Tone Sandhi in Mandarin Acquisition

• Main Author: 程彥棻
• Other Authors: Wan, I Ping
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99106356885669738995

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 語言學研究所 === 103 === There are four lexical tones and several tone sandhi in Mandarin Chinese. Researchers have been highly interested in how Mandarin-speaking children acquire tonal system; however, compared to the acquisition of four lexical tones, development of tone sandhi are relatively less studied. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the process of acquisition of three different tone sandhi by children aged from 1;6 to 3;0 in Taiwan with longitudinal observation and experiments. Two children were included in longitudinal observation; they were recorded until 27 months old and 23 months old. For the experiments, twelve children were recruited. The videos and sounds were analyzed by PRAAT. Results of this study showed that “pu51” sandhi was acquired earlier than the other two sandhis, “i55” and third tone sandhi. It was also indicated that children acquired the above tone sandhis after 3;0. Furthermore, regarding substitution patterns, they were generally systematic, yet there showed different tendencies individually: in “pu51” sandhi and “i55” sandhi, tone [55] was often used to substitute for the target tone, and in third tone sandhi, the underlying tone was highly used to replace the target tone, which should have turned into tone [35] in the first syllable. As a result, it was revealed that tone [55] and the original tone in the first syllable of tone sandhi played an important role in substitution patterns.