Exploring the Syntax-phonology Interface: The Effect of Freestanding Form

Abstract

This paper examines a case of Mandarin Tone 3 sandhi, where not being a free-standing form changes the sandhi pattern. It argues that phonological evaluation takes the type of boundaries into account, i.e. a syntactic boundary will map onto prosody only when it is a boundary of a free-standing form. This paper also shows that Mandarin Tone 3 sandhi, which was believed to be a cyclic application, can instead be derived with an output-output constraint.