| Mora is the smallest unit in the prosodic analysis. In quantity-sensitive languages, the weight of a syllable depends on the number of morae. The realization of the morae is relevant to the quantity and sonority of the vowel in the syllable.;Since Duan Yucai proposed that "Wu is weak, while Wo is strong" in the Qing Dynasty, the difference between the two pronouns has been extensively discussed. Although previous research has provided us with valuable materials, they cannot answer some crucial questions such as: what is the representation of weak form and strong form, what is the correlation between the stress and the syntactic positions in classical Chinese, and why the phonological contrast disappeared in the Han Dynasty. Within the framework of prosodic phonology, this thesis discusses the rule of the distribution of the first person pronouns Wu and Wo in archaic Chinese and proposes that:;Wo is the default form of the first person pronoun in archaic Chinese, while Wu exists as its reduced form in the specified phonological environments. In the language system, Wo is chosen as the basic form. Wu only occurs when the syllable is light, Wo occurs elsewhere. Wu and Wo are variants of the same pronoun.;The first chapter briefly introduces the relevant theoretical research principles on morae in section one, and then reviews some previous accounts for the contrasts of Wu and Wo in section two. The research purpose and methodology will be proposed in section three.;The second chapter shows statistics of the complementary distribution of Wu and Wo in archaic Chinese, especially focusing on the positions before the pause, contrastive stress and iambic structure.;The third chapter mainly presents the phonological and prosodic condition analysis to the phenomena listed in the chapter two. On the basis of the prosodic theories such as Nuclear Stress Rule (NSR), Invisible Condition (IC) and Default Rule (DR), I argue that the regularities of distribution result from the phonological distinction between Wu and Wo. Wo should be analysed as the underlying form, and the Wu represents the variable form. To give an explanation for the phonological process and mechanism in the evolution of these two pronouns, I gave a preliminary description of their changes after Han dynasty. This chapter also explores several properties of Wu and Wo to rethink how their contrast reflects some basic phonologic mechanisms.;The fourth chapter summarizes the prosodic study of the two first person pronouns in this dissertation and emphasizes that: a set of evidence is provided to support the prosodical explanation, as well as to validate the hypothesis of 'Weight-sensitive System' in archaic Chinese. It is also suggested that aside from its significant role in prosodic system, monomoraic syllable foot could lead to great diachronic changes of the language. |
