普通话儿童语音习得的个案研究

The child acquisition of Putonghua phonology: A case study

提要本文是根据一个儿童从两岁到五岁期间的语音产出数据所作的个案描写和分析,包括该儿童语音发展的总体态势、语音系统的习得顺序以及习得过程中音位产出的错误类型,并讨论了影响该儿童语音习得进程的因素。语音发展的总体态势是,随着年龄的增长,语音产出逐步向目标语靠近:两岁到三岁问题最多,三岁到四岁进步最快,四岁到五岁趋于平稳,但是整个语音系统的习得到五岁时还没有完成。语音系统的习得顺序是:调位———元音音位———辅音音位。音位产出的错误类型有替换、同化、脱落、交叉、过渡等,其中替换又包含了塞音化、擦音化、前移、后移、非送气化、半元音化、边音化等类型。影响语音习得进程的因素是多方面的,语言形式的复杂程度、儿童认知能力的复杂程度以及儿童生理的发育程度都在其中起着重要的作用。这个研究结果为其他语言及普通话语音习得的其他个案研究提供了一个可比的对象,也是一个重要的补充,对于全面认识儿童语音习得的现象和规律具有重要意义。

This paper presents a case study on the child acquisition of Putonghua phonology. The subject is a child girl studied from ages 2 to 5. The paper gives a detailed description of the subject's phonological development as well as a discussion of what influences the acquisition process. The general trend of the subject's phonological development is that her phonological production is steadily approaching the target language as she grows older: She makes the most errors in ages 2 to 3, but the greatest progress from 3 to 4. Ages 4 to 5 witness a steady progress. The target phonological system is not yet acquired at five. The subject's acquisition sequence is tones-vowels-consonants, and the productive error patterns are assimilation, deletion, exchanging, transition, and substitution, which include stopping, friction, fronting, backing, de-aspiration, gliding, and liquidizing. It is held that multiple factors influence the acquisition process, among which the formal complexity of the target language, cognitive complexity of the child, and the coordination of the child's speech organs are of the most importance.