University of california

Interim Conclusion

In this chapter, I have discussed arguments against the structural alternatives to contour tone restrictions, especially the moraic approach and the tone mapping approach. In the next two chapters, I lay out the theoretic apparatus in the direct approach to contour tone restrictions and provide analyses for representative languages.

7. A Phonetically-Driven Optimality-Theoretic Approach

The aim of this chapter is to formalize the direct approach defended in the previous sections and provide a theoretical apparatus in which its predictions are made specific and directly testable against data.

1. Setting the Stage

1. Positional Faithfulness vs. Positional Markedness

The theoretical framework I adopt here is Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). The central idea to be expressed is that distributional restrictions on contour tones are directly related to the duration and sonority, or C_CONTOUR, of the rime.

In Chapter 1—Chapter 5 of the dissertation, I have been using positional faithfulness to characterize these restrictions, in both the structure-only approach and the direct approach. Basically, this approach singles out the faithfulness constraint specific to a prominent position from the context-free faithfulness constraint and ranks positional faithfulness over context-free faithfulness. Then when a relevant markedness constraint is ranked between these two constraints, the marked value will be able to surface in the prominent position, but not elsewhere. For contour tone restrictions per se, we identify positions with greater C_CONTOUR values and impose stronger faithfulness conditions upon them by the ranking Ident-C_CONTOUR(P₁)[Tone] » *Contour » Ident-C_CONTOUR[Tone] (P₁ is a position with a greater C_CONTOUR value).

But there is another way in which positional prominence can be captured in OT—positional markedness (Alderete et al. 1996, Zoll 1998, Steriade 1999, among others). Its basic idea is to single out the markedness constraint specific to non-prominent positions from the context-free markedness constraint and to rank positional markedness over context-free markedness. Then when a relevant faithfulness constraint is ranked between these two constraints, the marked value will be able to surface in the prominent position, but not elsewhere.

To illustrate the basic mechanism of positional markedness, let us again assume the following neutralization pattern: feature F is only contrastive ([+F] and [-F]) in position P₁, elsewhere it is realized as [-F]. We posit the constraints as in (0). As we can see, unlike positional faithfulness, which refers to the prominent position P₁ in the faithfulness constraint, positional markedness refers to non-P₁ positions in the markedness constraint, as in (0c).
(0) a. Ident(F): let  be a segment in the input, and  be any correspondent of  in the output; if  is [F], then  is [F].

b. *[+F]: no [+F] is allowed in the output.

c. *[+F]-(P₁): no [+F] is allowed in positions other than P₁ in the output.
With the constraint ranking in (0), we generate the correct data pattern for the realization of F, as illustrated in the tableaux in (0).
(0) Constraint ranking: *[+F]-(P₁) » Ident(F) » *[+F]
(0) a. [+F] is faithfully realized in P₁:

[+F] in P1	*[+F]-(P1)	Ident(F)	*[+F]
 [+F]			*
[-F]		*!

b. [+F] is realized as [-F] elsewhere:

[+F] in P1	*[+F]-(P1)	Ident(F)	*[+F]
[+F]	*!		*
 [-F]		*

For contour tone restrictions, we identify positions with smaller C_CONTOUR values and impose stronger markedness conditions upon them by the ranking *Contour-C_CONTOUR(P₁) » Ident[Tone] » *Contour (P₁ is a position with a greater C_CONTOUR value).

But in fact, I consider positional markedness to be a more appropriate approach for contour tone restrictions. Zoll (1998) argues that only positional markedness can account for cases in which a marked structure arises through augmentation of an input, and the marked structure only surfaces in a strong position, since positional faithfulness would block the augmentation in strong positions, but not weak positions, thus creating the marked structure only in weak positions. The case she discusses in detail is Guugu Yimidhirr (Kager 1995). In this language, a long vowel can only occur in the first two syllables of a word. Some suffixes trigger vowel lengthening on the final vowel of their base, but this lengthening is blocked if the base is trisyllabic or longer, i.e., if the lengthening would create a long vowel outside the domain (=first two syllables of a word) in which it could be licensed. She rightly argues that positional faithfulness cannot block the lengthening in a trisyllabic or longer base and provides a positional markedness account for the distribution of long vowels in this language.

We find parallels to this scenario in some synchronic tonal processes involving contour tones.

One synchronic scenario that will specifically motivate a positional markedness treatment of contour tone restrictions is as follows: a tonal process (tone sandhi, floating tone docking, etc.) creates a contour tone on the target syllable; but it only does so when the target syllable has a long enough duration to host the contour; when the target syllable does not have a sufficient duration, the tonal process is blocked. Thus we have a situation in which the tone on a short duration is faithfulness preserved, while the tone on a long duration is altered by the tonal process, counter to the prediction of positional faithfulness.

This scenario can be found in a number of Chinese dialects.

In Suzhou, a Northern Wu dialect of Chinese (Ye 1979, Ye and Sheng 1996), there are five contrastive tones on CV and CVR syllables—44, 13, 52, 412, 31, and two contrastive tones on CVO syllables—level tones 5 and 3. Again, the vowel in CV is phonetically long, and the vowel in CVO is very short. Ye uses two numbers to mark the tones on CV and CVR, even when the tone is a level tone, but only uses one number to mark the tones on CVO. This perhaps reflects the rime duration difference between checked (CVO) and non-checked (CV and CVR) syllables. One sandhi process in Suzhou involves a CVO syllable with a 3 tone and the following syllable: it changes the tone of a following CV or CVR into 31 regardless of its underlying tone, but it does not change the tone of a following CVO. This is summarized in (0). Some examples are given in (0).

\	44 CV(R)	13 CV(R)	52 CV(R)	412 CV(R)	31 CV(R)	5 CVO	3 CVO
3 CVO	3-31					3-5	3-3

(0) a. 3-44 —> 3-31 z´/ sE ‘thirteen’

ten three
3-13 —> 3-31 lo/ zo ‘green tea’

green tea

ten nine
3-412 —> 3-31 bA/ tsÓE ‘Chinese cabbage’

white vegetable
3-31 —> 3-31 mo/ doN ‘wooden barrel’

wood barrel

wax candle

six month

b. *Contour: no contour tone is allowed on any syllable.

c. Ident[Tone]: let  be a syllable in the input, and  be any correspondent of  in the output; if  is has tone T, then  has tone T.

d. Align(3, R, 31, L): the right edge of a tone 3 must be aligned to the left edge of 31.

z´/3 sE44	Align(3, R, 31, L)	Ident[Tone]
z´/3 sE44	*!
 z´/3 sE31		*

Given that the contour tone 31 cannot occur on CVO, we know that *Contour-C_CONTOUR(CVO) » Align(3, R, 31, L). This is illustrated in the tableau in (0).

la/3 tso/5	*Contour-CCONTOUR(CVO)	Align(3, R, 31, L)	Ident[Tone]
 la/3 tso/5		*
la/3 tso/31	*!		*

Therefore, with the constraint ranking in (0), the tone sandhi pattern in Suzhou given in (0) can be accounted for.

b. Ident[Tone]: let  be a syllable in the input, and  be any correspondent of  in the output; if  is has tone T, then  has tone T.

c. *Contour: no contour tone is allowed on any syllable.

d. Align(3, R, 31, L): the right edge of a tone 3 must be aligned to the left edge of 31.

Since the tone on a CVV or CVR syllable is changed to 31 after 3, we know that Align(3, R, 31, L) » Ident-C_CONTOUR(CVV, CVR)[Tone], as shown in the tableau in (0).

z´/3 sE44	Align(3, R, 31, L)	Ident- CCONTOUR(CVV, CVR)[Tone]
z´/3 sE44	*!
 z´/3 sE31		*

But then we will not be able to predict the blocking of the tone sandhi on CVO, as illustrated in the tableau in (0). The candidate that chooses the 31 on CVO wins out since it only violates the lowly ranked *Contour and Ident[Tone]. The fully faithful candidate, which should be the winner, loses the competition by violating the highest ranked Align(3, R, 31, L).

la/3 tso/5	Align (3, R, 31, L)	Ident-CCONTOUR (CVV, CVR)[Tone]	*Contour	Ident [Tone]
la/3 tso/5	*!
 la/3 tso/31			*	*

Therefore, Suzhou tone sandhi is a parallel case to Guugu Yimidhirr vowel length alternation, and it demonstrates the need for positional markedness in the account of contour tone distribution.

A few other Chinese dialects have tone sandhi behavior similar to Suzhou. In another Northern Wu dialect Ningbo (Chan 1985), there are three contrastive tones on TV or TVR syllables (T represents a voiceless obstruent)—53, 424, 33, and only one tone on TVO—5.²⁸ The tones 424 and 5 trigger the tone sandhi as in (0).
(0) Ningbo tone sandhi:

\	53 CV(R)	424 CV(R)	33 CV(R)	5 CVO
424 CV(R)	42-42			42-4
5 CVO	5-35			5-5

As we can see, sandhi tones 42 and 35 can occur on CV or CVR syllables, but cannot occur on CVO, presumably due to its short duration. If we assume that the second tone 4 in 42-4 is not distinct from the second tone 5 in 5-5, then we can conclude that these sandhi processes are simply blocked when the target syllable is CVO in order to avoid contour tones on a short duration.

In Xinzhou, a Jin dialect of Chinese (Wen and Zhang 1994), the tones on CV and CVR are 313, 31, 53, and the tone on CVO is always 2. The tone 53 changes the tone of the following CV or CVR into 31, but does not change the 2 on CVO, as shown in (0). This is the same pattern as in Suzhou and Ningbo.
(0) Xinzhou tone sandhi:

\	313 CV(R)	31 CV(R)	53 CV(R)	2 CVO
53 CV(R)	53-31			53-2

I argue that these tone sandhi processes in Suzhou, Ningbo, and Xinzhou clearly motivate a positional markedness approach for contour tone restrictions.²⁹ Therefore, in the remaining sections of the dissertation, I will use positional markedness in the formal analysis of contour tone restrictions. But the arguments for the relevance of phonetics made in previous chapters, which are based on positional faithfulness, are still valid, since they do not hinge on the choice between positional faithfulness and positional markedness.

2. Overview of the Theoretical Apparatus

The patterns of contour tone distribution that the theoretical apparatus must capture are the following. First, the distribution of contour tones depends on the on a phonetic index of the rime—C_CONTOUR; the lower the C_CONTOUR values, the more limited distribution the contour tones will have on the rime. Second, when a contour tone encounters a syllable with insufficient tone bearing ability, there is a wide range of cross-linguistic variation with respect to the strategy taken to avoid the violation of a highly ranked tonal markedness constraint: the syllable may be lengthened, the contour tone may be flattened, or both; and the lengthening and flattening can be neutralizing and non-neutralizing.

Therefore, I posit three families of constraints: markedness constraints against certain contour tones on rimes with certain C_CONTOUR values—*Contour(T)-C_CONTOUR(R), markedness constraints against having extra duration on the syllable—*Dur, and faithfulness constraints on tonal realization—Pres(Tone). Each of these constraint families has a set of intrinsic rankings. For *Contour(T)-C_CONTOUR(R), when the C_CONTOUR value is the same, the ban on a contour with higher tonal complexity is ranked above the ban on a contour with lower tonal complexity; when the contour is the same, the ban of the contour on a lower C_CONTOUR value is ranked above its ban on a higher C_CONTOUR value. For *Dur, the ban on a greater amount of extra duration is ranked above the ban on a smaller amount of extra duration. And for Pres(Tone), a greater perceptual deviation from the input tone is penalized more severely than a smaller perceptual deviation.

The interaction of these three families of constraints gives rise to the attested patterns of contour tone restriction: when *Dur and Pres(Tone) are highly ranked and all relevant tonal markedness constraints *Contour(T)-C_CONTOUR(R) are lowly ranked, the contour tone is faithfully realized on the rime without flattening or lengthening; when some *Dur constraints are outranked by the relevant tonal markedness constraints while all Pres(Tone) are still highly ranked, the contour tone is faithfully realized upon lengthening of the rime; when some Pres(Tone) constraints are outranked by the relevant tonal markedness constraints while all *Dur are highly ranked, the contour tone is partially or completely flattened; and when some *Dur and some Pres(Tone) constraints are outranked by the relevant tonal markedness constraints simultaneously, the contour tone is partially flattened, and at the same time, the rime is lengthened. These scenarios are summarized in (0). All these scenarios are attested in real languages.

Output	Constraint ranking
a. Faithful:	Pres(T), *Dur  *Contour(T)-CCONTOUR(R)
b. Contour reduction:	*Dur, *Contour(T)-CCONTOUR(R)  some Pres(T)
c. Rime lengthening:	Pres(T), *Contour(T)-CCONTOUR(R)  some *Dur
d. Contour reduction and rime lengthening:	some *Dur, some Pres(T), *Contour(T)-CCONTOUR(R)  some other *Dur, some other Pres(T)

In the following sections of this chapter, I formally define these three constraint families and discuss their interactions in detail.

2. 
   
   Directory: files
   files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2
   files -> Integer programming and game theory
   files -> 4 Integer Programming
   files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective
   files -> Pop Warner History
   files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose
   files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d
   files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal
   files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations
   
   
   
   Download 3.01 Mb.
   
   Share with your friends: