The Prosodic Realization Of Focus In Ningbo Chinese

The prosodic realization of focus in Chinese has always been a hot issue in the studies of Chinese.Researchers’ studies have not only included the prosodic realization of focus in Mandarin Chinese,but also addressed the prosodic realization of focus in Chinese dialects.Most of these studies were based on experiments that offer evidence for the variations of pitch,duration,and intensity.Ningbo Chinese belongs to Wu Chinese.Qian(1990)categorizes it as Type C(simplified tone sandhi)according to its distinctive tone sandhi phenomena.Ningbo Chinese is rich in linguistic phenomena that are worth exploring.Former studies on the realization of focus in Ningbo Chinese have been carried out.However,these studies are not adequate in that the testing materials are not well-designed and that the researchers’ views are contrary to each other.Therefore,a thorough and well-designed research is really necessary for deepening the understanding of prosodic realization of focus in Ningbo Chinese.Based on the research mode of prosodic pattern,the dissertation explores the prosodic realization of broad focus and narrow focus in Ningbo Chinese through four types of focal sentences(sentences consisting of syllables with smooth tones,entering tones,or combination of smooth and entering tones).The parameters of pitch,duration and intensity(pitch range,duration ratio,and intensity ratio)of both broad focus and narrow focus are examined for analyses and discussion.The dissertation mainly concerns the following two aspects:(1)How prosodic parameters(pitch,duration and intensity)of focus in Ningbo Chinese vary in the aforementioned four types of focal sentences? Are there any similarities or differences?(2)How pitch of bi-syllabic word in Ningbo Chinese vary under three focal conditions(focus on the first syllable of a disyllabic word,on the second syllable of a disyllabic word or the whole disyllabic word)? Is there a misalignment between the focal accent and focus?The dissertation finds that,generally speaking,in the sentence consisting of syllables with smooth tones,narrow focus is marked by pitch rising,pitch range expansion,duration lengthening,and intensity increasing.In the sentences consisting of syllables with entering tones or combination of smooth and entering tones,narrow focus is marked by pitch rising,pitch range expansion,and intensity increasing.It can be seen that the difference in focus effect of these sentences lies in the duration change.It seems that the focus of sentences having syllables with entering tones is not likely to be marked by duration lengthening,the phenomenon of which might be closely related to the limitation on duration lengthening of entering tones(Chen,2009).In order to keep the length contrast between the smooth tone syllable and the entering tone syllable,the focus-induced lengthening on the entering tone syllable is somehow restricted.The dissertation also finds that the variation in pitch and pitch range of the disyllabic words in Ningbo Chinese are similar under focus on the whole word or on one of its parts,which seems to reveal that,in Ningbo Chinese,focus cannot pick out one syllable in a disyllabic word as the location of focus.This finding of pitch variation of disyllabic word under focus might be closely related to the fact that Wu Chinese is a word-tone language.In such a language,the tonal performance of a single syllable of a disyllabic word is somehow restricted,and the disyllabic tone sandhi domain limits the distribution of focus effects(Ma,2017).