Morpho-Syntactic Effects on Tone Sandhi Variants in Shanghai Chinese

Abstract

This paper examines effects of morpho-syntax on tone sandhi variants in Shanghai Chinese. In Shanghai Chinese, “(broad) tone sandhi” occurs in a polysyllabic phrase in which the overall pitch of the phrase is solely determined by the tone of the initial syllable. When this rule applies to a quadrisyllabic phrase whose initial tone is T5 (yangru), two sandhi variants appear that differ in their tonal representations. Previous work has suggested several interpretations of the relationship between the sandhi variants but they have not been supported by any objective data.

  This study closely observes the distribution of sandhi variants in Shanghai Chinese from a morpho-syntactic perspective. The investigation reveals the following two findings: 1) Three, not two, sandhi variants are found; and 2) two of these sandhi variants (“Second Association” and the “2+2 Variant”) occur only in compounds that consist of two disyllabic nouns (“2+2 compounds”). The second finding clearly indicates that the distribution of the sandhi variants is affected by the morpho-syntactic structures of the phrases.

  This paper further discusses why two of the sandhi variants occur only in 2+2 compounds. The occurrence of the 2+2 Variant can be attributed to the difference of a foot (or sandhi domain) construction among the morpho-syntactic structures, and the occurrence of Second Association can be explained by the historical relationship among the sandhi variants.