Linguistic Circle

Speaker: Cong Zhang (Newcastle University)

Title: Kaleidoscopic boundary tones

Abstract: Both lexical tone and intonation are mainly realised through pitch modulation. This often causes the misunderstanding of tonal languages having no intonation or limited intonation. In fact, tonal languages can have more complex prosodic patterns than expected. In this talk, I will present how different types of boundary tones – floating boundary tone and actual boundary tones (mono-tonal, bi-tonal, and more) – can be used for a range of linguistic and para-linguistic functions in Tianjin Mandarin and Standard Mandarin.

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Linguistic Circle committee