The sociolinguistic meanings of syllable contraction in
Chinese
A study using perceptual maps
Syllable contraction has been observed in many modern Chinese varieties,
including Mandarin. Public opinion of syllable contraction, especially some
stereotyped contracted words, tends to associate it with a southern (especially
Taiwanese) accent. Gendered social meanings are often attached to it as well.
This paper investigates Mandarin syllable contraction using Prestonian
perceptual mapping techniques, graphical aggregation, and quantitative
comparisons. The results of the mapping tasks suggest that participants’ beliefs
about the location and gender of contraction users are generally in line with
the public opinions observed in qualitative analyses of media discourses.
However, an analysis of map responses in terms of respondents’ region of origin
and gender uncovers nuanced contrasts along gendered and regional lines.
Northern respondents (judges) had a negative attitude toward southern
contraction but a positive opinion toward northern contraction, while southern
judges viewed syllable contraction positively regardless of region. Female
judges viewed female contraction users positively and male users negatively, but
male judges had a strongly negative opinion of only the male users. Region and
gender intertwine with each other and constitute the sociolinguistic meanings of
Chinese syllable contraction that involve both the user and perceiver. In this
way, the study uncovers new perceptual perspectives on the sociolinguistic
meaning of a less commonly studied variable in a less commonly studied
language.
Article outline
-
1.Introduction
- 2.Public discourse about syllable contraction
- 3.Perceptual maps of Mandarin varieties and syllable contraction
- 3.1Perceptual dialectology and perceptual mapping
- 3.2Mapping tasks
- 3.2.1Respondents
-
3.2.2Perceptual map of Mandarin varieties
- 3.2.3Procedure
- 4.Results of the Mandarin variation mapping task
- 4.1Perceptual regions of Mandarin varieties
-
4.2The north versus the south
- 4.2.1North-south boundary
-
4.2.2A difference between the northern and southern listeners
- 5.Results of the syllable contraction mapping task
- 5.1Where are syllable contraction users from?
- 5.2Attitudes toward syllable contraction
- 5.2.1A semi-uniform attitude
-
5.2.2North versus south
-
5.2.3Gender contrasts
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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