Cross-generational Analysis Of Basic Vowels In Zhongyuan Mandarin

This thesis mainly explores the cross-generational differences of basic vowels in Zhongyuan Mandarin.The representations of the existing languages or dialects could contain clues for existed historical changes and future tendencies.Synchronic differences of sound in age may possibly provide traces for diachronic changes and the linguistic representations of speakers in different age groups can provide specific exemplifications.Since big cities are considered to involve more age-related differences in sound than rural areas,the present study adopts speech materials of two generations in the PPLRC from seven cities of Henan Province,including Kaifeng,Shangqiu,Xuchang,Luohe,Zhoukou,Nanyang and Zhumadian.In accordance with the theory of Vowel Pattern,this thesis makes cross-generational analysis of five basic vowels in Zhongyuan Mandarin.It attempts to use the acoustic vowel charts and the V-value charts to identify the positional features of each vowel in two generations,and then to utilize the main distribution charts to observe the representations of cross-generational differences in each vowel.Lastly,it tries to predict the future tendencies of the vowels with the help of the skewness chart.With the observation of the acoustic vowel charts and the V-value charts of two generations in seven cities,it is found that the basic vowels keep a relative stable relationship under the same acoustic vowel space.The basic Vowel Pattern in Zhongyuan Mandarin is divided into three levels both in the high/low dimension and in the front/back dimension.The vowels /i/,/u/ and /a/ in Zhongyuan Mandarin respectively take the highest and frontmost,the highest and most back,and the low central positions in the triangle configuration of the vowel space.The main distribution vowel charts in two generations are obtained by combining the V-values of basic vowels in the seven cities.Acoustic representations can reflect the articulatory characteristics.The dispersion degree of the Std.values in each vowel reflects the constraints of the tongue position and the aperture of lips in the high/low and the front/back dimensions.The greater the degree is,the less constraints the tongue position and aperture have.Taking advantages of the Std.values and the main distribution vowel charts,it is discovered that,in the old generation,the Std.values of /i/ have a smaller degree of dispersion in both dimensions,indicating that the vowel /i/ is salient in the features of [+HIGH,+FRONT].In the same way,/y/ represents the features of [+FRONT,+ROUND] and /u/ demonstrates the feature of [+BACK].Similarly,in the young generation,/i/ focuses on the feature of [+HIGH] while it is less distinctive in the feature of [+FRONT].Likewise,/y/ is featured with [+HIGH] but is less distinctive in the feature of [+ROUND].However,in addition to the feature of [+BACK],/u/ is characterized with the new [+HIGH] feature.Besides,in the two generations,the Std.values of the central vowel /?/ and the low vowel /a/ are centralized in the front/back dimension while are dispersed in the high/low dimension.It suggests that,in the articulation of the two vowels /?/ and /a/,the tongue positions of the two generations are much more restricted in the front/back dimension but are less constrained in the high/low dimension.In order to further explore the cross-generational differences,this paper integrates the data of vowels in the two generations and draws the comparison chart of the main distribution via relativization.By observing the comparison chart,it is found that,on the whole,the acoustic vowel space of the young generation is higher than that of the old generation,showing that,in the low level,the aperture of the young generation decreases in articulating the vowel /a/.Since the distribution range of /i/ in the young generation enlarges backward in the front-back dimension,and /y/ makes adjustments in the same dimension,the back vowel /u/ is thus forced to move backward to keep balance of the whole triangle configuration.At this point,it is insufficient for /u/ to be ONLY featured with [+BACK].The newly added feature [+HIGH] is therefore strengthened to meet the requirement of keeping contrast with other phonemes.Such phenomena are considered to be the combined effect of the Principle of Least Effort(the Economy Principle)and the Principle of Discrimination.Human behavior is subject to the Principle of Least Effort because a person tends to solve his problems by minimizing the total work that he must expend to gain the greatest benefit.The features of basic vowels in the young generation conform to the Economy Principle,which means,on the premise of phoneme discrimination,the young generation adopts to minimize the movements of articulatory organs to achieve the goal of least effort.In the synchronic level,linguistic variants that are changing in progress always represent asymmetrical distributions,reflecting the tendencies and directions of sound change.The analysis of skewness provides the direction,location and degree of deviation through processing the data of vowels.With the integration of the data in two generations,the skewness chart is plotted to predict the possible tendencies of the vowels in Zhongyuan Mandarin.As shown in this chart,all the five basic vowels in Zhongyuan Mandarin have skewed: the high front vowels /i/ and /y/ have a tendency of fronting;the high back vowel /u/ has a tendency of raising and fronting;the low central vowel /a/ has a tendency of raising and backing and the central vowel /?/ has a tendency of centralizing.The tendencies of the three peripheral vowels /i/,/u/ and /a/ corroborate the historical or synchronic sound changes as well as the general principles of linguistic change.This thesis is considered to be significant in two aspects: for one thing,the analysis of the cross-generational sound difference of the Henan dialect enriches the experimental studies on the Henan dialect.For another,by combining the recording samples of the PPLRC with experimental studies,it also helps to provide a new perspective in developing the materials of the PPLRC.