Lexical Diffusion of a Tonal Change in Reduplicates and Its Implications

Abstract

An examination of tonal changes in XYY & XXYY types of reduplication in Mandarin Chinese between 1932 & 1963. Although most reduplicated forms exhibit no particular tonal change, a substantial minority exhibit change with respect to YY syllables. Dictionaries reflecting the 1932 system show a total of six tonal shapes for YY syllables. In the 1963 system, changes move directly into the first tone, bypassing the turbulent intermediate stage. This change is increasing in XYY forms but decreasing in XXYY forms. There appears to be a correlation between the first tone reading & highly colloq expressions in the lang. The first tone readings of the reduplicates may be tending to take root & replace the original tonal category of the character (when not in reduplication). It is argued that the present conception of the norms for standard pronunciation need revision. Modified HA.