本論文旨在探討閩南語的三種變調: (1)形容詞重疊變調 , (2) -a後綴變調,和 (3) 輕聲變調. 形容詞重疊變調是在 McCarthy & Prince (1986, 1990) 等人所發展出來的韻律構詞學( Prosodic Morphology) 理論框架下重新分析. 作者認為形容詞三疊是由抑揚格音步前綴而來, 而不是江文瑜教授(1992)所說的音節後綴; 此外,聲調扮演了構詞功能的角色. -a 後綴變調則是運用字構音韻學( Lexical Phonology)理論來分析的. 根據黃宣範教授(1988) 和連金發先生(1995)對-a後綴構詞特性的分類, 作者將-a後綴重新分為六類. 再觀察它們與音韻規則的互動關係, 主張-a後綴構應分屬於三個字構層次中, 此理論的層級排列( Level Ordering) 和嚴格循環論( Strict Cyclicity)也在本章獲得證實. 輕聲變調是採用韻律音韻學(Prosodic Phonology) 來分析的. 作者認為輕聲有兩個規律: 浮游低調展延和原調展延, 且運作於一個(強起)( left-leaded)的音韻片語中, 如此一來,簡化了煩雜的青聲句法結構. 兩個輕聲規律的不同展現於展延節點,方向,屬性,音節數目等方面. 本章的分析技巧也支持了韻律體係在語言系統中的必要性 / This thesis explores three kinds of special tone sandhi in Southern Min: (i) reduplicated adjective tone sandhi, (ii) -a suffix tone sandhi, and (iii)neutral tone sandhi. Reduplicated adjective tone sandhi is analyzed within the framework of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince 1986, 1990). Unlike Chiang's (1992)suffix syllable template, the author argues that AAA is reduplicated by theprefixation of an iambic template.Following Yip (1980), tone may play a morphological role. -a suffix is discussed from the perspective of lehor argues that AAxical phonology. According to the morphological functions figured from Lien (1995) and Huang (1988), six categories of the suffix -a are distinguished. Through the interactions of morphological and phonological rules, the concepts of levelordering and strict cyclicity in lexical phonology are proved necessary in this language. Neutral tone sandhi is investigated in terms of prosodic phonology. Theauthor argues that the domain of neutral tone sandhi is a left-headed phonological phrase, which is more economical than previous syntactic approaches (Cheng 1968; Hong 1995). There are two neutral tone rules: thefloting low tone spreading and the base tone spreading. They are differentin spreading node, direction, order and so on. The analysis supports Yip'stwo-tiered tonal geometry andcallsfor the need of prosodic Hierachy in thelinguistic system.

本文調查年輕世代 (1988 至 1995 年間出生者) 閩南語的變調範域 (Tone Sandhi Domain)，即調群 (Tone Group)。文中以「傳統調群」表文獻記載的變調範域，以「新調群」表本文重新調查的變調範域。論文的研究立基於音韻句法互動之上，並持間接指涉假設觀點，從韻律音韻學的角度出發，認為句法音韻間存有一韻律介面，且調群為此介面上的韻律單位：音韻詞組 (Phonological Phrase, ϕ)。 本文發現新調群與傳統調群的劃分相異。前人研究指出，調群邊界 (#) 標於音韻詞組右端，音韻詞組為一最大投射 XP，且不可為附加語及附著語。新調群僅部分可以傳統音韻詞組界定，其他則對應至句法上的主要語 X，以及附加語最大投射 XP。此外，新調群的邊界為選擇性地出現，具語言變異。新調群出現四種於傳統調群未見的劃分形式：依調群邊界前的語法單位分為主要語 X 類別：(1) V # NP # (2) V # QP # 及附加語 XP 類別： (3) QP # A # (4) AdvP # V #。 本文提出調群新定義，並以優選理論中的 ROE 模型進行分析，提出三個新制約：Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ)、ϕ-min 及 Align-R (X-head, ϕ)。Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ) 用以區分功能性投射與詞彙性投射；ϕ-min 限制音韻詞組至少含兩音節；Align-R (X-head, ϕ) 解釋調群邊界標註於主要語 X 右端。分析時著重制約 Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ) 、ϕ-min 及 Align-R (X-head, ϕ) 與切分線 | (Critical Cut-Off Line) 的關係。整體制約排序為：Ident-T-Rϕ | Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ) >> ϕ-min >> Align-R (X-head, ϕ) >> *T >> Align-R (XP-Lex, ϕ)。除信實性制約 Ident-T-Rϕ 之外，其他標記性制約皆列於切分線之下，預測語言變異。 / The goal of this thesis is to explore the tone sandhi domain, tone group (hereafter, TG), of Taiwan Southern Min of younger generation. A corpus is built and analyzed within the framework of Prosodic Theory, a derived theory from the Phonology-Syntax Interface Theory. In the literature, TG boundary # was marked at the right edge of an XP which is neither an adjunct nor a clitic. However, the TG boundary # of younger generation is marked at the right edges of a maximal XP, an adjunctive XP and an X-head. Moreover, language variation is observed in the TG parsing: the presence of TG boundary # is optional. There are four TG parsings not observed in the literature: (1) V # NP # (2) V # QP # (3) QP # A # (4) AdvP # V #. TG is redefined as a Phonological Phrase which syntactically corresponds to a maximal XP, an adjunct XP, an X-head but not to a clitic XP. The four TG parsings are then analyzed with Rank-Ordering Model of EVAL (ROE), a subtheory within the Optimality Theory domain which particularly addresses language variation. According to ROE, constraints on the right side of critical cut-off line participate in the prediction of variation. Three constraints involving in variation are proposed: Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ), ϕ-min and Align-R (X-head, ϕ). Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ) distinguishes lexical projection and functional projection, ϕ-min requires a Phonological Phrase to be minimally disyllabic, and Align-R (X-head, ϕ) predicts # to occur at the right edge of an X-head. The analysis centers around the three constraints’ relation with the critical cut-off line. The constraint rankings are: Ident-T-Rϕ | Align-R (XP-Fnc, ϕ) >> ϕ-min >> Align-R (X-head, ϕ) >> *T >> Align-R (XP-Lex, ϕ). Except for the faithfulness constraint Ident-T-Rϕ, the other markedness constraints are arranged at the right side of the cut-off line in order to predict language variation.