优选论和天津话的连读变调及轻声

On tone sandhi and neutral tone in the Tianjin dialect within the framework of Optimality Theory

优选论是近十年来出现的一种极富活力的音系理论。本文采用这一理论对天津话连读变调和轻声进行分析。天津话两字相连有四种连读变调现象,经典的生成音系学可用四条音系规则加以表述,但解释力不强。用优选论进行分析,不仅能得到正确的描写,还具有更强的解释能力。近来的声学实验发现,天津话轻声不是一个点,也不是一个短平调,而是在不同音境中也有升降等调型的。我们认为,轻声调型是语音范畴的协同发音和音系范畴的天津话调系特点交互作用的结果。优选论可以给天津话的连读变调和轻声音系特点作出具有原则性的统一解释。

This paper is an analysis of Tianjin tone sandhi and neutral tone within the framework of Op-timality Theory. Tianjin dialect has four kinds of tone sandhi phenomena. Rule-based generative phonology can represent them by four phonological rules, but they lack explanatory force. An op-timality-theoretic analysis will not only provide a correct description, but will also offer more explanation. Recent acoustic studies show that Tianjin neutral tone, though short, is not a point or a short level tone, but could in different contexts be rising or falling as well as being level.. This is the result of the interaction of phonetic co-articulation and the phonology of Tiarijin tone. An OT analysis can give us a principled and unified account of Tianjin tone sandhi and neutral tone.