An Analysis Of Tones In Bazhou Dialect

This thesis aims at detailed phonetic description of tonal information in Bazhou dialect through an acoustic experiment and a phonological analysis of the tonal behaviors within the framework of Optimality Theory. It focuses on three aspects: citation tones, disyllabic tone sandhi and the neutral tone's behaviors in disyllabic and trisyllabic sequences.The thesis is divided into four parts. Chapter I provides an introduction to previous studies on the tonal system of Bazhou dialect. Chapter II shows the phonetic details obtained from the acoustic experiment. With the help of the Praat, a speech-analysis program, four citation tones are found existing in BZD:Yinping(342), Yangping(541), Shangsheng(121) and Qusheng(41). However, not the citation forms, but those in phrase-final position are considered as the underlying forms. Therefore, the four tones in BZD are underlyingly Yinping(34), Yangping(541), Shangsheng(12) and Qusheng(41). With regard to tone sandhi behavior in disyllabic sequences, the following patterns are found:T2→54/___Tx(S, Syl)T3→24/___T3T4-424/___T4Neutral tone in Bazhou dialect has some significant characters. It is mostly determined by the preceding syllable, and can cause the sandhi of the preceding stressed syllable.Chapter III is concerned with an Optimality Theoretical aralysis of tone sandhi in stressed disyllabic sequence in Bazhou dialect. It proves that within the OT framework, the tonal behavior can find a rather explicit explanation.Chapter IV is the conclusion of the whole thesis. Meanwhile, the respects waiting to be done in my future study are given in this section.