Cover not available
Part of
Integrating Chinese Linguistic Research and Language Teaching and Learning
Edited by Hongyin Tao
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 7] 2016
► pp. 121–144

De-stressed words in Mandarin: drawing parallel with English

| The Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
In colloquial Standard Mandarin, monosyllabic tonal function words (such as classifiers, prepositions, personal pronouns, etc.), are regularly pronounced as unstressed and phonetically reduced (e.g. tā 他 [thə]), unless they are emphasized ([thaː]). Their unstressed forms play an important role in speech rhythm. This study investigates this group of words. I open the discussion by addressing the general issue of stress in Mandarin, arguing that de-stress might be an essential notion here. English words with weak forms (articles, prepositions, etc.) are then introduced. I establish a similar group of words in Chinese, coining a new term for them: the cliticoids. The strong resemblance between both groups is pointed out. Finally, pedagogical implications of the findings are proposed: the proper handling of the cliticoids may help L2 learners to improve their oral performance.
Keywords: English words with weak forms, Mandarin, phonetics and phonology, second language teaching, stress, the clitics, tone
Published online: 3 October 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.7.07tri
References (44)
references
Cao, Jianfen. 2007. “Jiaqiang hanyu qingyin de yanjiu [Intensifying research into Chinese non-stress].” Report of Phonetic Research 2007, 25–28. Beijing: Institute of Linguistics CASS, Phonetic Laboratory.Google Scholar
Cao, Wen. 2002. Hanyu yuyin jiaocheng [A course in Chinese phonetics]. Beijing: Yuyan wenhua daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren. 1948. Mandarin Primer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Coster, D.C., and Paul Kratochvil. 1984. “Tone and Stress Discrimination in Normal Beijing Dialect Speech.” In New Papers on Chinese Language Use, ed. by Beverly Hong, 119–132. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Allan (ed.). 2001. Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Dow, Francis D. 1972. An Outline of Mandarin Phonetics. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Duanmu, San. 2001. “Stress in Chinese.” In Chinese Phonology in Generative Grammar, ed. by Debao Xu, 117–138. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
. 2002. The Phonology of Standard Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fry, Dennis B. 1958. “Experiments in the Perception of Stress.” Language and Speech 1: 126–152.Google Scholar
Kratochvil, Paul. 1968. The Chinese Language Today. London: Hutchinson University Library.Google Scholar
. 1987. “Beijinghua zhengchang huayu li de qingyin Atonicity in normal Beijing dialect speech.” Zhongguo yuwen 5: 330–345.Google Scholar
Lee, Wai-Sum, and Eric Zee. 2014. “Chinese Phonetics.” In The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, ed. by James Huang et al., 369–399. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Xiaoqi. 2005. Xiandai hanyu xuci shouce / A Guide to Function Words in Modern Chinese. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Li, Weimin. 1981. “Shilun qingsheng he zhongyin [On neutral tone and stress].” Zhongguo yuwen 1: 35–40.Google Scholar
Liang, Lei. 2003. “Shengdiao yu zhongyin: hanyu qingsheng de zai renshi [Tone and stress: the Chinese neutral tone revisited].” Yanjiusheng xuekan 2003 (5): 59–64. Tianjin: Nankai daxue, Zhongguo yuyan wenxue xi.Google Scholar
Lin, Hua. 2001. “Stress and the Distribution of the Neutral Tone.” In Chinese Phonology in Generative Grammar, ed. by Debao Xu, 139–161. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lin, Hua, and Qian Wang. 2007. “Mandarin Rhythm: An Acoustic Study.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics and Computing 17 (3): 127–140.Google Scholar
Lin, Tao. 1957. “Xiandai hanyu buzuyu li de qingyin xianxiang suo fanyingchulai de yufa he yuyi wenti [Grammatical and semantical problems related to the non-stress phenomenon in Modern Chinese complements].” Beijing daxue xuebao 2: 61–74.Google Scholar
. 1962. “Xiandai hanyu qingyin he jufa jiegou de guanxi [The relationship between non-stress and grammatical structure in Modern Chinese].” Zhongguo yuwen 7: 301–311. Reprinted In Lin Tao yuyanxue lunwen ji, ed. by Lin Tao, 23–48. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2001.Google Scholar
. 2001a. “Tantao Beijinghua qingyin xingzhi de chubu shiyan [Discussing preliminary experiments on the nature of non-stress in Pekingese].” In Lin Tao yuyanxue lunwen ji, ed. by Lin Tao, 120–141. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
. 2001b. “Hanyu yunlü tezheng he yuyin jiaoxue [Prosodic features of Chinese and the teaching of phonetics].” In Lin Tao yuyanxue lunwen ji, ed. by Lin Tao, 208–218. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
(ed.). 2001. Lin Tao yuyanxue lunwen ji [Collected linguistic papers of Lin Tao]. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Lin, Tao, and Lijia Wang. 2003 [revised edition 2013]. Yuyinxue jiaocheng [A course in phonetics]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lin, Yen-Hwei. 2007. The Sounds of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mok, Peggy K. 2009. “On the Syllable-timing of Cantonese and Beijing Mandarin.” Zhongguo yuyinxue bao [Chinese Journal of Phonetics] 2: 148–154.Google Scholar
Peng, Shu-hui et al. 2005. “Towards a Pan-Mandarin System for Prosodic Transcription.” In Prosodic Typology, ed. by Sun-Ah Jun, 230–270. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roach, Peter. 1996. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Xiao-nan Susan. 1989. The Prosody of Mandarin Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Shih, Chi-lin. 1988. “Tone and Intonation in Mandarin.” Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory 3: 83–109.Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew, and Ana R. Luís. 2012. Clitics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Švarný, Oldřich. 1991. “The Functioning of the Prosodic Features in Chinese (Pekinese).” Archiv Orientální 59 (2): 208–216.Google Scholar
. 1998–2000. Učební slovník jazyka čínského [A learning dictionary of modern Chinese], vol. I–IV. Olomouc: Palacký University.Google Scholar
Tao, Hongyin. 2015. “Profiling the Mandarin Spoken Vocabulary Based on Corpora.” In The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, ed. by Chaofen Sun and William S.Y. Wang, 336–347. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Třísková, Hana. 2008. “The Sounds of Chinese and How to Teach Them.” Review of The Sounds of Chinese, ed. by Yen-Hwei Lin, Cambridge University Press 2007. Archiv Orientální 76 (4): 509–543.Google Scholar
. 2016a. “De-stress in Mandarin: Clitics, Cliticoids and Phonetic Chunks.” In Explorations in Chinese as a Second Language, ed. by Istvan Kecskes. Cambridge Scholars Publishing (forthcoming).Google Scholar
. 2016b. “Acquiring and teaching Standard Chinese Pronunciation.” In Advances in Chinese as a Second Language Research, ed. by Istvan Kecskes. Routledge (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Tseng, Chiu-yu. 1990. An Acoustic Phonetic Study on Tones in Mandarin Chinese. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Wang, Lijia et al. 2002. Xiandai hanyu [Modern Chinese]. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Xiao, Richard, Paul Rayson, and Tony McEnery. 2009. A Frequency Dictionary of Mandarin Chinese. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Xu, Shirong. 1958. Putonghua yuyin jianghua [On the phonetics of Standard Chinese]. Beijing: Wenzi gaige chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yin, Zuoyan. 1982. Guanyu putonghua shuangyin changyong ci qingzhongyin de chubu kaocha [A preliminary investigation of stress and non-stress in disyllabic words of Standard Chinese]. Zhongguo yuwen 3: 168–173.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yumei. 2008. Duiwai hanyu yuyin [Teaching Chinese phonetics to foreigners]. Changsha: Hunan shifan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhu, Chuan (ed.). 1997. Waiguo xuesheng hanyu yuyin xuexi duice [Strategies to support the learning of Chinese phonetics: a handbook for foreign students]. Beijing: Yuwen chubanshe.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Wu, Hongchen, Jiwon Yun, Xiang Li, Huiyi Huang & Chuandong Liu
2023. Using a forced aligner for prosody research. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 10:1 DOI logo
Hsu, Ning, Matthew Rispoli & Pamela A. Hadley
2019. Mastering the Grammar of Complex Events: Evidence from Mandarin Resultative Verb Compounds. Language Learning and Development 15:3 ► pp. 255 ff. DOI logo
Třísková, Hana
2017. Acquiring and Teaching Chinese Pronunciation. In Explorations into Chinese as a Second Language [Educational Linguistics, 31], ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.