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Loanword Adaptation in Mandarin Chinese: Perceptual,

Phonological and Sociolinguistic Factors

A Dissertation Presented

by

Ruiqin Miao

to

The Graduate School

in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements

for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Linguistics

Stony Brook University

December 2005

Copyright by

Ruiqin Miao

2005

Stony Brook University

The Graduate School

Ruiqin Miao

We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the

Doctor of Philosophy degree,

hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation.

___________________________________________________________

Co-Advisor: Ellen Broselow, Professor, Department of Linguistics

___________________________________________________________

Co-Advisor: Lori Repetti, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics

___________________________________________________________

Marie K. Huffman, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics

___________________________________________________________

Alice C. Harris, Professor, Department of Linguistics

___________________________________________________________

Agnes Weiyun He, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, Stony Brook University

This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School

_________________________________

Dean of the Graduate School

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Abstract of the Dissertation

Loanword Adaptation in Mandarin Chinese: Perceptual,

Phonological and Sociolinguistic Factors

by

Ruiqin Miao

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Linguistics

Stony Brook University

2005

This dissertation is a study of Mandarin Chinese loanword phonology, with focus on phoneme substitution patterns for consonants and processes used in resolving foreign syllable structures which are illicit in Mandarin. The data serving as the basis for analysis are loans borrowed into modern Mandarin from three Indo-European languages, namely English, German and Italian. I investigate the perceptual and phonological factors that regulate the variability of loanword adaptation in Mandarin. In addition, I discuss the influence of sociolinguistic factors on the phonological processes observed in the data.

Based on the adaptation patterns in Mandarin, I argue that the recipient language speakers’ perceptual knowledge plays a crucial role in loanword phonology and that loanword processes function to create an adapted form that is perceived as sufficiently similar to the source word. I propose a constraint ranking analysis within the Optimality

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Theoretic framework (Prince & Smolensky 1993, McCarthy & Prince 1993, McCarthy & Prince 1995). Following Steriade’s (2002) P-map hypothesis, I conjecture that rankings of various correspondence constraints are projected by the perceptual similarity between the source form and the adapted form. Furthermore, this analysis is tested by data from online loan perception and adaptation experiments, the results of which corroborate the hypothesis that perceptual similarity plays an important role in loanword adaptation.

This research supports cross-linguistic findings about the preference for faithfulness of manner over faithfulness of other features such as voicing and place (e.g. Broselow 1999, Steriade 2002) and the preference for segment preservation over deletion in loan adaptation (e.g. Paradis & LaCharité 1997, Uffmann 2001, 2004). It enriches our understanding of the role of perceptual similarity and perceptual salience in phonology and their relationship to constraint ranking.

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Table of Contents

List of figures and tables ………………………………………...………..…….…….. viii List of symbols and abbreviations ……………………………………………….…….... x Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………….……... xi

1Loanword adaptation and phonological theories ………………………………... 1

1.1Introduction …………………...………………………………………………… 1

1.2Theories of loanword adaptation: Literature review ……………………………. 4

1.2.1The perception-only approach ………………………………...…………. 5

1.2.2The production-only approach …………...………………………………. 5

1.2.3The approach with separate perception and production levels …………... 7

1.2.4The perceptual-similarity approach ……………………………….....…... 8

1.3Loanword adaptation in Chinese: Literature review …………………………... 10

1.4Research goals ………………………………………………………….……... 11

1.5Data …………………………………………………………………..………... 12

1.5.1Data collection …………………………………………………...……... 12

1.5.2Data composition …………………………………………………...…... 13

1.5.3Target structures: Consonants and consonant clusters …………...……... 16

1.6Outline ……………………………………………………………………..…... 17

2Background ……………………………………………………………………….. 19

2.1The Chinese language ………………………………………………………..... 19

2.1.1Languages and dialects in modern China ………………………...…….. 19

2.1.2History of Chinese …………………………………………………..….. 20

2.1.3History of lexical borrowing into Chinese …………………………..….. 22

2.2Adaptation approaches and types of loanwords in Mandarin ………………..... 29

2.2.1Phonemic loans ……………………………………………………...….. 29

2.2.2Semantic loans ………………………………………………………….. 31

2.2.3Graphic loans ……………………………………………………..…….. 32

2.2.4Hybrids ………………………………………………………………….. 34

2.2.5Potentiality of variant forms and preference for semantic translation ….. 36

2.3Mandarin phonology and writing system …………………………….……….. 39

2.3.1Mandarin phonology: phonemes, tones and syllable structure ………..... 39

2.3.2Mandarin writing system ……………………………………………….. 43

2.4Comparison between the donor languages and Mandarin …………………….. 43

3Phoneme substitution in adaptation of phonemic loans and hybrids ……...….. 47

3.1Introduction …………………………………………………………...……….. 47

3.2Background …………………………………………………………...……….. 48

3.2.1Perceptual salience and the P-map hypothesis ………………………….. 48

3.2.2Differential changeability of segmental features ……………………….. 49

3.3Patterns of phoneme substitution: Faithful mappings and deviations ………… 50

3.3.1Plosives ………………………………………………………...……….. 51

3.3.2Fricatives ……………………………………………………….……….. 56

3.3.3Palatal outputs of velar plosives and non-palatal fricatives …………….. 62

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3.3.4Affricates ………………………………………………………….…….. 64

3.3.5Nasals ………………………………………………………………..….. 67

3.3.6Lateral and “r” …………………………………………………….…….. 71

3.3.7Glides ………………………………………………………………..….. 75

3.3.8Semantic category and variability of phoneme mapping …………....….. 78

3.3.9Summary ……………………………………………………...………… 78

3.4Perceptual similarity and constraint ranking for phoneme substitution …..….... 79

3.4.1Optimality Theory: An introduction ……………………………….…… 80

3.4.2Perceptual similarity and faithfulness of segmental features ………..….. 81

3.5Summary ………………………………………………………..………….….. 89

4Phonotactic processes in adaptation of phonemic loans and hybrids …..……... 91

4.1Introduction …………………………………………………………..………... 91

4.2Background …………………………………………………………..…….….. 92

4.2.1Variation between preservation and deletion in loanword phonology ..... 92

4.2.2P-map predictions about the choice of adaptation strategies

in Mandarin ………………………………………………...………….... 95

4.3Adaptation of foreign simplex codas in word-final positions ……………...….. 97

4.3.1Obstruents …………………………………………………………...….. 97

4.3.2Nasals ………………………………………………………………….. 99

4.3.3Lateral and “r” ……………………………………………………...….. 101

4.3.4Variation between preservation and deletion (Simplex codas) ………... 103

4.4Adaptation of foreign CC clusters in word-initial and -final positions …….... 105

4.4.1Onset CC clusters …………………………………………………….... 105

4.4.2Coda CC clusters …………………………………………………...….. 107

4.4.3Variation between preservation and deletion (CC clusters) ……….….. 110

4.5Adaptation of foreign CCC and CCCC clusters in word-initial and -final positions …………………………………………………………………….... 113

4.6Interaction between phonological factors and adaptation strategies

(English loans) …..………………………………………………………..….. 116

4.6.1Stress ……………………………………………………………….….. 116

4.6.2Vowel quality, consonant voicing and consonant place ……………..... 117

4.6.3Phoneme category ……………………………………………………... 119

4.6.4Segment/cluster position ……………………………………………..... 121

4.6.5Cluster structure ……………………………………………………….. 122

4.7Quality of epenthetic vowels ……………………………………………….... 124

4.8Perceptual similarity and constraint ranking for phonotactic adaptation …….. 128

4.8.1Perceptual similarity and differential frequencies of segment deletion .. 129

4.8.2Perceptual similarity and quality of epenthetic vowels ……………….. 132

4.8.3Free variation of adaptation strategies in the same context ………….... 133

4.9Summary ……………………………………………………………………... 136

5Perceptual similarity and online loan perception and adaptation ………….... 137

5.1Introduction: Goal and design ………………………………………………... 137

5.2Experiments ………………………………………………………………….. 138

5.2.1Experiment One: Perception (Similarity judgment) …………………... 138

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5.2.2Experiment Two: Online adaptation (Pinyin) ………………………..... 142

5.2.3Experiment Three: Online adaptation (Chinese characters) …………... 145

5.3General discussion ………………………………………………………….... 148

6Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….. 152

6.1Summary …………………………………………………………….……….. 152

6.2Contributions ………………………………………………..……………….. 153

6.3Directions for future research ………………………………………………... 154

Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………….. 157

Appendixes I-IV. Corpus data ……………………………………………………...… 171 Appendix I. English loans (Corpus data) …………………………………….……….. 172 Appendix II. German loans (Corpus data) …………………………………...……….. 207 Appendix III. Italian loans (Corpus data) …………………………………………….. 237 Appendix IV. Loans with variant adaptations ………………………….…………….. 245 Appendix V. Data resources ………………………………………………………….. 254 Appendix VI. Experiment tokens …………………………………………………….. 258 Appendix VII. Experiment tasks (Sample) ………………………………..………….. 263 Appendix VIII. Experiment results ……………………………………………..…….. 266

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List of Figures and Tables

Figure

Figure 5.1 Average similarity scores of Mandarin tokens …………….……………… 141

Tables

Table 1.1 Classification of data by adaptation approach ………………………...…….. 13 Table 1.2 Classification of data by meaning category ……………………………….… 14 Table 1.3 Proper nouns vs. other words…………………………………………..…….. 15 Table 1.4 English loans by national origin …………………………………………….. 16 Table 1.5 Summary of consonant structures …………………………...………………. 17

Table 2.1 Composition of phonemic loans ………………………………….…………. 30 Table 2.2 Presence vs. absence of semantic associations in hybrids …………….…….. 36 Table 2.3 Inventory of Mandarin consonants …………………………….……………. 40 Table 2.4 Inventory of Mandarin vowels …………………………….………………… 40 Table 2.5 Inventory of Mandarin finals ………………………………...……………… 42 Table 2.6 Inventory of English consonants …………………………………………….. 44 Table 2.7 Inventory of German consonants ……………………………………………. 44 Table 2.8 Inventory of Italian consonants ……………………………………………… 45 Table 2.9 Syllable structure of English, German and Italian ………………...………… 45

Table 3.1 Adaptation of plosives ……………………………………………….……… 52 Table 3.2 Orthographic influence (German post-vocalic final plosives) ……...……….. 56 Table 3.3 Adaptation of fricatives (Onset) …………………………………………….. 58 Table 3.4 Adaptation of fricatives (Coda) …………………………………..…………. 59

Table 3.5 Palatal outputs of word-initial /k-, -/ onsets ……………………….……….. 62 Table 3.6 Vowel quality and palatalization of word-initial /k-, -/ onsets …………….. 63 Table 3.7 Palatal outputs of word-initial prevocalic fricatives …………………...……. 64 Table 3.8 Vowel quality and palatalization of word-initial prevocalic fricatives …...…. 64 Table 3.9 Adaptation of affricates ……………………………………………...……… 65 Table 3.10 Adaptation of nasals ………………………………………………..………. 68 Table 3.11 Adaptation of “l” and “r” ……………………………………..……………. 72 Table 3.12 Adaptation of glides ………………………………………….…………..… 75 Table 3.13 Spelling and adaptation of English /w-/ ………………………...….…….… 77 Table 3.14 Deviant substitutions in simplex onsets and codas (English loans) ….....….. 78 Table 3.15 Summary of variations in consonant substitutions …………..………..…… 79

Table 4.1 Summary of consonant structures ……………………………….….……….. 91 Table 4.2 Adaptation of simplex obstruent codas ……………………….….…..……… 98 Table 4.3 Adaptation of simplex nasal codas …………………………………..……… 99 Table 4.4 Adaptation of simplex “-l” and “-r” codas …………………………….…… 101 Table 4.5 Classification of adaptation process (Simplex codas) ……………...……… 103

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Table 4.6 Preservation vs. deletion in simplex codas (%)……………………..……… 104 Table 4.7 Semantic categories and adaptation strategies (Simplex codas) …………… 105 Table 4.8 Adaptation of word-initial C1C2 onset clusters …………………………..… 106 Table 4.9 Adaptation of word-final C1C2 coda clusters ……………………….……… 108 Table 4.10 Preservation vs. deletion of C1 in onset C1C2 clusters (%) ……......……… 110 Table 4.11 Preservation vs. deletion of C2 in onset C1C2 clusters (%) …………..…… 111 Table 4.12 Preservation vs. deletion of C1 in coda C1C2 clusters (%) …………...…… 112 Table 4.13 Preservation vs. deletion of C2 in coda C1C2 clusters (%) …………...…… 112 Table 4.14 Adaptation of C1C2 C3 onset clusters …………………………...………… 113 Table 4.15 Adaptation of C1C2 C3 coda clusters ……………………………………… 114 Table 4.16 Stress and consonant deletion (English simplex codas) ……..…………… 117 Table 4.17 Vowel quality and consonant deletion (English simplex codas) ……….… 118 Table 4.18 Voicing features and consonant deletion (English simplex codas) …….… 118 Table 4.19 Place features and consonant deletion (English simplex codas) ……..…… 119 Table 4.20 Preservation vs. deletion (English simplex codas) ……………………..… 120 Table 4.21 Preservation vs. deletion (C1 in English Coda C1C2 clusters) ……….…… 120 Table 4.22 Preservation vs. deletion (C2 in English Coda C1C2 clusters) ………….… 120 Table 4.23 Preservation vs. deletion (English simplex onsets) …………………….… 121 Table 4.24 Preservation vs. deletion (English onset C1C2 clusters) …………..……… 122 Table 4.25 Preservation vs. deletion by cluster type (English coda C1C2 clusters) …... 123 Table 4.26 Voicing effects on adaptation of English nasal-plosive coda clusters ……. 123 Table 4.27 Inventory of epenthetic vowels …………………………………………… 126

Table 5.1 Epenthetic vowels (Solicited loans in Pinyin) ……………………...……… 144 Table 5.2 Variability of segment mapping (Solicited loans in Pinyin) ……………….. 144 Table 5.3 Epenthetic vowels (Solicited loans in Chinese characters) …………...…… 146 Table 5.4 Variability of segment mapping (Solicited loans in Chinese characters) ….. 146 Table 5.5 Graphic variability of phonemic loans ………………………………...…… 148

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