Analyzing Nanjing Tones and Sandhi: Statistical Modelling Methods

Si Chen

doi:10.3765/amp.v7i0.4479

Abstract

In this study, we used growth curve analysis to model the surface f0 contours of the sandhi tones, and we also modelled the underlying pitch target of sandhi tones and their corresponding citation tones in Nanjing Chinese. The underlying pitch targets of reported sandhi tones showed neutralization with reported base tones in most cases, but the surface f0 contours of each pair were not neutralized. Our results provided acoustic evidence for the debate over the existence of some tone sandhi rules in Nanjing Chinese based on impressionistic data. Finally, transcription modification of some monosyllabic Nanjing Chinese tones was recommended based on the transformation of the results of the statistical modelling of the acoustic data.

Highlights

Tone sandhi is a phonological and categorical process exhibiting contextually determined tone alternations at the juncture of words or morphemes, in contrast to the phonetic and gradient phenomenon of tonal coarticulation in which the acoustic realization of tones exhibits either a carryover or anticipatory effect of the preceding or the following tones, (e.g. Brunelle, 2009; Chen, Wiltshire & Li, 2018)
After examining the slope and intercept values for the underlying pitch target as well as the plots for regenerated f0 contours and mean f0 contours, a transcription of each monosyllabic tone that we propose based on statistical analysis of acoustic data is as follows: T1 (42), T2 (24), T3 (11), T4 (43), T5 (5)
The transformation to Chao’s tone numbers based on statistical modelling has some advantages (Chen, accepted): (1) Statistical modelling may help determine whether a tone should be represented as a straight or circumflex tone; (2) Statistical modelling helps predict tonal contours of the entire speech community based on samples of speech production; (3) The transformation is based on underlying pitch targets, conforming to articulatory mechanisms (Xu & Prom-on 2014), whereas previous transformation methods rely extensively on the raw data or some transformation of it without statistical modelling

Summary

Introduction

Tone sandhi is a phonological and categorical process exhibiting contextually determined tone alternations at the juncture of words or morphemes, in contrast to the phonetic and gradient phenomenon of tonal coarticulation in which the acoustic realization of tones exhibits either a carryover (progressive) or anticipatory (regressive) effect of the preceding or the following tones, (e.g. Brunelle, 2009; Chen, Wiltshire & Li, 2018). Tone sandhi is a phonological and categorical process exhibiting contextually determined tone alternations at the juncture of words or morphemes, in contrast to the phonetic and gradient phenomenon of tonal coarticulation in which the acoustic realization of tones exhibits either a carryover (progressive) or anticipatory (regressive) effect of the preceding or the following tones, Statistical modeling of the acoustic data is conducive to promoting our understanding of tone sandhi and providing phonological representations of underlying tone targets (Chen, accepted). Since the characteristics of a tone sandhi process involve stability, categorical shift and influence on the entire tones, we test both surface f0 contours and the underlying pitch targets for Nanjing Chinese. Nanjing Chinese used to be classified as one of the Wu dialects, but it is considered to belong to Jianghuai Mandarin (Jin, 2010)

Methods

Results

Conclusion