The Sound Pattern Of Chinese Rime Change

It is well known that inflection is lacking in Chinese compared with the Indo-European Languages. Still, rime ablaut is popular in Northern Chinese dialects, which has gained the term "rime change" (Bianyun) in Chinese studies. Diachronically, rime change mostly results from the merger of a suffix with the preceding syllable. There are 3 major types of rime changes, Er suffixation, Z suffixation and D suffixation. In light of the previous studies, all of the three rime changes are the daughters of the basic rime system and each of them forms a sub-system of its own. In many dialects only Er suffixation occurs, whereas, two or even all three types co-exist in central China Henan, Shanxi and Shandong provinces. Each of three rime changes corresponds with the basic rime at the same time presents distinctive phonetic features. This study focuses on the sound pattern and the phonological constraints of Erhua, Z and D suffixations as a whole in Central Plains Mandarin, which would give an in-depth and comprehensive understanding for Chinese and even Sinitic languages, which are repeatedly claimed to lack any kind of inflectional morphology and have very little derivational morphology.Chinese rime changes are multiple systems and constrained at multiple levels, while same properties are present at every level, which features the mutual influence and constraints among systems. Synchronically, whether a sub-system occurs would be both phonological and syntactic issues, and how a sub-system presents itself might be constrained by the basic rime as well as other sub-systems. The syllable structure of rime-changed syllables is constrained by basic syllable, even with small modifications and adjustments. Chronically, under the control of the basic rime system, the rime-changed systems intend to utilize as many features as possible to form a similar vowel pattern as basic rime. In addition, along with the individual change of each sub-system, synergetic change appears.My study can be divided into seven chapters. Chapters two through six are the main body, in which the chapters two, three and four discuss the conditions, rules, structure and function of rime change at the synchronic level, and chapters five and six discuss the interaction among rime systems chronically.Chapter one is the introduction, which offers a brief overview of the current study in the field of rime change, the subject, aim and meaning of this study, and the theories, methods and the material resources used.Chapter two analyzes the phonological condstrains and rules of rime change. Within the frame of "feature speading", the medials in Er suffixation and the feature [consistent] are addressed. The comparison of Yanshi and Beijing Er suffixation shows that in both of these two diaiects the extent and speed of the feature coronal-[-anterior] spreading vary depending on the frontness of the basic rime, the acoustic correlate of which is the two types of the F3 movements. The difference between Yanshi and Beijing Er suffixation is the former is significant perceptually with the audible medials when the coda possesses the feature [-front], while the latter is recessive without audible medials in any situation. In terms of the modern phonology and the results of experimental phonetics, the alveolar nasal is treated to possess one more [+stop] feature than velar nasal, and the glottal stop is treated ambivalent in feature [stop]. By these treatments, the dialectal variations of the three sounds as codas in the three rime changes can be explained generally.Chapter three addresses the verbal rime change from the syntactic and the semantic point of view. Er suffixation, Z suffixation and D suffixation of village name occur only at the lexicon level and are constrained by only phonological rules. The verbal rime change, which is indeed predicate inflection and occurs at the syntax level, is constrained not only phonologically but also syntactically and semantically. Using the Yancheng dialect as an example, this chapter uncovers how the rime change serves different functions depending on the time frame in which the verb is used and also gives a detailed description of the grammatical constraints on usage. It also tries to identify the possible aspect markers which merge with the preceding predicates to establish a new tense/aspect pattern.Chapter four analyzes the syllable structure of the rime-changed syllable. The Er suffixed syllables with medials in between onset and rime perceptually in Yanshi and the Z suffixed syllables with duration contrast in Qixian are mainly discussed. The results show that the syllable structure of the rime-changed syllable as a whole is C(G)VV, taking the same structure as the basic syllable, even with some small modifications in length and phonotactic constraints.Chapter five proposes parameter adjustment as another diminutive model, which also takes the form of rime change. The diminutive featuring [+front,+round] or [-front,-round] in different dialects in Jiaozuo area in Henan province can not be traced from the merger of the same "er" suffix with the preceding syllable. Instead, this can be explained simply from its relation to Z suffixation, which features [-front,+round] and bears close semantic relation to it. The feature [+front,+round] will come out if the feature [-front] shifts to [+front] with the [+round] holding constant. Similarly, the feature [-front,-round] will come out if the featue [+round] shifts to [-round] with the [-front] holding constant.Chapter six explores the relationship between rime systems during sound change. It is supposed that if more than one rime subsystem exists in the same dialect, they will influence each other. The data of 99 dialects in Henan province shows that the Er suffixation with the [-front] coda varies depending mainly on whether they are influenced by the other two rime subsystems, which is called synergetic change. In order to observe the relation of the three sub-systems better, the simplest pattern of Er, Z and D suffixation, i.e.2 or 1 vowel as the nucleus of the suffixed syllables, are chosen from attested dialects to unite an ideal super subsystem. The vowel pattern of the super subsystem as a whole presents the tendency to take a similar pattern to the basic vowel system by utilizing as many features as possible to keep enough distance. Synergetic change and similar vowel pattern embodies the function of the structure integration.Chapter seven is the conclusion.