Non-contrastive Features or Enhancement by Redundant Features

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1、LANGUAGEANDLINGUISTICS4.4:713-755,20032003-0-004-004-000067-1Non-contrastiveFeaturesorEnhancementbyRedundantFeatures?E.G.PulleyblankUniversityofBritishColumbiaInMandarinChinese,whenthesuffix-risaddedtosyllablesendingin-nand-N,bothconsonantsaredroppedbutthevowelisna

2、salizedinthecaseofN.Ithasrecentlybeenargued(Zhang2000)thatthisisbecauseintheunsuffixedformsthereisalreadyagreaterdegreeofnasalizationinthecaseof-Nthaninthecaseof-nandthatthismerelyallophoniccontrastbecomesdistinctivewhenthesuffixisadded.Itishereclaimedthatthereisal

3、readyaphonemicdistinctionpresentintheunsuffixedforms,namelypharyngealizationofthevelarnasal,andthatfurthermorethereisapharyngealglide/A9/codainthecaseofso-called‘open’syllablesendingmidandlowvowels.ThisissupportedbycomparisonwiththeChanglidialectinwhichbothnasalfin

4、alsaredeletedbefore-rbutthedistinctionsareuniformlypreserved.Furtherevidencefortheneedtorecognizethepharyngealglide/A9/asapossiblephonemeandforreplacingthedorsalfeature[±low]withthetongue-rootfeature[±RTR]indistinctivefeaturetheoryisadducedfromthehistoryofChineseas

5、wellasfromotherlanguages,includingEnglish,whereittakestheplaceofthetraditionaltense/laxcontrastinshortandlongvowels.Thissupportstheconceptoffeaturalcontraststhatarestrictlyspeakingredundantaccordingtothestandardtestofminimalpairsbutthatservetoenhancedistinctionstha

6、twouldotherwisebeeasytoconfuse.Keywords:non-contrastivefeatures,redundantfeatures,pharyngealglide,r-suffixation1.IntroductionInarecentpaper,JieZhang(2000)arguesthatinMandarinChinesethenasalityinducedontheprecedingvowelbythe/N/codaisperceptuallymoresalientthanthenas

7、alizationinducedbytheothernasalcoda/n/andthatthisistheexplanationforthefactthatwhentheretroflexdiminutivesuffixisadded,resultinginlossofbothprecedingnasalconsonants,thedistinctionbetween-Vnand-VNispreservedbynasalizationofthevowelinthecaseofthelatterbutnottheformer

8、.Sincedegreeofnasalizationisnotnormallyrecognizedasapossibledistinctivefeature,thisrequirestheassumptionthatasurfacephoneticcontrastcanemergeasdi