Case Studies Pingyao Chinese

Case Studies

1. Pingyao Chinese

As I have discussed in §6.1.1.4, syllables in Pingyao Chinese are in the shape of CV, CVN, or CV/. The vowel in CV is either a diphthong or phonetically long, and the vowel in CV/ is very short. The former is usually more than twice as long as the latter. I henceforth write CV syllables as CVV. The vowel in CVN has comparable duration to the vowel in CV/ (Zhang 1998). On CVV and CVN, three tones can occur: 13, 35, and 53; on CV/, 13 and 53 can occur, but they are partially flattened to 23 and 54 (Hou 1980, 1982a, b). Some Pingyao examples are repeated in (0).

puu¹³ ‘to hatch’ puu³⁵ ‘cloth’ puu⁵³ ‘to mend’

pø/²³ ‘to push aside’ pø/⁵⁴ ‘a musical instrument’
I focus on the partial flattening of the contour tones 13 and 53 on CV/ syllables here. What needs to be explained is: (a) 13 and 53 can occur on CVV and CVN syllables; and (b) they must be flattened to 23 and 54 on CV/ syllables. I discuss the 13~23 alternation in detail. The 53~54 alternation can be accounted for similarly.

Suppose that under the canonical speaking rate and style, the minimum sonorous rime duration for CVV and CVN is d+d₀ (Zhang 1998 reports that the sonorous rime duration for these syllable types is comparable), and the minimum sonorous rime duration for CV/ is d. From the definition of C_CONTOUR (§3.1), we know that the C_CONTOUR values of the three syllable types observe the order C_CONTOUR(CVV) > C_CONTOUR(CVN) > C_CONTOUR(CV/). The first ‘>’ sign is due to the fact that CVV and CVN have comparable sonorous rime duration, but CVV has a greater vocalic component than CVN. The second ‘>’ sign is due to the fact that CVN has longer sonorous rime duration than CV/.

Let us now consider the crucial constraints for Pingyao Chinese from the three constraints families—*Contour-C_CONTOUR, *Dur, and Pres(T).

From the *Contour-C_CONTOUR family, the crucial constraints are shown in (0). These constraints observe the intrinsic ranking in (0).

b. *Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CVN)

c. *Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CV/)

d. * Contour(23)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)

e. *Contour(23)-C_CONTOUR(CVN)

f. * Contour(23)-C_CONTOUR(CV/)

 

 

To define the crucial constraints from the Pres(T) family, let us suppose that S₁₃(23)=i, meaning that 23 is i steps away from 13 on the perceptual scale. Then the crucial Pres(T) constraints are the ones given in (0), and their intrinsic ranking is given in (0).

b. Pres(T, 1):  must be faithfully realized.

First, since 13 can be faithfully realized on CVV and CVN, we know that Pres(T, 1) » *Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CVN) » *Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CVV). Second, since on CV/, 13 is partially flattened to 23, but not to anything with an even smaller pitch excursion, we know that Pres(T, i+1), *Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CV/) » Pres(T, i), *Contour(23)-C_CONTOUR(CV/). Therefore, the crucial ranking for Pingyao is as in (0), and this ranking does not contradict the intrinsic ranking in (0).

 



Pres(T, 1)



*Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CVN)



*Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CVV)

puu13	Pres(T, 1)	*Contour(13)-CCONTOUR(CVV)
 puu13		*

b. /pø/¹³/ —> [pø/²³]

(T, i+1)*Contour(13)-C_CONTOUR(CV/)Pres

(T, i)*Contour(23)-C_CONTOUR(CV/) pø/¹³*!* pø/²³** pø/³³*!*

The behavior of tone 53 on the two different syllable types (CVV and CVN vs. CV/) can be similarly accounted for.

Pingyao Chinese is an example language that has partial contour reduction. To see how we get complete contour reduction, let us look at Xhosa.

2. Xhosa

To recapitulate the data pattern in Xhosa: there is penultimate stress and no contrastive vowel length. All syllables are open. The only contour tone in the language—H°L—is restricted to the stressed syllable of the word. The phonetic study I conducted has shown that syllables are drastically lengthened under stress, but only moderately so in final position. When the penultimate stress of a word is lost in the utterance, if the originally stressed syllable carried H°L, it is simplified to H, as shown in the example in (0).

¸!s¸~∫a$ya~ ‘sheep fold’

¸!s¸~∫a!ya! e!s¸~khu$lu~ ‘big sheep fold’
Therefore, the distributional properties to be explained in Xhosa are the following: (a) stressed syllables can carry H°L; (b) final syllables cannot carry H°L; and (c) other syllables cannot carry H°L. As for the tonal alternation in (0), the theory developed here will only predict that H°L must be flattened to a level tone. I assume that there are other constraints in the language that force a H to surface, not a L.

In the phonetic study of Xhosa that I reported in §5.2.1, I found that both prosodic-final and stressed syllables were lengthened, but the effect of stress lengthening was significantly greater than that of final lengthening. Therefore we may suppose that under the canonical speaking rate and style, the minimum sonorous rime duration for a stressed syllable, a final syllable, and an unstressed non-final syllable is d+d₀+d₁, d+d₀ and d respectively. From the definition of C_CONTOUR (§3.1), we know that the C_CONTOUR values of the three syllable types observe the order C_CONTOUR(_stressed) > C_CONTOUR(_final) > C_CONTOUR(_{unstressed-nonfinal}).

Let us now consider the crucial constraints for Xhosa from the three constraints families—*Contour-C_CONTOUR, *Dur, and Pres(T).

From the *Contour-C_CONTOUR family, the crucial constraints are shown in (0). ‘’ in (0d-f) indicates a small pitch excursion, and these constraints ban any contour tones on the specified syllable type. The constraints in (0) observe the intrinsic ranking in (0).

b. *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(_final)

c. *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(_{unstressed-nonfinal})

d. * Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_stressed)

e. *Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_final)

f. * Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_{unstressed-nonfinal})

 

 

To define the crucial constraints from the Pres(T) family, let us suppose that S_H°L(H)=i, meaning that H is i steps away from H°L on the perceptual scale. Then the crucial Pres(T) constraints are the ones given in (0), and their intrinsic ranking is given in (0).

b. Pres(T, 1): H°L must be faithfully realized.

First, since H°L can be faithfully realized on a stressed syllable, we know that Pres(T, 1) » *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(_stressed). Second, since on an unstressed syllable, H°L is flattened to H, we know that *Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_{unstressed-nonfinal}) » *Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_final) » Pres(T, i). Therefore, the crucial ranking for Xhosa is as in (0), and this ranking does not contradict the intrinsic ranking in (0).



*Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_final)



Pres(T, i)



Pres(T, 1)



*Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(_stressed)
The tableau in (0a) illustrates how the faithful rendition of H°L is derived on a stressed syllable. The tableau in (0b) illustrates how the complete reduction of H°L to H is derived when the syllable loses its stress. For both tableaux, we assume that the entire *Dur family is ranked on top, and we only consider candidates that do not have lengthening. Stress is indicated in boldface.
(0) a. /¸!s¸~∫a$ya~/ —> [¸!s¸~∫a$ya~]

¸!s¸~∫a$ya~	Pres(T, 1)	*Contour(H°L)-CCONTOUR(stressed)
 ¸!s¸~∫a$ya~		*
¸!s¸~∫a! @ya~	*!
¸!s¸~∫a!ya~	*!

b. /¸!s¸~∫a$ya! e!s¸~khu$lu~/ —> [¸!s¸~∫a!ya! e!s¸~khu$lu~]

¸!s¸~∫a$ya! e!s¸~khu$lu~	*Contour()-CCONTOUR(unstressed-nonfinal)	Pres(T, i)
¸!s¸~∫a$ya! e!s¸~khu$lu	*!
¸!s¸~∫a! @ya! e!s¸~khu$lu	*!
 ¸!s¸~∫a!ya! e!s¸~khu$lu~		*

In (0a), the candidate with a faithful realization of the falling contour on the stressed syllable [∫a] is the winner, since it only violates the lowly ranked constraint *Contour(H°L)-C_CONTOUR(_stressed). Flattening the contour to H°M or H, as the second and third candidates show, violates the higher ranked Pres(T, 1) and makes the candidates lose. In (0b) however, the candidate with a complete contour reduction to H on the syllable [∫a], which has lost its stress, is the winner, since Pres (T, i) is ranked lower than the relevant tonal markedness constraint here—*Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_{unstressed-nonfinal}). Any other candidate with a lesser degree of flattening, even though will fare better with Pres (T, i), will lose for violating the highly ranked tonal markedness constraint.

We may also imagine a hypothetical input with a H°L contour on the final syllable of a word. The H°L contour will also be flattened to a level tone due to the ranking *Contour()-C_CONTOUR(_final) » Pres (T, i).

The difference then between Xhosa, which has complete contour reduction, and Pingyao Chinese, which has partial contour reduction, lies in the different interactions between the Pres(Tone) and *Contour-C_CONTOUR constraint families. In Xhosa, the constraints that ban contour tones on syllables with short sonorous rime duration are so highly ranked that they must be respected even at the cost of faithfulness violations when completely flattening the contour. But in Pingyao Chinese, the two constraint families interleave in such a way that result in a compromise—the partial flattening of the contour avoids violations of both the highly ranked *Contour-C_CONTOUR constraints and the highly ranked Pres(Tone) constraints.

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