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Understanding near mergers: the case of morphological tone in Cantonese*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2007

Alan C. L. Yu
Alan C. L. Yu
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Abstract

A growing body of work on exemplar-based theories of learning suggests the possibility of formal models of phonological representation which will offer deeper explanations of basic phonological properties than current models allow. The main purpose of this paper is to shed light on near merger, a recalcitrant problem in sound change and in phonological theory, with this newer perspective, through a case study of tonal near merger in Cantonese.

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonology , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , May 2007 , pp. 187 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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