Document Type

Journal Article

Department/Unit

Department of English Language and Literature

Language

English

Abstract

This article provides an argument for Hong Kong English being a tonal language and informs the growing literature on word- and phrase-level prosody interactions. By teasing apart tonal effects that come from intonation and those that come from the word boundary, a clear picture emerges that H tones are assigned in all combinations to HKE di- and trisyllabic words. Tone spreading and blocking across words can also be seen in HKE, but syllables lexically specified for H never give up their tones. Complexity in HKE tone patterns arises when the H tones interact with boundary tones, such as the declarative final L% and the word-initial M.

Keywords

tone, boundary, intonation, Hong Kong, English

Publication Date

6-2016

Source Publication Title

English

Volume

92

Issue

2

Start Page

e67

End Page

e87

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in English following peer review. The version of record Wee, L. "Tone assignment in Hong Kong English." Language, vol. 92 no. 2, 2016, pp. e67-e87. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/lan.2016.0039 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0039.

Funder

The research is supported by Hong Kong Baptist University FRG2/10-11/074, FRG2/11-12/135 and by Hong Kong Research Grant Council GRF250712.

DOI

10.1353/lan.2016.0039

Link to Publisher's Edition

http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0039

ISSN (print)

00138215

ISSN (electronic)

17561124

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