【作者】 李文欣；

【导师】 李兵；

【作者基本信息】 南开大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2013， 博士

【摘要】 本研究是在生成音系学理论框架下对早期英语弱化元音及其相关音系现象的历时研究。这一弱化元音出现在古英语晚期,在中古英语中具有音位地位,在中古英语晚期消失。这里的“早期英语”是对古英语和中古英语的统称。早期英语弱化元音在英语的音系和形态演化过程中起到重要作用。首先,该元音的出现是古英语演变为中古英语的标志。它的出现一方面造成了古英语词干构成成分的消失和屈折后缀中元音对立的消失,这是导致古英语屈折系统平化的主要因素。另一方面,它的出现使古英语音系中的一系列规则呈现晦暗状态并消失,最终导致音系表达式发生改变。第二,这一元音的脱落与中古英语时期重读元音所发生的一系列音长变化关系密切。对这一弱化元音的研究意义在于：第一,该研究有助于揭示英语历时演变中音系是如何影响形态系统的;第二,该研究有助于揭示日耳曼语族语言中弱化元音的产生和演变过程；第三,该研究有助于进一步验证音变是否具有目的性。本论文的研究内容主要包括：1.早期英语的词重音模式;2.早期英语弱化元音的表达式和音系规则；3.该弱化元音的消失过程；4.该弱化元音与中古英语音长变化之间的关系。本研究所涉及的语言现象主要包括：古英语高元音删除、西日耳曼语辅音双化,中古英语弱化元音脱落、同位置辅音丛长化、闭音节短化和开音节长化等。本文以Kiparsky(1985)提出的词库音系学理论作为研究工具,运用Hayes(1987,1989)提出的音节理论和Hayes(1995)提出的节律理论对这早期英语的音节和音步结构进行分析。研究发现,古英语和中古英语的词库层面是由前缀定义。根据其对主重音的影响,前缀可以分为两类,分别定义词库的两个层面。第一层面由第一类前缀构词界定,相应的音系层面具有循环性。第二层面由第二类前缀界定,相应的音系层面不具循环性。每个词库层面都有各自的音步类型和音步划分规则,第一层面中的音步属于音节左重,第二层面的属于莫拉左重。中古英语词库中的重音模式呈现多元化,这是中古英语和古英语词库的主要差异,中古英语词库中本族语词汇的重音模式并未发生改变,仍占主导地位。早期英语弱化元音的底层形式是一个空元音,只有根节点和喉上节点,没有部位节点和从属于部位节点的终端成分,音系范畴由[+sonorant,-consonantal]定义,根节点与一个莫拉相连。弱化元音的脱落发生在两个韵律层面上：音段特征脱落和莫拉脱落。借助早期中古英语语言地图数据库,本研究对这一弱化元音的脱落过程进行了调查。结果表明：弱化元音的脱落分为两个阶段。第一阶段是早期中古英语时期(十二世纪初到十四世纪初)：由弱化元音单独构成的后缀,在这一时期普遍发生脱落,脱落过程不受词干重量限制；词干末尾位置的弱化元音也发生脱落,但是受到词干重量的限制——只有重词干末尾的弱化元音才发生脱落。这一时期弱化元音的脱落发生在词库第二层面。第二阶段是晚期中古英语时期(十四世纪中到十六世纪初)：轻词干末尾的弱化元音发生脱落,这一过程发生在词库第一层面。中古英语时期的元音音长变化包括：同位置辅音丛长化、闭音节短化和开音节长化。研究发现：这些变化属于音节弱化的附带现象,触发音长变化的原因是弱化音节中莫拉的脱落,而且这些音长变化都发生在词库第二层面。同位置辅音丛长化的发生是由于音节弱化导致“响辅音+塞音”结构与音节节点分离,构成音节外成分,无法参与节律划分,从而导致前面重读音节中的短元音发生长化。开音节长化的发生是由于轻词干末弱化元音发生莫拉脱落,导致弱化元音所在音节无法参与节律划分,造成重读开音节中的短元音发生长化。这两种长化现象都是为了满足音步的双莫拉要求,都属于补偿性长化。闭音节短化是由于词缀中弱化元音莫拉发生脱落,导致音节重新划分,将词缀辅音与词干末辅音置于同一音节中,从而造成该音节中的长元音发生短化,因为在词库中不允许出现超过三个莫拉的音节。此外,伴随这一现象的还有响辅音后塞音的清化现象。研究发现触发这一现象的条件是：过去时后缀辅音位于音节中的第三个莫拉之下,并且第二个莫拉下面是响辅音。在中古英语晚期,闭音节短化和塞音清化由词库第二层面上升到第一层面。更多还原

【Abstract】 The thesis is a diachronic research on the Early English reduced vowel and its related phonological phenomena in Generative Phonology. This vowel appeared in Late Old English, gained the phonemic status in Middle English and vanished in the late Middle English. The so-called Early English is the term for the period from Old English to Middle English. This reduced vowel plays a key role in the evolution of English phonology and morphology. Firstly, its appearance symbolizes the evolution of Old English into Middle English. On the one hand, the reduced vowel was responsible for the loss of thematic vowel and the leveling of vowel contrast in the inflectional affixes. On the other hand, it caused a series of phonological rules to become opaque, which called for reanalysis of the phonological representation. Secondly, this reduced vowel was related to the changes of vowel length in the stressed syllable of Middle English. The significance of this research lies in the following aspects:firstly, it contributes to the exploration of how phonological changes influence morphology; secondly, it is helps to understand the formation and evolution of reduced vowel in Germanic languages; thirdly, it makes contribution to testifying whether sound change is teleological.Lexical Phonology (Kiparsky1985) is chosen as the theoretical tool in this thesis. The analysis of the syllabic and metrical structures in Early English refers to the syllabic theory (Hayes1987,1989) and the metrical theory (Hayes1995).It is found that the lexical strata of Old English and Middle English are defined by two groups of prefixes. One group can cause main stress shift (affix Ⅰ), while the other cannot (affix Ⅱ). The first stratum of the lexicon, as defined by affix Ⅰ, is cyclic, while the second stratum, as defined by affix Ⅱ, is non-cyclic. The type of metrical foot and the assigning rules are different in every stratum. The syllabic trochee is assigned in first strata, while the moraic trochee is formed in the second stratum. In the lexicon of Middle English, the stress patterns are diversified, which is the main difference between Middle English and Old English lexicon, while the pattern of native words remain unchanged and in dominant status.It is found that the UR of reduced vowel in Early English is an empty vowel, which has only root node and super laryngeal node but has not place node and any terminal constituents,and a mora is connected with root node. The vowel is only defined by [+sonorant,-consonantal]. The loss of reduced vowel takes place on two prosodic layers:segmental and moraic.With the aid of the Corpus of Language Atlas of Early Middle English, the loss of the reduced vowel is surveyed. The progress of vowel loss can be divided into two stages. Stage I-Early Middle English (12th-14thC):The suffixes with the phonological form/-(?)/is lost, and this process was not constrained by the prosodic structure of stem; the loss of reduced vowel in the stem is constrained by the prosodic structure of stem-the one at the end of heavy stem is lost. The loss of reduced vowel took place in the second lexical strata. Stage Ⅱ--Late Middle English (14th-16th C): The reduced vowel in the final position of light stem began to lose, which took place in the first lexical stratum.In Middle English the changes of vowel length in stressed syllable are: Homorganic Lengthening, Shortening before Consonant Cluster and Open Syllable Lengthening. It is found that such changes were the byproduct of vowel reduction. That is, the cause was the loss of mora of the reduced vowel, and such changes happened in the second lexical stratum. Homorganic Lengthening was triggered in the case that the "nasal+stop" cluster which was de-linked from the syllable node and placed as appendix, could not affect the weight of the preceding stressed syllable, as a result the short vowel in this syllable is lengthened. Open Syllable Lengthening was triggered in the case that the mora of the reduced vowel was deleted, so the syllable of this vowel became moraless and extrametrical, which caused lengthening of the short vowel in the preceding stressed syllable. Both of the lengthening processes were triggered by the binary requirement of moaic trochee, and both were compensatory lengthening.Shortening before Consonant Cluster was triggered in the case that the mora of the reduced vowel in the suffix/-C(?)/was deleted and the consonant of suffix caused re-syllabification. Then the long vowel before consonant cluster was shortened because, in Middle English lexicon, three was the maximal number of mora for a syllable. In addition, there is another phonological process which frequently coexists with Shortening before Consonant Cluster-Obstruent Devoicing before Sonorant. The context to trigger the devoicing process is that the dental consonant of past tense suffix is linked with the third mora of a syllable and preceded by a sonorant which is linked with the second mora of the same syllable. In Late Middle English, these two processes were promoted into the first lexical stratum.更多还原