林燕慧的标准汉语音系分析的几个问题

Problems of Lin Yen-Hwei's Phonemic System of Standard Chinese

This article is a critical review of Yen-hwei Lin(2007)’s The Sounds of Chinese, which was published by Cambridge University Press, and translated into Korean by Ik-sang Eom and others in 2010. It positions just in-between Chin-chuan Cheng(1973) and San Duanmu(2000, 2007) in terms of degree of difficulty. The former has been somewhat outdated although it still provides an essential information of the phonology of Standard Chinese(SC), while the latter is somewhat theoretical and complicated to the beginners although it provides many creative analyses. Lin's book presents many persuasive analyses on why mid vowels are reduced when there are three vocalic segments within a syllable and why regressive assimilation is more prominent in SC finals among many others. At the same time, her book contains also some problematic and maybe controversial issues as follows:A. Postalveolars or retroflexes? Lin's use of IPA for postalveolars B. Are alveolo-palatals SC phonemes?C. /ə/ or /ɤ: SC mid vowel phoneme D. Conditions and domain of SC vowel assimilation E. Post neuclear glide and syllabic structure F. Syllabic consonants or apical vowels G. Segment or feature: the nature of R-suffix and its mechanism This article examines the above issues carefully and points out the problems of Lin’s theories except for B. In spite of such problems, this article emphasizes that this book is still a good introductory book to the beginning students of SC phonetics and phonology.