TONE CATEGORIZATION IN TAIWANESE: A CASE STUDY IN CONCEPT FORMATION Jackson T.–S. Sun Academia Sinica, Taiwan ABSTRACT This study conducts a psycholinguistic experiment using the concept-formation paradigm to probe perception of tones across different syllable types. Native-speaking subjects were trained to perceive tonal identities in Taipei Taiwanese and then tested with novel tokens comprising checked versus non-checked pairs to see if comparable tonal values across distinct syllable types are categorized as ‘having the same tone’. The results of our experiment indicate that ‘tonal identity’, like other concepts formed by human categorization, has its fuzzy edges. Extracting and establishing tonal identity becomes increasingly difficult as syllable structures become more different. SUBJECT KEYWORDS Psycholinguistics, Concept-formation experiment, Taiwanese, Tonal categorization 1. INTRODUCTION If a linguist working on a tone language discovers that the tone value (i.e. pitch register and contour) of a certain checked syllable (i.e. one that ends in a stop coda) is the same as, or very similar to, that of a non-checked (henceforth: smooth) syllable, is s/he dealing with two separate tones or just a single tone? This turns out to be a much more complicated phonological issue than it appears at first blush. To begin with, there is a striking phonetic distinction between checked and smooth syllables in terms of duration: checked tones are normally very short and abrupt. Hence it seems natural that checked tones should sound qualitatively different from smooth tones. However, does this justify treating a non-tonal property of syllable-type (checked vs. smooth) or duration (short vs. long) on a par with normal tonal properties having to do with modulations of fundamental frequency (cf. Gandour 1983:150)? There has been a deep-rooted Chinese phonological tradition 116 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS VOL. 38, NO. 1 (2010) that regards checked syllables exactly as a distinct kind of ‘tone’ namely the so-called ‘entering tone’ (入聲), in paradigmatic contrast with the smooth-syllable tones. The tradition is so tenacious that many modern Chinese linguists adhere to it without questioning its adequacy (Tung et al. 1967, Zhang 1983, Chen 1987). Since quite early on, however, this convention has been called into question by some scholars (Forrest 1973:65, Wang 1958:102, footnote 4, for a most definitive statement of this position, see Zong 1984); others have further proposed to directly subsume checked tones and smooth ones of comparable tonal values under the same tonemes (Jones 1967: paragraph 475, Haas 1958:8:18 footnote 3, Xia 1981. Luo 1988:214-5; for Taiwanese: Li 1966:56, Chiang 1967:114, Roberts & Li: 1963).1 Interestingly, there is also a case of the same linguist shifting, in an interval of six years, from the ‘reductionist’ position back to the conventional one (Cheng 1968, 1972). Apparently, what motivated him to change back to the more traditional categorization is the fact that checked tones often behave differently in tone sandhi from smooth tones, even if their citation tone values are comparable.2 This view, quite unrelated to conformity to time-honoured phonological traditions, reflects a characteristic concern of orthodox generative phonology to look beyond surface contrasts and capture generalizations at the systematic phonemic (i.e. morphophonemic) level. Similar arguments have been raised concerning whether or not, for example, the final [–t] in Rad ‘wheel’ in German belongs to the ‘same phoneme’ as the final [–t] in Rat ‘advice’. The answer, of course, depends on what one’s definition of the phoneme is; that is, whether one refers to taxonomic or systematic phonemes (or, for that matter, tonemes). Given the increasing evidence that surface phonemic contrasts represent true intuitions whose psychological reality can be probed via experimental means (Jaeger 1980), it may serve us well to temporarily put aside the issue of tonal morphophonemics (i. e. sandhi behavior) and find out first of all if some checked and smooth tones belong to the same unit of surface taxonomic tonemes. Yet another factor further complicates the issue. In many tone languages in the world, tonal contrasts are either absent or drastically reduced in checked syllables. Checked syllables thus form environments where tones are neutralized. A Praguian or Firthian phonologists would therefore probably frown upon any attempt to directly equate entitles in an environment of neutralization with entitles outside of that environment. However, it has been shown that native speakers can indeed phonemicize ‘archiphonemes’. Jaeger (1986:221-4) reports that subjects in her concept formation experiments clearly categorize the [k] after initial [s-] in English with the /k/ phoneme. Read (1971) draws the same conclusion from studying the spontaneous spellings of preliterate English-speaking children. So, paper-and-pencil analyses aside, can external evidence be found to show whether TONE CATEGORIZATION IN TAIWANESE 117 native speakers categorize checked tones with smooth tones of comparable tonal qualities? In other words, do checked tones intuitively represent distinct percepts in speakers’ tonal categorization? To seek tentative answers to these questions, a psycholinguistic experiment was conducted in this study using the concept-formation experimental paradigm, which has proven to be an extremely valuable tool in linguistic research (Jaeger 1986; Wang 1996, 2001). The basic assumption behind concept-formation experiments is that people have in their minds categorical concepts that can be brought to consciousness by being trained to inductively arrive at the desired category via guided discrimination between positive and negative tokens of that category. They can then be asked to apply the concept formed in this tacit fashion to judge the membership status of new stimuli whose categorization is at issue, and finally to try to verbalize the concept involved. The basic objective of this study is then to train subjects to perceive tonal identities in the target (i. e. their native) language, and then to test them with novel tokens consisting of checked versus smooth syllable pairs to see how these disputed cases are categorized. 2. THE TARGET LANGUAGE The target language explored in this study is a variety of southern Min spoken in urban Taipei (henceforth TT, for Taipei Taiwanese).3 The following is a synopsis of the phonological system of this variety of Taiwanese: (1) Initials: /p/, /ph/, /b/, /m/, /t/, /th/, /n/, /l/, /ts/, /tsh/, /s/, /k/, /kh/, /g/, /Ν/, /h/ (2) Finals: (a) open non-nasalized finals /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ /ai/, /au/, /ui/, /iu/, /ua/, /ia/, /io/, /ue/ /iau/, /uai/ (b) nasalized finals: /~a/, /~i/, /~o/ /~a~i/, /~a~u/, /~u~i/, /~i~u/, /~u~a/, /~i~a/ /~i~a~u/ (c) finals with consonantal codas: /ap/, /am/, /at/, /an/, /ak/, /a/, / ip/, /im/ /it/, /in/, /ik/, /i/, /ut/, /un/, /ok/, /o≥/ 4 /uat/, /uan/, /iap/, /iam/, /iat/, /ian/ /iak/, /ia≥/, /iok/, /io≥/ 118 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS VOL. 38, NO. 1 (2010) (d) syllabic nasal finals: /m/, /≥/ (3) Tones:5 (a) non-checked tones: Tone Class Value (Citation) Value (Sandhi) Examples Yin Ping high level 44 mid level 33 /to44/‘knife’刀 Yang Ping mid rising 24 low falling 21 /to24/‘picture’圖 Yin Shang high falling 53 high level44 /to53/‘island’島 Yin Qu low falling 21 high falling 53 /to21/‘jealous’妒 Yang Qu mid level 33 low falling 21 /to33/‘surname’杜 Yin Ru mid falling 31 high falling 53 /to31/‘table’桌 (b) checked tones: Tone Class Value (Citation) Value (Sandhi) Examples Yin Ru mid falling 31 high level44 /kut31/‘bone’骨 Yang Ru mid level 33 low falling 21 /kut33/‘slippery’滑 The phonology of TT outlined above is very simple in comparison with other varieties of southern Min. With special reference to the tone system, the following characteristics are noteworthy. (1) The citation Ru tones are quite stable in their tonal qualities; thus Yin Ru is always mid falling 31, while Yang Ru is always mid level 33. The striking variation patterns reported in Tung 1967:17-18 are not observed in my own limited survey of TT speakers. (2) In tone sandhi, the Yin Ru tone exhibits a split: Yin Ru syllables that used to have the -÷ Coda change from mid falling31 to high falling 53(e. g. /a21 pe31/ 阿伯 ‘father’s elder brother’ → /pe53 ko44/ 伯公 ‘grandfather’s elder brother ’); whereas checked Yin Ru syllables change from mid falling 31 to high level 44(e. g. / pai21 kut31/ 排骨 ‘spareribs’→ /ku44 thau24/ 骨頭 ‘bone’). Historically, this split seems to be a compensatory change conditioned by the loss of-? In word-internal environments; similar splits in the Yin Ru tone class have been noted in many other varieties of Southern Min (Tung 1960:741,796,853; Ting 1970: 39). (3) The syllables that etymologically should end in -÷ have become open syllables in this variety of Taiwanese. 6 One of the important phonological consequences of the loss of -÷ is that open syllables belonging to the Yin Ru tone class have inherited a distinct tonal value (same as that found on checked syllables of the Yin Ru tone class), namely mid falling 31. In other words, a six-way tonal contrast TONE CATEGORIZATION IN TAIWANESE 119 in open-syllable citation forms has evolved in TT, with three contrastive falling tone contours. Consider the following minimal triplets:7 Yin Shang: ka53 ‘ grind (meat) 絞’ pa53 ‘full 飽’ Yin Ru: ka31 ‘cover 蓋’ pa31’hundred 百’ Yin Qu: ka21 ‘teach 教’ pa21’scoundrel 霸’ 3. THE EXPERIMENT 3.1 Methodology We see from the above description of TT tones that the Yang Ru and Yang Qu tones share the same tonal value (mid level33), whereas the Yin Ru tone value (mid falling31) is similar but not identical to those of two smooth tones, Yin Shang (high falling 53) and Yin Qu (low falling 21).