中国学习者英语口语中重音落点特征研究

Accentuation in Chinese EFL Learners' Oral production

重音是主要的韵律特征之一,不同的重音落点会传递不同信息。可根据Halliday的语音及信息理论,以实验语音学为手段,研究中国英语学习者命题对话中的重音分布特征。研究语料取自中国英语学习者口语语料库—SECCL。研究揭示了学习者对话中重音分布的总体特征,并且发现重音落点和信息中心常发生错位,在无对比和强调的情况下,语法词如人称代词和介词被重读,携带旧信息的有标记调核比例较大等等,从而导致信息误传。

Accent is one of the essential prosodic features in English intonation,which can greatly influence the effectiveness of information transmission.The present study investigates characteristics of English major＇s accentuation in their conversations with the aid of speech analysis tools.It is found that many grammatical words in no contrasts are given accents,which reveals some of the characteristics of the Chinese EFL learners＇ oral production.Findings also show that the subjects tend to put more accents on personal pronouns,and had a high proportion of marked tonicities carrying given information.Incorrect accentuation may greatly affect the conveying of information.These findings of the research confirm the belief that the Chinese EFL learners have some problems in using accents to convey information.