英汉让步状语从句的韵律特征对比研究

Comparative Study of Prosodic Features of Adverbial Clauses of Concession in English and Chinese

英汉语言韵律结构存在差异性,这种差异性势必会影响二语习得者的英语习得,所以有必要对两种语言的韵律特点进行对比研究。基于3T韵律理论对英汉让步状语从句的韵律结构进行全面对比分析可发现:就调群切分而言,英语让步状语从句以末音节延长和停顿为主要调群切分指征,而汉语让步状语从句则以停顿为主要调群边界指征,且停顿时长远大于英语中的停顿时长;就调核实现而言,英汉让步状语从句中的调核往往出现在调群最后一个实义词上;就节奏而言,变量%V和△C1的分布情况很好地说明了英语重音节拍的特征和汉语音节节拍的特征;就语调而言,英汉语调短语都呈现出逐渐下倾的语调走势,且核调和语调在多数情况下都呈现降调,英语的边界调随从句出现在句首、句中和句尾的不同位置而变化,而汉语边界调则始终保持降调。

English differs from Chinese in the prosodic patterns,which certainly will influence EFL learners’acquisition of English prosody,thus it is necessary to compare the prosodic features of the two languages.Based on 3Ts Theory,this paper conducted a comprehensive study to compare the prosodic features of adverbial clauses of concession in English and Chinese.The results shows that, for tonality,syllable lengthening and pause are the main boundary markers in English concessions while pause is the most frequently used indicators in Chinese concessions,and the duration of pause in Chinese is much longer than that in English.For tonicity,concessions in both English and Chinese tend to set the nucleus at the last content word in an intonation phrase.For rhythm,the distribution of %V and △C illustrates the stress timed language of English and syllable timed language of Chi-nese well.For tone,both English and Chinese concessions show a declination of the overall pitch con-tour,and the nuclear tones in the two languages tend to be falling for most cases.Boundary tones of English concessions vary when the subordinate clause is sentence initial or sentence middle posi-tions,and sentence final,while the boundary tones of Chinese concessions keeps unchanging for most cases.