Spoken language reduction in spontaneous speech constitutes an
important part of the process of language change. Utilizing a Mandarin
corpus, this article examines monosyllabic word merger with pronouns in
the first syllable position. The shortened form marks a respective vocalic
or consonantal element stemming from the source syllables. This article
proposes that there exists a target syllable for a pair of monosyllabic
words, but it is not unique. Depending on the syllable structure of the
source syllables, different lines of developments of target syllables are
possible. When the combination of the source syllables allows a
development into a well-formed Mandarin syllable, the output is a good
candidate for a coalescent compound. Furthermore, when the immediately
neighboring vocalic parts constitute a front-back contrast or they are
identical, it is likely that word merger is produced. Durational results
also show that a monosyllabic word merger is usually longer than a single
syllable.The author would like to thank the
reviewers of the journal Language Variation and Change and two of
my colleagues, Professor Ying-chin Lin and Professor Jackson T.-S. Sun,
for their constructive comments. The study presented in this article was
financially supported by the National Science Council, grant
NSC-92-2411-H-001-075 and by the Ministry of Education, grant
91-E-FA06-4-4.