井井有条 (to be neat and tidy) we have a sequence of the third tones. Why is it pronounced as
jing2 jing2 you3 tiao2
and not
jing2 jing3 you3 tiao2
After all, the first half goes together, and the second half goes together.
How can we generalize the (3, 3) |-> (2, 3) tone change rule to words greater than two characters?
Could we have three or four tone changes in a line of characters?
Is the rule that if we have N third consecutive tones, then the first N-1 change to second tones?