史興語韻律系統初探

Approaching the Prosodic System of Shixing

本文用實驗方法研究史興語單音節詞的三個聲調（/H/、/L/、/HL/）與多音節詞的三個聲調（同樣 /H/、/L/、/HL/）間的變換關係。結果表明多音節詞的聲調取決於其長度、內部結構及其第一個組成詞素或單詞有無聲調。史興語韻律域的重音，即詞彙聲調的插入點，默認位置在首音節上，首音節聲調延伸至後面其他音節，全 /L/ 調域的末尾音節採用邊界調 [H]。以無調音節起頭的韻律域，其重音移到右邊第一個有調音節。重音位置離默認位置越遠，詞彙調中立化越大。

This article focuses on the prosodic organization of Shixing, a tonal SinoTibetan language spoken in the South-West of China. It is essentially based on an experiment that explores the derivational relationship between the three contrastive tones on monosyllables, /H/, /L/ and /HL/, and the three contrastive tones on phonological words of two syllables or more, likewise /H/, /L/ and /HL/. The process of tone derivation in phonological words of two syllables or more is determined by the presence or absence of lexical tone on the initial element of the phonological word (a morpheme or a word) as well as by the length and composition of the phonological word. The observed phenomena of tone derivation are here explained under the assumption that a prosodic domain in Shixing is characterized by metrical stress, which is the location for the insertion of either of the three lexical tones. The default location of stress is domain-initial. The lexical tone of a stressed syllable in initial position spreads onto the remaining syllables, followed, in the case of the lexical /L/ tone, by the addition of a postlexical [H] tone. In tonal domains that begin with a toneless syllable (e.g. prefix or proclitic), stress is shifted to the first stressable syllable to its right; the contrast between /L/ and /HL/ neutralizes to /L/, while /H/ remains unchanged. When the first stressable syllable is two syllables apart from the domain-initial position, all three tones are neutralized to /L/.