The prosody-syntax interaction in the 'yi-bu-qi-ba' rule: A morphologically conditioned tone change in Mandarin Chinese

This thesis investigates the prosody-syntax interaction in morpheme specific tone change, presents a systematic comparison between tone Sandhi and tone change, and proposes a new rule-based analysis for the Mandarin "yi-bu-qi-ba" rule.;The empirical data is the comparison between Mandarin 3rd Tone Sandhi (3TS) of numeral morpheme wu ('five') and yi ('one') tone change (YTC). Data shows that syntax and prosody do not function the same way in predicting 3TS and YTC. The basic domain of 3TS is a foot whereas the domain of YTC is a phonological word (pword).;This thesis also contributes a new analysis for the "yi-bu-qi-ba" rule, with three major claims: (1) YTC only applies when yi is the first element of a pword except in the string of digits. (2) BTC only applies when bu is the first element of a pword. (3) No tone change rule applies to qi and ba any more.