Production of Cantonese Sentence-Final Particles: The Complementary Distribution of Final Rising and Global Raising in Cantonese Intonation

Abstract

Because they carry both lexical (i.e., tone) and sentential (i.e., intonation) prosodic functions, Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) provide a fascinating window into the distribution of SFPs and intonation when conveying interrogation in spoken language. SFPs refer to a class of bound segmental morphemes that are attached to the ends of sentences to denote different sentence types, including statements and interrogatives (e.g., Cheung 1986, Fang 2003, Kwok 1984, Matthews & Yip 2011, Yau 1980. For example, depending on the SFP, the same sentence 呢條 係褲(/lei1 thiu4 hɐi6 fu6/; “This is a pair of pants”) can be realized either as a statement 呢條係褲啊(/lei1 thiu4 hɐi6 fu6 a3/; “This is a pair of pants.”) with the declarative SFP 啊/a3/, or an interrogative 呢條係褲咩(/lei1 thiu4 hɐi6 fu6 mɛ1/; 'This is a pair of pants?”) with the interrogative SFP 咩/mɛ1/. To date, however, only a limited number of studies have examined the role of SFPs in the prosodic system of Cantonese (e.g., Wu 2013, Xu & Mok 2011, Zhang 2014. In particular, it remains unclear how SFPs are realized prosodically (i.e., through f0) in relation to intonation when both the tonal targets of SFPs and intonation are meant to convey the same pragmatic aspects of utterances. The present study therefore tested the hypothesis of whether intonation would impose an extra f0 effect on the underlying tonal targets of SFPs when conveying interrogativity in spoken Cantonese. A group of 21 native Cantonese speakers was asked to produce sentences with (1) interrogative and declarative SFPs attached to the end to denote the pragmatic aspect of sentences, and (2) homophones of the SFPs embedded in the sentencefinal position of a neutral sentence. Acoustic analyses on fundamental frequency (f0) showed that the presence of interrogative SFPs raises the overall global f0 curve of the entire interrogative utterances to a higher f0 level compared to the corresponding declarative utterances, but the f0 contour of SFPs remains unchanged. In the absence of SFPs, instead of global pitch raising, the essential indicator for interrogativity mainly falls on the manipulation of f0 within the sentence-final syllable, where the high question boundary tone imposes a local f0 rising effect thereby transforming the f0 contour of the syllable into a rising contour. These results therefore revealed that: (1) an interaction exists between intonation and lexical tone in the realization of SFPs, and (2) this interaction is mainly caused by global f0 raising expressing the interrogative status of the sentence. The present study suggests that the effect of intonation is realized differently in SFPs and lexical words, even though both similarly bear underlying lexical tonal targets. Such a difference indicates that the functions of SFPs and high question bounary tones are in complementary distribution in conveying interrogativity in spoken Cantonese. Cheung, Kwan-hin. 1986. The phonology of present-day Cantonese. London: University College London Dissertation. Fang, Xiaoyan. 2003. 廣州⽅⾔句末語氣助詞[Sentence-final mood helping-words in Guangzhou dialect]. Guangzhou: Jinan Univ. Press. Kwok, Helen. 1984. Sentence particles in Cantonese. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, The University of Hong Kong. Matthews, Stephen & Virginia Yip. 2011. Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. 2nd edn. London: Routledge. Wu, Wing Li. 2013. Cantonese prosody: Sentence-final particles and prosodic focus. London: University College London Dissertation. Xu, Bo & Peggy Mok. 2011. Final rising and global raising in Cantonese intonation. In International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 17, 2173–2176. Yau, Shun-chiu. 1980. Sentential connotations in Cantonese. Fangyan 1. 35–52. Zhang, Ling. 2014. Segmentless sentence-final particles in Cantonese: An experimental study. Studies in Chinese Linguistics 35(2). 47–60.