretically.

Now that we have seen that gemination is

not sensitive to stress, I will show how the process is instead triggered by a subgroup of affixes, (i.e., V-

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90 initial 'Affix1)/ whose 'degenerate' character motivates gemination.

3.3.2

Morphological properties of gemination triggers In this section, I will present the morphological

characteristics of the subgroup of affixes which trigger gemination in Chinese.

The goal of this discussion will

be to show that the affixes triggering true gemination begin with vowels, but these affixes also function as grammatical heads, as schematized in (11) (cf. Williams, 1981; Selkirk, 1982 for the definition of the morphological head.) (11)

legitimate gemination triggers in Chinese languages

/N

p

aAf

where p is a morpheme, word, phrase, or sentence In (11), the gemination-triggering affix is labelled "aAf".

The preceding unit, represented as "P", can be a

morpheme, word, phrase, or sentence.

I propose that the

affix is a morphological head because it exhibits all of the following characteristics:

(a) it carries the same

syntactic category features as the dominating category, which means that if the constituent preceding the suffix

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91 does not share the grammatical category of the dominating node, the suffix will determine the grammatical category of the entire constituent, as in the case of lexical affixes, (b) it determines the grammatical function of the dominating node, as in the case of phrasal affixes (e.g., the adjective marker e), and (c) it changes the semantic meaning of its preceding morpheme, word, phrase or sentence as in the case of the suffix a53 and sentential affixes. The affixes differ from stems, which do not have such grammatical and semantic properties.

In referring to

the domain for segmental changes in Chinese languages, the only category that contrasts with 'Affix' is Stem. Specifically, although a morpheme in Chinese can be either a bound or free stem or an affix, phonological rules are not sensitive to whether a stem is bound or free (i.e, a word).

This fact marks a contrast between Chinese

and other languages, such as English where the category 'Affix' (cf. Selkirk, 1982) is phonologically distinct from other grammatical categories such as Root, Stem, and Word.

Taiwanese affixes also differ from English affixes

in additional two aspects:

(a) an affix that serves as a

head in Taiwanese can take a whole phrase or sentence as its scope, and (b) the lexical affix proposed here does

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92 not necessarily form an existing word with its preceding constituent, as we will see in section 3.3.2.1.

3.3.2.1

Lexical affixes The schema in (11) shows that gemination triggers

must be suffixes, and not prefixes.

That is, prefixes are

structurally excluded by (11) above, because they attach to their right rather than their left. In addition, Taiwanese suffixes, unlike prefixes, can change the grammatical category of their base. Consider, for example, the suffix a53 which denotes, among other things, diminution, contempt, insignificance, and familiarity.

The rewriting rule in (12) shows how this

suffix changes the grammatical category of the preceding word and hence behaves like a head.

Examples of such

structures follow in (13).4 (12)

a. b. c. d.

A V N A

+ Naff +Naff — > +Naff — > +Advaff —

— >N N N > Adv

(13)

a. gol] + a stupid 'stupid person' b. tsian + a cut 'cutter1 c. tshat + a thief •thief'

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93 d. man man + a slow 1slowly' A prefix, on the other hand, does not function as a morphological head in Chinese, since it cannot change the grammatical category of the constituent to which it attaches.

This is exemplified by the name prefix in (14)

and (15) :5,6 (14) (15)

a33-si(|13 Pre-Sil) 'Sin (a name) ' a33-pin55 Pre-Pin 'Pin (a name)' Another type of lexical affix is a53 which occurs

word-internally, and thus appears to behave like an infix. In this environment, a53 can serve as a linking morpheme for compound and reduplicated words, by linking two "parallel” words, as in (16).7 "Parallel" here means being either compatible in some way (e.g., g=>]] 'grandfather' and la 'grandmother' in (16a)), or identical (e.g., the first i-sil]-a-k’Hian 'doctor-like' and the second i-sit]-a-khuan in (16b)).

(Note:

Tone 55 in word-

internal a53 is the result of regular tone sandhi.)

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94 (16) a53 as a linking morpheme (L) a. in the idiomatic compound (Cheng, 1973; Zhang, 1983) g=>I]33 a55 grandfather L 'ancestor'

ma53 grandmother

b. in the reduplicated form (Cheng, 1981) i33 sir)33 a55 doctor Suf i33 sil]33 a55 doctor Suf 'doctor-like'

khuan55 like khuan53 like

a55-

I propose that this linking morpheme is a suffix, attaching to a prosodic constituent.8 The examples in (16) can be derived as in (17): (The bracket [ ] is used to indicate the prosodic constituent.) (17)

a. [g=>l) ] [ma]

-> [g=>l] ] a [ma] t Suffixation

b. i sil) a khuan — > i sil) a khuan i sin a khuan — > [i sir) a khuan] a [i sin a khuan] t Suffixation In (17a), the affix behaves as predicted, attaching to the prosodic constituent, syllable g^r) . In (17b), a53 attaches to its preceding base which can be considered a morphological word, in terms of prosodic constituents. According to this account, Taiwanese contains only a single suffix, so that whether or not it changes the grammatical category of its base, it remains a

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95 morphological head by sharing the grammatical category of its mother node. (cf. Chapter 4 for further discussion of suffixation to a prosodic constituent.) This account is supported in several respects. First, the fact that the form in (16a) has other variants indicates that the apparent infixes in these cases could instead be suffixes, as shown in (18). (18)

a. i.

g=>l]33 grandfather 'ancestor' ii. g-=>n33 iii. g=l)33

ma53 grandmother a55 a55

ma53 ma55

a53

b. i.

sa33 kh=>31 shirt pant 'cloth' ii. sa33 a55 kh=>31 iii. sa33 a55 kh=55 a53 The coordinate compounds in (18) have three variants: (i) simply consists of two coordinate morphemes; (ii) shows the affix a55 in between two morphemes; and (iii) shows the affix a for each coordinate morpheme.

The affix and

its preceding base can form an existing word (e.g., sa a •cloth' or kh=> a 'pant'), or else a possible but not existing word (e.g., g=>I) a or ma a). If we treated a55 as an infix in (ii), we would have to account for two types of affixes in (iii):

infix a (e.g., a in sa a), and

suffix a (e.g., a in kho a).

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96 On the other hand, the suffixation analysis treats both affixes in (iii) as suffixes, thus providing a unified account for (ii) and (iii) by positing a derivation through compounding and suffixation.

The

derivation of (18aiii) is shown in (19): (19)

Input: g=l] and ma Coordinate compounding: g=>I| Suffixation: g^I) Output:

ma a t

ma a 1

g=l] a ma a

In (19), the process of compounding combines two coordinate morphemes g=>(| and ma, each of which is, in turn, taken as a base to which the suffix a53 attaches.

A

combination of compounding and suffixation gives the final output g=>l] a ma a 1ancestor'. Let us now consider examples of subordinate compounds with the word-internal affix a53 shown in (20). word-internal a53 a . huan33 a55 hue53 barbarian Aff fire 1match' b . ki33 a55 pil)55 stick Aff ice 'popsicle' c . min 3 a55 tsai31 tomorrow Aff morning 'tomorrow morning1 The combination of a53 and its preceding noun base in (20) shows a three-way contrast.

In (20a), huan-a is an

independent word and, consequently, the occurrence of

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97 word-internal a53 is the result of its further compounding with the word which follows. but not existing word.

In (20b), ki-a is a possible

Finally, min-a in (20c) is not a

possible word in Taiwanese since a53 attaches only to concrete nouns, and not abstract nouns such as 'tomorrow1.9 Unlike the examples in (18) in which deletion of the linking morpheme a53 is optional, deletion of the affixes in (20) would generate incorrect words. From a morphological perspective, these latter affixes behave differently from the one found in the coordinate compounds.

Treating these affixes as a single suffix

attaching to a syllable in both coordinate and subordinate compounds, allows us to account for all of these cases with fairly simple rules.

The derivation of a subordinate

compound is exemplified in (21) by ki a pig 'popsicle'. (21)

Suffixation: Compounding: Output:

ki a t ki a pig ki a pig

It should be noted that the output at the intermediate stage (i.e., suffixation process) need not be an existing word.

Since the final output is strongly constrained by

the prosodic structure of Chinese (cf. Chapter 4), the output derived from earlier word formation levels (and hence the input for later word formation) can be relatively free, as long as the structure of the final

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98 output is still similar in structure.

Thus, although the

affix and its preceding base form distinct constituents from a morphological point of view, they remain similar from a prosodic point of view. In the same way, although the linking morpheme in (16b) above does not change the grammatical category of the reduplicated word, its meaning is identical to that of the suffix a.

In other words, since it decreases the

degree of intensity in the reduplicated adjectives, its semantic interpretation is similar to the diminution indicated by the suffix a in noun formation.

Thus, we

have good reason to believe that this linking morpheme can also be treated as a suffix. In short, by treating all of the word-internal affixes discussed above as a single suffix, we can capture their similarities with respect to both word formation processes, and semantic interpretation.

As a result,

these word-internal affixes also fit the schema, outlined in (11), which identifies the gemination-triggers. In summary, we have shown that at the lexical level, the suffix a53 is a morphological head that can either change the grammatical category, or add semantic information to its base.

Both the word-final and word-

internal affixes are in fact a single suffix, and the

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99 constituent to which this suffix attaches is defined in prosodic terms.

3.3.2.2

Phrasal affixes

Phrasal affixes indicate the grammatical function of the constituent in which they and their preceding word or phrase are contained. morphological heads.10

Hence, these affixes behave like In Taiwanese, the V-initial

gemination-triggering phrasal affixes are the classifier e, the adjective marker e, the relative marker e,

possessive marker e, the nominalizer e, the address marker e, the aspectual marker a, and the classifier e,

illustrated in (22)r11 (22)

the relative marker (sandhi tone 33) i tsia o-a-tsian55- # e33 si-tsun # s/he eat oyster-omelette RM time — > tsian55 # ne33 •when s/he is/was eatingoyster-omelette'

Although both lexical affixes and phrasal affixes are grammatical heads, they behave differently morphologically, as exemplified by the address marker (ADM) e.

Also a gemination trigger, ADM e is used to

address or refer to a familiar person and is similar to a53 in this respect.

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100 (23)

bin a. g=I) stupid ’address (or is stupid1 bin b. g=I] stupid 'address (or is stupid1 a53 c. hue Hue Suf 'address (or name is Hue' hue e Hue ADM 'address (or name is Hue'

a Suf refer

to) a familiar person who

e ADM refer

to) a familiar person who

refer to) a familiar person whose

refer to) a familiar person whose

There are, nevertheless, differences between e and a53 with respect to this use.

First, (24) shows that e

can follow a53 but not vice versa. (24)

a. name + a53 + e b. * name + e + a53

Secondly, in jokes, a53 cannot be attached to a freely generated phrase, (as in (25a)), while e can, (as in (25b)). (25)

a. *

ai tshao-tua # a like boast ADM •address a familiar person who likes boasting.' b. ai tshao-tua # e like boast ADM 'address a familiar person who likes boasting.'

Third, a53 can occur inside a name while e is always peripheral.

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101 (26)

a . kal) -a-bun-gi Last name-L-first name-first name b . * kal) -e-bun-gi

Fourth, when either a first or last name is used alone, a53 can only be attached to the first name, while e can attach to either. (27)

a. * kal) last name b . kal) last name c . bun first name d . bun first name

a53 Suf e Suf a53 Suf e Suf

These differences between the properties of a53 and e show that the usage of the latter is less restricted than that of the former, and hence behaves like a syntactic affix rather than a lexical affix (cf. Klavans, 1982; Huang, 1987 for details of the distinction between lexical and syntactic affixes).12 Now we turn to another grammatical marker, the classifier e.

Classifiers always appear in a fixed order.

Demonstratives (this, that) precede numerals, which are in turn followed by nouns, as can be seen in the following Taiwanese example; (28)

hit tsit e lal) that one Cl person 'that person'

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102 The classifier in Tang's (1990) syntactic structure appears as a head determining the grammatical function of the Cl node.

Classifiers, then, appear to qualify as

gemination triggers; however, this does not follow without exception.

In contrast with the rule-triggering

classifier e, other V-initial classifiers (e.g., au 'measure word for bowl') cannot trigger gemination. It is clear, then, that the rules governing the different behaviors of the classifier e and au must be stated in terms of their morphological characteristics.13 One characteristic that distinguishes the classifier e from the classifier au is the fact that the former displays properties of an affix while the latter does not. The classifier e cannot be an independent word that freely combines with other words in a word formation process. This phenomenon contrasts with the case found in the classifiers au and ap, each of which takes the suffix a to form words, as shown in (29): (29)

a. au cup b. ap box

a Suf a Suf

'cup' 'box'

Furthermore, the classifiers au and ap can combine with other lexical morphemes to form compound words, as given in (30);

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103 (30)

a. pue au bottle cup b. tsua ap paper box

1cup1 'paper box'

The morphological distinctions between these two types of classifiers must be captured in terms of their structural properties.

In (31a), the grammatical category

of the classifier is lexically specified while in (31b), it is unspecified.

Example (31a) is a modified version of

Tang's (1990) structure for classifiers, (where Num represents numbers and Cl classifiers) with the specification of 'Affix' for the classifier e. (31)

a.

Cl'^ Cl

/ Hum

b. NP

xCl*"„

^Cl'^

Cl 7 x Cl Hum

NP

Such a representation for the classifier e captures the generalization concerning gemination.

Triggers must meet

two requirements: they must (a) be affixes, and (b) serve as heads that determine the grammatical category or function of the constituent to which they attach. Although au and ap can be functional heads when they appear as classifiers, they are not affixes on the basis of their morphological properties.

As a syntactic affix,

the classifier e behaves differently from lexical affixes

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104 in that there are no exceptions to its distribution: it occurs predictably after demonstratives and numerals.

3.3.2.3

Sentential affixes I propose that a sentential particle, which

appears at the end of the sentence, semantically determines the speech act of the whole sentence and behaves like a 'sentential head1. For example, (32b) changes the statement in (32a) to an interrogative sentence. (32)

a.

i be khi s/he want go 'S/he wants to go.1 b. i be khi bo s/he want go Par 'Does s/he want to go?'

The proposed analysis for sentential particles corresponds to Selkirk's (1982) claim that, with respect to its semantic attribute, an affix can simply add its semantic interpretation to the original meaning of its sister node, as in the case of the diminutive affixes in English (e.g., N-ette, N-let, etc). In Taiwanese, the sentential affix takes a phrase or a sentence as the scope for modification, thus from the semantic perspective, we can regard sentential particles as heads.

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105 Unlike lexical affixes, sentence particles in Taiwanese are syntactic affixes for the following reasons: (a) they can attach to a word, a phrase, or a sentence, forming a syntactic unit at any of those three levels; (b) a sentence particle can attach to any sentence if their semantic restrictions are compatible. At the same time, however, sentence particles share some of the properties of stems, including co­ occurrence restrictions.

This can be seen in particles

consisting of more than one syllable (e.g., ko?-le (cf. Lien, 1989)).

Similarly, in Cantonese, while monosyllabic

sentential particles can form particle clusters, they are subject to certain co-occurrence restrictions (cf. Law, 1990).14 Particles, then, have both affix and stem properties.

The pattern that emerges is that all

gemination triggers are affixes but they nevertheless represent various positions on the continuum ending at stem, as shown in (33).

Lexical affixes attach to

morphemes or words, various grammatical markers and aspectual markers attach to phrases, and sentence particles, which behave like "sentential affixes," attach to entire sentences.

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106 (33) ------------------------------ > stem lexical affixes

phrasal affixes

sentential affixes

Moving from left to right on the scale, the affixes grow increasingly stemlike.

All these gemination triggers thus

share the feature 'Affix' and have the property of being heads, their scope depending on their respective domains. In Chinese languages, morphemes marked 'Affix' only occupy a small percentage of the lexicon.

The rare

occurrence of this type of morpheme can be explained by the fact that Chinese was originally a language in which monosyllabic words were the main lexical items, and each lexical item was isolated and independent in terms of meaning.

Furthermore, parts of speech for morphemes were

not set, but rather, depended on sentence position (e.g., sui can mean beauty or beautiful, depending on its position).

For these two reasons, few morphemes are

needed in Classical Chinese to (a) change a morpheme's grammatical category, (b) mark the grammatical function, or (c) change the meaning of its preceding constituent. Although multi-syllabic words have been introduced into Modern Chinese, Classical Chinese is still commonly used in the written languages. Finally, as I mentioned in Chapter 2, the distinction between a stem and a V-initial affix is not

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107 lexical/postlexical, but prosodic, because (a) a V-initial affix is not necessarily a lexical affix, but can be also phrasal or sentential, (b) a V-initial prefix does not trigger gemination, and (c) a V-initial lexical affix occurring word-internally does not necessarily form an existing word with its preceding morpheme.

Furthermore, a

stem need not be further differentiated as bound or free, since phonological changes are not sensitive to this distinction.

In the next section, I will show that V-

initial affixes are degenerate syllables, in contrast to other complete syllables.

When this is established, it

will become clear that the domain for gemination and stop voicing is between complete and degenerate syllables, a domain defined in prosodic terms.

3.3.3

Degenerate syllables The fact that gemination triggers all belong to

the grammatical category of 'Affix' raises significant theoretical considerations with regard to the motivation of root spreading and consequently, gemination of the consonant.

As mentioned above, I propose that any item

marked 'Affix', that is also phonologically a V-initial syllable (as given in (34)) can be considered a "degenerate syllable" in Taiwanese and other Chinese languages.

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108 (34)

A degenerate syllable in Taiwanese and other Chinese languages is: a. b.

marked as 'Affix', morphologically, and V-initial, phonologically.

This definition differs from that of Selkirk (1981) and Ito (1989), where a degenerate syllable is one simply lacking a segmental nucleus.

But as we have seen, both

morphological and phonological criteria must be used to determine whether or not a syllable is degenerate.

In

Chinese languages an onset is not obligatory in V-initial stems, although there is a preference for filling this slot with a glottal stop.

That is, in domains other than

the V-initial 'Affix', a glottal stop is usually inserted in an onsetless V-initial, rather than the consonant from its preceding syllable.

From this perspective, Ito's

Onset Principle, (which states that an empty onset is not favored during the process of syllabification) plays a more significant role in the degenerate syllable.

What

causes the different requirements of onset for different types of lexical items?

Let us assume that all syllables

must be 'complete'— that is, they cannot appear as degenerate in the final output.

As a result, a degenerate

syllable will seek to repair its status by acquiring an onset consonant (if one exists) from its preceding syllable at the segmental level.

This account provides an

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109 explanation for why gemination is limited to the domain between a syllable and a degenerate syllable.15 Furthermore, at the prosodic level, a single syllable, or one combined with a degenerate syllable forms a phonological word (PW) (also cf. Chiang, 1990).

The PW

is defined in (35): (35)

PW in Taiwanese The PW is:

a. a complete o, or b. a complete o + a degenerate

a

Within the stem-affix domain, onset filling, which occurs at the segmental level, and a phonological word formation, which occurs at the prosodic level, can be regarded as the process of ’prosodic legitimization' that motivates a degenerate syllable to become 'complete'.16 The above definition of the phonological word enables us to account for the difference in relative duration between fake geminates and true geminates.

A

stem-stem form containing a fake geminate comprises two phonological words whereas a stem-affix form containing a true geminate constitutes a single phonological word.

As

a result, pre-boundary lengthening in the former causes longer relative duration.

Pre-boundary lengthening does

not occur in a true geminate, however, since no phonological word boundary exists between a complete

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110 syllable (i.e., stem) and a degenerate syllable (i.e., Vinitial affix). The difference between the phonetic realization of fake and true geminates is thus attributable to the prosodic structures in which they are contained. In cross-linguistic studies, Selkirk and Ito have claimed that degenerate syllables are only phonologically determined.

However, I have shown that in Taiwanese, they

must be defined in terms of morphological as well as phonological criteria.

This being the case, we would

expect there to exist other languages whose degenerate syllables are also morphologically and phonologically determined, and which are repaired through phonological processes.

Affixes are more likely to be morphologically

degenerate than regular stems or words.

It would be

interesting to investigate other languages in which the phonological behavior of syllables containing only a nucleus is not uniform, in order to learn whether the differences in their behavior can also be attributed to their prosodic structure.

I leave this issue, however,

for further research concerned with providing a universal account for the generalization of degenerate syllables.

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Ill 3.4

Conclusions Despite the fact that fake and true geminates

share the same phonological representation at the root level, their phonetic realizations differ significantly. The analysis proposed in this chapter reconciles this discrepancy by attributing it to differences in the prosodic constituents in which each type of geminate is contained— specifically, that true geminate occurs within the phonological word.

It has been shown that gemination

takes place only within morphological units containing vowel-initial suffixes.

These units, being onsetless and

hence 'degenerate* from a prosodic point of view, undergo gemination, which can be regarded as a form of phonological repair.

As such, these affixes— whether

lexical, phrasal, or sentential— are treated as a unified grammatical category which undergoes certain phonological processes peculiar to itself.

Besides true gemination,

these processes include stop voicing and spirantization. Another important question addressed in this chapter concerns the role of phonetic data in phonological theory.

Phonetic evidence has begun to play an

increasingly important role in the development of phonological theory (e.g., Edwards and Beckman, 1988; Pierrhumbert and Beckman, 1986; Wang, 1991).

In this

study, phonetic information has been crucial in

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112 determining whether a phonological analysis of gemination in Chinese should be based on the absolute or relative durations of segments.

In analyzing the phonetic data

from Taiwanese, I have shown that it is precisely the relative duration of consonants in bisyllabic forms which enables us to distinguish between true geminates, fake geminates, and single consonants.

This three-way contrast

is essential because it parallels a three-way distinction at the prosodic level, as shown in (4) (cf. section 3.2.2) . Although these findings have been based solely on Taiwanese data, this same analysis could be applied to other Chinese languages as well.

Nevertheless, we should

be sensitive to the presence of other possible undiscovered prosodic factors affecting the phonetic realizations of geminates in Chinese languages other than Taiwanese.

In Mandarin, for example, stress may play a

role in determining the relative durations of true and fake geminates.

It would be interesting, therefore, to

compare the gemination process of a language which is sensitive to stress (e.g., Mandarin) to one which is not (e.g., Taiwanese).

Another factor to consider would be

the higher level prosodic constituents— intonational phrases, for example— not just in Chinese but in other languages as well.17 Recall that in Chinese, affixes

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113 which act as gemination triggers may be lexical, phrasal, or even sentential.

Because phrasal and sentential units

involve intonational boundaries, further investigation of the interaction between different types of boundaries (e.g., phonological word boundaries and intonational phrase boundaries) would undoubtedly represent a fruitful area of research.

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NOTES 1In the fourth minimal pair of the kma group (i.e., kirn33 a31? 'golden duck1), the second word contains the glottal stop (i.e., a31?). A three-word phrase is not made for this group as it is for the gp group, due to the fact that it is impossible to make the third minimal pair (i.e., khi55 ma53 'at least1) become three-syllable word. 2Yip's proposal is argued in terms of resyllabification, rather than gemination. 3Data sources: Mancheng (Chen, 1988) ; Taixing (Yuan et al., 1983); Nanchang (Xiong, 1982); Lichuang (Yan, 1989); Fuzhounese (Zheng, 1988); Kejia (Chung, 1989). *For a detailed discussion of rewriting rules, cf. Selkirk (1982). 5Another affix in Taiwanese, the name suffix a, is also used in the names. It is tonally different from a53 in that (a) it does not trigger tone change in its preceding word, and (b) its tone assimilates to the tone of its preceding word, as shown in (i): (i)

a. lan13-a33 Lan-Suf 'Lan' b . il)55-a55 II]-Suf 'II] '

— >

lan13 a33

— >

ii)55 I]a55

I suggest that this suffix is not distinct, but is instead, a reduced form of the suffix a53, since when used in names, the two are interchangeable. differences in behavior between the suffix and the prefix can also be seen in Taiwanese secret languages (cf. Li, 1985). For example, one type of secret language divides each monosyllabic morpheme of the source language into two parts, the onset and the rime. Each syllable 114

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115 then is divided into two by adding 1 to the rime of the first syllable and then adding the vowel i to the onset of the second syllable. However, the formation of two syllables do not occur in V-initial suffixes. While the affixes a and e in (ia,b) are not divided into two syllables, the prefix a is split, and thus behave like Vinitial non-suffix stems (e.g., e 'can' in (id)). (i)

a. tsiao-a — > liao tsi-a bird-Suf 'bird' b. ho-e bo ai lai good-Nom not want come — > lo hi e lo bi lai i lai gi 'The good ones don't want to come.'

vs.

c. a-pa — > la i la pi Pre-Daddy 'Daddy' d. e hiao — > le i can know 'know how'

liao

hi

The fact that prefixes behave differently from suffixes is not surprising. In many languages, including Italian and Hungarian, prefixes also behave differently from suffixes (Nespor & Vogel, 1986). 7The term "linking morpheme" used here is equivalent to those used for other languages, e.g.,"linking vowel", "derivational linking element" or "linking phoneme". Since an extensive cross-linguistic study on linking morphemes has not yet been done, I use "linking morpheme" in this paper to designate the affix a53 , which "links" the morphemes in a word. Structurally, words with a linking morpheme (L) can be represented as follows: (i)

a.

/N N L N

b. A

/I \

A L A

Since the linking morpheme can connect either two nouns as in (ia) or else two adjectives as in (ib), let us consider a possible account which will treat the linking morpheme as a morphological head. If we posit that a chain of "unitary grammatical category" holds between the words and the linking morpheme, the linking morpheme will be in the

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116 same grammatical category as the other two, as illustrated in (ii). The linking morpheme can then percolate its grammatical category to its mother node and thereby function as a head, as do other suffixes. (ii)

a. chain linking i.

N

ii.

N

b. percolation i.

ii. N

v.

/ !'^X

N

Na^J

A

N

v

/ iN X

A

A8^) A

According tothis analysis, the structure in (11) does not exclude the linking morpheme. While this analysis seems appealing because it associates the linking morpheme with other cases of percolation, it does not show that the category of the compound is determined by the affix since the grammatical category of the linking morpheme is the same as that of the other two morphemes or words. Therefore, treating the linking morpheme as an infix different from the suffix 53 leads us to certain undesirable results. 9It is rare that the word-internal a53 and its preceding word form an impossible word. 10This view of syntactic affixes differs from the position taken by C.-R. Huang (1987), in which Mandarin PM de, AM de, and RM de are considered to be one syntactic affix, i.e., a clitic de (de is followed by an NP). According to Huang, a clitic is not a head. Furthermore, Huang's treatment of de as a single clitic in Mandarin cannot be generalized to the Taiwanese e. Challenging to the claim that the various grammatical markers can be taken as one clitic is the fact that PM in Taiwanese exhibits different tone behavior. Huang's claim for Mandarin de can easily be justified because of de's invariant phonological value (first-type neutral tone). It can be seen in (i), however, that PM e exhibits tonal behavior different from that of RM and AM. PM e appears

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117 in the underlying form 13 when it is not followed by an overt argument within a tone group: (i)

mi-a # si kal] sio-tsia thing is Karj Miss 'That thing is Miss Kan's'

#

e13 # PM

11Nom e behaves more like a derivational affix by changing the grammatical category of the element it attaches to (e.g., V -> N in (ia and b), and VP -> NP in (ic)). (i)

nominalizer (Norn) a. [to hai]v# e ask sea Norn 'fisherman' b. [pha thi]v # e hit iron Norn 'blacksmith' c. [Ii be hue3vp # e Prog sell flower Nom 'someone who is selling flowers'

In fact, the so-called nominalizer is a relative marker followed by a phonologically null noun as illustrated in (ii) : (ii) NP / VP

NP \ e

—

>

S / S I VP

\ e

N I 0

The NP head (i.e., the grammatical category determiner) is replaced by an empty noun. Analyzing Nom e as a relative marker can explain the similar tonal behavior between RM and AM. AM and RM appear with the sandhi tone 33 whenever they are followed by an overt argument internal within a tone group, and appear with the second-type neutral tone otherwise. 12Unlike other grammatical markers, which can be followed by an overt argument, a name (family, given, or nickname) containing e cannot be followed by an argument.

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118 13Chiang (1990) accounts for this in terms of their differing structure in the rime: the latter has a branching rime. This explanation may be plausible in Taiwanese, but Cantonese has a sentential particle ak (Yip, 1989) which contains two different segments. This sentential particle behaves like a in that both trigger gemination (S.-P. Law, p.c.). Obviously, this explanation cannot be considered a cross-linguistic generalization for Chinese languages. 14Some underlying bisyllabic sentential particles in Cantonese such as la33 or la33 w=33 are not derived from the combination of two particles (Law, 1990). 15A study of clitics by Klavans (1982) shows that they are passively dependent on their preceding phonological environment. My proposal here differs in that degenerate syllables can "actively" cause repair by triggering the application of a phonological process to make them conform to the conditions governing "complete" syllables. 16Because of the differences in the definition of the degenerate syllable with respect to Ito's (1986, 1989), "prosodic legitimization" cannot be equated with "prosodic licensing". 17For the definition of the Intonational Phrase, see Nespor and Vogel (1986); Selkirk (1978).

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Chapter 4 REDUPLICATION IN CHINESE LANGUAGES

4.1

Introduction This chapter discusses the process of adjective

reduplication in Chinese languages, specifically syllable reduplication.

The purpose of reduplication, a common

phenomenon across Chinese languages, is to give a more vivid meaning to the original adjective (cf. Chao, 1968 for Mandarin), or else modify its degree of intensity. Most Chinese languages increase the degree of intensity by reduplicating the adjective.

Relatively fewer languages

have the opposite effect; that is, with the degree decreasing in the reduplicated forms.

For example, the

reduplicated form in Taiwanese is weaker in intensity than that of the monosyllabic word, e.g., al)-al) 'somewhat red1. However, the triplicated form (e.g, at]-al)-at) 'very red') indicates the strongest degree of intensity. On the surface, Chinese reduplicated adjectives— which may occur as bisyllabic, trisyllabic, and even 119

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120 quadrisyllable compounds— may seem to be highly diverse. Nevertheless, a unified account of the derivation of these reduplicated adjectives is not only possible but highly plausible.

The proposed account, developed within the

framework of prosodic morphology (cf. McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990, forthcoming), will treat all types of reduplicated adjectives as the product of a single suffixation process. The argument that only suffixation (and not prefixation) is involved in all cases is well supported by empirical evidence obtained from a wide spectrum of Chinese languages.

The evidence to be presented in the

following sections will show that reduplicated adjectives display phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties similar to those of true suffixes. In unifying the superficially varied Chinese adjective compounds under a single process, I will introduce the concept of cyclicity (cf. Kiparsky, 1982, 1985) into prosodic morphology.

In doing so, I will show

that, owing to prosodic constraints, Chinese allows a maximum of two cycles of suffixation in syllable reduplication.

The conclusion drawn in this chapter is

that the effects of prosodic constraints on Chinese word formation can be observed outside adjective reduplication. It would be interesting, therefore, to explore further the

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121 interaction between the phonological and morphological components of Chinese grammar because of the theoretical implications for phonology-morphology interface.

4.2

Adjective reduplication in Chinese: The data

This section will give a descriptive overview of the structure of adjective reduplication in several Chinese languages, particularly Mandarin and Taiwanese.

4.2.1

The most common structures

In an examination of Mandarin, Taiwanese, and other Chinese languages available in the literature (e.g., Yuan et al., 1983), one finds the various types of adjective reduplication given in (l).1'2

Examples of

each type of adjective reduplication are provided in (2). Throughout this chapter I will use the variables X and Y to represent monosyllabic morphemes and XY to represent bisyllabic morphological words that can occur as terminal nodes of the syntactic tree.

In order to facilitate

exposition, I will sometimes use the subscripts 1 and 2 to indicate the order of the reduplicated form.

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122 (1)

Adjective reduplication a. X -> X X b. X -> X X X c. X -> X X X d. XY -> X X Y e. XY -> X Y Y f . XY -> X X Y g- XY -> X Y X -> XYZ h. XYZ. .•

(2)

Examples of Adjective Reduplication a. XX (e.g., Mandarin) i. ai -> ai ai short 'short1 ii. pang -> pang pang fat 'fat' b. XXX (e.g., Taiwanese) i. al) -> al) al) al] red 'very red' ii. o -> o o o black 'very dark' c. XXXX (e.g., onomatopoeia in Mandarin) i. pa -> pa pa pa pa sound 'a continuous sound "pa"' ii. pol) -> pol) pol] pol] pol] sound 'a continuous sound "po] " ' d. XXY (e.g., Putian) i. pu tol) -> pu pu to] ordinary ordinary 'ordinary' ii. ma hu -> ma ma hu horse tiger careless 'careless' e. XYY (e.g., Luoyang) i. sian tse] -> sian now made 'ready-made'

tse]

tse]

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123 ii.

lao shi -> lao shi shi firm solid 'firm1

f. XXYY (e.g., Mandarin) i. da fang -> da da fang fang big square 'easy-going' ii.

kuai le -> kuai kuai le le happy happy 'happy'

g. XYXY (e.g., Fuzhounese) i. xuan xi -> xuan xi xuan xi happy happy 'happy' ii. al] sil) -> al] sil] al]sil] calm heart 'be relieved' h. XYZ...XYZ... (e.g., Taiwanese) i. i-sil] khuan -> i sil] khuan i sil] khuan doctor like 'somewhat doctor-like' ii. o im thl -> o im thl o im thl dark gloomy climate 'somewhat gloomy in the weather' Examples (la-c) are structures that take a monosyllabic morpheme as their base and yield bisyllabic, trisyllabic, and quadrisyllable words, the last existing only in onomatopoeia (cf. chapter 5). In contrast, the structures shown in (ld-f) consist of a two-syllable base, with either syllable, or both, reduplicated to form either a trisyllabic or quadri­ syllable word.

In (lg,h), the entire word, and not simply

a subconstituent cated into

a

(i.e.,

the

quadrisyllable

syllable), or

is

redupli­

multi-syllabic word

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12 4
tshao ian-tal) -kol) -a bi tshao ian-tal] -kol] -a bi •having a smell of stinking chimney tube1

Various Chinese languages differ in the types of reduplication permitted.

For example, Mandarin, allows

types (la,e,f), Taiwanese types (la,b,f,h,g), and Luoyang types (la,d,e,f).3

The list in (4) summarizes the

reduplication types existing in each of thevarious Chinese language families (represented by one or more language within that family).

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125 (4)

Reduplication types in Chinese (XY is a bisyllabic free word)

Language family

Representative languages

Reduplicative types

Mandarin

Beij ing Changli Luoyang

XX XX XX

XYY XYY XXY

XXYY XYXY XYY

Wu

Shanghainese

XX

XXYY

XYXY

North Min

Fuzhounese

XX XXYY

XXX XYXY

XXY

South Min

Taiwanese

XX XXX XXYY XYZ. .XYZ...

XYXY

Eastern Min

Putian

XX

XYY

XXYY

XYXY

Yue

Cantonese XX Pingnan Baihua XX XYY

XXYY XXX XXYY

XYXY XXY XYXY

Kej ia

Miaoli (in Taiwan)

XXX

XXYY

XX

XYXY XYXY

XYY

XYXY

Within the same language, a single lexical item may reduplicate into some or all of the permissible reduplication forms permissible in that language, as illustrated in the following example taken from Pingnan Baihua: (5)

a. fun hi -> (a) happy happy -> (b) 1happy1 -> (c)

fun fun fun

fun fun hi

hi hi hi hi

Whether an XY adjective XY can be reduplicated depends on the internal structure of the adjective.

Of

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126 the five types of compounds found in Mandarin (cf. Chao, 1968), only coordinate XY compounds and a restricted number of subordinate XY compounds permit the well-formed reduplicated form XXYY (Lien, 1989; Tang, 1988).

Examples

of these two types are given in (6). (6)

a. Coordinate compound i. ma hu -> ma ma hu hu horse tiger 'careless1 ii. gao xing -> gao gao xing xing high hilarious 1happy1 b. Subordinate compound jiao qi -> jiao jiao qi qi spoiled air 1spoiled1

The generalization for Mandarin bisyllabic reduplication made by Lien (1989) and Tang (1988), that coordinate compounds are the most productive types in reduplication of the five types, seems to extend to the Chinese languages surveyed here.

However, these languages differ

in whether compound types other than coordinate compounds can be productively reduplicated to the same extent.

For

example, in Putian, an Eastern Min language, the majority of bisyllabic adjectives can be reduplicated into XXY with fewer restrictions than those existing in Mandarin and other Chinese languages (Yuan et al., 1983).

Forexample,

some bisyllabic adjectives with a Verb-Object morphological structure may reduplicate, as in (7):4

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127 (7)

Putian bisyllabic reduplication a. bai xifl -> bai bai xil] lose happiness 'unhappy' b. jin bu -> jin jin bu proceed step 'progress1

The reduplication process is also possible for two free-standing morphemes X and Y, which combined, do not form a free word.

However, these free-standing elements

must be semantically and grammatically compatible in a way similar to the relatedness of the two morphemes in coordinate words, e.g., (8): (8)

a. puO|| puoH maH maN mother-in-law mother 'womanishly fussy' b. hua.H hua.H lu..: -Adj! Adj! Adj lu.^: Adj colorful green 'colorful' c. bengv bengv tiaov tiaov jump jump 'bouncing and vivacious' d. hongAdj hongAdj lie lieAdj booming dynamic 'vigorous, dynamic'

In these examples, although the X-Y forms (i.e., puo-ma, hua-lii, beng-tiao, and hong-lie in (8a-d) , respectively) , are not existing morphological words, they can reduplicate into an XXYY form because they meet the conditions required in the formation of reduplicated compounds by being semantically and grammatically similar.

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128 4.2.2

Other structures For the following discussion of different types of

reduplicated adjective, the variables A and B will be used to represent an adjective and an onomatopoetic syllable, respectively, to avoid confusion with the other reduplicative types discussed above (involving X and Y). In some languages, AB may be a free word, but most of the time, A and B are free-standing.

A large number of ABB

and BBA words in Chinese are not formed by reduplicating AB into ABB, or by reduplicating BA into BBA; rather, they are formed by suffixing or prefixing BB to a monosyllabic base A, which functions as an adjective head, as schematized in (9a,b). The bisyllabic reduplicative word BB serves either as a complement or purely as onomatopoeia, in either case, modifying or vivifying the degree of intensity of the head (Chao, 1968).

This is the

same semantic function as that found in the adjective reduplication discussed in section 4.2.1.

The adjective

form AABB is formed by suffixing BB to the reduplicative adjective AA, as in (9c). None of the languages surveyed exhibit the type of reduplication illustrated in (9d). Examples of types (9a-c) are shown in (10)-(12). (9)

a. b. c. d.

A BB AA *

+ + + BB

BB A BB +

-> -> -> AA

ABB BBA AABB -> BBAA

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129 (10)

A + BB -> ABB a. Mandarin i. ming kuang kuang bright bright bright 'bright1 * ming kuang ii. luan hong hong in disorder onomatopoeia 'in noisy disorder' * luan hong iii. liang so so cool onomatopoeia (wind sound) 'very chilly' * liang so b. Shanghainese i. ba? tha? tha? white onomatopoeia 'white' * ba? tha ii. le gi gi blue onomatopoeia 'blue' * le gi iii. la? bog bog hot onomatopoeia 'hot (flavor)' * la? bog

c. Taiwanese i. pei siat siat white onomatopoeia 'very white' * pei siat ii. ag kog kog red onomatopoeia 'very red' *

iii. *

ag kog

gog ma ma stupid onomatopoeia 'very stupid' gog

ma

d. Kejia i. phi ku ku fat onomatopoeia 'very fat' * p"i ku

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130 11.

* (11)

BB +

tu phal) phal] stinking onomatopoeia 'very stinking1 thu phal] A ->

BBA (e.g., Pingnan Baihua)

a. kau kau onomatopoeia 'very big' * kau tai b. sak sak onomatopoeia 'very wet' * sak pan (12)

AA +

a. I)El) hard 'very b. tJhEI] long 'very

tai big pan wet

BB -> AABB (e.g., Lianzhou) I)El] hard hard' t/hEI) long long'

khaek khaek onomatopoeia lo lo onomatopoeia

Most instances of (9a) contain the adjective head A followed by an onomatopoetic BB. complement.

Only rarely is BB the

Type (9b) differs in that the adjective head

A can be preceded by either an onomatopoeic BB or by the complement BB.

The kind of onomatopoeia that is permitted

to modify an adjective is both idiosyncratic and highly lexicalized. A final remark about adjective reduplication is in order.

That the process in (1) is called 'adjective

reduplication' may be misleading, because the forms do not necessarily surface as adjectives.

Instead, they may

function as modifiers of verbs, as predicates, or as

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131 complements of verbs.

For example, consider the Mandarin

forms in (13): (13)

a. Complement of verbs man man de zou slow slow Suf walk 'walk slowly' b. Predicate ta ren xiao xiao de s/he person small small Suf 'S/he is smal1/short.' c. Complement of verbs ta zhangde pang pang s/he grow Suf fat fat 'S/he is fat.'

de Suf

It would be beyond the scope of this dissertation to address all of the complexities of the problem of semantic and syntactic properties of reduplicated words in Chinese languages.

Instead, I will focus the reduplication

process itself and its interaction with affixation in light of phonological and morphological theories.

4.3

A prosodic morphology approach to reduplication In this section, I will propose that Chinese

adjective reduplication, as represented in (la-f) , can be accounted for within the framework of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince, 1986, 1990, forthcoming) in which constituents such as word (Wd), foot (F), syllable (o), and mora (/i) serve not only as targets in reduplication but also as possible bases for the process.

According to

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132 McCarthy and Prince, the target is a template, composed of prosodic constituents that must be filled in the process of reduplication.

The base is the prosodic constituent to

which prefixes or suffixes can attach. In Chinese, two types of reduplication exist.

The

first type takes the syllable as its base, after which, suffixation— an entire reduplication of the base— applies to the prosodic constituent, as in (la-f).

Since the

syllable is the minimal word in Chinese (Yip, 1991), I will refer to this type of reduplication as minimal word reduplication (i.e., Wdj,,^ reduplication).

On the other

hand, the base of the second type is the word, which is reduplicated in its entirety, as in (lg,h). to this type as word reduplication.

I will refer

A word in Chinese can

be monosyllabic; however, the word proposed here is the form derived by compounding and suffixation.5 contains a minimum of two syllables. word is also prosodically defined.

Hence it

By this account, the Word reduplication

thus reduplicates a derived word in its entirety.6 The processes of both types of reduplication are given in (14): (14)

a. Wdjp^ reduplication in Chinese: o'

t

base

Suf

— >

a

(suffix a a to a base

a

a)

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133 b. Word reduplication in Chinese: [o o..]

t

— > o o.. o o. .

base (reduplicate a word) The reduplication structure in (la-f) is illustrated in (15), where the arrow indicates the reduplication of a syllable from the base X:7 (15)

a. Input: lo; Output: 2o X

I -> X

base

Suf

X

b. Input: lo; Output: 3o Cycle 1: X

T

base Cycle 2: X

-> X X

Suf

X

T ->

base

Suf

X X X

c. Input: lo; Output: 4o Possibility 1: Cycle 1: X base Cycle 2: X

t -> X X Suf T

base Suf

X base

t -> X X X X Suf

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134 Possibility 2: Cycle 1: X

t -> X X

base

Suf

Cycle 2: [X X]

t

base d. Input:

2a;

X

t

base

Suf

e. Input: X

2a;

Y

-> X X X X

Suf

Output: 3o Y

-> X

XY

Output: 3o t -> X

YY

base Suf f. Input:

2a;

Output: 4o

X

t

Y

t ->

base

Suf

base

Suf

X X Y Y

Wdm.n Reduplication in Chinese represents an interesting subject of investigation from both empirical and theoretical perspectives.

Empirically, Wdmin

reduplication fills a gap observed by McCarthy and Prince (1986) in their cross-linguistic survey of reduplication. According to them, there are four possible processes of reduplication involving prosodic constituents as targets or bases:

(a) prefixes as targets, (b) prefixation to

prosodic bases, (c) suffixes as targets, and (d) suffixation to prosodic bases.

While processes (a) and

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135 (c) are instantiated in the languages surveyed by McCarthy and Prince (1986), they state that a prosodic constituent serving as a base is relatively rare.

In particular,

suffixation to a prosodic constituent (process (d)) is virtually absent from the languages studied.

Although

McCarthy & Prince (1990) subsequently discuss many cases in which suffixation to a prosodic constituent occurs (e.g., Ulwa), these cases do not involve reduplication. The resulting gap creates an asymmetry between prefixes and suffixes.

This gap, however, can be filled through my

proposal that Wdmin reduplication in Chinese involves the suffixation of a syllable to a prosodic constituent, (i.e., the syllable [o]).

(For a discussion of the

suffixation process in Chinese, see sections 4.3.2). Theoretically, if we consider each suffixation to a prosodic constituent as a cycle, then W d ^ reduplication can apply on more than one cycle.

This cyclicity is

subject to certain prosodic constraints on the input and output of the reduplicated form. (See section 4.3.)

For

example, the triplicated form X X X is derived on two cycles.

The first cycle suffixes a syllable to the base

syllable (i.e., X T -> X X). On the second cycle, the right syllable of the bisyllabic form, in turn, serves as the base for the reduplication process (i.e., X X t -> X X X). An interesting aspect of my proposal, then, is the

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136 introduction of the notion of cyclicity into the theory of prosodic morphology.

If reduplication is treated as

either suffixation or prefixation, as claimed by McCarthy & Prince, we would expect that both can sometimes apply more than once, as word formation rules do.

This is

indeed the case with the derivation of triplicated forms in Chinese.

(More empirical justification for cyclic

application of suffixation will be discussed in Chapter 5.)

4.3.1

The base in reduplication— syllable or morpheme? To understand why suffixation is involved in

adjective reduplication, we must first consider the prosodic base.

Except for few morphemes that consist of

two syllables, typically borrowed words, morphemes in Chinese are usually monosyllabic.

The fact raises the

question of whether the syllable or the morpheme should be taken as the base in Wdm.n reduplication.

Based on

evidence provided by (a) the upper limit of input and output in reduplication, (b) borrowed words, and (c) onomatopoeia and secret language, I would argue that the syllable is preferable to the morpheme. First, as I will illustrate in section 4.4, the input and output involved in Wdnin reduplication must be constrained in terms of prosodic upper limits such that

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137 the input may not exceed two syllables and the output may not exceed four syllables.

Such constraints argue for an

approach which takes the syllable rather than the morpheme as the base, since the limits are stated in prosodic terms. Second, certain bisyllabic monomorphemes from borrowed words can be reduplicated like bimorphemic words. For example, the bisyllabic monomorphemic word lang-man 'romantic' in Putian, a word borrowed from English, undergoes the same process as any other bimorphemic word, yielding lang-lang-man as a result of WdmJn reduplication.8 A grammar of reduplication would be complicated by taking the morpheme as the base, since three types of input would result: the monosyllabic monomorpheme (i.e., X); the bisyllabic bimorphemic word (i.e., XY); and the bisyllabic monomorphemic word (i.e., XY). On the other hand, in a syllable based account, only two types of input are recognized: [o] and [oo]. Third, a large number of adjectives of the form ABB or BBA comprise the bisyllabic onomatopoeia (or ideophones), i.e., BB, that reduplicate from a single sound, i.e., B.

Furthermore, other processes involving

reduplication, such as onomatopoeia formation and secret language (both to be discussed in Chapter 5) contain syllables that do not display syntactic, semantic, or

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138 phonological properties associated with the description of their lexical entry.

Morphemes in Chinese, on the

contrary, carry these properties to such an extent that they can be considered minimal semantic units.

The

evidence thus leads us to conclude that reduplication recognizes the syllable, rather than the morpheme, as the base.

4.3.2

A unified account of adjective reduplication—

suffixation

In this section, by presenting phonological, morphological, and semantic arguments, I will show that bisyllabic, trisyllabic, and quadrisyllabic reduplicated words are derived by a single process of derivation (i.e., suffixation).

In many of the languages examined in

McCarthy & Prince (1986), the issue of whether reduplication involves prefixation or suffixation can be determined by the surface form, especially when the process copies only part of the base.

Specifically, if

the base contains more segments than its reduplicative affix, the distinction between the base and the affixed material is easily made on the basis of the surface forms. However, In Chinese, the distinction between prefixation and suffixation cannot be made on the basis of the surface form because both possibilities produce the

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139 same result.

External evidence based on similarities

between the properties of reduplicated words and 'real' suffixes is thus crucial to indicate that suffixation— rather than prefixation— occurs in the process of reduplication.

4.3.2.1

XX compounds The two logically possible derivations of an XX

compound are listed in (16).

The arrow to the left of X

represents prefixation and the one to the right indicates suffixation: (16)

a. X 1 -> X b. T X -> X

X X

My argument that (16a) is the correct derivation is based on: (a) changes in grammatical category, (b) neutral tones, and (c) suffixation in noun and verb reduplication. Each will be discussed separately below.

4.3.2.1.1

Changes in grammatical category

Chinese does not have rich derivational and inflectional affixes like Indo-European languages. limited number of suffixes and prefixes occur. prefixes is particularly limited

Only a

The use of

(cf. Chao, 1968

for some

examples of prefixes inMandarin). In contrast,suffixes

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140 are used frequently to mark grammatical functions or diminutive meanings (cf. Chapter 3).

One difference

between prefixes and suffixes in Chinese is that the former do not change the grammatical category of their base, while it is common for the latter to do so (e.g., er and zi diminutive suffixes in all Chinese languages). This contrast between prefixes and suffixes also exists in other languages (e.g., Italian and English; cf. Scalise, 1984, 1988; Williams, 1981). Since in some cases monosyllabic reduplication changes the grammatical category of the original word, it is clear that suffixation is involved in this process. The Taiwanese examples in (17) show monosyllabic reduplication in which a noun is changed into an adjective: (17)

a. tsuiN -> [tsui tsui]Adj water 'juicy, watery'

e.g.

le-a na-si tsui-tsui e ka pear if juicy will more ho tsia good eat 'Pear will taste better if it is juicy.'

b. moN -> fur 'furry' e.g. sa clothes 'Clothes

[mo mo]Adj na-si mo-mo e ka sio if furry will more warm will be warmer if they are furry.'

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141 In (17a) and (17b) , the nouns tsuiN and xnoN are transformed into adjectives when reduplicated.

Thus,

monosyllabic adjective reduplication must be analyzed as suffixation rather than prefixation.

4.3.2.1.2

Neutral tones

Suffixes in some Chinese languages, especially the Mandarin family, are often destressed and surface with neutral tones.

Prefixes, however, are never subject to

such reduction.9 In some languages of the Mandarin family (e.g. Beijing Mandarin), the second syllable of XX adjective reduplication forms carries a regular tone, while in others, such as Linzi Mandarin, it carries a neutral tone.

In fact, Linzi contains both possibilities.

The X,X2 form has two pronunciations, one with the regular tones for both syllables X1 and X2, and the other with the sandhi tone on X1 and a neutral tone on X2, as shown in (18a) and (18b) respectively. (18)

a. po53 -> po53 thin 'thin1 b. po53 -> po13 thin 'thin'

po13 po

Since a neutral tone is typical of a suffix in the languages using stress actively, we must conclude that the

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142 process observed here is one of suffixation.

That is, if

prefixation occurred we would have the undesirable result of a stress-bearing prefix followed by an unstressed base.10

4.3.2.1.3

Suffixation in noun and verb reduplication

The majority of noun reduplication in Chinese involves monosyllabic nouns.

Two arguments suggest that

noun reduplication is a process of suffixation.

First, in

certain Chinese languages (e.g., Southwestern Mandarin, Xi-an, and Putian), the meaning of a reduplicated noun XX is identical to that of the form containing a monosyllabic X and a diminutive suffix zi, as exemplified by the Wuhan language in (19) . Since these two words are semantically identical, and zi is clearly a diminutive suffix, the second tshuan may be preferably treated as a suffix as well. (19)

tshuan tshuan circle •circle'

=

tshuan circle

zi Suf

Second, in many Chinese languages, the second syllable of the reduplicated noun has a neutral tone (e.g., Beijing Mandarin).

As indicated earlier, only a

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143 suffix can carry a neutral tone.

This indicates, again,

that reduplication in nouns is a process of suffixation. As in the case of noun reduplication, verb reduplication in Chinese is a process of suffixation. Evidence supporting the argument that reduplicated verbs are products of suffixation comes from two sources, the first of which concerns the parallelism between the semantic function of reduplicated verbs and aspectual affixes.

Since aspectual markers are typically suffixes

and reduplicated verbs also indicate aspect, the second syllable in the reduplicated verb can also be regarded as a suffix as well, as exemplified by (20). (20)

a. wo mai le shu I buy Asp book 'I bought a book.1 b. wo xiang qu zou zou I think go walk walk 'I want to go walking for a while.'

The second source of evidence lies in the phonological properties of the second syllable of the monosyllabic reduplicated verb in Mandarin.

This syllable

bears a neutral tone, suggesting that it is a suffix. Since both verb and noun reduplication involve suffixation in monosyllabic reduplication, treating adjective reduplication in the same way allows us to

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144 formulate a simpler grammar through a unitary type of affixation occurring for all three parts of speech.

4.3.2.2

XXX compounds If a syllable has two possible directions for

affixation, then a trisyllabic word XXX can be derived in eight possible ways.

Only one way, however, best reflects

native intuition and is both theoretically and empirically preferable.

This derivation utilizes two cycles of

suffixation of one syllable to another syllable, as shown in (21) . (21)

Cycle 1: X

t -> X

base Cycle 2: X

X

Suf

X

t -> X

base

Suf

X

X

On the first cycle, suffixation of one syllable applies to another syllable.

Then on the second cycle, the right

syllable of the bisyllabic form in turn serves as the base, and suffixation of a syllable to it derives the third X.

Arguments in support of this analysis are based

on the similarity between XXX and ABB. The triplicated form XXX (derived from an adjective X) and the ABB form (derived from an adjective head A and its onomatopoeic complement BB) are similar in

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145 terms of their lexical distribution, grammatical functions and semantic constraints.

These similarities between XXX

and ABB suggest that the base in XXX is the leftmost X, with the other X's being derived.

The forms ABB and BBA,

which are not derived from AB but from suffixing or prefixing BB to A, have the structures as shown earlier in (9a-b). Two languages with both productive XXX and ABB types— Taiwanese and Pingnan Baihua— will be examined here.

In addition to XXX and ABB, Pingnan Baihua also has

BBA; however, ABB is much more productive.

In Taiwanese,

a language where only XXX and ABB exist, each ABB form has a parallel XXX form, which differs in degree of intens ity.11*12 XXX and ABB not only have similar lexical distribution, but also their occurrence is constrained in a similar manner.

They can be used as complements of the

verb, as predicates, or as noun modifiers, as shown in

(22 ): (22)

a. Complement of the verb i. i-e bin tia-tia l^Tj her face often always bua ka pe-pe-pe make-up up-to white 'She often puts on the make up to the extent that her face is so white.1 ii. i-e bin tia-tia 1=1] her face often always bua ka pesut-sut make-up up-to white onomatopoeia 'She often put on the make up to the extent that her face is so white.'

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146 b. Predicate i. tsit kil) tshu am-am-am this Cl house dark 'This house is very dark.' ii. tsit kil] tshu amthis Cl house dark b=>I)-b^r) onomatopoeia 'This house is very dark.' c. Modifier i. al)—al]-al] e hui red AM flower 'flower that is very red' ii. al]k=I)-k=l] e hui red onomatopoeia AM flower 'flower that is very red'

In addition, XXX and ABB have similar semantic restrictions (Cheng, 1981).

For example, XXX and ABB

cannot co-occur with the diminutive suffix a53 to form XXX-a or ABB-a, while XX can.

The meaning of diminution

is not semantically compatible with the intensified meaning of XXX and ABB, although it can be compatible with the moderate meaning of the XX adjective. These three similarities in Taiwanese between XXX and ABB, where A is clearly the head, are evidence that the first X in XXX, too, must be the head of the triplicated form. In languages in which XXX, ABB, and BBA coexist, ABB is more productive than BBA, according to a survey of 100 monosyllabic adjectives done by Liu & Xiao (1988) for Pingnan Baihua:

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147 occurrence

(23) XXX ABB BBA

100%

60% 42%

These results suggest that there is a preference for taking the leftmost adjective A as the head.

In fact, the

preference of the ABB form over the BBA form is a general phenomenon in Chinese languages, as the following Mandarin data from Lii et al. (1980) indicate: (24)

Mandarin total number of surveyed words= 299 ABB BBA

299 occurrences out of 299 words 0 occurrences out of 299 words

Now let us consider the second cycle of derivation in XXX.

The question is: why does the right syllable

rather than the left syllable become a new base on the second cycle?

This question is illustrated by the two

possible derivations in (25). (25)

O.K. ?

a. Cycle Cycle b. Cycle Cycle

1: 2: 1: 2:

X t -> XX X X t -> XXX -> XX X t X t X -> XXX

Since the bisyllabic word XY can be reduplicated into XXY or XYY, the bisyllabic XX can similarly take either the left or the right syllable as a possible new base for further derivation on the second cycle.

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148 The argument that (25a) is the preferable derivation, again hinges on the similarities between X.,X2X3 and ABB.

If X,|X2X3 is a case parallel to ABB, X2 is

structurally closer to X3 than it is to X1 , as shown in (26) : (26)

a. X, X2 X3 A B B

b. X, X2 X3 A B B

Based on this structure, it is more likely that X3 is derived from X2. We thus can conclude, on the basis of its similarity to the other three-member compounds, that the base in XXX is the leftmost X, and, consequently, a suffixation process derives the second and third Xs.

If

the triplicative form XXX were not derived on two cycles, but by a triplication rule, then we would need to formulate a triplication rule that operated differently from any other type of reduplication.

Thus, Chinese would

appear to be idiosyncratic in this regard.

By using the

same reduplication process, we reveal the regularity of the XXX form, and do not need to complicate the grammar by introducing an idiosyncratic triplication rule.

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149 4.3.2.3

XXYY, XXY, and XYY compounds The reduplicated forms XXYY, XXY, and XYY involve

the same reduplication process because they are all derived from the bisyllabic word XY.

In this section, I

will discuss first the derivation of XXYY and then extend the generalizations to XXY and XYY. The reduplicated form XXYY can be derived in four possible ways, as shown in (27): (27)

a. b. c. d.

X T X T

TY Xt tt XY

t— Y — Y — t—

> > > >

X X X X

X X X X

Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y

Here, reduplication takes the prosodic constituent (syllables X and Y) as its base, and four possible directions are shown: in (27a) suffixation occurs for both X and Y; in (27b), prefixation for both X and Y; in (27c) suffixation for X and prefixation for Y; in (27d), prefixation for X and suffixation for Y.

I will show in

this section that (27a) is the correct derivation on the basis of the suffixes within the compounds. Although I have suggested that syllable reduplication in adjectives is a process of suffixation, the reduplicated "suffixes" are in fact lexical items. support the claim that the second X and Y in XXYY behave like suffixes, it is necessary to examine quadrisyllable

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To

150 reduplicated words that contain real suffixes in them. Consider the following reduplicated forms: (28)

a. X li X Y (in majority of Chinese languages) b. X kuai Y Y (in Pingnan Baihua) c. X a X li (in Wuhua)

In (28a,b), the affixes li and kuai express the speaker's attitude in the reduplicated form.

For example, ma li ma

hu means 'careless', showing the scorn of the speaker. The second syllable (i.e., li or kuai) can be regarded as a suffix that attaches to the first syllable.

The

derivation of the cases in (28) will be given below. In (28a), the affix li, that adds the meaning of scorn and contempt to the reduplicated adjective, consistently appears in the languages surveyed (e.g. Mandarin, Shanghainese, Fuzhounese, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and Kejia, etc). (29).

An example from Mandarin is given in

The form in (28b) is found in Pingnan Baihua.

differs from the X-li-X-Y type found in the above languages, as shown in (30) . (29)

Mandarin ma hu horse tiger 'careless' -> ma li ma hu horse Aff horse tiger 'careless (with despise)'

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This

151 (30)

Pingnan Baihua: kan tan easy easy 'easy1 -> kan kuai tan tan easy Aff easy easy 'easy1

It appears that (28a) and (28b) have two possible derivations, (shown in (31) and (32)), but I propose that (31a) and (32a) are preferable to (31b) and (32b). In (31a), X-li-X-Y is derived first by word reduplication, followed by Melodic Overwriting (MO) (cf. McCarthy and Prince, 1990 for MO), in which the melodic morpheme li overwrites the second syllable of the reduplicated form. MO is a process of replacement in which a morpheme occupies a tier separate from the source segment and replaces the target segment (McCarthy & Prince, 1990). (cf. Chapter 5 for details). (31)

Derivation of X-li-X-Y

a. Input: X Y Cycle 1: [X Y] t — >

Cycle 2: X

Output:

X

Y X I li

Y

li X

Y

X Y X Y (word reduplication)

(Melodic Overwriting)

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152

Y

li X

Y

>

Cycle 2: X

X Y l 1 kuai

Y

Output: X

kuai

Y

Cycle 1: X

Y

Cycle 2: X

Y 1 kuai

Y

kuai

Y

XXYY

(Suffixation)

(Melodic Overwriting) Y

t -> X

Y

Y

(Suffixation) (Suffixation)

t

Output: X

Y

There are several arguments

in

analysis shown in (31a). According to

support of the available data,the

XYXY reduplicated form exists in all Chinese languages. X-li-X-Y exists in all Chinese languages except in Baihua. In contrast, XXY only exists in a relatively small number of Chinese languages.

For example,

X-li-X-Y occurs in

Mandarin, a language that does not reduplicate XY into XXY.

Thus, it is less plausible to take XXY as an

intermediate form in the derivation of

X-li-X-Y, followed

by the suffixation of li to the first X.

Instead, the

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153 most unmarked word reduplication (i.e., XY -> XYXY) applies first and a melodic morpheme li overwrites the second syllable (i.e., Y) to produce X-li-X-Y.

This

overwriting rule is justified by the preference for foursyllable words in Chinese, because the addition of li or kuai creates a five-syllable word.13

In example (32a), Wdj^ reduplication applies, then the melodic morpheme kuai overwrites the second syllable of XXYY.

Baihua contains X-kuai-X, a form

derived by the insertion of kuai into a bisyllabic word XX (i.e., suffixation of kuai to the first X).

If we

regarded kuai as an infix to be inserted into XX, we would similarly derive XX-kuai-YY for the quadrisyllabic form XXYY.

However, since Chinese adjective reduplication

involves one single process, i.e., suffixation of a syllable, kuai cannot be considered an infix, but instead, a suffix that attaches to the first X by overwriting the second syllable.14

For every X-kuai-Y-Y, there is a

corresponding XXYY form, but every X-kuai-Y-Y does not necessarily involve an XYY form.15

It is thus not

plausible to take XYY as an intermediate stage in deriving X-kuai-Y-Y. In (28c), two suffixes, a and li, both attach to the monosyllabic X.

The derivation of (28c) is given in

(33), where suffixation applies more than once.

On the

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154 first cycle, the syllable X is reduplicated through the process of suffixation of an identical syllable.

On the

second cycle, each of the suffixes a and li attaches to one prosodic constituent (i.e., X), yielding a quadrisyllabic form X a X li. (33)

Input:

X

Cycle l: X base

t Suf

Cycle 2: X base

t Suf

Output:

li

X

a X

— >

X

X

X base

1 Suf

Based on this derivation, we can infer the process by which the quadrisyllabic form XXYY is generated.

We

can conclude on the basis of such clear cases that it is more likely that suffixation derives the second X and Y in XXYY, since we find that real suffixes also appear in these positions in Chinese languages. Although the discussion here has focused on the derivation of XXYY, I would extend the generalization to XXY and XYY.

That is, if XXYY involves suffixation, it is

thus preferable to treat XXY and XYY as involving suffixation as well. To summarize the discussion to this point, all the arguments provided here lead us to reject the possibility that reduplication involves prefixation.

Instead,

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155 suffixation to a syllable occurs in various forms.

Since

reduplication is a process that clearly involves prosodic constituents, we must further consider the prosodic constraints on the input and output of reduplication, as we will see in the next section.

4.4

Prosodic constraints on reduplication Minimality and Maximality conditions play a

crucial role in recent prosodic theories (cf. Ito, 1990; McCarthy & Prince, 1986).

Cross-linguistically, it is

commonly found that a language requires its stem and/or word to be defined in terms of a minimum number of prosodic constituents.

For example, in Arabic noun

patterns, a stem must contain at least two moras (McCarthy and Prince, 1987); in Japanese, a minimal stem is defined as a foot containing two moras, and a minimal word contains at least one syllable (Ito, 1990) (cf. McCarthy and Prince, 1990 for more examples). On the other hand, it is relatively rare that languages set upper limits for a stem or a word in terms of prosodic constituents.

(One

case where such limits exist is in Arabic, in which a noun stem has two syllables maximally (McCarthy & Prince, 1987).)

The rare occurrence of such restrictions can be

attributed to the fact that the word formation is presumably boundless.

What I will propose below is that

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156 an upper limit must be set for both the input and output of Wdmi.n reduplication in Chinese.

The suffixation that

occurs word-internally is only possible when it does not create a form exceeding four syllables.

4.4.1

Upper limit of input In Chinese, the upper limits of input and output

need to be set to constrain possible derivations in reduplication.

I propose that the upper limits of input

and output for the process of reduplication must be two syllables and four syllables, respectively, as stated in (34) :16 (34)

a. Maximal Input Constraint in Adjective Reduplication Input for reduplication is maximally o

o

b. Maximal Output Constraint in Adjective Reduplication Output of reduplicated form is maximally a

a

a

a

We will first consider the case of the input limit.

Ill-formed reduplicated forms are given in (35)

and well-formed ones in (36).17 Cases of (35a-c) are illustrated in (37):

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157 (35)

a. b. c. d. e.

(36)

a. X b. X

(37)

X X X X X

Y Y Y Y Y

Z Z Z -

> >

> > > X X

* * * Y X

X X X Y Y

X Y Y -

Y Y Z > >

Z Z Z * X Y Y Y * X X X Y

t -> X X I -> X X X t -> X T X t -> X X X X

xiao x m yan small mind eye 'narrow-minded1 xiao xin yan small mind eye 'narrow-minded' xiao xin yan small mind eye 'narrow-minded'

-> * xiao

xiao

xin

yan

-> * xiao

xin

xin

yan

-> * xiao

xin

yan

yan

Across Chinese languages, syllable reduplication is found to occur only when the morphological base is monosyllabic or bisyllabic.

Thus, morphological bases containing three

syllables in (35a, b, c) will be prevented from undergoing syllable reduplication.

In (35d & e), since the

morphological base is bisyllabic, the first stage of the derivation is possible.

However, the second operation of

reduplication will be blocked because the base now becomes trisyllabic as a result of the preceding process.

As

contrasted with (35d & e), the monosyllabic base in (36) can be reduplicated into a bisyllabic word, which in turn undergoes another syllable reduplication to become a trisyllabic word in the final output.

This trisyllabic

word, now violating the maximal input constraint, cannot undergo further suffixation to derive a quadrisyllabic

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158 (XXXX) word.

However, we must be able to derive the XXXX

reduplicated forms which do exist in Chinese onomatopoeia, shown in (38):18 (38)

XXXX in onomatopoeia pa — > pa pa pa pa 'a continuous sound of "pa"1

The structures in (39) represent derivations which are logically possible, in which a trisyllabic form is created at an intermediate stage to act as the input for the next stage. (39)

? ?

a. X t Y -> X X Y t-> X X Y Y b. X Y 1-> X t Y Y - > X X Y Y

These derivations contradict the claim that the upper limit of the input must be bisyllabic, since the intermediate stage of both (39a) and (39b) is trisyllabic. I propose that when both left and right syllables of the bisyllabic base undergo reduplication, the process applies simultaneously for both X and Y, as given in (40) . (See Chapter 5, for justification on thebasis of onomatopoetic word formation.) (40)

X

T

base

Suf

Y t -> X base

X

Y

Y

Suf

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159 With such an account, an analysis that treats two syllables as the upper limit of input can thus be maintained.

The form XXXX is derived in a manner similar

to XXYY by suffixing the first and second syllables of the form XX simultaneously, as given in (41): (41)

Cycle 1: X Cycle 2: X

t t X

-> X X t - > X X X X

Thus, by setting the upper limit of input to reduplication at two syllables, we account for the following facts of Chinese.

First, the restriction

accounts for the ill-formed reduplication that takes a trisyllabic word as its input in the initial or intermediate stage.

Second, double reduplication such as

X—> XX -> XXX is predicted to be well-formed by having a bisyllabic word at the intermediate stage.

In addition,

I

propose that a bisyllabic word XY must undergo simultaneous reduplication of the left and right syllable to derive a quadrisyllabic word XXYY.

4.4.2

Upper limit of output The examination of the interaction between

reduplication and affixation indicates that four syllables are the upper limit of output, as was stated above in (34) .

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160 In the following discussion, I will represent the diminutive suffix as er or zi.

Both of them, used in the

Mandarin family, will also be extended to other Chinese language families for ease of exposition. (The suffix er, added to the reduplicated form, usually connotes a decrease in degree of the adjective in the reduplicated word.)

Furthermore, I will spell out the affixes li and

kuai, while leaving other word-internal affixes specified only as Aff.

Finally, er in most Chinese languages in the

Mandarin family undergoes syllable contraction with its preceding syllable.

In (42), both ill- and well-formed

outputs that involve reduplication and affixation are given, accompanied by examples for each in (43) .19 a. b. c. d. e. f. gh. i. jk. 1. m.

X X er X X Y er X Y Y er X X Y Y er X er X er Y er X Aff X * X X Aff Y * X Aff X Y X li X Y X li X Y er X kuai Y Y X Y Aff X Y X Y Z... Aff

a. X

X

Y

er

Y Y

X

Y

Z...

er (e.g., Mandarin)

i. man man er -> man mar slow Suf 'slowly' ii hao hao er -> hao haur good Suf 'good1

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161 b. XXYer (e.g., Luoyang) xiang xiang yang resemble resemble appearance 'well-behaved'

er Suf

c. XYYer (e.g., Changli) i. pian yi yi er -> pian yi yir cheap Suf 'cheap' ii. gan jij) jil) er clean 'cheap1 -> gan jil] jlr d. X

X

Y

Y

er (e.g., Taiwanese)

i. tshil] tshai 'feeling at ease1 tshirj tshil] tshai tshai a Suf 'feeling at ease (modify the verb)' ii. hua hua hi hi a happy happy Suf 'happily' X

er X

er Y

er Y

er (e.g., Changhai)

i. hua er hua er lii er colorful Suf green Suf -> huar huar ludr liidr 'colorful' ii ma er ma er hu er hu er horse Suf tiger Suf -> mar mar hur hur 'careless' f. X

Aff

lu

X (e.g., Wunzhou)

i. lei] gi lei] intelligent Aff intelligent 'very intelligent' ii. di gi di sweet Aff sweet 'very sweet' g. *

X X

Aff

Y

Y

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162 h. *

X

Aff

i. X

li X

X

Y

Y

Y (e.g., Taiwanese)

i. h= t=> 1absent-minded1 ho li ho Aff 'absent-minded1 ii. a tsa •dirty' a li a tsa Aff •dirty' j. X li X

Y

er (e.g., Yongding)

i. ki li ki kuai old Aff old strange 'strange' ii. fi thi 'absent-minded' fi li fi thi tsi Aff Aff 'absent-minded' k. X kuai

Y

Y (e.g.,

i. tai f=I) 'easy going' tai kuai fog Aff 'easy going' ii.

lei]

tsi Suf

Pingnan Baihua)

fog

sel|

'scarce' lei)

kuai

seg

sel]

Aff 'scarce' 1. X

Y

Aff

X

Y (e.g., Taiwanese)

o im a dark gloomy Aff 'somewhat gloomy'

o dark

im gloomy

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163 m.

X Y Z... Aff X (e.g., Taiwanese)

Y

Z...

o im thl dark gloomy climate a o im thl Aff dark gloomy climate 'somewhat gloomy in the weather'

We can generalize from (42) that: (a) er suffix can attach to the last syllable of the reduplicated forms as in (42a,b,c,d); (b) if the suffix attaches to the word-internal syllable, output must be limited to the four syllable domain.

In (42e), er is attached to each syllable of a

quadrisyllable word, but then further undergoes syllable contraction with its preceding syllable, rendering the output quadrisyllable.20

No case has been found where er

does not undergo such syllable contraction (e.g., the diminutive a in some languages such as Taiwanese) in the same environment.

For example, the form * X+a+X+a+Y+a+Y+a

does not exist in any of the languages surveyed.

In (42f),

the suffix is allowed to occur inside a bisyllabic form. For example, in Yue languages such as Cantonese (cf. Yip, 1980), Hengxian, and Pingnan Baihua, suffixation to the first syllable of the bisyllabic reduplicated word creates a trisyllabic word that falls within the quadrisyllable limit.21

By comparison, no five-syllable word such as XX-

Aff-YY exists where the monosyllabic affix is inserted into a

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164 morphological word XXYY, as in (42g). In (42i-k), the reduplicated form is also limited to four syllables, with the suffix li rnd kuai, respectively. Types (421,m) illustrate word reduplication, which exists in South Min languages such as Taiwanese and Zhenan.

Notice that (421,m) do allow an affix to be

inserted in a word derived by word reduplication.

Word

reduplication in these languages can also take a word containing more than two syllables as a base. From the above, we can conclude that the quadrisyllable limit is set for the output involving Wdmin reduplication.

Specifically, the Maximal Output

Constraint limiting the number of syllables to four must hold in cases involving Wdmjn reduplication but not necessarily in cases involving word reduplication. Chinese languages are parameterized as to whether or not the Maximal Output Constraint operates in the derivation of word reduplication.

For example, of the Chinese sub­

families only Southern Min languages (e.g., Chaoyang and Taiwanese) have been found to be exceptions to the Maximal Output Constraint in word reduplication.

In these

languages, a word with more than two syllables is reduplicated into a word containing more than four syllables.

(In word reduplication, if the Maximal Input

Constraint is violated, it follows that the Maximal Output

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165 Constraint is also violated.

Thus, we need only mention

the Maximal Input Constraint for word reduplication.)

The

generalization is stated in (44). (44)

a. Maximal Input Constraint: obligatory in Wdmjn reduplication b. Maximal Output Constraint: obligatory in Wdmjn reduplication c. Maximal Input Constraint: obligatory in word reduplication (as a parameterized constraint)

Due to the nature of the minimal word as a fixed category, (i.e., syllable), we would expect a word formation process involving a minimal word to be more restrictive than word formation processes taking the free word as the base, because a free word presumably can be boundless.

However, I must point out that word

reduplication is also constrained by prosodic structure even in languages such as Taiwanese where the Maximal Input Constraint does not operate.

The more syllables

contained in the base, the less likely it is to be reduplicated.

It is rare for the quadrisyllabic word to

be taken as a base for word reduplication in Taiwanese. Both Wdmin and word Reduplication in Chinese can thus be regarded as prosodically driven word formation processes. Other than reduplicative adjectives, the maximum number of syllables appears to be set at four for all

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166 grammatical categories except nominals.22 Even though nouns may contain more than four syllables, long nominal compounds are often abbreviated in words containing no more than four syllables (e.g., min-zhu-jin-bu-dang

— >

min-jin-dang 'Democratic-Progressive Party in Taiwan1). The number four is not only the upper limit for syllables in word formation processes like reduplication, it is also the output limit for coordinate compound formation.

Chinese possesses a large number of

quadrisyllable words consisting of two coordinate bisyllabic words, AaBa and XpYp, that have been "interleaved" into a structure formalized as AaXpBaYp (A, B, X, and Y represent monosyllabic variables and o and p grammatical categories). The morphemes that have the same grammatical category always occur in alternate positions. That is, in a AaXpBaYp quadrisyllable coordinate compounds, morphemes A and B, or morphemes X and Y, belong to the same grammatical categories.

Morphemes Aa and Ba in the

word AaBa, and morphemes Xp and Yp in XpYp, respectively, must be semantically compatible in that they are either synonyms or antonyms, or have close meanings in the context of compounds, as schematized in (45):

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where (i) A and B, and X and Y must be semantically compatible (ii) A and B, and X and Y must agree in grammatical categories a and P respectively To derive these quadrisyllabic coordinate compounds, the following conditions are needed: (a) there exists a 4syllable template o8 op o# op/ where (i) a # P; (ii)

a

and

P need not be specified as a particular grammatical category but only serve as indexes for association lines connecting morphemes and the template, (b) AaB# and XpYp occupy two different tiers, (c) the word on each tier undergoes left-to-right mapping, and (d) the unassociated morphemes fill in the remaining slots.23 The words tiandi 'heaven and earth' and hun-an 'dark' undergo the above derivation processes as shown in (46), deriving two possible outputs. (46)

a.

tian o,

di op

o#

hun

word Op

template

an

word

Op

L-to-R mapping

1 tian

I

ot

di Op hun

I

o#

an

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168

tian

di

I

I

b. oa

hun

an

tian

di

Op

hun

oa

Op

an

word template word

1 tian oa

Op

hun

di oa

Op

L-to-R mapping

an I

hun

tian I

di I

°P

°P

an

In (46a), the word containing the morphemes tian and di is first associated with the template from the left to the right.

The remaining slots are filled in by the morphemes

on the other tier. opposite order.

In (46b), the mapping applies in the

With free association for both words on

the separate tier, the mapping in (46) generates two words with different grammatical relationships, i.e., subjectpredicate as in (46a) and modifier-modified as in (46b). When only one morpheme occurs on a tier, a spreading rule

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169 applies to create a doubly linked structure for that word, e.g., (47) :24 (47)

a. tian oB

di Op

word

oB

Op

bian

template word

I

tian I oe

di I oB

Op

Op

L-to-R mapping

bian I

bian

Given representations as in (45), three types of grammatical structures of ABXp and BBYp result from this type of word formation: (a) Subject + Predicate, (b) Verb + Object, and (c) Modifier + Modified, as exemplified by Mandarin, given in (48). (48)

a. Subj

+

Predicate

tianN diN + sky gound tianN hunAdj 'very dark'

hun dark diN

an dark an

— >

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170 b. Verb + Obj dongv + move ly tian. 'earthshaking^

jing,

tianN sky dongv

diN ground

— >

diN ground

— >

c. Modifier + Modified +

tianN sky

hunAdj tianN 'very dark' Since left-to-right mapping may not necessarily generate an existing word, some later constraints must operate to rule out the syntactically or semantically incompatible combination of morphemes. This type of nonconcatenative word formation is similar to the type of derivation exhibited in Arabic word formation that has been studied in McCarthy and Prince (1986).

In both Arabic and Chinese, templates that

consist of prosodic constituents mediate the connections between different morphemes, associating morphemic roots in Arabic and coordinate words in Chinese. Furthermore, no matter how the quadrisyllabic coordinate words are formed, the target is to achieve the requirement specified in the template.

Consider every

possible combination of the coordinate compounds as given in (49) :

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171 (49)

quadrisyllable coordinate compounds in Mandarin

a. A X B Y - AB and XY are independent morphological words jingy tianN dongv shock sky move 1earthshaking'

diN earth

b. A X B Y - AB is an independent word while XY is not k V«5U „ x ^Adj „ f h u N withered tree withered tree 'withered trees' c. A X B Y - AB is not an independent word while XY is mei„ feiv seM wuv eyebrow fly facial expression dance 'exultant' d. A X B Y - Neither AB nor XY are independent words

'gifted scholars and beautiful ladies' e. A X A Y - XY is an independent word xiev tianN xiev thank sky thank 'thank goodness'

diN earth

f. A X A Y - XY is not an independent word huiv shengN draw voice 'vivid'

huiv draw

yingN image

g. A X B X - AB is an independent word tianN bianv diN sky change earth 'totally changed'

bianv change

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172 What these coordinate compounds demonstrate is the alternate occurrence of morphemes with a shared grammatical category.

This pattern follows, regardless of

whether AB or XY is an independent word or not.25

We

thus can see that the quadrisyllabic template provides a target for coordinate compound to match without regard to whether the AB or XY is bound or free. From both the facts of reduplication and the quadrisyllabic coordinate compound formation, we thus can conclude that prosodic structure plays a critical role in constraining word formation in Chinese.

4.5

Conclusions Given the empirical data above, we can conclude

that prosodic constituents play a critical role in governing reduplication.

The proposed analysis, which

takes prosodic factors into account, reveals the regularity among the various reduplicated forms XX, XXX, XXY, XYY, and XXYY through a single process of suffixation of one syllable to another syllable. In addition, the proposed analysis correctly identifies some affixes as suffixes which are attached to the prosodic base, contrary to the traditional assumption that these affixes are infixes.

For instance, the

preceding discussion shows that such cross-linguistic

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173 affixes as li in X li X I attach themselves to the first X through a process of suffixation.

By treating these items

as suffixes, various forms of reduplicated adjectives, including the ones with the real affixes, are shown to be the products of one single process. Based on the evidence of the interaction between reduplicated forms and other affixes, the upper limit of input and output is set in terms of prosodic constituents-two and four syllables, respectively.

Affixation is

allowed as long as the output is within the prosodic domain of the limit. The vital role of prosodic structure in word formation may explain some other facts of Chinese, too. For instance, word formation is not sensitive to whether the input of a derivational process in word formation is bound or free.

Thus, we can find any kind of combination

of free and bound morphemes in compounding and reduplication.

For example, in the reduplicated forms

XXYY we have seen in this chapter, the morpheme X and Y can be either bound or free, and XY can be either an existing word or a nonexisting word.26 Prosodic factors also play a significant role in onomatopoeia and secret languages.

The analysis of these

two phenomena in the next chapter again emphasizes the

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174 importance of prosodic factors in word formation in Chinese.

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notes

^■For purpose of clarity, data sources will not be cited individually in the text. The data sources for Chinese languages other than Beijing Mandarin and Taiwanese are as follows: Cantonese (Yip, 1980); Cantonese (Yuan et al., 1983); Changli (Song, 1986); Changhai (B. Li, 1981); Chaoyang (Zhang, 1979); Fuzhounese (Zheng, 1988); Hengxian (Bi, 1979); Kejia (Luo, 1984); Lianzhou (Cai, 1990); Linzi Mandarin (Shi, 1986); Luoyang (Yuan et al., 1983); Pingnan Baihua (Liu & Xiao, 1988); Putian (Yuan et al., 1983); Shanghainese (T. Shen, p.c.), Wuhan (Zhu, 1987); Wuhua (Z.-N. Li, 1981); Wunzhou (Yuan et al., 1983); Xi-an (Yuan et al., 1983); Yongding (Huang, 1982); Zhenan (Yuan et al., 1983). 2Previous works on the process of reduplication within the nonlinear framework (e.g., Kitagawa, 1987) are both theoretically and empirically untenable since the analysis is only based on Mandarin data. 3The XYY form in Mandarin is rare. 4Yuan et al. (1983) do not provide transcriptions for Putian words but use only Chinese characters to indicate reduplicated words. I have therefore used their equivalent Mandarin pronunciations. 5I refer to this type of word as 'morphological word1. For ease of exposition, I use 'word reduplication' to represent 'morphological word reduplication'. 6In word reduplication, the direction of the reduplication is to the right, like that in Wd^^ reduplication. Even though I will refer to this process as involving suffixation, note that since suffixes in Chinese are predominantly monosyllabic, the word reduplication can be considered a process of compounding.

175

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176 7The other alternative for deriving reduplication can be stated in terms of prosodic circumscription (cf. McCarthy & Prince, 1990 for prosodic circumscription). Taking bisyllabic words as examples, (i) is derived by factoring the left syllable of XY as the domain ($ = ). The function of reduplication (represented by Red) makes X becomes XX (i.e., derived by Red (XY: $)). The residue Y (i.e., XY/ $) is added to XX, yielding XXY. (ii) is derived in a similar fashion. In (iii), both the right and the left syllable apply reduplication simultaneously. No residue exists in this case. (i)

(ii)

Derivation of X X Y Input=XY $ = Red: $ (X,Y) = Red (XY: = Red (X) * Y = XXY

to to b. a a za za

'careless' •dirty'

(vii) a. * h=> h^ to b. * a a za

Taiwanese has productive XYXY reduplication; therefore, for every X-li-X-Y there is a XYXY form. 14Another observation is that 5-syllable word, X-Xkuai-Y-Y, is not preferred in Chinese. The affix kuai overwrites the second syllable in order to maintain the quadrisyllabic output. 15This conclusion is made based on the data provided by (Liu & Xiao, 1988) 16Since the foot in Chinese usually consists of two syllables (cf. Shih, 1986), upper limits can be stated in terms of the foot, that is, one foot and two feet for input and output, respectively. 17The ill-formedness of the structures in (35a-c) may seem to be due to morphological constraints. Conceivably, one could argue that trisyllabic compounds are very rare in Chinese; this would then explain why cases (35a-c) do not exist. However, this argument is flawed because a limited number of trisyllabic adjectives of subordinate compounds do exist in Mandarin and in other Chinese languages. We must still explain why Chinese languages do not reduplicate such adjectives. This is, in fact, predicted by constraining the input on the basis of prosodic criteria, which allow us to distinguish between bisyllabic and trisyllabic words as input to the reduplication rule. Furthermore, some Chinese languages other than Mandarin are less restrictive regarding which

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180 adjective types allow reduplication, but they still have the 2-syllable limit. For example, as we mentioned in section 4.2.1, an East Min language, Putian, has a productive reduplicated form XXY, derived from XY, that takes any type of bisyllabic adjective compound as its base (Yuan et al., 1983). Only bisyllabic adjectives, however, may be reduplicated. 18The repetition of the sounds as in the case of onomatopoeia seems to be unrestricted. But native speakers seldom use the forms with more than four syllables (cf. Chapter 5 for a detailed discussion of various types of onomatopoeia). 19When a reduplicated form occurs in a sentence to serve different grammatical functions, a grammatical marker, namely a syntactic suffix (e.g., Mandarin de and its equivalence in Chinese languages) usually has to follow the reduplicated form, as shown in (i): (i)

a. hong hong de hua hen red Suf flower very piao-liang beautiful 'Red flowers are beautiful.' b. kuaikuai le le de hui-jia happy Suf return 'Go home happily.' c. Lao jiang zhang de gao gao old Jiang grow Suf tall 'Old Chiang is tall.'

de Suf

In the examples shown in (43), the syntactic affix will not be included. What interests us is the interaction of reduplication and lexical affixation. 20Due to insufficient information in B. Li (1981), the derivational process of the form X er X er Y er Y er can be ambiguous in that suffixation can occur either before or after reduplication, all the while deriving the same result, shown in (i): (i)

a. Input: ma hu 'careless' Suffixation: maer hu er Syllable contraction: mar hur Reduplication: mar marhur

hur

b. Input: ma hu 'careless' Reduplication: ma mahu hu Suffixation: maer ma er hu er hu er

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181 Syllable Contraction: mar mar hur hur The ambiguity of its derivation, however, is irrelevant to the Maximal Output Constraint. 211 only take into consideration forms that are possible in Chinese. For example, X-Aff-X exists in some languages but it does not exist in others because of lexical exceptions or other reasons (e.g., semantic incompatibility, see Yip, 1980). By contrast, the fact that the X-X-Aff-Y-Y form (i.e., a 5-syllable word) is never instantiated in any Chinese language provides evidence in support of the Maximal Output Constraint that requires the output to be maximally quadrisyllabic.) 22About 93% of Chinese idioms are quadrisyllabic (Moira Yip, p.c.). 23See Lien (1989) for an alternative analysis and discussion of syntactic and semantic constraints. 24L-to-R mapping can also apply to bian 'change' first, deriving the correct form bian tian bian di 'change the world'. 25There are few exceptions to the generalization, e.g., (ia-b) that the synonymous qi 'seven' and ba 'eight' do not appear in alternate positions. However, in other cases they do follow the generalization, as shown in (icd). This discrepancy only occurs when the morphemes are qi 'seven' and ba 'eight'. In other cases, yi-er 'one and two', san-si 'three and four', wu-liu 'five and six' do not have exceptions, as shown in (ii): (i)

a. luan qi ba zao messy seven eight messy 'messy' b. ling qi ba sui scattered seven eight broken •scattered and disorderly' c. qi ling ba sui seven scattered eight broken 'scattered and disorderly' d. za qi za ba mixed seven mixed eight 'miscellaneous' e. wai qi niu ba slanting seven twisted eight 'slanting and twisted'

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182 (ii)

a. yi qing er chu one clear two clear 'clear as crystal' b. yi qing er bai one clear two white 'pure, innocent' c. tiao san jian si choose three pick-up four 'picky' d. bu san bu si not three not four 'dubious, shady, nondescript' e. wu yan liu se five color six color 'colorful'

26Given the fact that Chinese is prosodically-driven, the vague line between syntax and morphology can be explained. The line between syntactic and morphological modules in Chinese is not as clear-cut as is found in other languages such as Indo-European languages. Specifically, whether a word belongs to the lexical or postlexical level is sometimes not easily determined.

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Chapter 5 CHINESE ONOMATOPOEIA AND SECRET LANGUAGES

5.1

Introduction The analysis of adjective reduplication proposed

in Chapter 4 provides the groundwork for the description and explanation of Chinese onomatopoeia and secret languages.

Applying the principles and mechanisms

proposed for adjective reduplication, the account of onomatopoeia and secret language formation presented below will reveal theoretically significant similarities among these three processes.

As with adjective reduplication,

the following account will regard the derivation of onomatopoetic words and the formation of secret languages as suffixation processes.

In addition, the concept of

cyclicity will remain an important element in the following analysis. The morphological differences of the three phenomena in question also deserve special attention. Unlike adjective reduplication, onomatopoeia and secret 183

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184 languages involve fixed material at the segmental level. As a consequence, a replacement process is required to generate well-formed onomatopoetic words.

This process is

assumed here to be Melodic Overwriting (MO). Originally proposed by McCarthy & Prince (1990) for deriving fixed units in word formation, MO is constrained in three ways. First, a morpheme must occupy a tier separate from that of the base and must replace the target segment(s) in a feature-changing or filling manner.

Second, the melodic

morpheme must access the prosodic positions of the base (e.g., the mora in Arabic broken plural).

Third, MO must

occur within a certain domain. I will show that MO interacts with the following principles to provide a unified account of the large array of data from onomatopoetic words (cf. section 5.3) and secret languages (cf. section 5.4) : (a) the Recoverability Principle (RP) (cf. McCarthy, 1981), (b) Cyclicity (cf. Kiparsky, 1982, 1985), and (c) the Maximality Principle (MP) (cf. Ito, 1989; Prince, 1985; Yip, 1991).

Each cycle

of suffixation provides a domain within which the RP and the MP may prevent the occurrence of MO.

Because the RP

prevents the loss of crucial information from the original word, so as to allow for recoverability, the principle plays a vital role in onomatopoeia, and even in secret languages.

Originally proposed in phonology as a

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185 universal principle of syllabification, the MP as used in the analysis of Chinese secret languages prevents the replacement of a glide, thus retaining the maximum number of segments in the onset. To see the workings of the proposal made in this chapter, we will first need to provide some discussion of Chinese syllable structure in section 5.2.

5.2

Chinese syllable structure Despite extensive study of syllable structure in

Chinese phonology (cf. Bao, 1990; Chung, 1989; Duanmu, 1990; Lin, 1989), syllabification of prevocalic glides remains problematic.

Whether or not prevocalic glides

belong to the onset or the rime is still unresolved, with researchers disagreeing widely on the question.

However,

consideration of the derivation of onomatopoetic words and secret languages allows us to determine conclusively the syllable structures of Chinese languages.

From these two

phenomena, we can demonstrate that prevocalic glides belong to the onset in some languages (e.g., Mandarin and Shanghainese) and to the rime in others (e.g., Taiwanese).1 I suggest that this difference in syllabification is due to a parameterized Maximality Principle.

The MP, which requires the maximum number of

segments in the onset, is presently used as a universal

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186 condition for syllabification within the framework of prosodic phonology.

In my analysis, an important

departure from this universal application of the MP is that the operation of the principle is treated as a parametric value.2

That is, the Chinese languages

surveyed here can be distinguished according to whether or not the MP operates.

Thus, the Mandarin and the Wu

language families (e.g., Shanghainese) differ from the South Min language family (e.g., Chaoyang and Taiwanese) in that the former group requires the glide to be in the onset.

As a result of the presence of the MP in the

Mandarin and Wu languages, syllabification produces a maximum of two segments in the onset (e.g., Mandarin). The proposed syllable structure of Chinese is given in (1 ) •

In this account, a syllable with a [+high] segment in the rime (e.g., bin 'guest' in Mandarin) is syllabified as containing a double-linked [+high] segment, one linking to the onset as required by Maximality, and the other to the rime, as shown in (2). (1)

Chinese syllable structure o / 0

\

R

Parameter: Onset can be maximized as CG in syllabification

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187

The representation of glides in words like liti or gu as double-linked structures is well motivated by the derivation of secret languages (Bao, 1990) and by phonetic evidence that lil] is actually pronounced as lyil), a form with a palatalized 1, and gu as gwu with a labialized g (Z.-J. Wang, p.c.)• Note that the group of languages in which the MP operates can be further differentiated by another parameter.

This second parameter, confined within the

domain of replacement processes, determines whether the MP will operate in a particular language to prevent the replacement of a glide.

For instance, in the May-ka

secret language (Chao, 1931), the Mandarin word xwey •return1 is transformed into xway kwey in which the onset in the second syllable retains its maximal number of segments in accordance with the MP.

For the same word in

the Na-ma secret language, on the other hand, k simply replaces the whole onset to produce key because the MP does not operate on the replacement processes of this particular language.

(For further discussion of the

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188 operation of the MP in secret languages, cf. section 5.4.3.3.)

5.3

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoetic words exist in all languages.

Due

to their special function as sound-imitating icons, they sometimes violate phonological structures of the language in which they occur; hence they belong to the peripheral rather than core phonology in many languages.

For

example, L. Lombardi (p.c.) observes that the English onomatopoetic word oink, consisting of three moras in the coda, violates the English syllable structure constraint, which only allows two slots.

Because Chinese

onomatopoetic words, in contrast to English, obey all the constraints in the core phonology, they represent crucial cases in the study of morphology-phonology interface in Chinese.

The formation of onomatopoetic words in Chinese

is identical to adjective reduplication (discussed in Chapter 4).

Indeed this is not surprising, as

onomatopoetic words sometimes act as adjectives.

For

example, bi bi kio 'cluck, cluck' in Chaoyang (Zhang, 1979) is used to describe someone who is a little too pleased with him/herself. In addition to similar processes of derivation, onomatopoetic words and reduplicated adjectives differ in

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189 that the former show a constant occurrence of the melody i or 1 across languages.

Despite this constant occurrence,

onomatopoetic words manifest a variety of surface forms, which, nevertheless, can be accounted for by the same basic processes.

5.3.1

Onomatopoeia: The data

There are a number of different types of onomatopoetic words across Chinese languages.

The list in

(3) shows those types occurring in Mandarin (Zhu, 1982), while (4) shows those in Chaoyang (Zhang, 1979). Shanghainese (Shen, 1979), like Mandarin, has the five types of onomatopoeia listed in (3).27,28

Additional

types are given in (5).29 (3) Mandarin Onomatopoeia: 2 a: i. ii. iii. iv. b. 2 cr: i. ii. iii.

pha -> phi pha 'the sound of fire crackers' tha -> thi tha 'the sound of horse: clop' kwa -> tci kwa 'speaking voice' p al] -> p ii] P al] 'bang' pa -> pa la 'the sound of abacus in use' tsha -> tsha la 'the sound of rubbing' xwa la -> xwa 'the sound of floating water

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190 4

o:

i. ii. 4 o i. ii.

pa -> phi pha phi pha •the sound of fire crackers' tal] -> til] tal] til] tal] 'clunk' pa -> pa la pa la 'the sound of abacus in use' tal] -> tal] tal] lal] lag 'clunk■

4 o i.

pa -> pi li pa la 'the sound of fire crackers; the sound of abacus in use' pha -> p"i ii. li pha la 'the sound of fire crackers; the sound of pil] pal] lal] liQ 'clunk' X. phal] -> phil] lil| Phal] lal] 'clang' xi. phaq -> phil] lil] Phai] 13g •drum beat' 4 o: i. ii. iii.

pha -> phi phi pha pha 'the sound of fire crackers' phoi] -> phii] Phil] phoI] phol] 'clang' tol] -> til] til] tol] to]] 'the sound of bells t

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191 (4) Chaoyang Onomatopoeia a. 2 o i. ii.

i. ii. iii. iv. 3 o i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi.

bi -> bi bi kio 'cluck, cluck; describing someone who is a little too pleased with himself' me -> me me kio 'bahh' tsiau -> tsi tsiau 'murmuring voices' no -> nl no 'rambling speech' nl ap -> nl ? nl ap 'huff' lo -> li lo 'mumble'

kio kio kio kio

lal] pal) -> pin pal] 'the sound of fire crackers; describing a clumsy manner' phoI] -> phil] phoI] loH kio 'the sound of fire crackers; describing a clumsy manner' ta -> ti ta la kio 'laughter, baby talk' siak -> sik siak liak kio 'scraping sound; describing something obscure' hop -> hi? hop lop kio 'crunch; the sound of nibbling' ual -> 1 ual nual kio 'creak'

(5) Shanghainese Onomatopoeia 2 a i. ii. iii.

kha? ka? ba?

-> kha? -> ka? -> ba?

tha? ta? da?

3 a i. ii. iii.

do? ko? liQ

-> do? -> ko? -> ti?

lo? lo?

lo? lo? Iii)

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192 c. 3 o i. ii. iii.

kha? ka? ba?

-> kha? -> ka? -> ba?

la? la? la?

tha? ta? da?

For ease of exposition, I will use the syllable pa to exemplify the various structures.

We can thus

characterize all of the existing and some of the non­ existing forms of onomatopoeia as in (6) ,6*7 (6)

a. Existing forms lo:

pa

2o:

pa pa

pi pa

pa la

3o:

pa pa pa pa la la

pi pa la pa la ta

4o:

pa pa pa pa pi pa pi pa

pi pi pa pa pa la pa la

pa ta

pi li pa la

b. Non-existing forms 2o:

pi la la pa

3o:

pi pa pa pi pipa

4o:

pi pila pi pa pi pa pipa pa li la

pa pa la la pa la la la

la pa pa

pi pi pi pa

la la pi pa li la

Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Chaoyang exhibit optional occurrences of i and 1 in bisyllabic, trisyllabic, and quadrisyllable onomatopoeia, each replacing segment(s) of one of the source syllables.8 These segmental changes are summarized in (7) and (8) with

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193 CV representations.

Since onomatopoetic words do not

contain all possible syllable types, only the existing ones are included.

Note that the G represents [+high]

segments in all three languages, although it is transcribed as i and u in both prevocalic and postvocalic positions in Chaoyang, a language syllabifying [+high] segments into the rime. (7)

Mandarin and Shanghainese: a. i. CV -> Ci ii. CGV -> Ci iii. CVC -> CiC b. i. CV -> IV ii. CGV -> IV iii. CVC -> 1VC Chaoyang •• a. i. CV -> Ci ii. CGV -> Ci iii. CGVG -> Ci iv. CGVC -> CiC V. GVG -> i b. i. CV -> IV ii. CGV -> 1GV iii. CGVG -> 1GVG iv. CGVC -> 1GVC V. GVG -> 1GVG

Regardless of the difference in glide syllabification between Mandarin and Chaoyang, i replaces any [-con] segments of the source syllable, including prevocalic Gs, vowels, and postvocalic Gs in both languages.

Even though

both a postvocalic [+con] segment and a postvocalic glide

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194 are structurally the same in terms of their position in a syllable, i replaces the latter but not the former. The segment 1 only replaces the onset of the source syllable: the CG sequence in Mandarin and Shanghainese and C in Chaoyang.

If the target syllable is

onsetless, 1 will become the onset of that syllable. In Chaoyang, a language that distinguishes between nasal and oral vowels, the nasal feature of the [-con] segment remains in the final output after the segment has been replaced by i (e.g., 1 ual nual kio 'creak1). In one type of trisyllabic onomatopoeia in Shanghainese (i.e., (5c)), laryngeal features are identical in the first and the third syllable (e.g., kh? la? tha?. ka? la? ta?. and ba? la? da?).

5.3.2

Formation of onomatopoeia: A proposal I propose that onomatopoeia is formed by taking a

monosyllabic item as a base and reduplicating it into a bisyllabic, trisyllabic or quadrisyllabic word.30 Evidence for treating monosyllabic words as the base comes from the observation that monosyllabic onomatopoeia in Mandarin (Zhu, 1982) and Shanghainese (Shen, 1979) can occur by itself without being reduplicated, e.g., (9):

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195 (9) Mandarin (Zhu, 1982) zhi ting jian pha only hear •hear one sound "pha"1

de yi sheng DE one sound

In Shanghainese, the onomatopoetic words in (5c) can have other variants, e.g., ka?, ka? la?, or ka? ta? for ka? la? ta? in (5cii), depending on whether the sound described is continuous or discontinuous (T. Shen, p.c.). Iconic meanings are conveyed by obstruents (which indicate the discontinuity of the sounds), and sonorants (which, in contrast, indicate the continuity of the sounds). Both ka and ka ta are used to represent discontinuous sounds, the latter being longer than the former,

ka la?, on the other

hand, represents one continuous sound. In Chaoyang, unlike Shanghainese and Mandarin, monosyllabic onomatopoetic words cannot occur on their own; but instead, they must be reduplicated (Zhu, 1982). Since onomatopoetic words exhibit similar behavior across languages in other respects, I will assume that a monosyllabic onomatopoetic word is also the base for creating reduplicated onomatopoetic words in Chaoyang. The derivation of onomatopoetic words in Chinese comprises two processes: reduplication and MO.

The

reduplication process of onomatopoetic words is the same

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196 as that of reduplicated adjectives discussed in Chapter 4, as given in (10). (10) Reduplication in Onomatopoeia a. Input: lo? Output: a T -> o o

2a:

b. Input: lo; Output: 3o: Cycle 1: o t -> o o Cycle 2: o o t -> o o o c. Input: lo; Output: 4o: Possibility 1: Cycle 1: o t -> o o Cycle 2 : o t o l - > Possibility 2: Cycle 1: o t -> o o Cycle 2: [oo] t - >

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

In (10c), there are two possible derivations.

Possibility

1 involves Wdmjn reduplication, and Possibility 2 word reduplication.

MO only occurs in Wdmjn reduplication.

As with adjective reduplication, the formation of onomatopoetic words entails suffixation and is limited to a maximum of two cycles. MO in Chinese onomatopoeia makes use of one melodic morpheme i_l which consistently appears in the sequence given.10 The melody i_l occurs on a separate tier from the reduplicated form.

Each segment of the

melody (i.e., i or 1) can be regarded as a root node dominating a hierarchically organized feature bundle.

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To

197 represent this bundle, I adopt McCarthy's (1988) framework. To account for the fixed melody of onomatopoetic words, I propose that the melody i replaces the [-con] segment(s) of the base syllable, as given in (11a). On a separate cycle, the melody 1 replaces the onset of the derived syllable in a feature-changing manner or fills in an empty onset in the source syllable in a feature-filling manner, as given in (lib). (11)

a. i Melodic Overwriting a

I

3

[-con]3 I ' i

o is base

b. 1 Melodic Overwriting11 o

/

Onset

/ 1

o is derived (suffix)

Due to the RP, the overwriting of i and 1 cannot occur simultaneously on the same cycle that consists of a base syllable and a derived syllable.

To understand why

this is so, we proceed to the discussion of the interface of MO with the RP.

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198 5.3.2.1

The Recoverability Principle The RP (cf. McCarthy, 1981) prohibits deletion of

phonological information from the base.

In Chinese

onomatopoeia, the principle requires that at least one underlying syllable remain intact for the word to be intelligible.

Consequently, only one application of MO

can occur on any cycle. After suffixation of one syllable to another, MO operates optionally, from left to right.

Because the

overwriting of i or 1 is optional, MO can pass over either melodic unit, thus functioning as a scanner that determines the use of a melody.

Illustrations of the

operation of MO and the RP are given in (12).

(Note that

the brackets are used only to identify each cyclic domain consisting of a base and a suffixed syllable.)

If i

and/or 1 remains at the end of a derivation, Stray Erasure (SE) applies to remove it/them postcyclically. (1 2 )

2a

a.

Suffixation Cycle l:

[pa

T]

MO [pa i

pa] 1

SE: delete i, 1 Output: pa

pa

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199 b.

Suffixation Cycle 1:

[pa

t]

MO [pa I i

pa] 1

SE: delete 1 Output:

pi pa

c.

Suffixation Cycle l:

[pa

t]

MO [p a i

pa] I 1

SE: delete i Output:

pa la

In (12a), the melody i does not replace the segment of the source syllable, so MO proceeds to scan the next unit, 1.

However, MO does not take place with 1

either in this example.

Both i and 1 are thus deleted by

postcyclic SE since they have not been used in the replacement process. The derivation in (12b) is similar, except that this time the melody i replaces any original [-con] segment occurring in the base syllable of the bisyllabic reduplicated form.

MO is then terminated by the RP, which

requires (at least) one syllable to be identical to the underlying form.

At the end of the derivation, the

unassociated 1 is deleted by postcyclic SE.

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200

In (12c), the melody i does not undergo MO, but the next melody, 1, replaces the source segment, yielding the output pa la.

The unused i is deleted by postcyclic

Stray Erasure. With the RP, we correctly derive the various possible bisyllabic forms in (12).

Moreover, we correctly

rule out the ungrammatical forms such as pi la, which violate the RP by having two applications of MO on the same cycle.

In other words, the restriction of MO to a

maximum of one application per cycle is a consequence of the RP, and is not a language-specific stipulation.

5.3.2.2

Cyclicity As with trisyllabic and quadrisyllable adjectives,

the derivation of onomatopoeia requires two cycles of suffixation (cf. (10)).

However, with onomatopoeia, each

application of suffixation provides a new domain within which MO can operate.

In lexical phonology (e.g.,

Kiparsky, 1982, 1985; Mohanan, 1986), each application of a morphological process provides a domain for one or more phonological processes.

In the present proposal, however,

the concept of a cyclic domain will be used for a morphological process (i.e., MO).

Although MO is a

morphological process (because the melody which occupies a tier separate from the source syllable is a morpheme), its

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201

operation can be regarded as phonological.12 In (13) and (14), we see examples of MO with tri- and quadrisyllable words, respectively.

By using cyclic applications, the

seemingly different surface forms of (13) and (14) can be derived by a single set of processes.

(DNA = does not

apply) (13)

3o Suffixation Cycle 1: [pa

MO

t]

Cycle 2: pi [pa

[p a I i t]

Pi

P

a]

1

[pap

a]

I 1 SE: DNA Output: pi pa la (14)

4o Suffixation Cycle 1: [pa

t]

MO [pa I i

pa]

1

Cycle 2: [pi

T] [pa T]

[pi pi]

[pa

pa]

1^ SE: DNA Output: pi li pa la In (13), the first suffixation of one syllable to another creates a domain for the cyclic application of MO.

The

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202

melody i replaces the segment(s) of the syllable which functions as the base for suffixation.

Replacement on the

first cycle stops at i because of the RP.

Subsequent

suffixation to the right syllable of the bisyllabic form (o1 o2 t -> o, [o2 o3]) provides a new cycle for MO to operate, in which o2 is the base and o3 the suffix.

The

unassociated melody 1, which has not been scanned by MO on the first cycle, replaces the onset p of the derived form on the second cycle, yielding pi pa la. Quadrisyllable words can be similarly derived by two cycles: first, suffixation of one syllable to another syllable applies (Cycle 1: o t -> [o a]), and then each syllable of the output becomes a new base for subsequent suffixation (Cycle 2: o T o I -> [o o] [o o]).

In (14),

MO applies to the segment of the base syllable on the first cycle of suffixation, deriving pi pa.

Each syllable

of the bisyllabic form (pi pa) serves as a base for suffixation on the second cycle, yielding pi pi pa pa. Recall that in deriving XXYY in Chapter 4, syllables X and Y must undergo simultaneous reduplication to obey the Maximal Input Constraint (X t Y t -> XXYY).

If

suffixation applied in either position first, the result would be trisyllabic and thus would not conform to the Maximal Input Constraint.

On the second cycle, the

melodic unit 1 simultaneously replaces the onset of each

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203 of the two newly affixed syllables, yielding pi li pa la.13 If the applications were not simultaneous, we would need a third cycle, requiring the MO of 1 to reapply, in order to generate the correct output, as shown in (15).

This step would require MO to reapply twice to

the same melody, but allowing such multiple application would result in unrestricted application of MO. (15)

4o Suffixation Cycle 1: [pa

Cycle 2: [pi

MO

t]

T] [pa

Cycle 3: [pi li] [pa t]

[p a

]

p

a]

[pi

pi]

[pa

]

[pi

li]

[pa

pa] I

SE: DNA Output: pi li pa la

Word reduplication does not provide a domain for MO, as can be seen from the derivation of pi pa pi pa, derived in (16).

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204 (16)

4o Suffixation Cycle 1: [pa

MO

t]

[ p a p a ] I i 1

Cycle 2: [pi

pa]

t

[pi pa]

[pi pa]

1 SE: delete 1 Output: pi pa pi pa The form in (16) (which involves word reduplication) is correctly generated without the application of MO on Cycle 2.

If MO did apply on Cycle 2, then incorrect forms such

as pi pa li la would be generated after the melody 1 replaced the onsets of the derived form.

(Note that the

derived form now consists of two syllables.)

For the same

reason, the output of the first cycle in (17) (i.e., pa la) does not undergo further MO when the second cycle involves word reduplication. (17)

4o

Suffixation

Cycle 1: [pa

1]

MO [pa

pa] I

[pa la]

[pa la]

Cycle 2: [pa la] t

SE: delete i Output: pa la pa la

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205 Given the facts concerning Chinese onomatopoetic words, (18) summarizes the four possible combinations of applications of MO in deriving onomatopoeia.

These four

combinations all show the precedence of i, a fact accounted for by the analysis provided here since the linear order of i and 1 is indicated in the melodic morpheme i (18)

a. b. c. d.

1 itself. Cycle 1: Cycle 1: Cycle 1: Cycle 1:

i i 1 a

Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle

2: 1 2: a 2: a 2: a

Through left-to-right MO, the four possible occurrences of MO listed in (18) can be accounted for in a systematic way, as we have already seen in the previous discussion.

Note that in (18c), if MO of i does not apply

on Cycle 1, it cannot apply on a subsequent cycle.

By the

same token, in (18d), if neither MO of i nor 1 apply on Cycle 1, they do not apply on Cycle 2, either.

This

phenomenon can be regarded as the manifestation of the Strong Domain Hypothesis (SDH) (cf. Borowsky, 1986; Kiparsky, 1985; Myers, 1991 for SDH).

The SDH states that

if a phonological rule does not apply on an earlier cycle, it cannot apply on a later cycle.

In the proposed

analysis, the SDH acts as a constraint on the morphological operation MO, so that if MO of a particular

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206 melody does not apply on a cycle, MO of the same melody cannot apply subsequently.

Note that if MO of 1 does not

apply on Cycle 1 because of the RP, it can still apply on Cycle 2, since 1 has not been scanned on Cycle 1.

The

other significant observation concerning the cyclicity of MO is that it never applies to i or 1 twice, as indicated in (19).

This is exemplified by the ill-formed

onomatopoetic words such as * pi pi pa, * pi pi pi pa, * pa la lala that could beotherwise (19)

derived.

* a. Cycle 1: i

Cycle 2: i

* b. Cycle 1: 1

Cycle 2: 1

This fact is also accounted for by the proposed analysis. That is, once the melody is linked on the first cycle, it cannot be linked again. Finally, two lexical gaps have been found (i.e., pi pa pa, (Cycle 1: pa T -> pa pa -> pi pa; Cycle 2: pi pa t -> pi pa pa), and pa pa la la (Cycle 1: pa T -> pa pa -> pa la; Cycle 2: pa t la t -> pa pa la la)).

Although they

are predicted to exist by the analysis provided here, pi pa pa and pa pa la la are not among the onomatopoetic forms.

Despite its nonoccurrence in onomatopoeia,

however, the pi pa pa form exists in Fuzhounese verb reduplication, and can therefore be counted as a possible

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207 derivation.

I suggest that the absence of the other form

is an accidental, rather than a systematic, gap.

5.3.2.3

Place node delinking Unlike the derivations involving MO studied by

McCarthy and Prince (1990), MO in Chinese onomatopoeia does not replace the whole root node of the original segment(s).

Instead, it replaces the place node as

illustrated by Shanghainese and Chaoyang onomatopoetic word formation. In Shanghainese, the type of onomatopoetic word presented in (5c) (e.g., pa la ta) agrees in laryngeal features in the first and last syllables.

We can derive

its correct result (given in (20)) by assuming that the melody 1 is represented with [lat], dominated by a coronal (Levin, 1988), and that the 1 only replaces the place node of the original onset.

Since Shanghainese does not have a

laryngeal distinction for 1, that is, 1 is not contrastive for aspiration or voice, the original laryngeal features of the first syllable will not surface in 1.

On the

second cycle, the lateral node is detached and the segment thus shares every feature with the original consonant except the coronal node, yielding pa la ta.u

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208 (20)

3o

MO

Suffixation

Cycle 1: [pa

t]

[pa i

Cycle 2: pa [

la I

t

pa] I 1

]

/ Rt \ laryngeal place I I [-voice] cor I lat 1 pa

[la

laryngeal I [-voice]

la] I Rt place I cor =*= lat

SE: delete i Output:

pa la ta

The second indication that MO replaces only a place node comes from nasality in Chaoyang.

In Chaoyang,

1 has the variant n, derived by a nasal spreading rule. Nasal spreading from an underlying nasal vowel causes the melody 1 to change to n.

Unlike nasal vowels, nasal

consonants do not spread their nasal feature to adjacent segments and the 1 remains unchanged (e.g., pi]] pal] laT)

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209 kio 'the sound of fire crackers' (describing a clumsy manner), with no assimilation; but 1 ual nual kio 'creak' from 1 ual lual kio). This contrasting behavior also appears in complex morphological formations, shown in (21 ) :15

(21)

a. [tui lui] tik b. [tsun lun] ta c. [I]an nan] tiau d. [khr) nl] ] mua •

•

e. [ual nual ] tiau In (21b), the nasal consonant does not spread but the nasal vowel in (21e) spreads onto 1 (ual -> ual ual -> ual lual -> ual nual . In (2Id) , the syllabic nasal

I)

behaves

like a regular vowel and spreads its nasal feature onto 1. From the above description of the nasal phenomena, I would like to suggest that a nasal assimilation rule spreads its nasal feature onto the melody 1, changing it into a nasal as shown in (22) : The nasal feature must be adjacent to 1. (22) Nasal spreading rule a

1

X J [nas]

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210

Note that the first segment of nan in (2lc) is not derived by (22) because it is not adjacent to a nasal [con] segment.

This nasality, in fact, comes from I) of the

base form (I]an -> J]an I)an -> I)an nan), since the melody 1 in (21c) only replaces the place node of the segment I), without changing the nasal feature dominated by the root node.

The retained nasal feature consequently causes

melodic 1 to surface as n in (21c). A similar behavior is found in the maintenance of the nasality on the [-con] segments in Chaoyang after MO of i applies (e.g., l ual nual 'creak'). This again suggests that MO only delinks the place node of the segment that it overwrites. Thus we can conclude from Shanghainese and Chaoyang that MO of i and 1 replaces only the place node of the original segment and, subsequently, fills in that empty place node.

The question arises as to whether

laryngeal features surface in the final output if Mo only replaces the place node— specifically if the original segment is [-voice].

The output of 1 should not be

affected, since the [voice] feature is not contrastive for 1.

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211

5.3.2.4

Against a prefixation analysis The facts underlying Chinese onomatopoeia lend

further support to the claim that reduplication is a process of suffixation rather than prefixation. Problematic derivations would have to be postulated if onomatopoeia involved two cycles of prefixation, rather than suffixation, in trisyllabic and quadrisyllable forms (trisyllabic: Cycle 1: T o -> [o o]; Cycle 2: t o o -> [o o] o? quadrisyllable: Cycle 1: t o -> [o o] ; Cycle 2: T o t o -> [o o] [o o]).

One problem is that the direction of

MO would become less constrained.

For example, to derive

pi pa la, the MO must go from right to left because 1 has to be attached first; in contrast, MO must go from left to right to derive pi li pa la.

The derivations of pi pa la

and pi li pa la are given in (23a) and (23b), respectively, assuming that prefixation is used: (23)

a.

Prefixation

Cycle 1:

[I pa]

MO [pa

pa]

i

1

Cycle 2: [T pa]

la

[pa

p

a] la

i SE: DNA Output: pi pa la

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212

b.

Prefixation

Cycle 1:

[t pa]

MO [pa

pa]

i Cycle 2: [? pi] [t pa]

[pi

pi]

1 [pa

pa]

1 Output:

pi li pa la

Another problem is that certain existing onomatopoetic forms cannot be derived under the assumption that prefixation is used in reduplication. it is impossible to derive pa la la.

For example,

In addition, some

nonexisting onomatopoetic forms will be incorrectly generated, for example, pi pi pa (Cycle 1: pa pa -> pi pa; Cycle 2: t pi pa -> pi pi pa), pa pa la (Cycle 1: t pa -> pa pa -> pa la; Cycle 2: t pa la -> pa pa la), pi li pa (Cycle 1: T pa -> pa pa -> pi pa; Cycle 2: I pi pa -> pi pi pa -> pi li pa), and pa pa la la

(Cycle 1: t pa -> pa

pa -> pa la; Cycle 2: t pa t la -> pa pa la la). On the basis of this evidence, an analysis involving two cycles of prefixation in trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic onomatopoetic words must be abandoned. In sum, the various types of Chinese onomatopoeia can be accounted for by utilizing cyclic suffixation and MO.

MO interacts with the RP and the SDH in the

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213 derivation of onomatopoetic words.

The workings of MO

discussed above can be summarized in (24). (24) Melodic Overwriting a. in Wdmi-n reduplication only b. The melody /i_l/ occupies an autosegmental tier. c. Directionality: Left to Right i. [-con] -> i in the base within a cycle ii. Onset -> 1 in the derived form within a cycle d. The Recoverability Principle: Replacement stops when any melodic segment is chosen to be used within a cycle. e. The Strong Domain Hypothesis: If MO of a particular melody does not apply on a cycle, MO of the same melody cannot apply on a subsequent cycle. Only when MO is blocked by the RP on a cycle, the unscanned melody can still apply subsequently. f. Stray Erasure (SE): The unused segment gets deleted by postcyclic Stray Erasure.

In the next section, we will see that these same processes (cyclic application of suffixation and MO) also operate in the word formation of secret languages.

This

next case will provide an interesting contrast to the generation of onomatopoetic words in that (a) the RP operates in a different manner, and (b) the MP functions as a parameter.

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214 5.4

Secret languages Chinese secret languages have received a great

deal of attention in recent phonological research (e.g., Bao, 1990; Duanxnu, 1990; Lin, 1989; Yin, 1989; Yip, 1982). In this section, I will present the relevant data on such languages.

In subsequent sections, I will briefly outline

earlier treatments, show their weaknesses, and then provide an alternative proposal that is both theoretically and empirically more desirable, as it avoids problems that arise in the earlier treatments.

5.4.1

Secret languages: The data

The examples of various secret languages are given in (25) — (38) ,16'17 Secret languages in Chinese (25)

Mandarin 1

-

May-ka

a. pey -> pay key 'north' b. xwey -> xway kwey 'return1 c. u -> way ku 'black' (26)

Mandarin 2

-

Mey-ka

a. pey -> pey key 'north' b. swan -> swey kwan 'garlic' c. tul) -> twey kul] (*tey 'east'

kvil])

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215 (27)

Mandarin 3 -

a. pey

-> pen -> pdn 1north' b. swan -> swan 'garlic' c. tul) -> twen -> tw8n 'east' (23)

Man-tha they they thwan thuT) thul) (*t8n thul))

Mandarin 4 - Na-ma

a. ye -> ne ye (*nye ye) 'grandfather' b . nyal] -> nal) nyal] (* nyal) nyal]) 'goodness' c. twei -> nei twei (* nwei twei) 'correct' d. chyan -> nan 'curl' (29) a. b. c. d. e. f. (30) a. b. c. d.

chyan (* nyan

chyan)

Kunshan 1 (Wu language) - Mo-pa (0=lax o, E=lax e) pa -> po va (*po va) 'country' t8w -> to ldw 'many' tso -> tso zo 'as' kwe -> ko y w e 'close' yO -> yo tgO 'want' E -> o kE 'love1 Kunshan 2 (Wu language) - Men-pen-pa (0=lax o) tha -> t8n la I8n 1soup' la -> I8n t8n ta 'man' syO -> s8n ts8n tsyO 'to vanish' tsyO -> ts8n z8n zyO 'burned'

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216 (31)

Haimen Fanhua (Wu language) pil] ku khwa pa? u t