Abstract
A-not-A refers to a Mandarin reduplication construction where the underlying form /RED-pu-A/ contains a reduplication of the first syllable in A. In this study I investigate the kinds of adaptations that occur when an English word serves as the base A in code-switching speech. Since the complex onsets and most codas allowed in English are illegal in Mandarin syllables, the reduplicated part is expected to adapt to Mandarin phonotactics to some degree. I ran a production experiment where 20 native Mandarin-speakers were asked to produce A-not-A constructions with 55 mono- and multi-syllabic English words. Results from the experiment showed varied adaptation methods in syllable structure and tones. To model the results, I used the Maximum Entropy Harmonic Grammar (MaxEnt) with weighted constraints on syllable structure markedness and base-reduplicant faithfulness.
Highlights
Code-switching to English in colloquial speech is common for Mandarinspeakers, especially younger generations with certain amount of English-exposure
This paper investigates an intriguing phenomenon observed among native Mandarin-speaking international students in Los Angeles, how they reduplicate English words in a Mandarin reduplication construction, namely the A-not-A construction
When Mandarin-speakers code-switch to English while producing this construction and introduce English words as the base, the base part of this reduplication is always faithful to its input but the reduplicant adapts to Mandarin phonotactics to some degree: (2) frE pu35 frES σRED not fresh ‘fresh or not’
Summary
Code-switching to English in colloquial speech is common for Mandarinspeakers, especially younger generations with certain amount of English-exposure. An A-not-A construction in Mandarin contains two syntactic copies of A (A can be an adjective or a verb) that are intervened by a negative adverb bu [pu] ‘not’, the name. It is a reduplication construction by the virtue that the first A is phonologically realized as a copy of the first syllable of the second A element. When Mandarin-speakers code-switch to English while producing this construction and introduce English words as the base, the base part of this reduplication is always faithful to its input but the reduplicant adapts to Mandarin phonotactics to some degree:. The complex onset [fr] of the reduplicant, which is impossible in Mandarin, gets preserved in the onset position
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