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A Study of the Prosodic Characteristics and Origins of ‘A里AB’ Structures in Modern Chinese

  • Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
  • 2024, (95), pp.205-224
  • DOI : 10.15792/clsyn..95.202404.205
  • Publisher : Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Received : March 20, 2024
  • Accepted : April 13, 2024
  • Published : April 30, 2024

ZHANG LIANG 1

1강원대학교 중어중문학과

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In this study, we employed a questionnaire survey to explore the phonetic expressions of the “A里AB” pattern and its associated quadrisyllabic words from the perspective of participants. Overall, the “A里AB” pattern exhibits distinctive prosodic characteristics as follows: The primary stress in the “A里AB” pattern typically falls on the first and third syllables, both denoted as “A”, which carry the actual semantic load. This pattern adheres to the principle that “the type of phonetic expression usually aligns with the grammatical structure or semantic units.” The stress on the first syllable within the “A里AB” configuration is more pronounced than that on the third syllable. This phenomenon is attributed to the “initial syllable prominence” effect, indicating that the “A里AB” form functions as an integral lexical unit. The phonetic expression on the first and third syllables of “A里A气” is somewhat more intensified than in the standard “A里AB” form, primarily due to the effect of semantic reinforcement. The stress pattern of “A里AB” differs from that of the “AABB” pattern, particularly because the second syllable “里” in “A里AB” does not carry stress, whereas both the first and second syllables in the “AABB” pattern can bear stress concurrently. The stress characteristics of “A里AB” bear a close resemblance to those found in quadrisyllabic onomatopoeias, both evolving from the “deformed overlapping format.” However, due to semantic enhancement, the stress on the first and third syllables in the “A里AB” pattern is more pronounced than in quadrisyllabic onomatopoeic words.

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