The disyllabic constraint on the Prosodic Word in Sinitic: Evidence from Hui

In his seminal works on prosodic morphology and syntax in Chinese, Feng (1996, 2018, 2019) proposed that the foot as a prosodic unit requires more than one syllable, the standard foot having two syllables. On the other hand, the monosyllabic foot, also referred to as the ‘degenerate foot’, is considered an exception in Modern Standard Mandarin: in principle, monosyllabic utterances are unacceptable, although there are exceptions. Interestingly, we demonstrate that, in lesser-known Hui dialects, the Foot Binarity Principle may have an alternative realisation, with the possibility of the formation of bimoraic monosyllabic feet. Due to the opposition between long and short vowels, and to their sensitivity to moras, many Hui dialects allow for greater flexibility on prosodic restrictions, both in morphology and in syntax. Morphologically, bimoraic monosyllabic words are by and large possible; syntactically, the contrast between the strong disyllabic and the weak monosyllabic first personal pronoun conditions variation in the order of direct objects and complements, bound by the Foot Binarity Principle and by the Nuclear Stress Rule. We conclude that, compared with Modern Standard Mandarin, Chinese dialects show a broad degree of variation on prosodic features and constraints on morphology and syntax, some of which may undergo diffusion, thus becoming areal features.