调位感知界限再探——普通话阴平和去声的感知实验

Perceiving the Boundary Between Mandarin Tone 1 and Tone 4

本文对普通话存在连续现象的两个调位,即阴平和去声进行了感知实验,结果发现,普通话阴平和去声调位之间虽然在基频参量上表现出类别感知界限,但一些内在、外在因素会同时影响到感知边界的位移。与普通话阴平与阳平感知实验结果比较更揭示了汉语升调和降调感知的不平衡性。对不同声调调型感知特性的认识有助于我们观察和探索声调的共时和历时变化现象。

A perception experiment was conducted on Mandarin tone 1 and tone 4 which share continuous ending frequencies. The result shows a categorical perceptual mode, though certain intrinsic and extrinsic factors are found to affect the perceptual boundary at the same time. A comparison between the result from this experiment and that from an earlier one by Chan et a1（1975） which focused on Mandarin tone 1 and tone 2 further reveals the asymme try in perceiving a rising contour tone and a failing contour tone. Awareness of the tonal per ceptual mechanisms and the properties will be beneficial in future investigations of certain synchronic phenomena of tonal variations and historical rules of tone change.