汉语普通话阴平调的听感范畴

The Perceptual Category of Tone1 in Mandarin Chinese

本文利用对角测试法得到阴平调的听感范畴:阴平跟阳平的分界在起点处,阴平跟去声的分界在终点处,阴平跟上声的分界是两个平调之间的整体区分。目标字的位置、参照字的声调以及音高下倾等因素都会对听觉范畴的边界分布产生规律性的影响。阴平调的听觉特征与它的声学表现有着对应一致的关系。

We conducted a systematic investigation of the perceptual category of Tonel （Yin-Ping, high level tone） in Mandarin Chinese using three series of tests. Using identification and discrimination tests, we conducted a thorough analysis of the boundary positions, boundary movements, peak positions and discrimination peaks of Tonel vs. Tone2, Tone1 vs Toneg, Tone1 vs. Tone3. In order to reflect actual language use conditions, disyllabic words were chosen as the phonetic stimuli for the experiments. In each pair of disyllabic words, the target syllables consist of the same initials and finals but have different tones. Syllables with identical initials, finals, and tones were also chosen to be reference syllables. The words are classified into initial syllable contrast groups and final syllable contrast groups based on the position of the target syllable in the disyllabic word. For example, shanl xil ＂the name of a province in China＂ versus shan3 xil ＂the name of a province in China＂ is called an initial syllable contrast group, the pair tianlxianl ＂goddess＂ versus tianl xian3 ＂natural barrier＂ is called a final contrast group. Using the diagonal test, we determined the perceptual categories of Tonel, which include the starting point, the boundary between Tonel and Tone2, the ending point, the boundary between Tonel and Tone4, and the boundary of the two level tones. Tonel and Tone3, spanning the entire space in-between. Comparing the first and second syllables inbisyllabic words, we found two kinds of co- existing categories, namely the static category （ pitch contour differences） and the dynamic category （pitch level differences）. Tonel, as a level tone, is distinguished from the rising tone-Tone2-at 74＋2% of the pitch level ceiling, and from the falling tone-Tone4-at 73%± 4%. Therefore, tones with different contours have static categories when they are divided by boundaries. Tonel and Tone3 are discriminated based on the pitch level boundaries of a high-level tone and a low level tone. The boundary of the initial syllable contrast group is at 69% of the pitch level ceiling, but the boundary of the final syllable contrast group is at 23%. Thus since the same-contoured tones Tonel and Tone3 are differentiated by their pitch levels, it becomes clear that they possess a dynamic boundary. In the end, we compared the perceptual boundaries of tonel with the tonel＇s acoustic space （ Shi and Wang 2006）. There is a strong correspondence between them, not only the scope, but also the extreme boundary. It suggests that the results of the acoustic experiments have very important reference value to the study on the auditory experiments.