The Effect of Age and Prosody on Syllable-final Nasal Mergers in Taiwan Mandarin Spontaneous Speech
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Yeh, Yu-Chiao
Abstract
The present study investigated the performance of syllable-final nasal mergers in Taiwan Mandarin. After decades of research, past studies on this topic have identified regional difference in the application of the mergers, but their origins are still under debate. In this study, generational difference was examined in order to explore such an issue into a deeper core. With the usage of spontaneous speech, the effect of prosodic factors was also under examination. Thirty-two speakers of both genders, of two generations, and from two regions, Taipei and Kaohsiung, were recruited and each speaker contributed around 30-minute-long speech data. Effects of five factors were observed, including three social factors—gender, age and region—and two linguistic factors—prosodic promenince, and prosodic boundary. Results showed that the /in/ → [i��] merger was led by the young northerners, whereas the /i��/ → [in] merger was dominated by the southerners, especially the old southern females. The two post-/i/ nasal mergers were generally in competition with each other. On the other hand, the /ə��/ → [ən] merger was widely applied by speakers of all different social factors. As for the effects of linguistic factors, prosodic boundary had an overall strengthening effect for all the three mergers, while prosodic promenince had a more complicated effect: an overall strengthening effect for the /in/ → [i��] merger of all social groups, and for the /i��/ → [in] merger of the young groups, and a restraining trend for the /ə��/ → [ən] merger of the young groups. Our results further implicated the different status of the three mergers: the /in/ → [i��] merger was an innovation of Taipei origin, while its competitor, the /i��/ → [in] merger, was a negative Min transfer. The origin of the /ə��/ → [ən] merger was still unclear, but perhaps its lack of competition made it become the most frequently used merger. Although prosodic boundary presented an overall enhancement on all the mergers, the effect of prosodic promenince seemed to interact with rule progression, rule connotation and markedness of nasals.
Subjects
syllable-final nasal mergers
prosodic promenince
prosodic boundary
spontaneous speech
Taiwan Mandarin
Type
thesis
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