COMPARISON OF THE ACOUSTIC FEATURES OF PROSODIC BOUNDARIES IN CHINESE FORMAL AND INFORMAL SPEECH

According to Register Grammar,prosody,as an aspect of grammar,is one way to realize different registers.This study explored the differences in the acoustic features of prosodic boundaries between Chinese formal and informal speech.Results suggested that:(1) Pauses occurred more frequently and lasted longer at prosodic boundaries in formal speech,best reflected at the Prosodic Clitic level and at the Prosodic Phrase level respectively.In formal speech,pauses at Prosodic Phrase boundaries lasted significantly longer than those at Prosodic Clitic boundaries,while this difference was not significant in informal speech.The distribution of pause duration displayed greater dispersion as the prosodic level increased.(2) In informal register,Prosodic Phrase boundaries performed higher degrees of pre-lengthening than Prosodic Clitic boundaries,while this difference was not significant in formal speech.Prosodic Clitic boundaries in formal and informal speech displayed pre-lengthening and postlengthening,respectively.(3) Pre-strengthening in the intensity of prosodic words at prosodic boundaries existed at all three levels in both registers,but it was probably a weak cue to discriminate the two registers.(4) Only slight pitch reset was found at Prosodic Clitic boundaries in formal speech and at Prosodic Phrase boundaries in informal speech.