A Phonological Analysis Of Loanword Nativization In Chinese

This thesis makes an attempt to analyze the Chinese loanword nativization from the OT perspective. Optimality Theory (OT) was proposed by Prince and Smolensky in the early 1990s. At the heart of OT lies the idea that constraints are universal and violable; languages principally differ in their hierarchical ranking of constraints. There must exist some selectional mechanism which involves hierarchical ranking of constraints to get the optimal output which minimally has violated the highest ranked constraint. Based on the past studies on Chinese loanwords, especially Professor Zhang Jisheng's OT analysis of the syllable acceptability of Chinese loanwords, a new constraint hierarchical ranking of SC loanword nativization is proposed in this thesis.SC syllable structure model is firstly analyzed and discussed. Eight kinds of representations of SC syllable structure have been reviewed. Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of those representations, we agree with Zhang's (2008) multiple-specifier X-bar syllable structure model: [N^max[N"[N'[N]]]], because his model can account for the status of the pre-nuclear glides technically and reasonably: not in the onset, nor in the rhyme, but the specifier of N" . Based on his model and all the data available, I have presented a detailed examination of different types of Chinese loanwords and have stipulated necessary phonological constraints concerning the Chinese loanword nativization.The study on the constraint hierarchical ranking of SC loanword nativization is the central part of this thesis. According to the syllable structure model and loanword phonology, I have worked out the hierarchical ranking respectively with regard to the following four types of syllable nativization: onset epenthesis, coda epenthesis, feature change and deletion. Finally, I have stipulated one overall constraint hierarchical ranking which can exactly capture the phonological representation of SC loanword nativization. A systematic study of loanwords in Chinese from the phonological perspective has a great significance not only in Chinese linguistic studies but also in general linguistic point of view. At the end of this these I have pointed the directions for future studies on Chinese loan phonology.