| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 90 === In Taiwan, Haikou Pronunciation (HP) has been desIcribed as preserving more characteristics of the original Quanzhou accent. However, in recent years, due to the influence of linguistic contact and social change, the special pronunciation has been replaced by Dominant pronunciation (DP) gradually. For example, in Qingshui, speakers’ pronunciations are different from speaker to speaker. Some speak with HP, while others use DP. Yet, there are those who vacillate between the two pronunciations. Although some research has focused on the geographical variation of SM, research need to be done on the variation in a speech community form sociolinguistic aspect. This study, therefore, aims to explore the motivations of sound variation in Qingshui from sociolinguistic aspect.
This study recruited 60 subjects aged from 18 to 71. Two sentence lists, normal sentence (NS) and anomalous sentence (AS) lists, were employed for eliciting speakers’ pronunciation. Five pairs of vowel correspondences (VC) between HP and DP were embedded within the sentences. Four social factors, sex, age, social class, and mobility, were selected among those likely to be correlated with linguistic variables in Qingshui. All interviews were recorded for data analysis. For conducting the analysis, both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed in this study. The major findings are summarized as follows:
1. Based on the data of this study, the view of lexical diffusion on the process of sound change is more tenable than that of the neogrammarian hypothesis. However, with respect to the motivation of sound change, the view of sociolinguists can better account for sound change in this study.
2. This study shows that the frequency of word usage does not have great effect on sound change. It is the frequency of sentence usage that plays an important role in sound change.
3. Among the social factors, it is speakers’ mobility that has the greatest influence on sound change. Sex, age, and social class show no significant influence on sound change. However, the post hoc test of age indicates that only the younger group and middle-aged group show no significant difference in their pronunciations. And the post hoc test of social class indicates that only the upper class and middle class show no significant difference in their pronunciations. As for the motivation of sound preservation and sound innovation, the factor of the frequency in language contact can offer better account in this study.
4. Most speakers show codeswitching (CS) in their pronunciation. Three patterns of CS are observed in this study: (1) DP in NS, and HP in AS, (2) HP in NS, and DP in AS, (3) combination of (1) and (2). The first pattern of CS denotes that speakers are at the initial stage of sound change. The second pattern of CS denotes that speakers are at the second stage of sound change. The third pattern of CS denotes that speakers are at the final stage of sound change.
5. The use of CS is likely to be the result of speakers’ incomplete proficiency in DP. Speakers’ proficiency in DP, however, is concerned with their social backgrounds. In terms of speakers’ sex, female speakers are more proficient in DP than male speakers. Regarding speakers’ age, younger speakers are more proficient in DP than middle-aged and older speakers. With respect to speakers’ social class, the proficiency of higher social class speakers is higher than that of middle class and lower class speakers. As for speakers’ mobility, moving speakers are much more proficient in DP than their stable counterparts.
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