Multisyllabication and phonological simplification throughout Chinese history

Feng Wang

Abstract 摘要
Most combinations of morphemes in early Chinese are generative. Therefore, the morpheme is the basic grammatical unit. In other words, morphemes and words are not distinguishable in early Chinese. In modern Chinese, however, combinations of morphemes may be generative or non-generative. Morphemes in non-generative combinations are not basic units but rather constituents of basic units. From an evolutionary perspective, the basic units of the Chinese language developed from a single tier (morpheme/word) to a double tier (morpheme and word) constitution (Wang 2015). Interestingly, some researchers have correlated monosyllabic to multisyllabic change, phonological simplification, and language contact. Scholars like Wang (1958) hypothesized that the latter two cause the syllabic change. Conversely, Zhang (1939) argued that the simplification of phonology does not cause an increase of homophones if the vocabulary is limited. He suggested that the great lexical expansion during the Western Zhou dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period activated multisyllabication. Additionally, Lü (1963) supported this theory based on twentieth-century observations of a significant increase of disyllabic words that were void of preceding phonological changes. Commenting on the above theories, Sampson (2015) points out that “if it should be that the shift from monosyllabic to disyllabic words took place before the contrast-eliminating sound changes, those changes would not have created much homophony between words when they occurred, so Chinese would not be an exception to the generalization about homophony avoidance” (emphasis his). However, he rejects this possibility based on indirect evidence (for more details please refer to his paper). One example is that the type of synonym compounding seems to be ‘pointlessly redundant’ if it arose earlier than phonological mergers.