音韻標記與札蒿語的同位語選擇

Phonological Markedness and Allomorph Selection in Zahao

本文處理一種緬甸欽語──札蒿話──中與聲調、喉塞化、和音長有關的動詞詞幹交替。重點放在聲調；不過音長也非常有意思，我們預備在最後一節來討論。本文旨在論證：動詞詞幹的交替項應在詞彙中載明，但是交替項的配對和語境中的選擇，需受制於標記。札蒿話的語料對基於輸出的語法，例如優選理論，提出了理論上的挑戰。在這些語法中，詞彙的角色由於難以直接控制而相形見小。札蒿話之所以有名，正因其同位語必須在詞彙中載明、而同位語之選擇又必須由音韻標記所控制的緣故。在札蒿話中，標記間接限制了可能的同位語詞形變化，因為位置上的標記在某一語境選擇了最低標的同位語之後，就會迫使整個詞項在其他語境選擇高標的同位語。輸出輸出限定限制了兩個同位語間可被容許的差異。高低調同為標記所限，而交換律則是標記等價的結果。

This paper deals with verb stem alternations involving tone, glottalization, and length in the Chin language Zahao (Osburne 1975), spoken in Burma. The emphasis is on tone, but the length facts are extremely interesting, and are given a preliminary treatment in the final section. It is argued that verbs must list stem alternants in the lexicon, but the possible pairs, and the choice of alternant in a given environment, are controlled by markedness. The data offer a theoretical challenge for an output-based grammar like Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), in which the lexicon plays a relatively minor role in the grammar since it is inaccessible to direct control. The Zahao data adds to the list of well-known cases in which allomorphs must be listed in the lexicon, and allomorph selection is then controlled by phonological markedness (e.g., French ma/mon, ce/cet, see Tranel 1998). In Zahao, markedness indirectly constrains the set of possible tonal allomorph paradigms, because positional markedness selects the least marked allomorph in one environment, and pressure to realize the full lexical entry selects the more marked allomorph elsewhere. Output-output constraints limit the permissible difference between the two allomorphs. H and L tones tie on markedness, and exchange rules are analyzed as the result of this markedness parity.