The sociolinguistic meanings of syllable contraction in Chinese

Syllable contraction has been observed in many modern Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. Public opinion of syllable contraction, especially some stereotyped contracted words, tends to associate it with a southern (especially Taiwanese) accent. Gendered social meanings are often attached to it as well. This paper investigates Mandarin syllable contraction using Prestonian perceptual mapping techniques, graphical aggregation, and quantitative comparisons. The results of the mapping tasks suggest that participants’ beliefs about the location and gender of contraction users are generally in line with the public opinions observed in qualitative analyses of media discourses. However, an analysis of map responses in terms of respondents’ region of origin and gender uncovers nuanced contrasts along gendered and regional lines. Northern respondents (judges) had a negative attitude toward southern contraction but a positive opinion toward northern contraction, while southern judges viewed syllable contraction positively regardless of region. Female judges viewed female contraction users positively and male users negatively, but male judges had a strongly negative opinion of only the male users. Region and gender intertwine with each other and constitute the sociolinguistic meanings of Chinese syllable contraction that involve both the user and perceiver. In this way, the study uncovers new perceptual perspectives on the sociolinguistic meaning of a less commonly studied variable in a less commonly studied language.

很多现代中文方言，包括标准普通话（国语）都有音节减少（吞音，减音）现象。公众对于吞音的态度，尤其对一些固话的吞音词的态度，倾向于将其与南方方言，尤其是台湾方言联系起来。吞音还常被认为带有性别意义。本篇论文运用普利斯顿(Preston)式的感知图、地图图形聚合以及定量分析的方法研究中文吞音现象。研究结果发现，实验参与者对于吞音使用者的地域和性别的感知与公众意见基本一致。但同时，对感知图结果根据实验参与者地域和性别的分类研究又指出，不同的人对于吞音的感知并不完全相同。北方人对南方吞音持负面态度，但对北方吞音持正面态度；而南方人对吞音持有不分地域的正面态度。女性对女性吞音使用者持有正面态度，而对男性吞音使用者持负面态度。男性只对男性吞音使用者持有强烈的负面态度。地域和性别相互作用，构造出中文吞音对于使用者和感知者的社会语言学意义。如此，本研究从社会感知角度为一种不常研究的语言中的一个不常研究的变体提供了新的社会语言学的研究方向。