| Quadrisyllabic elaborate expressions(QEEs)are unique linguistic phenomena in languages of Sino-Tibetan Language Family and Austroasiatic Language Family.A wide range of researches on syllabic patterns,alliteration,rhyme reduplication,tonal combination,stress allocation,tightness combination,morphological structures,emerging mechanisms,and cultural connotations of QEEs in Mandarin Chinese and Sino-Tibetan languages from multiple perspectives have been carried out.However,studies on QEEs in Austroasiatic languages are scarce and elementary as well.In this dissertation,1089 QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu,a language belonging to Mon-Khmer Languages of Austroasiatic Language Family,have been collected via the author's linguistic fieldwork.Based on structural descriptions of them,their deep prosodic features are explored with somewhat originality resorting to such methods as experimental phonetics.And,on the foundation of previous descriptive and experimental studies,the formation mechanism of QEEs is as well investigated from the angle of prosodic morphology.The purposes of this study are multifold,such as offering linguistic materials of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu and methodological explorations of studies on QEEs from perspectives of experimental phonetics and prosodic morphology.In addition to the "Introduction" and "Conclusion",the maintext consists of 3 parts.The first part(Chapters 2-4)makes descriptions as well as preliminary analyses of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu from 9 aspects as follows respectively,i.e.,syllabic patterns,alliteration and rhyme reduplication,stress allocation,formation means,word class properties,syntactic functions,semantic distributions,sense relations,and semantic functions,etc.In the second part(Chapter 5),acoustic parameters of duration,pitch,and intensity of each syllable in all six types of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu have been extracted and analyzed by employing experimental methods in a pioneering sense.Other issues,such as the influence of onset voicing on pitch distribution and the modulation of QEEs on the duration of each syllable,have also been examined.In accordance with those experimental results and structural descriptions in part one,the prosodic template,rhythm pattern and stress pattern of QEEs in that language have been probed.Besides,experimental studies have also been done on QEEs in the other Khmu dialect—Lao's Khmu Lue,and by this to seek their commonalities and diversities.The third part(Chapter 6)moves on to the prosodic morphological studies of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu,and it encompasses three procedures.The first procedure is the deduction of the foot type of that language based on its stress pattern according to Hayes' foot inventory theory.Then ascertain the neutral foot,standard foot,and standard prosodic word of that language grounded on related linguistic facts.And finally it comes to the prosodic morphological study proper.The aforementioned researches find:?.Syllabic patterns fall into six syllabic patterns,i.e.AABB,ABAB,ABAC,ABCB,ABCC,and ABCD,among which ABAC is the most productive one,accounting for 53.17%of the total amount.?.The number of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu is not limited to four syllables,which is the unique feature of QEEs in that languaage owing to the existence of sesquisyllables.?.Phonetic harmony of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu is exhibited as alliteration and rhyme reduplication,realized on the basis of four prosodic units restricted by the pattern of QEEs.?.According to their structural features,QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu are basically right-headed,reflected in such aspects as of vowel length,vowel number and openness of mouth of ABAC,AABB,and ABAB,and the back location of sesquisyllables.?.In terms of formation means of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu,there are articulated form,compositional form,paratactic form,reduplication,soundfitting form and imbedding form,among which the compositional one takes up overwhelming majority.As for word class properties and syntactic functions of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu,they have been suppressed to some extent in comparison with monosyllabic and disyllabic words.The former mainly possess properties of verb,adverb,noun,and adjective.And three characteristics of the latter are listed as follows,i.e.nominal QEEs usually do not have attributes any more;verbal QEEs generally don't have objects any more;adjective and adverbial QEEs rarely have modifiers.?.Semantic features are primarily manifested as the dominant role in the distribution of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu,and secondarily are conveying holistic,colloquial,intensive,vivid or subjective meaning.Besides,components of QEEs have sense relations such as synonymy,antonymy and hyponymy.?.Acoustic manifestations are stated as follows.Pitch countor of each syllable basically declines with the second and the fourth one more abrupt;pitch range of the first two and the last two syllables differs;onset voicing exerts very limited influence on pitch distribution.Concerning the parameter of duration,the second syllable is longer than the preceding one,and the same is true with the last two syllables;the fourth syllable is the longest one among all four syllables,and the next comes to the second one,and the third one is the shortest;the sum of the last two syllables are longer than that of the first two ones;the pattern of QEEs tends to regulate the duration of each syllable to be the same with the above duration distribution.Finally,the intensity distribution of each syllable is almost even in general.?.Prosodic features can be summarized as a 3-D prosodic template.Specifically,reliable pitch and duration rules,together with virtually-even distribution of intensity,constitutes a 3-D prosodic template;its rhythm falls into"2+2" pattern;stress allocation exhibits as "weak-mid-weak-strong"pattern.?.In comparison with tonal Lao's Khmu Lue,non-tonal Man Pung Soa Khmu is more primitive.The status of pre-syllable in them differs as presence and absence of the tone respectively.Pre-syllables in the former language are invariably existed as independent syllables,while those in the latter languages are unsteady.As for prosodic features,both languages are similar with varied details.?.In terms of foot types,Man Pung Soa Khmu belongs to syllabic iamb,and the construction of the foot goes from left to right.Disyllabic foot is the standard one in this language,and standard prosodic word is realized through corresponding standard foot.Sesquisyllable is also counted as a standard foot owing to its inherent quality that can distinguish stress.?.The prosodic morphological study on 3-or 4-syllable compositional QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu suggests that they are compound prosodic words and each can be realized by two standard prosodic words in esscence.And by this,those non-QEEs four-syllable strings will be ruled out as well.?.The primary motivation for QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu as patterns lies in their phonetic features.Specifically,3-or 4-syllable compositional QEEs must comprise two standard feet,and those constructions containing degenerate foot or superfoot are not QEEs;pitch,duration and intensity comprises a reliable 3-D prosodic template;there must exist some phonetic harmony phenomena,such as reduplication,alliteration and rhyme reduplication etc.;and they must sound nicer with euphony.Moreover,they must be equipped with fixed internal structures and holistic meani ngs in terms of syntax and semantics respectively.All the foregoing studies bear great significance both theoretically and practically.The former can be summarized as the following three aspects.Firstly,detailed and systematic descriptions of QEEs' phonetic,syntactic and semantic characteristics in Man Pung Soa Khmu have provided first-hand linguistic materials for linguistic typology;secondly,experimental studies on pich,duration and intensity distribution of QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu have further revealed their essential characteristics;thirdly,the prosodic morphological studies on QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu have expounded their intrinsic formation mechanism,which is a tentative try as for the adoption of contemporary linguistic theory into the study on Chinese minority languages.In addition,the latter consists in the argument that 3-or 4-syllable compositional QEEs in Man Pung Soa Khmu are compound prosodic words has offered a new perspective and method for identifying QEEs. |
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