THE SYLLABLE IN CHINESE

漢語的音節

包智明(Zhiming Bao)

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics》 24卷2期 (1996/06) Pp. 312-354

摘要

In this paper I examine a few syllable-sensitive phonological processes in Mandarin dialects, including partial reduplication, speech error, game languages, l-words and diminutive affixation. These processes target sub-syllabic constituents, therefore enable us to look into the internal structure of the syllable in Mandarin. I will show that first, the vowel and syllable-final glide or nasal form a constituent, i.e. rime; second, the constituency of the medial glide is not as determinate as commonly assumed; and third, to the extent that it is determinate, the two glides (i and u) exhibit asymmetric behavior with respect to their syllabic position.

並列摘要

本文詳細檢討漢語中的一些和音節有關的音韵現象，包括部分重叠，口誤，反切語，嵌-l詞，以及兒化等。這些音韵現象涉及音節成分，通過分析，我們可以窺視官話音節的內部結構。本文的結論有三個。第一，官話音節的元音和韵尾介音或鼻音組成一個成分，即音基；第二，韵頭介音的音節位置不易確定；第三，即使韵頭介音的位置能夠確定，介音i和u在音節中的位置不一定對稱。