Mandarin Rhotacization

1/8/2023: Poster presentation (virtual) at LSA Annual Meeting 2023, Denver.

Title: Modeling Mandarin Rhotacization with Recursive Schemes

Abstract, poster, and recording.

This paper pursues a novel analysis of Mandarin rhotacization using Sonority Scale and characterizes this phonological process computationally with Recursive Schemes (Chandlee & Jardine 2021). Mandarin rhotacization shows an asymmetry between high front [i, y] and high back [u] vowels. To explain this asymmetry phonologically, unlike previous phonetics-based accounts (Chao 1968; Duanmu 2007; a.o.), we propose that segments compete with adjacent segments in sonority in order to surface and present a refined, detailed sonority ranking in Mandarin. The "if-then-else" syntax in Boolean Monadic Recursive Schemes elegantly formalizes the competition between segments.