现代汉语英源外来词韵律特征的借用模式

Prosodic Adaptations in Chinese English-origin Loanword Phonology

英、汉两种语言在韵律层面具有不同的凸显特征,本文以汉语中的英源外来词为例,探讨英语轻重音与汉语声调的对应关系及韵律特征在词汇借用过程中的作用和表现。通过对语料的统计与分析发现,超音段借用尽量参照源语言的音高特征,为承载重音的音节指派高调,为非重读音节指派低调,但受汉语音段配置、用字、语义及汉语声调分布的影响,英语轻重音与汉语声调不具有一一对应的关系。重音-高调对应只是一种倾向,不具有语言学的显著意义。

English and Chinese differs in prosodic level,this paper investigates English-origin loanwords in Mandarin Chinese to see if there is any preference related with English stress when assigning a tone. The study shows a stressed syllable in the English donor word is tried to assign a high tone or a high rising tone whereas an unstressed syllable or epenthesis is always assigned a relatively low tone,however due to phonotactic con- straints,the choice of characters,semantic and distributions of tones,the stress-to-tone corre- spondence is just a tendency,which does not have a linguistic significance.