汉语语句重音的分类和分布的初步实验研究

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SENTENCE STRESS IN MANDARIN

通过两个独立进行的重音标注实验对汉语语句重音的分类和分布进行了初步探讨。实验 1是由 6 0位普通被试参加的音节重音突显度的知觉实验。实验 2是由本文三位作者参加的重音类别标注实验 ,在此实验中语句重音被划分为节奏重音和语义重音。实验 2中对于语句重音的分类性标注结果得到了实验 1中普通被试对音节重音突显度知觉结果的支持 ,这说明人们确实能够感知到两种不同类型的重音。实验结果还表明 ,节奏重音倾向于出现在较大韵律单元内的最末韵律词的末音节上 ,并且与适当的停延相伴生 。

This paper introduces two independent experiments in which perceptual prominent degree (in Exp. 1) and stress type (in Exp. 2) of syllables were labeled, respectively, in a speech corpus containing 300 utterances. In Exp. 1, 60 subjects, who had no linguistic background, were divided into three groups to label the stressed prosodic units they heard, i.e. compound prosodic words in sentences, prosodic words in compound words and syllables in prosodic words. Perceptual prominent degrees of syllables were then calculated from the results. The three authors of this paper, who are phoneticians, participated in Exp. 2, in which sentence stresses were classified into semantic stress and rhythmic stress. The perceptual prominent degree obtained in Exp. 1 provides convincing evidence for the classification of sentence stress in Exp. 2. That is to say the difference between the two stress types is perceptible by Mandarin native speakers. The final results show that (1) all stressed syllables are much more prominent than unstressed ones; (2) semantic stress is more prominent than rhythmic stress; (3) when a syllable obtained a sentence stress, it has the tendency to enhance the prominent degree of the unstressed syllable followed it, however, the difference between the prominent degree of the stressed syllable and the unstressed one is enlarged; (4) rhythmic stress tends to be allocated to the last syllable of the last prosodic word (or foot) in a semantic unit, while the location of semantic stress cannot be predicted from the prosodic structure of a sentence.