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Syllable fusion in Hong Kong Cantonese connected speech

Wong, Wai Yi Peggy
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1143227948

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Linguistics.
This dissertation is about “syllable fusion” in Hong Kong Cantonese. Syllable fusion is a connected-speech phenomenon whereby boundaries between syllables are blurred together in a way that suggests an intermediate level of grouping between the syllable and the larger intonational phrase. Previous studies of this phenomenon have focused on extreme cases — i.e. whole segments (consonants and/or vowels) are deleted at the relevant syllable boundary. By contrast, in this dissertation, “syllable fusion” refers to a variety of changes affecting a sequence of two syllables that range along a continuum from “mild” to “extreme” blending together of the syllables. Less extreme changes include assimilation, consonant lenition and so on, any substantial weakening or effective deletion of the oral gesture(s) of the segment(s) contiguous to the syllable boundary, and the sometimes attendant resyllabifications that create “fused forms”. More extreme fusion can simplify contour tones and “merge” the qualities of vowels that would be separated by an onset or coda consonant at more “normal” degrees of disjuncture between words. The idea that motivates the experiments described in this dissertation is that the occurrence of syllable fusion marks prosodic grouping at the level of the “foot”, a phonological constituent which has been proposed to account for prosodic phenomena such as the process of tone sandhi and neutral tone in other varieties of Chinese. If syllable fusion marks the grouping together of syllables into feet, there must be factors similar to the factors that influence the occurrence of tone sandhi and neutral tone in other varieties of Chinese that influence the occurrence and the degree of syllable fusion. Discovering these factors would allow us to understand the “foot” structure for Cantonese. Five factors were identified and tested in this dissertation: speech rate, word frequency, word length, morphosyntactic relationship, and prosodic position of words. Three experiments were run to test the five factors. Results showed main effects for all five factors and interaction effects among them. Unifying these factors, this dissertation proposed that the “foot” be used as an intermediate level of constituent in the Cantonese prosodic hierarchy that captures the phenomenon of syllable fusion in Cantonese.
Mary Beckman (Advisor)
373 p.
Language, Linguistics
Cantonese; syllable fusion; speech prosody

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wong, W. Y. P. (2006). Syllable fusion in Hong Kong Cantonese connected speech [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1143227948

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wong, Wai Yi. Syllable fusion in Hong Kong Cantonese connected speech. 2006. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1143227948.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wong, Wai Yi. "Syllable fusion in Hong Kong Cantonese connected speech." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1143227948

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.