Utterance-final Particles in Mandarin Chinese at the Semantics-prosody Interface:Ba(吧)and Ne(呢)
Utterance-final particles(UFPs)ba(吧)and ne(呢)in Mandarin Chinese can occur in identical syntactic structures and carry similar semantic meanings.In oral interaction,prosodic patterns can be the cues to disambiguate the two UFPs.This study adopted the analytical framework of formal semantics to explore the interface of prosody and semantics,by examining ba and ne in a concession conditional of"VP(ba/ne),...;(NEG)VP(ba/ne),...".We integrated experimental methods to collect evidence in language use,speech production and perception,to test our semantic hypotheses.We designed questionnaires to elicit uses of ba and ne in monologues and dialogues among native speakers of Mandarin Chinese.The results confirmed our hypothesis on the shared and unique semantic meanings and implications of the two UFPs.In the selected structure of concession conditionals,both ba and ne can express the epistemic modality of possibility.What distinguishes them is their focus structure.Under the assumption that ba and ne both take scope over the entire proposition,verum focus are hypothesized to serve as the primary focus of both UFPs,with the proposition p contrasting with～p.Yet,ba and ne are distinct in the realization of a secondary focus,with ne-utterances having a secondary focus on the object NP.The secondary focus triggers a set of alternatives,which requires the subsequent clause to consist of a contrastive item selected from the alternative set.Next,it is hypothesized that semantic focuses may be realized as phonetic prominence of corresponding components of utterances containing the UFPs.We designed speech production and perception experiments to test the predicted relationship between semantics and prosody.Our acoustic analysis of F0 correlates yielded corroborating prosodic patterns of constituents under focus.Firstly,in monologue and dyads,ba and its carrier utterance showed comparable pitch tracks,confirming the nonrequsite of commongroundedness.On the other hand,ne raised local pitches and invited more fluatuations in intonation of its carrier utterancs.Secondly,correlates of pitches of objects and UFPs showed significant differences between ba and ne contexts.Lastly,enhancing prosodic cues led to changes in perceptual judgement of the two UFPs.Raising pitches of the target syllables,i.e.,the direct object of the main verb,resulted in an increment of ne selection.This corroborates our hypothesis of the secondary focus in ne.In conclusion,both ba and ne can occur in identical structures presenting similar yet distinct semantic meanings,which are evident in prosodic and perceptual patterns in monologues and dyads.Semantics of the UFPs determine their key prosodic characteristics and syntactic properties.
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万方数据
