This paper is concerned with the aspect of prosodic reduction typically observed in grammaticalised items within languages of the isolating, tonal type. In particular, it focuses on the prosodic features of grammaticalised morphemes in Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien (Min), and introduces three types of common prosodic erosion found in these languages, namely (a) reduction to neutral tone or tonal loss, (b) weakened stress, and (c) contraction involving tonal reduction.
Cite as: Lim, L., Ansaldo, U. (2002) Prosodic erosion as a diagnostic of grammaticalisation in isolating languages: tone and stress in Sinitic. Proc. Speech Prosody 2002, 459-462
@inproceedings{lim02_speechprosody,
author={Lisa Lim and Umberto Ansaldo},
title={{Prosodic erosion as a diagnostic of grammaticalisation in isolating languages: tone and stress in Sinitic}},
year=2002,
booktitle={Proc. Speech Prosody 2002},
pages={459--462}
}