Synopses & Reviews
Matthew Chen's landmark study offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of the rich and complex patterns of tone used in Chinese languages. Chinese has a wide repertoire of tones that undergo often surprising changes when they are connected in speech flow. This tonal alternation is known as tone sandhi. Chen examines tone sandhi phenomena across a variety of Chinese dialects. His book is the culmination of a ten-year research project and explores a range of important theoretical issues against a wealth of empirical data not previously accessible to linguists.
Synopsis
The most comprehensive analysis to date of the complex tonal patterns of Chinese languages.
Table of Contents
Notational conventions; 1. Setting the stage; 2. Tonal representation and tonal processes; 3. Directionality and interacting sandhi: Processes -1; 4. Directionality and interacting sandhi: Processes -2; 5. From base tones to sandhi forms: a constraint-based analysis; 6. From tone to accent; 7. Stress foot as sandhi domain - 1; 8. Stress foot as sandhi domain - 2; 9. Minimal rhythmic unit as obligatory sandhi domain; 10. Phonological phrase as a sandhi domain; 11. From tone to intonation; Conclusion; References; Bibliographical appendix.