Diffusion of the interrogative pronoun Sha ‘啥’ from Mandarin to Wu: A view of dialect contact (in Chinese) Yimin Sheng 摘要：本文是一项吴语虚词史的研究，探讨吴语疑问代词“啥”的来源。一般认为吴语的“啥”来源于“什么”类的合音，可是吴语声母存在清浊对立，需要解释为何“什”类浊声母在吴语中合音的结果是清声母的“啥”。文章首先讨论了“啥”在吴语中的地理分布样态和表意功能差异，然后构拟了其早期语音形式。在此基础上，文章主张“啥”的合音是在宋代汴洛地区完成的，而吴语中的“啥”则是宋室南渡之后，由汴洛移民带入的成分。

On the modeling of homophony syllabary in Chinese dialects Nankai Wu, Xingquan Hou and Jiangping Kong Abstract: Phonetic comparison of Chinese dialects has been an important issue of academic interest. There are still some prominent problems with various existing metric comparison methods, such as randomness of phonemic processing and insufficient sampling of cognates or core words. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method using homophonic syllabary as the modeling object. Compared to existing methods, the present method has more advantages in terms of materials and methods. On the one hand, compared with phonological systems, syllabic lists or limited number of selected words, homophonic syllabaries are more representative

Ethic integration and evolution of the phonological features of Northern Standard Chinese Language Weimin Wang ABSTRACT: Ethnic integration is often accompanied by language contact and language shift. The process of “ethnic integration” is the process of “remolding” northern standard Chinese language into an inter-ethnic language and ultimately into a common national language. Only by reevaluating the phonological rules and structure of the languages (mainly Altaic) of northern non-Han ethnic groups and investigating the interference with and influence on Chinese during the language shift by the non-Han ethnic groups, can we comprehend that the common national language is a language community jointly shaped by the Han people

Acoustic patterns in Hong Kong Cantonese hesitation markers: Vowel quality and omnisyllabic tone Robert Marcelo Sevilla ABSTRACT: Hesitation markers (HMs) lie somewhere on the dividing line between linguistic and sub-linguistic, evincing at the same time crosslinguistic commonalities as well as language-specific features (Candea et al. 2005; Dingemanse and Woensdregt 2020). This study seeks to expand on understanding of these lexically peripheral items by analyzing their acoustic properties in Hong Kong Cantonese (HKCT), including vowel quality and F0. Recent work by Dingemanse and Woensdregt (2020) discusses phonetic similarities in HMs across languages, which are constrained by adherence to the phonologies of their respective languages. However, it is

Investigating dayue: An LFG-OT approach to its subcategorization and structure Yu-Ching Tseng ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the subcategorization and structure of dayue, taking a Lexical Functional Grammar–Optimality Theory (LFG-OT) approach to account for the different uses of this word. It argues that dayue can be identified in the category of either an adverb or a preposition, depending on the function it takes and the structure it has. As an adverb, dayue modifies the clausal element or the quantifier phrase directly following it. As a preposition, dayue takes a noun phrase (NP) or an adpositional phrase as the complement, occurring in the adjunctive position. There may be

Word frequency modulates the selection of semantic access pathways of spoken words in the second language Hao Yan,  Yingying Huang,  Yanqin Feng,  Limin Zhang,  Yanlong Zhang,  Anna Zhen amd Jie Dong ABSTRACT: Most second language (L2) learners comprehend words more difficult in its spoken form than the written form (Bekleyen 2009). Based on the findings of previous studies, we assumed that word frequency and language proficiency may be two critical factors in spoken word identification. To investigate how these two factors modulate L2 spoken word identification, we recruited Chinese-English bilinguals with different English proficiency levels, and manipulated words’ orthographic consistency, and word frequency. Our results supported

Y. R. Chao’s fāngyīn diàochá biǎogé and its role in the evolution of Chinese dialect research methodology Richard VanNess Simmons ABSTRACT: The present study compares and contrasts the phonologies of the Y. R. Chao’s Fāngyīn diàochá biǎogé 方音調查表格 and Jerry Norman’s Common Dialectal Chinese Hànyǔ fāngyán tōngyīn 漢語方言通音, also with reference to the Fāngyán diàochá zìbiǎo 方言調查字表, for what they reveal about their compilers’ approaches to Chinese dialect phonology and it’s applicability in dialect fieldwork and related research. We find that both were designed as tools to help shed light on the diachronic relationships between dialects. A significant feature that separates the two is how they

The origin of the adjectival and adverbial "mulaolao" in Wu Chinese Huayun Wang,  Jianguo Xiong and  Cenhong Luo ABSTRACT: The word mulaolao (木佬佬) in Wu Chinese first appeared in written documents published during the period of the former Republic of China. It originated in Hangzhou dialect and spread to other regions such as Ningbo, Taizhou, Jinhua, and Shanghai. In Hangzhou dialect, mulaolao serves both adjectival and adverbial purposes, and it is believed to have derived from the expressive adjective manlaolao (蛮老老). In manlaolao, the suffix -laolao (老老) intensifies the degree of a state or property and is written as “佬佬” due to its uncertain etymology. The

Historical phonological explanation of the mutual connection between the *et and *it rhyme groups: a study on the phonetic Tiangang Bian ABSTRACT: The interaction between the *et and *it rhyme groups, originally distinct rhyme groups, later being able to cross boundaries, is a result and reflection of historical phonetic changes. The germination of their mutual connection can be traced back to the Western Han period but became significant during the Eastern Han, primarily concentrated in the Division III and IV rhyme categories. The mutual connection of the two rhyme groups in the entering-tone(入声) of the Division IV(四等韵) signifies the merger of the *eet>eet(月2屑) and *iit>ᵉiit>eet(质屑) subgroups,

From analogies to negativity: Pragmatic functions and stance expression of subjective counterfactual Ruguo sentence Zengwen Song  and  Xiaoli Wan ABSTRACT: The “Ruguo(如果)” sentence refers to a conditional complex sentence connected by the hypothetical association word “Ruguo(如果)”. The counterfactual “Ruguo(如果)” sentence includes subjective and objective counterfactual sentence. The judgment of subjective counterfactuality depends on semantic recognition and logical derivation. According to the objective truth and falsehood of the previous and last clause, we can divide the subjective counterfactual “Ruguo(如果)” sentence into 4 categories: A true B false, A true B true or false, A true or false B true, A true or false B false. The pragmatic