The differential effects of vowel and onset consonant lengthening on speech segmentation: Evidence from Taiwanese Southern Min

2021 ◽  
Vol 149 (3) ◽  
pp. 1866-1877
Author(s):  
Shu-chen Ou ◽  
Zhe-chen Guo
Keyword(s):  
Speech Segmentation ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
Taiwanese Southern Min

Idioms in Verb-object Constructions

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-209
Author(s):  
Chinfa Lien
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
Semantic Compositionality ◽  
Personal Behavior ◽  
Semantic Distinction ◽  
Tripartite Relationship ◽  
Taiwanese Southern Min

This paper examines the issues of idioms in verb-object constructions in Taiwanese Southern Min and Mandarin. The idioms in question fall into two categories: (1) idioms that express a personal behavior, and (2) idioms that show an interpersonal relationship. The second type can be further divided into two subtypes: (2a) cases where only two parties are involved, and (2b) cases that feature a tripartite relationship. Such a semantic distinction carries its syntactic consequences. There is also a fine-grained distinction among idioms in terms of degree of semantic compositionality: (1) idioms that are characterized by an absolute non-compositionality, and (2) idioms in which the meanings of some constituents are calculatable in terms of the mechanism of metaphor. Some idioms of the former type can be analyed vis-a-vis the pivot based upon homophony. Referntiality of the object in the verb-object construction has an intimate relationship with its syntactic flexibility.

Semantic and Pragmatic Analyses of Terms of Address in Taiwanese Southern Min

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-189
Author(s):  
Li-Hsueh Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Speech Event ◽  
Direct Address ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Taiwanese Southern Min

According to Chao (1956:230) terms of address in Chinese fall into three categories: vocative terms, designative terms and learned terms. Vocative terms are terms of direct address. Designative terms are used to refer to third parties. Learned terms are often used in epistolary style and scientific description. The main concern of this paper is vocative terms and designative terms. This paper will also examine self-addressing terms that Chao does not deal with. These three types of terms of address are referred to collectively as colloquial terms of address. The theoretical framework of the present paper for the study of the use of terms of addresses in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM for short) is based on theoretical approaches of previous studies on terms of address in modern Mandarin (Gu 1990:248-252) as well as principles of sociolinguistics (Holmes 1992:372-376). Building on earlier studies, this paper aims at fleshing out the semantic features of different types of terms of address and their characteristics in TSM. The pivotal consideration is the speech event that takes place between speaker and hearer. I will then compare the differences in the use of terms of address between TSM and Mandarin, and explore the intriguing phenomena concerning the conflict between the use of kinship terms of address and self-denigration. The extended use of kinship terms bears on issues of solidarity / social distance and status / power.

Targeted and Targetless Neutral Tones in Taiwanese Southern Min

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Cheng-yen Liu ◽  
Feng-fan Hsieh ◽  
Yueh-chin Chang
Keyword(s):  
Southern Min ◽  
Taiwanese Southern Min

The Language-specific Use of Fundamental Frequency Rise in Segmentation of an Artificial Language: Evidence from Listeners of Taiwanese Southern Min

2019 ◽  
pp. 002383091988660
Author(s):  
Shu-chen Ou ◽  
Zhe-chen Guo
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Segmentation Strategy ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
Final Syllable ◽  
Taiwanese Southern Min

Experience with native-language prosody encourages language-specific strategies for speech segmentation. Conflicting findings from previous research suggest that these strategies may not be abstracted away from the acoustic manifestation of prosodic features in the native speech. Using the artificial language learning paradigm, the current study explores this possibility in connection with listeners of a lexical tone language called Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). In TSM, the only rising lexical tone occurs almost only on the final syllable of the language’s tone sandhi domain and is phonetically associated with final lengthening. Based on these observations, Experiment I examined what constituted a sufficient finality cue for use by TSM listeners to support segmentation: (a) final fundamental frequency (F0) rise only; or (b) final F0 rise conjoined with final lengthening. The results showed that segmentation was inhibited by the former cue but facilitated by the latter. Experiment II showed that the facilitation cannot be attributed entirely to final lengthening, as a null effect was found when final lengthening was the sole prosodic cue to segmentation. It is thus assumed that acoustic details as fine-grained as the lengthening of the rising tone are involved in the modulation of the segmentation strategy whereby TSM listeners perceive F0 rise as signaling finality. The inhibitory effect of final F0 rise alone found in Experiment I motivated Experiment III, which revealed that initial F0 rise in the absence of lengthening cues improved TSM listeners’ segmentation. It is speculated that such use of initial F0 rise might reflect a cross-linguistic segmentation solution.

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