Abstract
One of the fundamental goals of every phonological theory is to account for the nature of the basic units of speech sounds, and the relationships between these units and their contextual variants. This relationship is equally crucial to phonological theory whether it is called `phonemes and allophones', `underlying and surface forms', or `input and output'. However, purely structural analyses of phonological systems can often produce several hypotheses regarding the phonemic inventory and its surface reflexes in any particular language, all of which are supportable by the contrast and alternation patterns of the language. In this paper we look at four such hypotheses regarding the underlying vowel system of Mandarin, all based on Beijing Mandarin: the six-vowel system of C. Cheng (1973), the five-vowel systems of R. Cheng (1966) and of Lin (1989), and the four-vowel system of Wu (1994). We then present distributional, phonetic, and psycholinguistic evidence (the latter based on a corpus of 238 syntagmatic speech errors or `slips of the tongue' involving vowels) that the vowel system of the dialect of Mandarin currently spoken in Taiwan cannot be accounted for by any of these hypotheses. We then propose a new 5-vowel system for Taiwan Mandarin, based on the distributional, phonetic, and especially the psycholinguistic facts. We conclude that phonological theories which are compatible with psycholinguistic evidence such as the data presented here are those most likely to be modeling the actual cognitive representations and processes of real speakers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Baars, B. J. (ed.) (1992) Experimental Slips and Human Error: Exploring the Architecture of Volition, Plenum Press, New York.
Berg, T. (1987) A Cross-linguistic Comparison of Slips of the Tongue, Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Chao, Y-R. (1934) “The Non-Uniqueness of Phonemic Solutions of Phonetic Systems,” Bulletin of The Institute of History and Philology. Academia Sinica 4(4), 363–397.
Chao, Y-R. (1968) A Grammar of Spoken Chinese, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Chen, J. Y. (1993) “A Corpus of Speech Errors in Mandarin Chinese and their Classification,” The World of Chinese Language 69, 26–41.
Chen, J. Y. (1999) “The Representation and Processing of Tone in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from Slips of the Tongue,” Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics 20, 289–301.
Cheng, C. C. (1973) A Synchronic Phonology of Mandarin Chinese, Mouton, The Hague.
Cheng, R. L. (1966) “Mandarin Phonological Structure,” Journal of Linguistics 2(2), 135–262.
Cutler, A. (1982) “The Reliability of Speech Error Data,” in A. Cutler (ed.), pp. 7–28.
Cutler, A. (ed.) (1982) Slips of the Tongue and Language Production, Mouton, New York.
Dell, G. (1980) Phonological and Lexical Encoding in Speech Production, PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.
Dell, G. (1984) “The Representation of Serial Order in Speech: Evidence from the Repeated Phoneme Effect in Speech Errors,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 10, 222–233.
Duanmu, S. (1990) A Formal Study of Syllable, Tone, Stress, and Domain in Chinese Languages, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Duanmu, S. (2000) The Phonology of Standard Mandarin, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Fromkin, V. (1973) “The Non-Anomalous Nature of Anomalous Utterances,” in V. Fromkin (ed.), pp. 215–242.
Fromkin, V. (ed.) (1973) Speech Errors as Linguistic Evidence, Mouton, The Hague.
Fromkin, V. (ed.) (1980) Errors in Linguistic Performance: Slips of the Tongue, Ear, Pen, and Hand, Academic Press, New York.
Garrett, M. (1988) “Processes in Language Production,” in F. Newmeyer (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey III. Language: Psychological and Biological Aspects, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 69–96.
Goldsmith, J. (1995) “Introduction,” in J. Goldsmith (ed.), pp. 1–23.
Goldsmith, J. (1995) (ed.) The Handbook of Phonological Theory, Blackwell, Cambridge.
Jaeger, J. (1983) “The Fortis/Lenis Question: Evidence from Zapotec and Jawoñ,” Journal of Phonetics 11, 177–189.
Jaeger, J. (1992) “Phonetic Features in Young Children's Slips of the Tongue,” Language and Speech 35, 189–205.
Jakobson, R., G. Fant, and M. Halle (1951) Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and their Correlates, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ladefoged, P. (2001) A Course in Phonetics (5th Edition), Harcourt College Publishers, Fort Worth.
Laubstein, A. S. (1987) “Syllable Structure: The Speech Error Evidence,” Canadian Journal of Linguistics 32, 339–363.
Levelt, W. (1989) Speaking: From Intention to Articulation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Li, W. C. (1999) A Diachronically-Motivated Segmental Phonology of Mandarin Chinese, Peter Lang, New York.
Lin, Y. H. (1989) Autosegmental Treatment of Segmental Processes in Chinese Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
Lin, Y. H. (1992) “Vocalic Underspecification in Two Mandarin Dialects: A Case Against Radical Underspecification,” Journal of East Asian Linguistics 1(3), 219–253.
Maddieson, I. (1984) Patterns of Sounds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Mowrey, R. and I. MacKay (1990) “Phonological Primatives: Electromyographic Speech Error Evidence,” Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 88, 1299–1322.
Nooteboom (1973) “The Tongue Slips into Patterns,” in. V. Fromkin (ed.), pp. 144–156.
Ohala, J. J. (1986) “Consumer's Guide to Evidence in Phonology,” Phonology Yearbook 3, 3–26.
Pulleyblank, D. (1983) “Vowelless Chinese? An application of the three tiered theory of syllable structure to Pekingese,” Paper presented at the XVI International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, at the University of Washington.
Shattuck-Hufnagel, S. (1986) “The Representation of Phonological Information During Speech Production Planning: Evidence from Vowel Errors in Spontaneous Speech,” Phonology Yearbook 3, 117–149.
Shattuck-Hufnagel, S. and D. Klatt (1979) “The Limited Use of Distinctive Features and Markedness in Speech Production,” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 13, 41–55.
Shen, J. (1993) “Slips of the Tongue and the Syllable Structure of Mandarin Chinese,” in S-C. Yau (ed.), Essays on the Chinese Language by Contemporary Chinese Scholars, Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale-Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, pp. 139–162.
Stemberger, J. (1983) Speech Errors and Theoretical Phonology: A Review, Indiana University Linguistics Club.
Steriade, D. (1995) “Underspecification and Markedness,” in J. Goldsmith (ed.), pp. 114–174.
van den Broecke, M. P. R., and L. Goldstein (1980) “Consonant Features in Speech Errors,” in V. Fromkin (1980) (ed.), pp. 47–65.
Wan, I. P. (1997) “The Status of Prenuclear Glides in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from Speech Errors,” Chicago Linguistics Society 33, 417–428.
Wan, I. P. (1999) Mandarin Phonology: Evidence from Speech Errors, PhD dissertation, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Wan, I. P. (2000) “Testing the Psychological Reality of Coronals,” Proceedings of the 2000 NCCU Teachers' Conference on Linguistics Research, National Chengchi University, Taipei, pp. 66–93.
Wan, I. P. (2001) “On the Representation and Processing of Prenuclear Glides in Mandarin,” Proceedings of the 7th International and the 19th National Conference on Chinese Phonology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, pp. 232–248.
Wan, I. P. (2002) “Feature Theories from a Cognitive Science Perspective,” Proceedings of the 1st Cognitive Linguistics Conference, National Chengchi University, Taipei, pp. 172–198.
Wan, I. P. and J. Jaeger (1998) “Speech Errors and the Representation of Tone in Mandarin Chinese,” Phonology 15, 417–461.
Wang, J. Z. (1993) The Geometry of Segmental Features in Beijing Mandarin, PhD dissertation, University of Delaware.
Wells-Jensen, S. (1999) Cognitive Correlates of Linguistic Complexity: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison of Errors in Speech, PhD dissertation, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Wu, Y. (1994) Mandarin Segmental Phonology, PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.
Yang, W. (1997) Speech errors in Chinese: A Psycholinguistic Study. PhD dissertation, University of Victoria, BC.
Yip, M. (1980) The Tonal Phonology of Chinese, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wan, IP., Jaeger, J.J. The Phonological Representation of Taiwan Mandarin Vowels: A Psycholinguistic Study. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 12, 205–257 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023666819363
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023666819363