Third Tone Sandhi In Mandarin Chinese

Third tone sandhi(3TS)has always been a focus of research in C hinese phonology.Scholars at home and abroad have studied the phenomenon in Mandarin or other dialects with different theories such as Toneme theory,Optimality theory and Prosodic theory,attempting to give explanations for the different tone patterns.The objective of this thesis is to generalize application rules by analyzing the patterns of 3TS applying at the lexical(=word)level and the postlexical(=phrase)level using lexical phonology and prosodic hierarchy.Lexical phonology proposes that there are two levels of phonological process,lexical and postlexical,providing a perfect framework for this topic.Prosodic hierarchy holds that prosodic structure gives rise to the phonological outputs,which provides the perfect domains in which tone sandhi rules apply.The analysis of compounds,reduplicated forms and words with affixes shows that lexical 3TS is sensitive to the internal structure of words and will apply cyclically both in disyllabic words and in trisyllabic words.Speech rate distinguishes two subrules for 3TS application at the postlexical level.At a normal speech rate,tone patterns are generated by incorporation mode of prosodic constituents.As the speech rate quickens,junctures between each constituent will weaken or disappear,which enables the 3TS to apply in two ways.O ne is that previously blocked 3TS is now permitted to apply.The other one is influenced by the stress.The unstressed part will undergo 3TS by the iterative mode from left to right,and 3TS will apply cyclically within the stressed part.When the tempo is quick enough to reduce the stress,3TS will apply to the whole sentence in iterative mode from left to right.