Effects Of The Syntactic Structure On The Productivity Of Tone Sandhi Rules: In The Case Of Xiamen Dialect

The productivity of tone sandhi rules in Xiamen Dialect has been explored in recent studies, but the syntactic structure is rarely taken as a variate. This study investigates effects of the syntactic structure on the productivity of tone sandhi rules from a diachronic perspective. Eight native speakers of Xiamen Dialect were invited to read real words and wug words in different syntactic structures. Findings are as follows: (1) Syntactic structures exerted statistically significant effects on the productivity of tone sandhi rules in Xiamen Dialect. Participants articulated more correct sandhi tones for sandhi targets in wug words with clear syntactic structures. (2) With the diachronic development, the effects of the syntactic structure on the productivity of tone sandhi rules in Xiamen Dialect became more obvious as adolescents tended to articulate citation tones for head verbs.