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Timing and Melody: An Acoustic Study of Rhythmic Patterns of Chinese Dialects by Ya Li B.Sc., Hunan University, 1989 M.A., University of Victoria, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Linguistics Ya Li, 2015 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Timing and Melody: An Acoustic Study of Rhythmic Patterns of Chinese Dialects by Ya Li B.Sc., Hunan University, 1989 M.A., University of Victoria, 2008 Supervisory Committee Dr. Hua Lin, Supervisor (Department of Linguistics) Dr. John H. Esling, Departmental Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. Emmanuel Hérique, Non-Departmental Member (Department of French) iii Supervisory Committee Dr. Hua Lin, Supervisor (Department of Linguistics) Dr. John H. Esling, Department Member (Department of Linguistics) Dr. Emmanuel Hérique, Non-Department Member (Department of French) ABSTRACT Inspired by Lin and Huang’s (2009) rhythmic study of Chinese dialects, this study examines speech rhythm of 21 Chinese dialects from three perspectives, timing, melody, and phonological structure. The 21 dialects belong to four major groups of Chinese and their respective sub-groups. The four major groups are Mandarin, Wu, Min, and Cantonese. Nine duration-based and four pitch-based metrics are used to quantify timing and melody, respectively. Four phonological structure-based metrics are used to explore the relationships between syllable structure and timing and between tone structure and melody. All the metrics are paired up according to five categories, duration-only, pitch- only, duration-pitch, duration-syllable, pitch-tone, and each pair is subject to a correlation analysis. Then timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are determined by correlation patterns of relevant metric pairs. The main findings of this study are as follows: 1) Timing and melody patterns of the Chinese dialects are far from homogenous across major groups and melody patterns are more distinct than timing patterns; 2) No single metric pair is able to quantify speech iv rhythm consistently for all the Chinese dialects; nonetheless, pitch-based metric pairs fare better than duration-based ones; 3) Syllable-timedness and melodiousness are correlated positively for all the major groups except for Wu; 4) Phonological structure plays little role in shaping timing and melody patterns of most Chinese dialects. The above findings are both expected and unexpected. They are expected in the sense that rhythmic perception invovles multiple acoustic cues, so it comes as no surprise that not all rhythmic metrics are successful in quantifying Chinese rhythm. They are unexpected for the reason that all the metrics are developed based more or less on phonological structure, yet the rhythmic patterns they reveal do not correspond to the structure affinity or group membership of the Chinese dialects. Overall, the findings suggest that pitch is a more import cue than duration to Chinese rhythm. As the first study of Chinese rhythm across multiple dialects and from different perspectives, this study not only lays a methodological foundation for future research but also contributes to our in-depth understanding of Chinese dialects. v Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments............................................................................................................ xiv Dedication ......................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….1 1.1 Research context ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research objects and objectives.............................................................................. 4 1.3 Definitions of important terms used in the dissertation .......................................... 5 1.4 Research questions and hypotheses ........................................................................ 9 1.5 Outline of the dissertation ..................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................ 13 2.1 Defining rhythm .................................................................................................... 13 2.1.1 Phonological basis of rhythm........................................................................ 14 2.1.2 Perceptual basis of rhythm ............................................................................ 18 2.1.2.1 Stress and rhythm .................................................................................. 18 2.1.2.2 Micro-rhythm versus macro-rhythm ..................................................... 23 2.1.2.3 Interaction between duration and pitch ................................................. 24 2.2 Quantifying rhythm ............................................................................................... 32 2.2.1 Duration-based metrics ................................................................................. 32 2.2.2 Pitch-based metrics ....................................................................................... 39 2.2.3 Voice source metrics ..................................................................................... 47 2.2.4 Rhythmic studies of dialects ......................................................................... 52 vi 2.2.5 Rhythmic studies of Chinese ........................................................................ 53 Chpater 3: CHINESE PHONOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY AND PROSODIC PHONOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 58 3.1 Chinese phonological typology............................................................................. 58 3.1.1 Major Chinese dialect groups .......................................................................... 58 3.1.2 Phonological characteristics of Chinese dialects .......................................... 62 3.1.2.1 Syllable structure .................................................................................. 62 3.1.2.2 Tone structure ....................................................................................... 67 3.1.3 Voice quality of Chinese sounds and tones .................................................. 72 3.2 Chinese prosodic phonology ................................................................................. 74 3.2.1 Chinese prosodic structures .......................................................................... 74 3.2.2 Stress-induced pitch variation ....................................................................... 79 3.2.3 Prosodic differences in dialects .................................................................... 81 3.2.3.1 Dialectal influence on tonal register and intonation ............................. 81 3.2.3.2 Dialectal differences in tone sandhi patterns ........................................ 83 3.3 Summary ............................................................................................................... 85 Chpater 4: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 86 4.1 Speech materials ................................................................................................... 86 4.2 Metrics .................................................................................................................. 89 4.2.1 Duration-based metrics ................................................................................. 89 4.2.2 Pitch-based metrics ....................................................................................... 92 4.2.3 Voice source metrics ..................................................................................... 96 4.2.4 Phonological structure metrics ...................................................................... 94 4.2.5 Summary ....................................................................................................... 98 4.3 Analysis: ............................................................................................................... 99 4.3.1 Acoustic analysis .......................................................................................... 99 4.3.2 Statistical analysis ....................................................................................... 100 4.4 Predictions........................................................................................................... 101 vii Chapter 5: RESULTS ....................................................................................................
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