ABSTRACT
Minimal and maximal word effects are another type of important morphological phenomenon in Chinese morphology. They are of unique significance in characterizing certain prosodic morphological behaviors in not only word formation but also phrasal construction. The notion of Minimal Word is a fundamental concept in the prosodic morphological system developed by John McCarthy and Alan Prince. It is a prosodically circumscribed domain which may be selected as the locus of morphological transformation in lieu of the whole domain. It is possible, of course, for one to suggest a different analysis for the trisyllabic forms. However, no matter how one analyzes them, the distinction between the disyllabic and the trisyllabic structures will still be there. It is well known that the core area of prosodic morphology in previous investigations has concerned with mainly reduplication and infixation.
