An Analysis of Taiwan Southern Min Tetrasyllabic Adjective Reduplication

Abstract

Tetrasyllabic adjective reduplications in Taiwan Southern Min can be achieved by either partial reduplication or total reduplication. The partial reduplication may operate rightward or leftward, depending on the morpho-semantic structure of the stem. The shape of the total reduplication is determined by the semantic function, emphatic or weakening. This paper employs the theory of Cophonology, and posits four cophonologies to account for the partial and total reduplications. I argue that alignment and contiguity constraints interact differently in the cophonologies of reduplication, and the cophonologies are structurally related. The proposed approach offers a simpler and unmarked generalization, which effectively predicts the dialectal universality and variation.

四字格重叠形容词在台湾闽南语中可经由部分重叠或完全重叠来构成。部分重叠可向右或向左运作，取决于词干的语意及构词结构。完全重叠的形式则端赖于其语意功能，强化或弱化。本文讨论｢并存音韵理论｣(Cophonology Theory)的观念，提出四个并存音韵来诠释部分重叠与完全重叠，认为这些并存音韵与重叠词的语意结构相关，而对整制约与紧邻制约在不同的并存音韵中发生不同的互动。本文的分析提供了一个简明、无标的归纳，并有效预测方言间之通性与差异。