Focal prominence in tone languages: A case study of three Chinese languages

Abstract

This thesis investigates the phonetic realisation of focal prominence in three Chinese languages: Cantonese, Chengdu Mandarin, and Changsha Xiang. These languages, each representing a unique dialect group with distinct tonal systems, present novel opportunities for sentence-level prosodic comparisons. Using uniform experimental protocols and analytical methods that incorporate both syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions, the study uncovers nuanced modulations of pitch and duration in response to different focus types, including wh-focus, contrastive focus, ‘EVEN’ focus and broad focus. The modulations of pitch contour also illuminate the distinct tonal targets associated with each tonal category. Empirical findings presented in Chapter 3, 5 and 6 are based on production data collected from fieldwork in the three languages. Chengdu and Changsha are found to utilise f0 and duration to encode focus, exhibiting both on-focal boosting and ‘extra-focal’ compression, which is markedly different from the more constrained modifications observed in Cantonese. Chapter 4 delves into an alternative focus-marking strategy in Cantonese using edge tones, examined through a perceptual study. Chapter 7 extends to a direct cross-linguistic comparison of analogous tonal contours, quantifying the degrees of prosodic alternations across the three languages. Drawing from an extensive review of lexical prosody in Chinese, this thesis discerns a pattern of co-occurrence (or absence) of tonal reduction at both lexical and sentential levels. Integrating insights from languages with lexical stress, it is suggested that such correlations are underpinned by metrical templates that shape a language’s inclination to vary prominence. Languages with a more phonologically activated metrical structure allow for more extensive prosodic manipulations, whereas those with a weaker metrical motivation tend to maintain stable tonal realisation, and may resort to alternative strategies like sentence-final particles or edge tones to convey pragmatic nuances. Ultimately, this thesis underscores the importance of tonal reduction for uncovering ‘stress-like’ metrical properties in tone languages. It enriches prosodic typology by highlighting the role of metrical properties in characterising prosodic systems of tone languages. Moreover, it introduces various methodological advancements that could facilitate future research.