Title

On Non-recycling of Tonal Derivation in Chinese Dialects

Author

Hui-chuan Hsu

Genre

Article  

Pages

357-387

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Language

English

Key words

tonal derivation, One Step Principle

Abstract

    This paper argues that No-Backtracking proposed by Chen(2000:115, 159) to deal with directionality and interacting sandhi processes in Chinese dialects can be subsumed under the more general One Step Principle (OSP henceforth),which prohibits a derived tone serving as input to another sandhi rule. Ample cross-linguistic evidence for OSP comes from Taiwanese secret language, Changting, Tianjin,

Dongshi Hakka, Yaoping. The interaction of OSP with other constraints, such as Well-Formedness Condition and Temporal Sequence, well illustrates dialect variation. All possible efforts we can make to translate OSP into optimality terms are futile. OSP even finds a counterpart in segmental derivation of Chinese secret languages.