母语背景对二语学习者汉语轻声感知的影响研究

THE INFLUENCE OF NATIVE LANGUAGE BACKGROUND ON L2 LEARNERS'PERCEPTION OF CHINESE NEUTRAL TONE

本文以母语为泰语、日语和英语的汉语二语学习者为研究对象,考察了学习者母语背景对汉语轻声感知的影响。首先运用语音声学参数调整的方法制作了四类不同的刺激样本,然后通过词语感知实验分析了音高、音长在不同学习者感知汉语轻声时的作用。研究发现,母语背景不同的二语学习者都倾向于利用音长来感知汉语轻声。二语学习者对汉语轻声感知的难易程度会受到学习者母语背景的影响,对音高敏感度高的学习者更容易感知汉语的轻声。二语学习者感知汉语轻声时,音高对音长的影响也会受到学习者母语背景的制约,对音高变化越敏感的学习者,音高对音长判断的正面影响越大,反之,则会产生负面的干扰作用。

Based on a word identification experiment,this paper investigated the influence of pitch and duration on Chinese neutral tone perception by L2 learners whose native languages are Thai,Japanese and English.15 pairs of words with the same initial and final,but different meanings in neutral tone and non-neutral tone,were selected as experimental materials.Through parameter adjustment,four types of stimulus materials were produced by means of speech synthesis:original non-neutral tone stimulus,duration stimulus,pitch stimulus and neutral tone stimulus.The non-neutral tone stimulus is the original recording sample,the duration stimulus.was obtained by changing the duration of the original material,the pitch stimulus was obtained by changing the pitch of the original material,and the neutral tone stimulus was obtained by changing both the duration and pitch of the original material.Results showed that native Chinese speakers and L2 learners rely on different phonetic cues when perceiving Chinese neutral tone.Native speakers tend to perceive neutral tone through pitch,while L2 learners tend to perceive neutral tone through duration.For Chinese native speakers,pitch and duration play different roles in combinations with different tonality tonal similarity.The influence of duration in similar combinations is greater,and the influence of pitch in dissimilar combinations is greater.However,for L2 learners in both similar or dissimilar combinations,they are more sensitive to duration.As a result,the performance of native speakers and L2 learners is basically the same in similar combinations,but shows obvious differences in dissimilar combinations.The difference of native language background affects the L2 learner's perception of Chinese neutral tone.The native speakers of tonal languages are more likely to perceive neutral tone correctly,followed by the native speakers of lexical pitch-accent languages.The native speakers of stress languages have the greatest difficulty in perceiving neutral tone.The difference of native language background also affects the L2 learner's sensitivity of pitch in Chinese neutral tone perception.Learners whose native language is tonal language are more sensitive to pitch.When the pitch difference in the different combinations is relatively large,the native speakers of tonal language can detect the difference and use the pitch cue to perceive neutral tone.Learners whose native language is a pitch-accent language have a certain degree of sensitivity to pitch.When pitch and duration features go together,the learners can eliminate the interference of pitch and completely perceive the neutral tone through duration.Learners whose native language is a stress language are the least sensitive to pitch.When pitch and duration change at the same time,the two will conflict,and the change of pitch will interfere with learners'judgment of the duration,resulting in the greatest difficulty in perceiving neutral tone.