Suffixation in Zhangzhou

2.1 Zhangzhou city

Zhangzhou is a prefecture-level city situated in the southern part of Fujian Province, along the southeast coast of China. The city covers an area of approximately 12,600 km² and hosts a registered population of approximately 5.10 million based on the 2020 census (Huang 2020). Geographically, Zhangzhou faces the Taiwan Strait to its east and borders the Fujian cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou, and Longyan to its east, northwest, and west, respectively, while its southwest region borders Chaozhou, a city in Guangzhou province.

Its native people dominantly speak Zhangzhou Southern Min, known as Hokkien for the colloquial pronunciation of Fujian province as the cradle place of Southern Min. But it should also be noted that Mandarin Chinese has a strong tendency to replace Zhangzhou Southern Min as the mother tongue among younger generations, especially those under 10-year-old because of its dominance as the only national language in mainland China. The speech of Zhangzhou Southern Min is mutually intelligible with many other southern Min varieties, like Quanzhou and Xiamen in Fujian and Taiwanese. Still, it is unintelligible to all other Sinitic languages, such as Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Wu, Xiang, and Gan. The language of Hakka can also be found but is only spoken by a small number of people living in mountainous counties of western Zhangzhou that borders a major-Hakka-speaking city of Longyan.

Certain regional variations can be perceived, especially in the sound system, among the 11 administrative areas of Zhangzhou city, including Xiangcheng, Longwen, Longhai, Changtai, Hua’an, Changtai, Nanjing, Zhangpu, Yunxiao, Dongshan, and Pinghe. For example, the pitch of tone 7, corresponding to Yangru tone in terms of the Middle Chinese tonal category, is documented as a short high contour [4] in Longhai, a mid-level contour [33] in Changtai, a low rising contour [13] in Dongshan and Zhao’an, and a convex contour of either [121] or [131] elsewhere (Yang 2008b). Given this variation, this study restricts the research locality to the urban area of Longwen and Xiangcheng districts, which is conventionally considered to be historically–socially–linguistically–culturally representative of Zhangzhou speech (Ma 1994, ZZG 1999, Huang 2020) and has received documentation since the nineteenth century, though the majority are from the phonetic and phonological perspective (e.g. Dong 1959, Lin 1992, Ma 1994, FJG 1998, ZZG 1999, Gao 1999, Yang 2006, Huang 2019, 2020, 2022a,b).

2.2 Zhangzhou syllables

A template of C(G)V(X) can be generalized to characterize the internal syllable structure of Zhangzhou Southern Min, in which the onset and nucleus are obligatory, while the glide and coda are optional (Huang 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022b). The segmental system of this language comprises 15 onsets, 2 prevocalic glides, 13 nuclei, and 8 codas, as summarized in Table 1. Prevocalic glides possess an independent (G) status, whereas post-vocalic glides belong to one type of syllable coda (X). Three types of segments (oral vowels, nasalized vowels, and syllabic nasals) can occur as nuclei, whereas three types of segments (glides, nasal consonants, and obstruent stops) can occur in the coda position. Four syllable types, including CV, CGV, CVC, and CGVC, can also be generalized as illustrated in Table 2, in which lexical tones are transcribed using Chao (1930)’s notional system with 5 standing for the highest pitch level and 1 for the lowest level of individual speakers’ pitch range. All empirical examples provided in this study are transcribed based on this segmental inventory.

2.3 Zhangzhou tones

Zhangzhou possesses eight lexical tones (Huang 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022a), rather than seven tones as documented in all prior studies that rely on auditory impressions and rely on a single context of citation (e.g. Dong 1959, Lin 1992, Ma 1994, FJG 1998, ZZG 1999, Gao 1999, Yang 2006). The eight-tone system is posited based on two important factors. (1) Tones sharing an identical pitch contour can differ considerably in other parameters, such as duration, syllable type, vowel quality, and phonation. (2) Tones can have the same realization in the citation context but differ in other linguistic contexts, such as at the non-right dominant position of multisyllabic constructions (Huang 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022a). In addition, the newly posited tone 8 emerges from those syllables that are conventionally transcribed with a glottal stop coda in Yangru tone in terms of the Middle Chinese tonal category; however, synchronically the glottal stop coda is found being deleted that renders its related syllables to become open and have different tonal realizations from those syllables that are conventionally assigned with the same Yangru tone but end in obstruent codas (Huang 2018, 2020, 2023b). Table 3 illustrates the eight citation tones with their realization in pitch and duration. Their corresponding names in terms of the Middle Chinese tonal category are also provided to make them diachronically traceable and synchronically comparable with other Sinitic languages.

In addition, Zhangzhou has a typical right-dominant tone sandhi system (Huang 2018, 2020, 2022a). The tone sandhi domain is aligned with the boundary of syntactic phrases XP, in which X ranges from noun, verb, adjective, adverbial, to preposition. Tones at the non-right-most position of any syntactic phrase are expected to alter their realizations at both the phonological and phonetic levels. In contrast, tones at the rightmost position have their realizations categorically similar to their corresponding citation forms but are subject to certain variations at the phonetic level because of their sensitivity to preceding tones and the utterance-final declining effect. However, tonal alternation is only relevant to the boundary of syntactic phrases and is irrelevant to their internal structures. In other words, regardless of whether the syntactic phrase is verbal, nominal, or adjective, tones are supposed to change in the same way. This tonal alternation is referred to as the general sandhi pattern in Huang’s (2018, 2020, 2022a) studies. Table 4 illustrates how individual tones alter their pitch realizations in disyllabic contexts, with tone 2 serving as the carrier.

Nevertheless, some special patterns can also be identified in the field, which occurs in very specific morphosyntactic contexts with their realizations dramatically different from those that are identified in the general tone sandhi process. For example, a special tone sandhi pattern can be found in the suffixing process with the suffix ʔɐ51 that can function as diminutive marker, nominalizer, nominal marker, and adverbializer, because the tonal pitch of the morphemes or bases before this suffix ʔɐ51 is changed to either a high level [55] or a rising contour [35], depending on their pitch contour shapes in citation (Huang 2023a). Similarly, special tonal alternations can also be found in the suffix ʔe that serves as a possession marker, diminutive marker, and nominal marker. This suffix is shown to be toneless at the underlying level, but has several pitch variants, including a low level [22], mid-level [33], mid-falling [31], and high level [55], in accordance with its changing mono-syntactic functions and also with the changing tonal phonetics of its preceding bases. The existence of special tone sandhi patterns reflects close linguistic interfaces between phonetics, phonology, semantics, and morphosyntax over the word formation process in this Sinitic language. This is discussed in detail in relevant sections of this study.

3.1 tʰɐw22

The morpheme tʰɐw22 头, a cognate of Mandarin tou35 meaning ‘head’ on its own, is found to lose its original semantics and purely serve as a nominal marker in multisyllabic words. The bases that can be attached by this suffix are exclusively nouns, and there are no restrictions on what types of nouns can be suffixed. As such, a wide variety of nouns, regardless of whether they are concrete, abstract, countable, or uncountable, can undergo suffixation with this morpheme tʰɐw22 头. For example, in the word tsjɵ32-tʰɐw22 ‘stone’, the base tsjɵ 22 is a countable concrete noun that means ‘stone’. Likewise, in the word tʰŋ33-tʰɐw22 ‘texture of soup’, the base tʰŋ35 is a concrete noun but uncountable. On the contrary, in the word kwɐt65-tʰɐw22, the lexical base kwɐt41 is an abstract noun that means ‘technique, skill’. More specific examples can be referred to in (2).

Its suffixation does not induce any categorical change in related words because both the bases and derived words are nominal. In this regard, this suffix can be considered as a purely nominal marker. Semantically, the suffixing delivers a reading of the culmination, concentration, and crystallization. What deserves further attention is that the suffixing of tʰɐw22 can change the type of noun from concrete to abstract. This can be seen in the word tsʰju35-tʰɐw22: the base tsʰju51 lexically means ‘hand’, but the derived noun is used to refer to one’s financial situation, which has little correlation with the meaning of its lexical base.

3.2 ħwɐt41

The morpheme ħwɐt41法, which means ‘law’ in isolation, can serve as a suffix to form consistent patterns that can be generalized in the empirical data. The lexical bases that can be suffixed by ħwɐt41 are dominantly transitive verbs; however, their derived words are exclusively nouns. In other words, this suffix mainly functions as a deverbal nominalizer that can induce a categorical change from verbal to nominal. For example, the noun sjɔ̃32-ħwɐt41 ‘thought’ is derived by attaching the suffix ħwɐt41 to the verbal base sjɔ̃33 ‘to think’. Semantically, the derived words are used to refer to a solution and strategy upon which a particular action as denoted in their verbal base can be accomplished. For example, the derived noun kʰwɐ̃63-ħwɐt41 is used to express an ‘opinion’, while its verbal base kʰwɐ̃41 means ‘to watch’. The function of this suffix ħwɐt41法 is similar to its cognate fa214 in Mandarin Chinese. More examples can be seen in (3).

3.3 ħɐt221

The Chinese character学 has two phonological forms in Zhangzhou. One is /ʔɵ22/ that means ‘to learn’ and can be used independently in colloquial conversations. Another is /ħɐt221/ which primarily functions as a suffix and can only occur in the literary context. Its derived words are exclusively nominal that express a specific subject or discipline as denoted in their related bases, such as mathematics (sɔ63-ħɐt221), linguistics (ɠi35.ɠɐn33-ħɐt221), and literature (ɓun33-ħɐt221), as shown in (4). The lexical bases that can be suffixed are mostly nouns, for example, in the word sɔ63-ħɐt221 that means ‘mathematics’, the base sɔ41 is a noun meaning ‘number’. Some bases can be verbal, for example, in the word ħwɐ63-ħɐt221 ‘chemistry’, the base ħwɐ41 is a verb that means ‘to transform’. Only a very few bases are adjectives, for example, in the word ɓi35-ħɐt221 ‘aesthetics’, the base ɓi51 is an adjective meaning ‘beautiful’. Thus, for those non-nominal bases, the suffixation can cause a categorical change in their part of speech to derive new lexemes of a nominal category. What needs special attention is that the derived words with this suffix ħɐt221 are largely borrowed from Standard Mandarin, as they mostly reflect the disciplines that are cultivated in the modern era.

There are several nominal suffixes in Zhangzhou that are used to denote occupations and/or professional skills. These include sɐj35师, su35师, su33士, kɛ35家, ɠwɐn22员, and ʔɐ51. These suffixes largely bear a lexical meaning of either master or scholar, but they all cannot stand on their own in conversations. They are conditioned by different syntactic–semantic–pragmatic factors to construct lexical items that are grammatically well-formed and empirically adopted.

3.4 sɐj35

The suffix sɐj35师 is exclusively used in a colloquial setting to address someone whose occupation is prevalent in the old society of Zhangzhou Southern Min. The bases denote the type of occupation of the person being addressed and they are dominantly nouns. For example, in the word tʰɔ33.tswi35-sɐj35, the base tʰɔ33.tswi51 is a noun that means ‘soil and water’, while the derived word refers to ‘builder’ whose occupation is about dealing with soil and water. Such an addressing is less often used in present-day Zhangzhou because people in the city area are not allowed to build houses on their own; instead, they move into places that local government or private corporate builts. Some bases can be adjectives but are very rare. For example, in the word ɗɐw32-sɐj35, the base ɗɐw33 is an adjective that means ‘old’, but the derived word is used to address someone who is a senior worker in a particular area. More examples can be found in (5).

3.5 su35

In contrast, the suffix su35师 is only used in a formal setting to respectfully address someone who has a distinguished occupation as a master particularly in modern society, such as prime minister (kɔk65-su35 ‘country-su35: prime minister’), doctor (ʔi33-su35 ‘to cure-su35: doctor’), teacher (kɐw63-su35: ‘to teach-su35: teacher’), and supervisor (tɵ32-su35 ‘to supervise-su35: supervisor’). The bases that can be attached are cross-categorical, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For example, in the word kun33-su35 ‘military advisor’, the base kun35 is a noun that means ‘army’. In the word tɵ32-su35 ‘supervisor’, the base tɵ33 is a verb that means ‘to supervise’. In the word twɐ32-su35 ‘great master’, the base twɐ33 ‘big’ is an adjective. As such, the suffix su35师 can be considered a nominalizer that can transfer a word from non-nominal to nominal. More examples as illustrated in (6).

3.6 su33

The suffix su33士, a cognate of Mandarin shi51, can be attached to lexical bases to address someone who is a professional in a particular area with a specific qualification. The derived words are predominantly used in formal settings. The lexical bases being attached denote the main characteristics of the person being addressed. For example, in the word tsjɐn63-su33 which means ‘solider’, the base tsjɐn41 means ‘to fight’ that denotes this person conducts some actions about ‘fighting’. The lexical bases are largely adjectives, such as in the word pʰɔk65-su33 ‘doctoral scholar’, the base pʰɔk41 is an adjective that means ‘abundant’. Some bases can be verbal, for example, in the word ħɔ32-su33 ‘to protect-su33: nurse’, the base ħɔ33 is a verb that means ‘to protect’. Only a few bases are nominal, for example, in the word tɵ32-su33 ‘Taoist priest’, the base tɵ33 is a noun that means ‘doctrine or road’. More examples of this suffixing can be seen in (7).

3.7 kɛ35

The character kɛ35家in isolation means ‘home’, but it is often adopted as a nominal suffix to specify individual persons who possess professional knowledge or skill in a particular area, such as a musician (ʔin33.ɠɐk32-kɛ35 ‘music-kɛ35: musician’) or scientist (kʰɵ33.ħɐk32-kɛ35 ‘science-kɛ35: scientist’). This suffix is a cognate of Mandarin jia55 and corresponds to the English -ist, -er, or -ian. The lexical bases that can be attached by this suffix are primarily nominal, for example, the word ʔin33.ɠɐk32-kɛ35 ‘musician’ is derived from the nominal base ʔin33.ɠɐk221 which means ‘music’. Though rare, this suffix can be attached to verbs, such as the word ħwɐ32-kɛ35 ‘painter’ has a verbal base ħwɐ33 ‘to draw’, It can also be attached to adjective bases but not so many bases can be identified, such as in the word tswɐn33-kɛ35 ‘expert, specialist’,’ the base tswɐn35 is an adjective that means ‘specialized.’ More examples can be seen in (8).

3.8 ɠwɐn22

The morpheme ɠwɐn22员, a cognate of Mandarin yuan35, dominantly serves as a suffix to address someone who either (a) engages in a certain field of work, like ʔjɐn35-ɠwɐn22 ‘actor’, ɠjɐn35.kju63-ɠwɐn22 ‘researcher’, and ‘ħu35.tɵ32-ɠwɐn22 ‘counsellor’, among others, or (b) a member of a team, party, or organization. The lexical bases that can be attached are strictly conditioned by the semantic reading delivered by suffixation. For the semantics of indicating the qualification of individuals, the bases have to be verbal, for example, the word ʔjɐn35-ɠwɐn22 that means ‘actor’ is derived from the verbal base ʔjɐn51 that means ‘to perform’. In contrast, for the semantics of indicating a member of a group, the lexical bases must be nominal. For example, in the word twi32-ɠwɐn22 that means ‘team member’, the lexical base twi33 is a noun which means ‘team’. Thus, there is a strict restriction on the type of bases that can be suffixed and on the semantics that are transferred. More related examples can be seen in (9).

3.9 ʔɐ51

The suffix ʔɐ51 is colloquially created by the local community and is shown to be the most productive in the word formation of Zhangzhou Southern Min (Ma 1994, Yang 2006, 2008a,b, Huang 2023a). This suffix is reported to be diachronically related to the lexeme kjɐ̃51 that means ‘son, child’, but evolves as a diminutive suffix in the synchronic speech of this language, which delivers a range of semantic senses that include smallness, affection, closeness, endearment, approximation, and imitation. This suffix also evolves into an important nominal marker that can be attached to a wide range of bases comprising nouns, verbs, adjectives, verbal phrases, nominal phrases, adjective phrases, and classifiers to enrich and expand the local vocabulary. Its suffixing can intrigue a special tone sandhi phenomenon on the bases and render them to have different tonal realizations from those that occur in general morpho-syntactic contexts. Thus, this most productive suffix can substantially affect the morphosyntactic–phonetic–phonological–and–semantic structure of this language. This suffix can be viewed as a combination of suffixes zi214子 and er 35 儿 in Mandarin but serves more linguistic functions. The following illustrates how the suffixing of ʔɐ51 behaves multifunctionally in Zhangzhou and focuses on discussing its distributions, semantics, and grammatical functions.

3.10 ʔe

The suffix ʔe is also very productive in the word formation of Zhangzhou Southern Min. It has no lexical meaning on its own, but can perform several linguistic functions including possession maker, normalizer, and diminutive marker. In addition, this suffix appears to be toneless at the underlying level but can receive pitch properties from preceding tonal bases and present several different pitch forms at the surface level. (a) The suffix ʔe can evoke an inflectional process to deliver grammatical information of possession. The lexical bases that can be suffixed incorporate pronouns, proper nouns, place nouns, and corporation nouns. For example, the word ɠwɐ51 indicates the first person ‘i’ in isolation; with the suffix ʔe, the derived word ɠwɐ35-ʔe22 stands for ‘mine’. Similarly, the word ʔɐ33-ħjɐ̃35 means ‘elder brother’; with the suffix, the derived word ʔɐ33-ħjɐ̃35-ʔe22 is given possessive information and becomes ‘elder brother’s’. In this construction, this suffix ʔe appears in a low-level pitch, which can be noted as [22], whichever the pitch contours of its preceding bases. Given this morpho-syntactic function, this suffix ʔe can be considered an inflectional suffix. More examples can be seen in (18). In this case, the suffix ʔe functions very similarly to the suffix -de 的 in Mandarin that can mark a possession, but this suffix appears to be more functional, because it can also serve as a norminalizer and diminutive marker.

(b) This suffix ʔe can be attached to adjective bases to derive new lexemes of a nominal category. In other words, this suffix serves as a normalizer in this construction. Semantically, the derived new lexemes refer to related entities possessing a characteristic decoded in their corresponding adjective bases, which can cover a range of semantic domains, including colour, shape, size, texture, and shape, among others, as illustrated in (19). For example, the words tŋ22-ʔe33 ‘the long one’ and te51-ʔe31 ‘the short one’ are derived by suffixing ʔe to adjective bases tŋ22 ‘long’ and te51 ‘short’, respectively. In this linguistic setting, this suffix, although toneless at the underlying level, is observed to have several pitch variants, including high-level [55], mid-level [33], and mid-falling [31], which are conditioned by the pitch contours of its preceding bases. It is realized as a mid-level [33] when the base has a non-high-level pitch, such as ku33-ʔe33 ‘the old one’ and ʔĩ22-ʔe33 ‘the round one’. It changes the pitch to a high level [55] when the base has a high-level pitch, such as sin55-ʔe55 ‘the new one’, and tĩ55-ʔe55 ‘the sweet one’. The pitch can be further changed to be a mid-falling [31] contour when the base is falling-pitched, such as pĩ51-ʔe31 ‘the flat one’ and tsjɐ̃51-ʔe31 ‘the plain one’. As indicated, in this morpho-syntactic context, this suffix ʔe can affect the internal structure of this language in several different ways.

(c) This suffix ʔe can also serve as a diminutive marker when it is attached to person names to express affection and closeness. This address is predominantly used by family members. However, there is a strict restriction on which element of the bases can be suffixed because it can only suffix the last syllable of the first name of the person being addressed. For example, given a person is called tɐn33 ɠe32.kun22 in which tɐn22 is her family name, and ɠe32.kun22 is the first name, it is grammatically well-formed and colloquially adoptable to call her as kun22-ʔe33 that conveys a semantics of closeness and affection. In this construction, the suffix has two different tonal realizations. It shows a mid-level contour [33] after a level-pitched base, but is realized as a mid-fall contour [31] when its base has a non-level pitch contour. In other words, its tonal realization is sensitive to the pitch contours of the preceding bases.

3.11 tsi51

The suffix tsi51 has no lexical meaning on its own and cannot be used independently in conversations. It can only suffix certain nominal bases and form nominal words that refer to certain nut food or food of a nut-shape, such as kwɐ33-tsi51 ‘melon seed’ and ɗɐt32-tsi51 ‘chestnut-tsi51: chestnut’. The suffix tsi51 can be seen as a cognate of the Mandarin suffix zi214子when it is used to construct words related to food, such as gua35.zi ‘watermelon seed’, ye55.zi214 ‘coconut’. This suffix can be arguably viewed as the lexical morpheme tsi51 籽 that means ‘seed’ and can be used independently; however, it appears more appropriate to treat them as two different morphemes. For example, the words ʔjɐ33-tsi51 ‘coconut-tsi51: coconut’ and kwe35-tsi51 ‘fruit-tsi51: fruit’ have little relation to ‘seed’. In addition, the process of suffixing does not evoke a categorical change in terms of part of speech; this suffix can be considered a pure norminal marker from a morpho-syntactic perspective. More examples of this suffixing are provided in (21).

3.12 ħwɐ41

The morpheme ħwɐ41 化 means ‘melt’ in isolation, but it is more often used as a suffix to transfer related words into verbs and deliver the semantics of ‘transforming certain status into’. Its function is equivalent to that of the English suffix -ize or -ify. The lexical bases that can be suffixed by ħwɐ41 are dominantly adjectives, but a few nominal bases can also be found in the empirical data. For example, in the word ɓi35-ħwɐ41, the base ɓi51 is an adjective meaning ‘beautiful’; after the suffixation, the derived word means ‘to beautify’. In the word tjɐn32.tsu35-ħwɐ41, the base tjɐn32.tsu51 is a noun that means ‘electron’; with this suffix ħwɐ41, the derived word becomes a verb that means ‘to electronize’. As seen, the suffixing can cause a categorical change from non-verbal to verbal. This suffix ħwɐ41化 can thus be seen as a verbalizer. More examples can be seen in (22). What needs further attention is that the derived words are exclusively borrowed from Mandarin to express an event that mostly occurs in modern society. Also, the derived words are dominantly used as verbs in unmarked settings, but in special settings, they can be used as nouns. It is beyond the scope of this study to discuss in which context and in what way they can have other grammatical categories.

3.13 ɓɵ51

The morpheme ɓɵ51 母which means ‘mother’ in isolation is productively adopted as an inflectional suffix to convey grammatical information about gender and superiority in size. (a) This Sinitic language uses the suffix ɓɵ51 to mark the gender of female animals, particularly domestic livestock. For example, the lexical word ti35 means ‘pig’ in isolation; with this suffix, the generated item ti33-ɓɵ51 refers to ‘sow’. Similar examples can be seen in ke33-ɓɵ51 ‘hen’, kɐw35-ɓɵ51 ‘bitch’, and ʔjɔ̃33-ɓɵ51 ‘ewe’, as illustrated in (23). In contrast, for the male animals, three different morphemes {kɵ35, kɐk41, kɐŋ35} can be found which are conditioned by the type of animals being considered. The morpheme kɵ35 which means ‘brother’ in isolation is only used to refer to male pigs as in ti33-kɵ35 ‘boar’. The morpheme kɐk41 which means ‘horn’ is used to specify some male domestic livestock, as in ke33-kɐk41 ‘rooster’ and ʔɐ63-kɐk41 ‘drake’. The morpheme kɐŋ35 which means ‘male’ is used to refer to other male animals, for instance, ɗjɐ̃w33-kɐŋ35 ‘male cat’. More examples are provided in (24).

As seen, the suffix ɓɵ51 can consistently mark the gender of female across different animals, but the method to indicate the male gender can be considered to be lexical, rather than inflectional. In addition, the marking for female animals appears to be compulsory in this language. For example, the lexical item ti35 means ‘pig’ in isolation, but it is seldom used by itself in colloquial conversations. Instead, native people in Zhangzhou use ti35.ʔɐ51 to refer to pigs that cover both male and female gender, but use ti33-ɓɵ51 to refer to sow that has a female gender; on the contrary, the male pig is expressed as ti33.kɵ35. Likewise, the local community uses kɐw55.ʔɐ51 to refer to dogs of both male and female gender, but uses kɐw35.ɓɵ51 to indicate a female dog ‘bitch’, and kɐw35.kɐŋ35 to a male dog. As such, the suffix ɓɵ51 consistently marks the female gender among animals and forms a regular pattern that can be generalized.

(b) This suffix ɓɵ51 can also be used to indicate superiority but only in size. Lexical bases that can be suffixed are restricted to countable nouns. For example, in the word tsun33-ɓɵ51, the base tsun22 in isolation means ‘boat’; with this suffix ɓɵ51, the derived word is used to refer to ‘the biggest boat’ that is being counted. Similarly, the lexical base ʔĩ22 is used to refer to ball-shape food, like rice ball; with the suffix ɓɵ51, the derived word ʔĩ33-ɓɵ51 is used to the biggest rice ball, one kind of traditional food that Southern Min people eat over some traditional festivals, like festival of Winter solstice. As can be seen, with this suffix, the related items have been given additional grammatical information of superiority. More examples can be found in (25).

3.14 n

The suffix -n has no lexical meaning on its own and is toneless at the underling level, but it is adopted by native Zhangzhou speakers to mark plurality to pronouns. For example, the lexical base ɠwɐ51 is a pronoun that refers to ‘I’, the first person in a singular form; with the suffix-n, the derived item ɠwɐ-n51 is used to refer to ‘we’, the first person in a plural form. Likewise, the base ʔi35 is a pronoun that refers to the third person in a singular form, regardless of the gender, but with the suffix -n, the derived word ʔi-n35 is used to refer to ‘they’. Examples can also be seen in (26). As indicated, after suffixation, the items that are generated with the suffix -n are all given additional grammatical information of plurality. Thus, the suffix -n can be treated as an inflectional marker for plurality.

Another special point is that, over the suffixation, this suffix -n is incorporated into its corresponding base and becomes its coda, while the tonal pitch of the base is extended to the entire derived word, including the suffix. For example, the word ɗi51 that means the second person in a singular form has a high falling [51] pitch in isolation; after the suffixation, the derived word ɗi-n51 becomes a monosyllabic morpheme that is high-falling-pitched. This phenomenon is understandable from both articulatory and phonological perspectives. Because the lexical bases that can be suffixed are exclusively monosyllabic without any coda, for the sake of an economic principle, it is articulatorily easy to pronounce the suffix -n as the coda of its preceding syllables and is also phonologically elegant to incorporate the suffix-n as part of its preceding monosyllabic morphemes and receive its tonal pitch.

4.1 Semantic characteristics

The suffixing process in Zhangzhou is extraordinarily productive to modify existing meanings of the bases and create new lexemes across various semantic domains. The suffixes can contribute to a range of semantic information to the derivation including (a) method and discipline, such as the suffixes ħwɐt41, ħɐt221, and tʰɐw22; (c) smallness, closeness, and affection, such as the suffixes ʔɐ51 and ʔe; (d) tool and equipment, such as the suffix ʔɐ51; (e) to enforce an action, equivalent to -ize or -ify, such as the suffix ħwɐ41; (f) a particular type of food, such as the suffix tsi51 for the nut-shape food; (g) persons of a specific occupation, skill or expertise, such as suffixes sɐj33, su35, su33, kɛ35, ɠwɐn22, and ʔɐ51. Some suffixes are highly polysemantic. For example, the suffix ʔɐ51 can express a wide range of semantic meanings, including smallness and closeness, tools and equipment, persons with a particular characteristic or physical appearance, persons of a specific occupation, sense of lightlessness and slowness, and small quantification. Similarly, the suffix ʔe is multifunctional in encoding diminution, closeness, affection, an entity with a particular characteristic, and possession.

Additionally, some suffixes can refer to a similar semantic category in a broad sense; however, the specific information they convey can be saliently different in terms of the semantic–morphological–pragmatic contexts in which they occur. For example, six suffixes can be attached to encode individual persons of a particular sociocultural background, such as occupation, expertise, and physical trait, but the persons that they can refer to are different. The suffix su35 refers to people with a distinguished occupation, mostly in modern society, such as a teacher or supervisor. The suffix sɐj35 specifies people who engage in a practical occupation close to daily life in old society, such as a house builder. The suffix su33 addresses individuals with a professional qualification in a formal way, such as a nurse. The suffix kɛ35 is attached to refer to persons who possess professional knowledge or skill in a particular area, such as a scientist. The suffix ɠwɐn22 refers to persons with a particular occupation or members of a specific team or organization, such as an actor or party member. The suffix ʔɐ51 can be used to refer to individual persons in various senses depending on the type of bases that it is attached, including close family members (nominal bases), people of particular characteristics (adjective bases), physically disadvantaged people (noun phrase bases), and people with a specific practical occupation (verbal bases). Likewise, the suffix ʔe can also be used to refer to individuals who are closely related to show affection.

4.2 Morpho-syntactic characteristics

Morpho-syntactically, suffixation performs multiple functions in this language. As summarized in Table 5, these include (a) nominalizer, such as suffixes ʔɐ51, ʔe, ħwɐt41, ħɐt221, su35, su33, kɛ35, and ɠwɐn22, can derive new lexemes of a nominal category which are different from their corresponding bases of a non-nominal part of speech. (b) Nominal marker, such as the suffixes tʰɐw22, sɐj35, su35, ʔɐ51, ʔe, and tsi51, does not evoke a categorical change because the derived words maintain the nominal category as their related lexical bases. (c) Adverbializer, such as the suffix ʔɐ51, can change the word class of related items to be an adverbial; and (d) verbalizer, such as the suffix ħwɐ41, can derive verbal words from non-verbal bases. Suffixation can induce a categorical change in terms of word class, rendering the derived words categorically entirely different from their corresponding bases. However, the function of the nominalizer is shown to be more prominent than that of the others.

The lexical bases that can undergo derivational suffixation to generate new lexemes are cross-categorical, ranging from nouns, verbs, adjectives, classifiers, noun phrases, verb phrases, to adjective phrases. For example, the suffix ʔɐ51 appears to be the most productive because it can be attached to bases of seven different categories, thereby inducing a range of changes in terms of the morpho-syntactic category, while alternating the semantic meanings of related items. Suffixation can be classified into two types based on whether a categorical alternation occurs during the process. One is category-changing suffixation, in which the derived lexemes have a different morphosyntactic category from their related bases; the other is category-unchanging suffixation, in which the derived lexemes maintain the category of their bases. This is summarized in (25).

As can be seen, except for the derivation from noun (noun phrase) to noun (noun phrase), the majority of suffixation can evoke categorical change, resulting in six processes that can be generalized. These categorical alternation processes include verb-to-noun, adjective-to-noun, verb phrase-to-noun phrase, adjective phrase-to-noun phrase, adjective phrase-to-adverbial phrase, adjective-to-verb, and noun-to-verb. Normalization appears to be dominant because three out of six processes involve changing from a non-nominal category to a nominal category. Additionally, verbal and adjective bases are most likely to undergo categorical alternations.

In addition to the derivational suffixation, some suffixes can evoke inflectional processes to deliver certain grammatical information. For example, the suffix ʔe is extensively used to mark possession for both pronouns and proper nouns that include personal nouns, place nouns, and corporation nouns. The suffix ɓɵ51 can be used to mark the female gender of animals and also mark superiority in size. For those male animals, their gender tends to be marked in a lexical way, because three morphemes kɵ35, kɐk41, and kɐŋ35 can be found to express animals of different types. In addition, the suffix -n is adopted to mark plurality for pronouns in this language.

4.3 Phonetic–phonological characteristics

The suffixation process can also affect the phonetic and phonological properties of this language, showing close linguistic interfaces between phonetics, phonology, semantics, and morpho-syntax. This is mainly reflected in the fact that both lexical bases and certain suffixes can change their tonal realizations over the course of word formation. Specifically, the suffix ʔɐ51 can evoke a special tone sandhi on its lexical bases, rendering them to have different tonal realizations from the ones when they occur in citation and in the setting of general morpho-syntactic phrases. The results are summarized in Table 6. As shown, the tonal pitches of the bases are changed to either a rising contour or a high level depending on their contour shape in the citation. The bases with a falling contour in the citation, regardless of whether it is high or mid-high falling, are found to have a high-level [55] pitch contour before this suffix. On the contrary, the bases with a non-falling pitch contour in the citation, regardless of whether its contour shape is level or rising, have a rising pitch [35] contour in this suffixing environment. Such a special tonal alternation can thus be considered to be purely morphologically conditioned.

An additional special tonal alternation can also be found in the suffix ʔe. It is observed to be toneless at the underlying level, but can have several different phonetic variants at the surface that are conditioned by semantic, phonological, and morph-syntactic factors. The results are summarized in Table 7. When serving as a possession marker, it is found to bear a low-level [22] pitch, regardless of the pitch contour shapes of its preceding lexical bases. When functioning as a nominalizer, it is found to bear a mid-level [33] contour if its lexical bases have a non-high-level pitch but it changes to bear a high level [55] if the bases have a high-level contour; however, its pitch contour is changed to a mid-fall contour [31] when it occurs somewhere. Additionally, when serving as a diminutive marker to express closeness and affection, its pitch is found to be mid-level [33] when the bases have a non-level pitch contour, but is changed to a mid-falling contour [31] when the bases are level-pitched. As seen, the phonetics of this suffix are highly dynamic and diverse, reflecting multiple interfaces among linguistic levels.

In addition, the suffix -n, which functions as a plural marker for pronouns, can also induce special speech phenomena in this language. This suffix is meaningless and toneless at the underlying level; however, over suffixation, it becomes a syllable coda of the generated items, while the tonal pitch of its lexical bases is extended to the whole construction. This is understandable from both the articulatory and phonological perspectives. The lexical bases that can undergo suffixation with -n are exclusively open syllables without any coda on their own. It is articulatorily easy and phonologically elegant to incorporate the sound of this suffix into that of lexical items.

5.1 Semantic constraint

Suffixing is strictly restricted to certain semantic domains in Zhangzhou. For example, the suffix ʔɐ51 can only be attached to kinship terms that denote a younger generation or younger members of the same generation to express affection and closeness. Similarly, this suffix ʔɐ51 can occur after noun phrases to refer to individual people but only those who are physically impaired or have a disadvantaged appearance. Similarly, several suffixes, like sɐj35, su35, su33, kɛ35, ɠwɐn22, ʔe, and ʔɐ51, can all derive new lexemes to refer to individual persons, but they differ considerably in terms of occupation, qualification, and professional expertise among other social–cultural characteristics. For example, the suffix sɐj35 is used for those people with a practical occupation in the colloquial life while the suffix kɛ35 is for those people with a distinguished occupation and a qualification in the formal setting.

5.2 Word class constraint

Restrictions can be seen in the type of lexical bases that can be suffixed to derive grammatically well-formed words. For example, the suffix ħwɐt41 occurs exclusively on verbal bases, whereas the suffix tʰɐw22 prefers nominal bases. In addition, as shown in Table 5, the lexical bases of verbal and nominal categories are more likely to undergo derivational suffixation, followed by the bases of an adjective category. Apart from these, constraints can also be observed in the subcategorization of word classes. For example, compared to intransitive verbs, the bases of transitive verbs are more active than that of intransitive verbs in suffixation in this language.

5.3 Syntactic constraint

Phrases can also undergo suffixation in this language, but there are restrictions on what types of phrases can be suffixed and what suffixes can be attached to for a grammatically well-formed derivation. It seems that only the suffix ʔɐ51 can be attached to syntactic phrases. Likewise, it seems that only nominal, verbal, adjective, and number-classifier phrases can be derived with this suffix. For the adjective category, the phrases have to be in duplicated form to express lightness and smallness, such as the adverbial phrase ɓɐn32.ɓɐn35-ʔɐ51 is derived by suffixing ʔɐ51 to the reduplicated adjective phrase ɓɐn32.ɓɐn33 to indicate an action that is conducted slowly. In the meanwhile, when the suffix -ʔɐ51 is used to denote a person of a certain profession, its corresponding bases are required to be either noun phrases (e.g. ɗɵ63.kʰɐ35-ʔɐ51 ‘tall-leg-ʔɐ51: tall person’) or verb phrases (e.g. tʰɐj33.ti35-ʔɐ51 ‘pork butcher’).

5.4 Phonological constraint

There are restrictions on which elements of lexical bases can undergo suffixation. This dominantly occurs on suffixing ʔɐ51 and ʔe as diminutive markers to personal names. They cannot suffix the full name, family name, or first name given that the latter has more than one syllable. Instead, they can only occur after the last syllable of the first name, denoting the semantics of affection and closeness. For example, given a person is called ħwĩ33 ɠe32.ʔjɔŋ51, in which ħwĩ22 is his family name, while ɠe32.ʔjɔŋ51 is his first name, it is only grammatically well-formed and colloquially adoptable to address him as either ʔjɔŋ51-ʔe31 or ʔjɔŋ55-ʔɐ51 to show closeness. In contrast, it is ill-formed to call him *ħwĩ33-ʔe22, *ħwĩ35-ʔɐ51, *ɠe32.ʔjɔŋ51-ʔe31, and *ɠe32.ʔjɔŋ55-ʔɐ51, because the suffix is attached to either the family name or the first name, which is prohibited within the social–cultural backwound of the Southern Min community.

5.5 Pragmatic constraint

The occurrence of certain suffixes can also be constrained by pragmatic factors. In Zhangzhou Southern Min, there are colloquial and literary contexts in which suffixes and their derived words can occur in conversations. In general, those suffixes that have direct cognates in Mandarin are exclusively used in formal and literary settings, such as ħwɐt41, ħɐt221, su35, su33, kɛ35, ɠwɐn22, and ħwɐ41. This is because their related derived words are mostly borrowed from Mandarin through the education channel, and are used to refer to the things/events that occur in modern society. In contrast, those suffixes that are created by the local speech community, such as the suffixes ʔɐ51 and ʔe, are dominantly used in colloquial contexts, so are their derived words/phrases. This is because the things/events they refer to are closely related to the daily lives of the local speech community. One interesting example can be found in the Chinese character 师 which means ‘master; teacher’ but has two forms to be used in two different contexts. It is pronounced as sɐj35 by local people when it is attached in a colloquial setting, but it is pronounced as su35 when it is used in a formal context.