英文摘要 |
This paper presents an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of disyllabic tone sandhi in Meixian Hakka. In this paper, the alternations of tones are identified as being motivated by dissimilatory and assimilatory force at the tone internal structure. Since the tonal changes occur under highly marked condition, several locally conjoined constraints are posited to capture them. At the same time, a series of IDENT(F) constraints integrated with tone features are introduced into the analysis in order to explain the selection of the most optimal outputs in the di-tonal grammar. This study also discusses the existence of two phonologically distinct mid level tones in the dialect. |