山东方言谓词变音的韵律动因

The Prosodic Motivation of Predicate Sound Change in Shandong Dialects

在某些汉语方言里,动词和形容词可以通过变韵、变调等手段来表达特定的语法意义,这种现象一般被称为"谓词变音"。学界通常将谓词变音看作谓词与其后附成分(如"了、着、在、到、得")合音的结果,但对于其形成的动因尚未有一致的看法。本文主要以山东方言为考察对象,结合韵律句法学的相关原理,提出当地的谓词变音是谓词与其后附成分所组成的韵律短语在弱读位置合音的结果,这里的"弱读位置"是相对普通重音而言的。本文不但对"V+体标记"和"V+终点标记"的合音做了统一的分析,还对谓词变音无法出现在句末的现象做了解释。此外,我们发现汉语方言中的一些其他合音现象也多与"弱读"有关,这进一步支持了本文的假说。至于谓词变音为何多发生在山东等地的方言中,我们认为这可能与各个方言在音节"轻重差"上所采取的参数有关,"轻重差"悬殊的山东方言更容易出现谓词变音现象。

In some northern dialects of Chinese,verbs and adjectives can convey grammatical meaning by changing their phonetic forms(e.g.tone alternation,rhyme alternation,rhyme lengthening),which is commonly referred to as“predicate sound change”(PSC).Below are examples from the dialect of Rongcheng,Shandong:(1)我吃儿三碗米.(吃[tc^(h)i^(21)]>吃儿[ts^(h)ər^(21)])1 SG eat.INFL three bowl rice“I have eaten three bowls of rice.”(2)把书放儿桌上.(放[faη^(33)]>放儿[far^(33)])DISP book put.INFL table on“Put the book on the table.”(3)我累儿不行了.(累[lei^(33)]>累儿[lər^(33)])1 SG tired.INFL NEG can PRT“I am very tired.”As shown in(1-3),the rhotacization of verbs and adjectives in Rongcheng dialect can be used to mark the perfective aspect,destination,and complement.In previous studies,such phenomena are usually attributed to the fusion of verbs/adjectives and their suffixes,but the motivation of the fusion has not been well explained yet.This paper offers a prosodic explanation for the PSC in Shandong dialects.Based on the Relative Prominence Principle and Government-based Nuclear Stress Rule,the main verb and the prosodic phrase composed of a verb and its suffix(i.e.V-suffix)are generally unstressed,as shown in(4)and(5),respectively:■Given that the unstressed prosodic word/phrase in many Chinese dialects has a strong tendency of merging into a single syllable(e.g.Beijing:这里[tsə^(51)li^(214)]>这儿[tsər^(51)]“here”,两个[liaη^(21)kγ^(51)]>俩[lia^(214)]“two”,etc.),I propose that the fusion of a verb and its suffix in(5)can be well predicted.The analysis is supported by the fact that the PSC cannot occur in the end of a sentence in many dialects,where the V-suffix cannot be unstressed.As for the reason why the PSC often occurs in Shandong dialects,the paper suggests that dialects(or languages)may adopt different parametric means to realize the contrast between“lightness”and“heaviness”of syllables.For instance,an unstressed syllable in Beijing dialect may merely lose its original tone,but an unstressed syllable in many Shandong dialects may not only lose its original tone,but also change its rhyme into a single vowel(e.g.Beijing:知道[tau^(51)>tau]“know”vs Weihai,Shandong:知道[tau^(44)>tə]“know”),which gives rise to a bigger contrast between“lightness”and“heaviness”of syllables.Furthermore,in certain cases of Weihai dialect,the unstressed syllable may entirely lose its syllabic independence,and further fuse into a stressed syllable,such as没有[moi^(44)]“do not have”.In this sense,it is no surprise that the fusion of verbs/adjectives and their suffixes are more likely to appear in Shandong dialects.