Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self AL 5406 Phinnemore 8 February 2013

Phonology Assignment 7: Morphophonemics

1. Introduction
Owing to its structural properties, Mandarin is not a language characterized by much in the way of morphology. Mandarin is not, however, altogether lacking in morphophonemics. More properly, Mandarin morphophonemics are largely morphotonemics, as tone sandhi comprises a major part of the morphophonemic alterations evident in the language. More truly morpho phonemic alterations can also be observed in word compounding, with which Mandarin is replete, and word formation through the addition of some precious few bound morphemes like the suffix - and the plural marker mn.

2. Tone Sandhi
Mandarin has four contrastive tones, all but one a contour tone. They are shown in Table 1. high 1st tone rising 2nd tone falling rising 3rd tone falling 4th tone

Table 1: Mandarin Tones The functional load of tone in Mandarin is quite high. On a purely segmental basis, the language only has 406 distinct syllables; once tonal contrasts are factored in, however, 1256 distinct syllables can be produced (Yip 2002:172). Unlike African languages, tone in Mandarin is characterized by its stability: that is, tones tend to remain associated with the same tone bearing unit (henceforth TBU) and do not shift from syllable to syllable (Yip 2002:132). There are, however, changes that occur when tones are juxtaposed with one another in compound words and sentences. This phenomenon, known as tone sandhi, is well-documented in our data. The tone sandhi in our data reflects two distinct types: 1) sandhi associated with specific words, namely the negative morpheme bu and word for one (j)i; and 2) sandhi associated purely with tonal juxtaposition. We shall take each of these types of sandhi in turn. 2.1 Tone sandhi associated with bu and (j)i The negative morpheme and word for one in Mandarin are well known for engaging in sandhi with following tones. The process with bu not is fairly simple. Before another fourth tone word, it becomes a second, or rising, tone. This change is illustrated in (1). (1) u 1SG bu NEG i be laui teacher

I am not a teacher (S53.14).

The process with (j)i one is somewhat more complex. Before first, second, or third tones, the word becomes fourth, or falling, tone. Before a fourth tone, on the other hand, it becomes a second, or rising, tone. These changes are illustrated in (2), (3), and (4). (2) u 1SG ti eat jixi kiautsi some dumpling

I eat some dumplings (S53.16).

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Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self (3) umen 1PL (4) t jiki ky

We go together (S53.17). DEM be i ti ordinal ji one k lesson

together go

This is the first lesson (S53.15). An interesting further example of the changes associated with ji comes from the juxtaposition of the word with the general classifier k. As is often the case with classifiers in context, k is usually pronounced without tone; however, the effect of its underlying fourth tone is sufficient to change the tone of ji to second. This phenomenon is exemplified in (5). (5) ta 3SG ju have ji one k laui CLAS teacher

He has one teacher (S53.14).

2.2 Tone sandhi associated with pure tonal juxtapositions As we noted in our Phonology Paper (section 3.1), the third tone in Mandarin is unique. First, it is associated with both a fall and a rise in pitch. Second, the nature of its long falling-rise tends to cause both a lengthening of the syllable that bears the tone as well as its largyngealization and subsequent realization with creaky voice. The third tone also participates in unique processes of tone sandhi. Whenever two third tones are juxtaposed, the first is realized as a second, or rising, tone. This change occurs in the very common greeting ni xau (/ni xau/) (S135.6), meaning literally You good. It is also illustrated in the compound word in example (6). (6) /ui ui - ku/ water fruit (S53.19-20). Whenever a third tone is juxtaposed to a first, second, or fourth tone, on the other hand, it becomes a half-third tone, consisting of the fall without the final rise. These changes are illustrated in the compound words in examples (7), (8), and (9). (7) /y language (8) /tsu past (9) y - jn/ language language water fruit

language (S137.13) tsu - ku/ past country

homeland /k but

may/can be may/can be be The other instance of tone sandhi not associated with specific lexical items involves second tone. At normal conversational speeds, second tone also exhibits certain changes indicative of tone sandhi. In

k - i/

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Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self particular, when second tone occurs in the middle of a trisyllabic expression, it often surfaces as first tone (Duanmu 2002:239). Examples are given in (10) and (11). (10) san three nin year ju oil ki grade pi

third grade (S131.46) (11) tsu onion

cake

fried onion cake (S131.47)

3. The suffix -
The use of a special rhotacized suffix in Mandarin is associated with a particular kind of elevated, northern style of speech known in Chinese as erhua (Duanmu 2002:212). As Chao (1968:46) notes, this suffix is the only non-syllabic affix in the whole language. Historically, - is related to a diminutive suffix, though Chao (1968:46, 228) traces its use to two other sources as well. In terms of morphophonemics, the addition of the suffix to a given syllable results in a complex set of changes depending on the nature of the final or coda of the host syllable. Table 2 presents a listing of the changes given in Duanmu (2002:213); Duanmus [r] represents our //, and [y] corresponds to the glide [j]. Unsuffixed z, , i, n a, ai, an o u au u a u e i, in y r ar or ur r aur ur r ar ur r ir yr Chao (1968) r ar or ur r aur our r r ur r ir yr L. Wang and N. He (1985)

Table 2: Morphophonemic changes with the suffix - per Duanmu (2002) Not all of these possibilities are evidenced in our data, though quite a few are. Those that are in evidence are presented in Table 3.

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Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self

Unsuffixed /uan/ /xu/ /mi/ /kiauxai/ /i/ /xui/ /t/ [u] [hu] [mi]

Suffixed

Meaning to play fire, angry tomorrow small child thing time here

Citation S141.35-143.36 S143.37-18 S143.41-42 S143.43-145.44 S145.45-46 S127.30-31 S127.36

[iauh] [] [xu] [t]

Table 3: Data from LC with - suffix From Table 2 and Table 3, we can extract the following generalizations about the morphophonemic changes occasioned by the addition of the - suffix. 1. The codas i, n, and - are deleted before - . 1 2. The central low vowel /a/ backs further to [] before - . 3. Tone remains unaffected before -.

4. Neutral tone in compounds

As we indicated in our Phonology Paper (section 4.4), syllables in compound words are often pronounced without tone (the so-called neutral or fifth tone). The loss of tone coincides with a lack of stress. The language has actually constructed a number of minimal pairs depending on whether the second syllable of such compounds is pronounced without stress and tone or not. Table 4 illustrates the contrasts. normal stress + normal stress /xiuti/ S139.23 /tuxi/ S139.25 brothers east and west primary stress + unstressed /xiuti/ S139.24 /tuxi/ S139.26 younger brother' thing

Table 4: Minimal stress pairs in Mandarin

5. Other morphology in Mandarin

Though strictly outside the limits of morphophonemics because they do not involve any changes to the phonetic form of the utterances to which they attach, we should mention a few bound stems in Mandarin that participate in derivational processes. As we have noted previously, Mandarin can be characterized as a language of compound words (Arcodia 2007:79). Thus, it should not be surprising that Mandarin makes use of words to form compounds in the same way that more polysynthetic languages use derivational affixes. The word /xy/, which also occurs in the words /taxy/ university and /xyxi/ study, is used as a suffix to create abstract nouns denoting fields of study, in much the same way as the Greek suffix(o)logy is used in English. Similarly, /kia/ is used as a suffix to create agentive nouns, like the ist ending
NB: The loss of final /-/ should leave behind nasality on the pre- vowel (Duanmu 2002:214). Our admittedly small sample of data does not bear this generalization out.
1

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Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self in English. Finally, the word /xua/ can be suffixed to nouns and adjectives to create transitive verbs in the same way as the Greek suffix ize functions in English. Examples of these constructions are given in (12), (13), and (14). (12) /tuuu - xy/ animal study zoology (S163.43) (13) /xiauu - kia/ novel - -ist novelist (S163.44) (14) /mi - xua/ American - -ize Americanize (S131.49) One final bound stem that bears mention is /tsi/. Ultimately derived from the word /tsi/, meaning child, this toneless suffix is used in modern Mandarin as an obligatory element in the formation of a host of nouns (Li and Thompson 1989:42-43). There is no common semantic link between these nouns and no derivational functional of the affix. For all intents and purposes, the words that occur with /-tsi/ are simply frozen forms Examples are given in Table 5. /kuaitsi/ /kuutsi/ /pantsi/ /haitsi/ /tutsi/ /pitsi/ /tatsi/ /putsi/ /fatsi/ /tutsi/ /iitsi/ chopsticks pants bowl child belly nose guts neck house seed leaf Table 5: Nouns with the suffix -tsi S53.11 S43.7 S15.20 S79.22 S69.81 S69.80 S69.82 S71.83 S25.59 S27.60 S27.61

6. References
Arcodia, Giorgio Francesco. 2007. Chinese: A Language of Compound Words? Selected Proceedings of

the 5th Dcembrettes: Morphology in Toulouse, ed. by Fabio Montermini, Gilles Boy, and Nabil Hathout, 79-90. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, http://www.lingref.com/ cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf (accessed 22 January 2013).

Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Deborah Cunningham & Stephen Self Duanmu, San. 2002. The phonology of standard Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson. 1989. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar . Berkeley: University of California Press. Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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