The Phonological Analysis Of Retroflex Suffixation In Chinese

Retroflex suffixation in Chinese is a phenomenon of syllable merger. As one of the most interesting phonological phenomena in Chinese, r-suffixation has drawn great attention from scholars in different linguistic fields and arouses much discussion at home and abroad. This thesis is to make a phonological analysis of the Chinese r-suffixation. From the phonological point of view, when a syllable is followed by the [r] suffix, its rhyme will go through a series of phonological alterations under the influence of the feature [+retroflex]. Some cases of r-suffixation in Chinese involve phonological opacity. A reanalysis of r-suffixation under the framework of classic OT is presented in the thesis. But the classic OT cannot account for phonological opacity in Chinese r-suffixation due to its surface-oriented nature. Thesis introduces Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (OT-CC) which is a newly-developed theory in the field of generative phonology. Its advantage lies in its adequate capability of interpreting phonological opacity, especially multiple opacity. OT-CC is applied in this thesis to account for the phonological opacity occurring in the process of Chinese r-suffixation. It is proved that the cases of phonological opacity in Chinese r-suffixation can be appropriately interpreted within the framework of OT-CC.This thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is an overall introduction of previous researches on r-suffixation in Chinese. Chapter two discusses some fundamental issues concerning r-suffixation in Chinese, including Chinese syllable structure, the underlying form of [r] suffix, the sound inventory of retroflexed rhymes, and the phonological behavior of r-suffixation. Chapter three provides a classic OT analysis of r-suffixation in Chinese to demonstrate the deficiency of classic OT for phonological opacity. Chapter four focuses on an OT-CC analysis of the phonological opacity in r-suffixation with valid constraints, constraint candidates and a new constraint hierarchy in OT-CC when the underlying [r] suffix is regarded as a feature. Chapter five provides an OT-CC analysis of multiple opacity in r-suffixation when the underlying form of [r] suffix is considered as a segment. Chapter six is a conclusion of the whole thesis.