A Phonological Analysis Of Tone Sandhi In Yinchuan Dialect

This thesis,based on previous studies,attempts to explore the phonological motivation for tone sandhi in Yinchuan dialect,and systematically analyzes sandhi rules in light of Optimality Theory(OT).In Yinchuan dialect,except the neutral tone,there are only three contrastive lexical tones as follows:T1 T2 T3Yinping Yangping Qusheng44 53 13As for tone sandhi,the discovery from previous studies shows that there are only two sandhi forms as follows:T2→35/_T3T2→35/_T0In previous studies,it can be found that the perceived absence of scientific analysis of tone sandhi in Yinchuan dialect is a result of the limitation of the theoretical tools for the description of tone system.Traditional analyses of tone system have been done exclusively in descriptive approach.They have not yet explained what is/are the phonological motivation(s) for the tone sandhi in Yinchuan or what are the phonological rules underlying the different sandhi forms.Theoretically,the paper herein presents an explicit explanation of why the tone sandhi takes place and how it is represented in Yinchuan dialect through a systematic analysis in the framework of OT,which may cast some light on understanding the phonological mechanism of tone sandhi cross-dialectally.The methodology employed in the thesis is Optimality Theory.Unlike rule-based phonological theories,OT emphasizes a hierarchical ranking of universal and violable constraints by which various phonological changes can be explicitly explained,as well attested cross-linguistically.Based on the analysis of the data of the Yinchuan sandhi forms and the discussion of the phonology of Yinchuan dialect,the thesis has worked out such a constraint hierarchy as IDENT-R,LTS》OCP'》IDENT-IO》DEP, MAX.With this constraint hierarchy,the tone sandhi rules in Yinchuan dialect are explicitly explained. The thesis contains five chapters.In ChapterⅠ,a brief introduction to Yinchuan dialect is provided and a short review of previous studies is also presented.ChapterⅡis concerned with OT and its application to other Chinese dialects in previous studies.ChapterⅢdiscusses the tone system and tone sandhi phenomena in Yinchuan dia lect.In ChapterⅣ,an OT analysis is developed to explore the underlying motivations for tone sandhi in Yinchuan dialect.ChapterⅤmakes a conclusion and also lays out some respects of my future studies in some relevant linguistic field.