名字: why is ming2zi4 pronounced ming2zi ?

[ablaze]

I'm half Chinese, and when I say 名字, I always say ming2zi3 (or ming2zi), but I'd never say ming2zi4. Am I missing some tonal change rules?

would really appreciate if someone could clear that up.

[yonglin]

Where on earth did you read that the pinyin for 名字 is ming2zi4?

I think you had better throw that book out.

[adrianlondon]

I think it's just based on 字 being fourth tone when on its own.

Anyway, 名字 is pronounced ming2zi (the zi is neutral). It's not a tone-change thing, just one-of-those things ;)

Contrast with 汉字.

I'm not Chinese by the way; just hope I'm not wrong!

[ablaze]

@yonglin, yeah it's as adrianlondon said, I based my question on the fact that 字 is pronounced in the fourth tone when it's on its own. I didn't know there were exceptions.

@adrianlondon, ok thanks for clearing that up. I guess I was under the impression that there were strict and universal tone change rules with no exceptions.

[adrianlondon]

It also depends where you're from. In Taiwan there aren't many neutal tones but in China I discovered many two-character words have the second character pronounced with no tone.

Stuff like 厉害 and 漂亮 sounded very strange to me when I first got to Beijing, as my only prior experience of hearning Mandarin was from some Taiwanese friends. I was so used to saying 44 for my tones instead of 45 (if 5 is the neutral one).

In Beijing I started saying 45 but I've now gone back to 44. Well, "now" implies I'm still learning/practicing Mandarin which, although I kid myself that I am, I'm not really. I've not learnt anything new since leaving BNU a year ago ;)

[monto]

名字 reads (ming2zi).

Why so? Because

1) The 字 in the word 名字 alone is meaningless though 字 alone or in other words has certain neanings ( A character in the end of a word that has no substential meaning tend to be pronounced with light tone).

2) The pronunciation of 名字 is heavily influenced by that of 名子(ming2zi) while they have the same meaning.

Notes.

That by no means mean that 字 after 名 is always light tone. In the conbination below, it is still 4th tone:

姓名字号

A bit more of 姓名字号:

诗圣李白：姓李，名白，字太白，号青莲居士。

We wish someone translate it into English. I tried, but souds awkward.

[ablaze]

Thanks mondo, that's quite an elaborate explanation!

I just didn't understand 2):

2) The pronunciation of 名字 is heavily influenced by that of 名子(ming2zi) while they have the same meaning.

You wrote the same word (名字) twice?

[monto]

You wrote the same word (名字) twice?

One is 名字, the other is 名子. the last characters are different. But I am really not sure

should I say they are the same words or different words with same meaning in Chinese.

[ablaze]

Okay thanks, I got it now. : )