An OT Analysis Of The Yiyang Tone Sandhi

The present thesis aims at analyzing the tone sandhi in Yiyang(hereafter YY in short) Dialect within the framework of Optimality Theory(OT). It will describe the citation tones and sandhi phenomena in YY dialect, and then conducts a phonetic experiment to find out the rules of disyllabic tone sandhi and the rules of trisyllabic tone sandhi. In the thesis, the author has attempted to use both experimental phonetics and phonological theory in the analysis of YY tone sandhi. The result shows that OT approach is able to provide with a sufficient explanation to account for the YY tone sandhi.The analysis shows that there are five sandhi rules among 25 sets of disyllabic sequences:(1) 34 â†' 33/ stressed syllable or stressed syllable;(2) 13 â†' 33/stressed syllable or stressed syllable;(3) 41â†'11/ stressed syllable or stressed syllable;(4) 21 â†' 11/ stressed syllable or stressed syllable;(5) 45 â†' 44/stressed syllable or stressed syllable. Based on the five rules, we have arrived at the conclusion that YY tone sandhi only takes place upon the unstrssed syllables, not stressed syllables. What’s more, three level tones appear after tone sandhi.On the basis of the above findings, we summarize as follows:(1) the contour tones in YY dialect can be decomposed into tonal elements, and the tone bearing unit is mora, which simplifies the analysis of YY disyllabic sandhi;(2) the markedness constraints in YY disyllabic sandhi are related to the tonal structure; through the interaction between both markedness and faithfulness constraints, it is helpful to distinguish YY dialect and its neighborhood dialects;(3) the analysis of YY disyllabic tone sandhi is the basis of trisyllabic tone sandhi, which sets the beginning of a deeper studying of YY tone sandhi in the forthcoming future.