从节律到韵律——三种生成音系学理论评介

From Rhythm to Prosody:A Review of Three Generative Phonology Theories

节律音系学、韵律构词学和韵律音系学是当代生成音系学的三门重要子学科,是生成音系学发展到非线性阶段的杰出代表。“节律音系学”主要探讨以重音为基础建立的自然语言节奏,研究重音在词、复合词、短语和句子中的分布规律。“韵律构词学”是涉及音系学和形态学的交叉学科,主要研究形态构词操作中韵律所起的作用。“韵律音系学”是音系学和句法学、语用学的交叉学科,它的主要研究任务是:设计一套完整的韵律阶层,其中包含从摩拉、音节、音步到音系短语和话语等各级单位,而每级单位作为调试音系和句法交叉关系的重要工具,被用来定义音系规则的作用域。本文结合相关研究的经典案例,详细介绍了这三门学科的研究目标、研究方法、理论假设和重要代表论著,并厘清了其中的一些重要概念,包括重音、音步、韵律词、音系短语和音节重量,等等。在最后的总结中,我们列表展现了这三门学科之间的异同之处。

Metrical Phonology,Prosodic Morphology and Prosodic Phonology are three important sub-disciplines of Generative Phonology.Together they signify a major advancement from SPE to Non-linear Phonology.Metrical Phonology mainly explores natural language rhythm based on stress,and studies the distribution of stress in words,compounds,phrases and sentences.Prosodic Morphology concerns how phonology and morphology interact,in particular the roles prosody plays in various morphological operations.Prosodic Phonology establishes an interface between phonology,syntax,and pragmatics.Its aims to build up a prosodic hierarchy,which includes units from morae,syllables,feet,phonological phrases to Utterances.Units on each layer are important devices one can use to examine the interrelationship between phonology and syntax,and to determine phonological alternation rules.By discussing some classical case studies,this paper introduces in detail the research objectives,research methods,theoretical hypothesis and representative works of these three theories;and it clarifies some important concepts,including stress,foot,prosodic word,phonological phrase and syllabic weight,etc.Toward the end,a table is provided to illustrate the similarities and differences among these three theories.