Changes of entering tones in Mandarin Chinese revisited: From a corpus-based approach

Abstract

This paper explores the dispersion of entering tones from Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin Chinese by using a corpus-based approach. With 2698 corpus examples, this paper looks into how the manner and place of articulation of initials are related to the dispersion. The results suggest that sonorants and voiced obstruents show more salient tendencies than voiceless initials do in the dispersion of entering tones. Sonorants are highly associated with qùshēng, and voiced obstruents with yángpíng. Besides, labial initials are significantly different from coronal and dorsal initials in yángpíng, shăngshēng and qùshēng. The corpus data also reveal that there is a low rate of dispersing into shăngshēng for entering tones, as entering tones are incompatible with shăngshēng in height. Entering tones are non-low, whereas shăngshēng is low.