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Intonation in Cantonese INTONATION IN CANTONESE Choi-Yeung-Chang FLYNN Thesis submitted to the Department of Linguistics School of Oriental and African Studies University of London in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2001 ProQuest Number: 10672677 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely e v e n t that the author did not send a c o m p le te manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if m aterial had to be rem oved, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672677 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Words cannot express my gratitude to David C. Bennett, my supervisor, for providing the stimulus for this thesis, for his constant encouragement and for so much work in helping me to improve my drafts, without which the work would not have been possible. 1 wish to thank Katrina Hayward for her inspiring lectures on phonetics and experimental phonetics which opened the door for my research in this area; and the Phonetics Laboratory at SOAS for allowing me to use the laryngograph recording facilities, the computer programmes such as SPG and the Speech Workstation. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Paul, for his unfailing support in every way, especially for cooking excellent Irish dinners while I was kept out late doing research and keeping me laughing when I was mentally exhausted. ABSTRACT This thesis develops a system for describing intonation in Cantonese, a language having six phonological tones employing both pitch and slope. It analyses the utterance intonation contour into major intonation units, intonation units and feet. It defines what criteria those units meet and how they relate to each other. The intonation contours, constructed with a string of lexical tones, are described in terms of prosodic units which separate themselves in terms of pitch height and pitch span. The demarcation of the units is an innovation of the thesis. The different Fo values of identical phonological tones in an utterance are found to be in gradual descent if they are within an intonation group, and an intonation group is depicted more clearly when the two fitted lines which cover the top and the bottom are parallel and declined. A major intonation group is the largest prosodic unit in utterances. It is decided by a larger size of resetting of pitch span. An intonation group and a major intonation group each represent a unit of information which is semantically and syntactically coherent. The most prominent syllable in an intonation group is the tonic. An acoustic analysis of all possible combinations of the lexical tones of disyllabic and trisyllabic tonal sequences shows that tonal coarticulation is an important factor in modifying the F 0 contours. The modification can affect both the pitch height and the slope of the F 0 contours, and is also realised in both anticipatory and carryover effects. Prominence is examined, both at the level of words and of utterances, and a description of its prosodic parameters is developed with supporting evidence from the discussion of tonics. ABBREVIATIONS T - tone t - one cycle of vocal fold vibration Fo - fundamental frequency CQ - closed quotient Qx - closed quotient contour Lx - laryngograph waveform Sp - speech waveform H - high tone L - low tone h - high intensity 1 - low intensity Hz - Hertz ms - minisecond p - foot s stressed u - unstressed S - sentence NP - noun phrase VP - verb phrase AdjP - adjective phrase AdvP - adverbial phrase ConjP - conjunction phrase IntP - interjection phrase LocP - localiser phrase PrepP - preposition phrase NC - noun compound VC - verb compound AdjC - adjective compound AdvC . adverbial compound ConjC - conjunction compound LocC - localiser compound PrepC - preposition compound PronC - pronoun compound PC - particle clusters n - noun V verb/auxiliary verb det - determinative adj - adjective adv - adverb int - interjection m - measure (including classifier) loc - localiser P - particle Pi - plural marker pron - pronoun prep - preposition q - quantifier Acknowledgements Abstract Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Aim and Scope 1 1.2. Sound System of Cantonese 2 1.2.1. Syllable 2 1.2.2. Onset 3 1.2.2.1. Notes on Cantonese Onsets 3 1.2.2.1.1. Plosive 3 1.2.2.1.2. VOT 3 1.2.2.1.3. Glide 4 1.2.2.1.4. Sibilant 4 1.2.2.1.5. /n-/ and /I-/ 4 1.2.2.1 .6 . Zero Onset 5 1.2.2.1.7. Labial-velar 5 1.2.2.2. Examples of Cantonese Onsets 5 1.2.3. Rhyme 6 1.2.3.1. Nucleus 6 1.2.3.2. Coda 7 1.2.3.3. Rhyme 7 1.2.3.3.1. Notes on Cantonese Rhymes 7 1.2.3.3.1.1. Vowel Value 7 1.2.3.3.1.2. Length 8 1.2.3.3.1.2.1. Vowel 8 1.2.3.3.1.2.2. Nasal Coda 8 1.2.3.3.1.2.3. Rhyme 9 1.2.3.3.1.3. Plosive-coda 9 1.2.3.3.2. Examples of Cantonese Rhymes 9 1.2.4. Tone 11 1.2.4.1. Notes on Cantonese Tones 11 1.2.4.1.1. Tone Inventory 11 1.2.4.1.2. Tone Value 12 1.2.4.1.3. Tone Shape 15 1.2.4.1.4. Intensity 15 1.2.4.1.5. Length 16 1.2.4.1.6 . /pi:n3 jiem 1/(Changed-tone) 16 1.2.4.2. Examples of Cantonese Tones 18 1.3. Survey of Literature on Cantonese Intonation 18 1.3.1. Cheung 1972 and Kwok 1984 19 1.3.2. Hashimoto 1972 and Barnett 1945-50 23 1.3.3. Fok 1974 and Vance 1976 31 1.3.4. Kwok and Luke 1986 and Johnson 1987 34 1.3.5. Cheung 1986 and Bauer and Benedict 1997 39 II. TONAL COARTICULATION 43 2.1. Tonal Behaviour in Two-Tone Sequences (Experiment I) 43 2.1.1. Introduction 43 2.1.1.1. Intonation and Tone 43 2.1.1.2. Defining TonalCoarticulation 43 2.1.1.3. Directions of Tonal Coarticuiation 44 2.1.2. Method 46 2.1.2.1. Material 46 2.1.2.2. Speakers 48 2.1.2.3. Recording 48 2.1.2.3.1. Laryngograph 48 2.1.2.4. Measurement 50 2.1.2.4.1. Segmentation 50 2.1.2.4.2. Normalisation 52 2.1.3. Results and Discussion 52 2.1.3.1. Monosyllables 52 2.1.3.1.1. Shape and Height in the Six Tones 52 2.1.3.1.2. Hierarchy of the Height of the Onsets and Offsets of the 6 Tones 54 2.1.3.1.3. Summary 55 2.1.3.2. Disyllables 56 2.1.3.2.1. Coarticulatory Effects on Individual Tones 59 2.1.3.2.1.1. Anticipatory Effects 59 2.1.3.2.1.1.1. Phonetic Variation in the Height of Individual Tones 59 2.1.3.2.1.1.2. Phonetic Variation in the Slope of Individual Tones 60 2.1.3.2.1.2. Carryover Effects 62 2.1.3.2.1.2.1. Phonetic Variation in the Height of individual Tones 62 2.1.3.2.1.2.2. Phonetic Variation in the Slope of Individual Tones 67 2.1.3.2.2. The Pattern of the Six Tone Contrast 69 2.1.3.2.3. The Impact of Segments in Tonal Contours 69 2.1.3.2.4. Timing Transition 73 2.1.3.2.4.1. Residual Energy vs Energy Run-out 73 2.1.3.2.4.2. Earlier Peak Before a Tonal Boundary 76 2.1.3.2.5. Summary 78 2.2. Tonal Behaviour in Compatible and Conflicting Tonal Contexts (Experiment II) 79 2.2.1. Prediction 79 2.2.1.1. Defining Compatible and Conflicting Tonal Environments 79 2.2.1.2. Coarticulation in Compatible and Conflicting Tonal Environments 81 2.2.2. Procedures 82 2.2.2.1. Material 82 2.2.2.2. Speakers and Recording 83 2.2.3. Results and Discussion 84 2.2.3.1. Tones in Conflicting and Compatible Tonal Environments 84 2.2.3.1.1. The Gravity 84 2.2.3.1.2. Tone 1 8 6 2.2.3.1.3. Tone 2 8 8 2.2.3.1.4. Tone 4 91 2.2.3.1.5. Summary 92 2.2.3.2. Tones in the Middle Syllable of Identical-Tone Trisyllabic Utterances 93 2.2.3.2.1. Tone 3 and Tone 6 94 2.2.3.2.2. Tone 5 94 2.2.3.2.3. Declination 95 2.2.3.2.4. Sequences of T4-T2-T1 98 2.2.3.2.5. Six Tone Contrast 99 2.2.4. Summary 101 III. LEXICAL PROMINENCE 103 3.1. Prominence and Stress 103 3.1.1. Defining Prominence and Stress 103 3.1.1.1. Prominence in Stress-accent Languages 104 3.1.1.2. Prominence in Pitch-accent Languages 106 3.1.1.3. Prominence and Stress in Tone Languages 106 3.1.1.4. Prominence and Stress in Cantonese 107 3.1.2.
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