FREQUENCY-INDUCED TONAL CHANGES: GRADUAL CUMULATIVE EFFECTS versus ABRUPT FINAL SWITCH
频率引发的声调变化:渐进的效用累积与突发的终极转变
Chung-Yu Chen 陈重瑜
Abstract 摘要
This paper attempts to explore the nature of sound change, whether it is phonetically gradual or abrupt, as well as the catalytic effects of word frequency in the prelude leading to the final actuation of the change. Various types of tonal changes in Modern Peking have shown strong indications of having been frequency-induced. Three types of on-going changes are presented for illustration. Accumulation of occurrences (frequency) is accumulation of effects; sufficient effects eventually trigger a change of state. While the accumulation of effects is gradual, the triggering of change is abrupt. Hence, sound changes are phonetically both gradual and abrupt, a gradual prelude leading to an abrupt change-of-state. In the process of lexical diffusion, frequency may have been a criterion for the selection of participating members in various types of tonal changes between Middle Chinese and Modern Peking. However, in retrospect, only the abrupt change-of-state is visible, the gradual prelude built on frequency is perhaps invisible from a historical perspective. In that sense, gradualness is compressed into abruptness. This is perhaps the middle ground between the Neogrammarians' view of sound changes being phonetically gradual and the Diffusionists' view of their being phonetically abrupt.
Journal of Chinese Linguistics volume 30 (ISSN 0091-3723)
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