The present paper argues for an account of Mandarin Third Tone Sandhi (T3S) domains in terms of phase-based syntaxphonology mapping. Given the phase-based architecture of the grammar, a T3S domain is assumed to include everything inside a phase (XP), excluding material at the phase edge (the head X and Specifier). Unlike previous prosody based accounts of T3S domains, the phase based account does not require domain formation to satisfy two conditions, the immediate constituency and the syllable count, because they are automatically satisfied as each phase is built up and spelt out before T3S can apply. In order for the phase based analysis of T3S domains to work, however, the minimalist understanding of Mandarin syntactic structures is required. In other words, direct syntax-phonology mapping in T3S domain formation is possible only within the minimalist framework.

Index Terms: syntax-phonology mapping, phase, minimalist, tone sandhi, Mandarin