Rethinking OCP effects on tone sandhi

Abstract

The obligatory contour principle (OCP), disallowing identical elements to be adjacent, was originally observed in phenomena of tonal dissimilation in African tone languages. In Chinese dialects, contextual tone sandhi, which is sensitive to neighboring tones, is often characterized as resulting from OCP effects. This paper surveys the literature of tone sandhi in Chinese dialects and observes the OCP effects on tone roots, contours, and registers. In terms of comparative markedness, I posit that OCP must be supplemented with locus of violation, and tone retention does not follow from prosodic headship/edge privilege, but is achieved by the grandfathering effect.