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Contrast and Complexity in Chinese Tonal Systems

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Contrast and Complexity in Chinese Tonal Systems Contrast and Complexity in Chinese Tonal Systems by Ross Krekoski A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Linguistics University of Toronto © Copyright 2017 by Ross Krekoski ii Contrast and Complexity in Chinese Tonal Systems Ross Krekoski Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Linguistics University of Toronto 2017 Abstract Lexical tone has been investigated from a diverse variety of perspectives, with significant disagreement as to whether a feature-based analysis can account for the synchronic and diachronic patterning of tonal systems. This thesis investigates the tonal systems of 13 Chinese languages from the Yue and Mandarin groups, and presents a feature-based model which accounts for their respective inventories and patterns of phonological alternations, and traces their respective diachronic trajectories back to the feature specification of a reconstructed Middle Chinese tonal inventory. The analysis here employs hierarchically arranged contrastive features. Whereas analyses postulating a universal set of phonetic features tend to incur a number of descriptive and theoretical problems when tasked with the description of tonal systems, utilizing language-specific features grounded in tonal alternations and phonetics sheds significant light on synchronic and diachronic patterning. The reconstruction of a common Middle Chinese proto-language enables the description of a precise phylogenetic tree as well as the postulation of a number of contrastive reanalyses. It iii is found that both reanalysis and the specific phonetic content of tonal inventories are accounted for by postulating a principle of complexity minimization: the cognitive apparatus chooses representations which minimize the algorithmic entropy or Kolmogorov complexity of phonologies and maximize the reuse of structure. At each point in the diachronic trajectory of a language, speakers choose the phonological representation with the lowest total complexity. Phonetic naturalness can also be formalized as the minimization of complexity, and a general tendency towards an inverse relationship between the naturalness of tonal inventories and the amount of activity in a given language is described. The cognitive preference for the minimization of complexity represents a parsimonious solution to the problem of induction which avoids the stipulation of hard-coded universals pre-specified in the cognitive apparatus. iv Acknowledgments I cannot thank my supervisor, Elan Dresher, enough. One could say that this thesis would not have been possible without his foundational work on contrast providing the inspiration for this project, his incredibly vast knowledge of the intellectual history of phonology informing said inspiration, and his intellectual generosity in giving space for the entertainment of unconventional hypotheses (many of which were, rightfully, abandoned along the way). One could say this, but it would be an understatement. I am grateful most of all for all of our fun, informative, and very wide-ranging conversations on ‘The Big Picture’: I have learned so much, and being given the opportunity to even conceptually approach this project from so many directions was a true privilege. I similarly owe a tremendous debt to the other members of my committee: to Keren Rice and Yoonjung Kang for their absolutely tireless energy, endless feedback, helpful insights and kind support and encouragement from the very beginning of this project; and to Peter Jurgec, Michael Barrie, and Zhang Jie for reading and providing feedback, and serving on the examination committee. I am truly thankful for the excellent contributions and stimulating and very constructive discussion at the defense. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. This department is truly special. Amongst faculty, staff, and my fellow students over the years there are too many people who’ve provided cheer, support, laughs, and awesome conversation to thank individually. My years spent here have been incredible. Finally, I must convey my deep gratitude to my family. To mom and dad for their ceaseless support and encouragement and contagious confidence. To Erin, Caitlin, Brianna, and Taylor for always being there to listen, chat, laugh, remind me that there is a world outside of research, and sometimes even humor my enthusiasm for the obscure by feigning interest in it. And, of course to my dearest wife, Lynda, and daughter, Caerys for walking (and, I suppose, crawling) this road with me and being the very brightest lights in my life. There are no adequate words. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Tone, Features, and Contrast ...................................................................................................... 6 Overview ............................................................................................................................. 6 Chinese language groups .................................................................................................... 6 Representations of Tone ................................................................................................... 10 Tone and Features ................................................................................................. 12 Cluster tones .......................................................................................................... 16 The contrastive hierarchy ...................................................................................... 19 Some arguments against tonal features ................................................................. 24 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 33 The Mandarin-Jin family and Middle Chinese ........................................................................ 35 Overview ........................................................................................................................... 35 Activity and phonetic content in tonal systems ................................................................ 36 Beijing Mandarin .................................................................................................. 37 Pingyao Mandarin ................................................................................................. 43 Middle Chinese categories and abstract vs. concrete features .............................. 52 Tianjin Mandarin: Contrastive reanalysis and phonetic change ........................... 60 Yantai Mandarin ................................................................................................... 78 Nantong Mandarin ................................................................................................ 84 vi Diachronic processes and a Middle Chinese hierarchy ........................................ 96 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 105 The Yue languages ................................................................................................................. 107 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 107 Hong Kong and Guangzhou Cantonese .......................................................................... 109 Checked Tones .................................................................................................... 111 High Tone Merge and Sandhi ............................................................................. 112 Cognate categories and feature representation ................................................... 115 Other Yue languages ....................................................................................................... 127 Cenxi ................................................................................................................... 127 Zhongshan ........................................................................................................... 130 Binyang ............................................................................................................... 133 Taishan ................................................................................................................ 136 Yangjiang ............................................................................................................ 143 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 148 Complexity and phonetic naturalness in tonal systems .......................................................... 150 Overview ........................................................................................................................
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