汉语节奏研究综述

A REVIEW OF CHINESE RHYTHM RESEARCH

本文系统梳理了汉语节奏研究的相关内容,并就汉语的节奏类型问题进行了探讨。所谓语言节奏,是指语言感知上的凸显性要素在时间序列上规律性出现的模式。文章首先围绕该概念的两个特征介绍了相关研究。(1)第一个特征是由凸显性要素构成的对比性特征。该方面研究以往主要包括基于轻重特征的研究、基于松紧(或停延)特征的研究和基于声调特征的研究。(2)第二个特征是凸显性要素在时间序列上的规律性模式。该方面以往主要包括节奏线性模型和层级模型等研究。另外,文章也介绍了语言节奏的计算模型,以及世界语言的节奏类型和区分特征。最后,文章还讨论了汉语的节奏特征问题,并就汉语节奏有无轻重对比特征(词重音)提出了新观点。该观点把轻重和声调两类特征结合起来,认为汉语普通话节奏存在以“声调有无”为基础的轻重对比特征,即汉语有调音节为重音,无调(轻声或轻读)音节为轻音。但是由于有调音节数量占优,所以汉语普通话最后体现出来的是音节计时型节奏。

This article systematically summarized the studies of Chinese rhythm and discussed the rhythm type of Chinese.The article first defined the concept of rhythm,which refers to the pattern of regular appearance of language salient elements in the time sequence.The concept contains two parts:the first part is the contrastive feature of the salient elements;the second part is the regularity of the salient elements in the time sequence,or the organizational pattern of the rhythmic units.The main body of the article presented the studies of these two parts,as well as rhythmic computational models and language rhythm types.In the introduction of studies related to the first part of the rhythm concept(contrastive features),studies based on stress feature,studies based on pausing&delaying features,and studies based on tone feature were introduced(see section 2).(1)Studies based on stress features are the mainstream of language rhythm research.Stress is the most important contrastive feature that forms the rhythm of English.However,it is still controversial whether Chinese has word stress except neutral tone(and lightly pronounced)syllables.This part focused on different views of Chinese word stress in phonological and phonetic studies,and also briefly introduced the concept of utterance stress.In addition,the acoustic features that influence the perception of stress were discussed,with the most important features being F0 and duration,followed by intensity.(2)Studies based on pausing and delaying features suggest that the core feature of Chinese rhythm is not stress but pausing and delaying feature.(3)Studies based on tone feature considered tone to be the fundamental feature of Chinese,and possibly the core feature of Chinese rhythm.Some studies connected“tonal/non-tonal”feature with“light/weight”features,which provided new idea for the study of Chinese rhythm.In the introduction of studies related to the second part(the regularity of the salient elements in the time sequence),the linear models and hierarchical models of rhythmic units were introduced,and some rhythm researches such as speech rate were also presented(see section 3).(1)In the section of linear models,foot,beat,and linear block model were introduced.(2)In the section of hierarchical models,some rhythmic hierarchical models of Chinese rhythm were introduced.These studies were mainly based on Selkirk's prosodic hierarchy theory,and some typical hierarchies were:syllable-foot/prosodic word-prosodic phrase-intonational phrase-utterance.(3)This part also introduced some studies of issues that were closely related to language rhythm,such as speech rate,pausing and delaying,pitch and duration characteristics of rhythmic units.Section 4 introduced computational models of linguistic rhythm,as well as variables such as PVI,ΔC,ΔV,%V,and rhythm formant.These tools were useful for the quantitative studies of rhythm and the study of language(or speech)rhythm types.Section 5 focused on the rhythmic types of different languages.Previous studies had classified the rhythmic types of world languages into three categories:stress-timed languages(e.g.,English),syllable-timed languages(e.g.,Chinese,French),and mora-timed languages(e.g.,Japanese).This part discussed some basic questions about rhythmic types,such as at what rhythmic level are linguistic rhythmic types formed?What is the main feature that distinguishes rhythmic types?Our view is that the prosodic level at which a language forms its rhythmic sense should be the lowest level at which some salient element could form a significant regularity.Light-heavy feature is the most important contrasting feature of language rhythm.Section 6 discussed the rhythmic type of Chinese.In the past,two views,one arguing that“Chinese is a syllable-timed language”and the other arguing that“Chinese has a light-weight dichotomy”seemed to be contradictory.The former implies that every syllable in Chinese is stressed,while the latter argues that there is a light-heavy opposition between Chinese syllables.In response to the“dilemma”of Chinese rhythm type,the paper proposed a compatible solution based on the principle of“maximum convention”,and its idea was that the core feature of Chinese rhythm is the stress feature based on“tonal/non-tonal”feature.In other words,tonal syllables are all heavy,and neutral tone(and lightly pronounced)syllables are light.This shows that the Chinese word stress is not related to the position feature,but to category feature of“tonal/non-tonal”.