Due to the interaction between lexical tones and intonation in Chinese speech melody, the contour patterns of Chinese IPs （intonational phrases） have long been an intriguing yet complicated subject. Within the AM （...Due to the interaction between lexical tones and intonation in Chinese speech melody, the contour patterns of Chinese IPs （intonational phrases） have long been an intriguing yet complicated subject. Within the AM （Autosegmental-Metrical） framework, this paper makes an empirical study on the subject based on a small-scale database of 22 standard Chinese news stories. A five-degree D value system is proposed for data normalization so that various contour patterns of IPs can be identified and compared despite complications in pitch register and pitch range. The major findings are： Chinese IPs mainly comprise 2, 3, or 4 ips （intermediate phrases）. And the contour patterns of Chinese IPs suggest that the statement intonation in Chinese is primarily indicated by the near-bottom Dmin value of the last ip. Meanwhile, when the primary indicator is not typical, the falling trend of the last part of the top-line can serve as a compensatory perceptual clue.展开更多
The Cuban people are made up of three major migratory currents, the Chinese are one of them. They brought their culture, the methods, and procedures of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the 19th century. Few were a...The Cuban people are made up of three major migratory currents, the Chinese are one of them. They brought their culture, the methods, and procedures of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the 19th century. Few were able to return and so they created families in Cuba;some of their descendants dedicated themselves to medicine. In order to investigate the practices that were predecessors of TCM in Cuba in the 19th century, a qualitative phenomenological research was carried out, reviewing what was published by various sources, applying documentary analysis, logical historical analysis, abstraction, synthesis, and systematization of the results on the regularities of the work and human behavior of Chinese doctors in the Cuban 19th and 20th centuries. This made it possible to identify six Chinese doctors in the 19th century in Cuba who gave rise to the beginning of some practices of TCM in Cuba, and five from the 20th century, descendants of coolies who dedicated themselves to other specialties of medicine. It was found that despite their geographical and time disperse, they were all notorious for their outstanding professional and human behavior, with a trail of accumulated successes in achieving “almost the impossible” with the patient. They have left their mark on Cuban culture.展开更多
The use of Chinese 4character phrasesis dealt with. The possible ways of the use of Chinese 4character phrases are offered and some of the factors to be considered have been pointed out.
In this column we introduce phrases frequently used in the Chinese media and by the Chinese government, thereby providing a succinct overview of China’s political thinking, its policies, and ongoing reforms and trans...In this column we introduce phrases frequently used in the Chinese media and by the Chinese government, thereby providing a succinct overview of China’s political thinking, its policies, and ongoing reforms and transitions.展开更多
Previous studies on idiom comprehension of patients with aphasia(PWAs)mainly focused on Indo-European speakers,examining whether PWAs could correctly extract the target meaning of idioms,while among Chinese PWAs,idiom...Previous studies on idiom comprehension of patients with aphasia(PWAs)mainly focused on Indo-European speakers,examining whether PWAs could correctly extract the target meaning of idioms,while among Chinese PWAs,idiom familiarity,context and other variables affecting idiom comprehension were rarely studied.Hence,this study aims to explore whether Chinese PWAs can correctly comprehend the target meaning of idioms,and further investigate the role of familiarity and context.For three Chinese PWAs,this study adopted the string-to-word matching task,taking Chinese four-character idioms as the experimental stimuli,and provided decoy words containing target meaning,literal meaning,unrelated abstract meaning and unrelated concrete meaning as the matching words of idiom items by manipulating the familiarity and contextual presence of idiom items.The results suggested that the PWAs could not correctly extract the target meaning of idioms and presented both the literal meaning tendency and the weak abstract meaning tendency,and the influence of familiarity on the comprehension of idioms was stronger than that of context.These results support the Graded Salience Hypothesis.展开更多
This study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task （CT） on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure （SPS） by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language ...This study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task （CT） on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure （SPS） by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language （CSL）. Two groups of participants were formed： a continuation group and a reading comprehension group. The former was required to continue in Chinese a text with its ending removed, while the latter needed to complete the Q＆A questions after reading the same text. The effect of the tasks was measured by examining the CSL learners＇ correct use of the Chinese SPS in three aspects -- the circum-construction, the use of prepositions and the use of the locative. The study found that the continuation group made significant improvement from the pretest to the posttests while the reading comprehension group did not. Moreover, the continuation group outperformed the reading comprehension group significantly in the posttests, though there was no significant difference between them in the pretest. The results showed that CT can facilitate CSL learners＇ acquisition of the Chinese SPS, with a better effect than the reading comprehension task.展开更多
Monkey language models are defined for Chi-nese Phrase Networks, and scale-free features of Chinese Phrase Networks are uncovered. It is pointed out that the ratio of average degree to the total number of nodes ( k /N...Monkey language models are defined for Chi-nese Phrase Networks, and scale-free features of Chinese Phrase Networks are uncovered. It is pointed out that the ratio of average degree to the total number of nodes ( k /N ) is close to a constant. Simulation for the evolution of phrase networks indicates that one of the important reasons for power law distributions is the word selection frequency, which, when tuned aptly, can make the monkey language present similar statistic traits as that of natural languages. Power law tails emerge at large k, and the exponent is about 6. Comparison between monkey model and natural language shows that humans are able to use Chinese words resources in more effective and compact ways to express their inten-tions. All the results demonstrate an important fact that the least effort principle is the basis of Chinese Phrase Networks.展开更多
文摘Due to the interaction between lexical tones and intonation in Chinese speech melody, the contour patterns of Chinese IPs （intonational phrases） have long been an intriguing yet complicated subject. Within the AM （Autosegmental-Metrical） framework, this paper makes an empirical study on the subject based on a small-scale database of 22 standard Chinese news stories. A five-degree D value system is proposed for data normalization so that various contour patterns of IPs can be identified and compared despite complications in pitch register and pitch range. The major findings are： Chinese IPs mainly comprise 2, 3, or 4 ips （intermediate phrases）. And the contour patterns of Chinese IPs suggest that the statement intonation in Chinese is primarily indicated by the near-bottom Dmin value of the last ip. Meanwhile, when the primary indicator is not typical, the falling trend of the last part of the top-line can serve as a compensatory perceptual clue.
文摘The Cuban people are made up of three major migratory currents, the Chinese are one of them. They brought their culture, the methods, and procedures of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in the 19th century. Few were able to return and so they created families in Cuba;some of their descendants dedicated themselves to medicine. In order to investigate the practices that were predecessors of TCM in Cuba in the 19th century, a qualitative phenomenological research was carried out, reviewing what was published by various sources, applying documentary analysis, logical historical analysis, abstraction, synthesis, and systematization of the results on the regularities of the work and human behavior of Chinese doctors in the Cuban 19th and 20th centuries. This made it possible to identify six Chinese doctors in the 19th century in Cuba who gave rise to the beginning of some practices of TCM in Cuba, and five from the 20th century, descendants of coolies who dedicated themselves to other specialties of medicine. It was found that despite their geographical and time disperse, they were all notorious for their outstanding professional and human behavior, with a trail of accumulated successes in achieving “almost the impossible” with the patient. They have left their mark on Cuban culture.
文摘The use of Chinese 4character phrasesis dealt with. The possible ways of the use of Chinese 4character phrases are offered and some of the factors to be considered have been pointed out.
文摘In this column we introduce phrases frequently used in the Chinese media and by the Chinese government, thereby providing a succinct overview of China’s political thinking, its policies, and ongoing reforms and transitions.
文摘Previous studies on idiom comprehension of patients with aphasia(PWAs)mainly focused on Indo-European speakers,examining whether PWAs could correctly extract the target meaning of idioms,while among Chinese PWAs,idiom familiarity,context and other variables affecting idiom comprehension were rarely studied.Hence,this study aims to explore whether Chinese PWAs can correctly comprehend the target meaning of idioms,and further investigate the role of familiarity and context.For three Chinese PWAs,this study adopted the string-to-word matching task,taking Chinese four-character idioms as the experimental stimuli,and provided decoy words containing target meaning,literal meaning,unrelated abstract meaning and unrelated concrete meaning as the matching words of idiom items by manipulating the familiarity and contextual presence of idiom items.The results suggested that the PWAs could not correctly extract the target meaning of idioms and presented both the literal meaning tendency and the weak abstract meaning tendency,and the influence of familiarity on the comprehension of idioms was stronger than that of context.These results support the Graded Salience Hypothesis.
基金supported by a grant from the China National Social Science Foundation (14CYY018)~~
文摘This study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task （CT） on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure （SPS） by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language （CSL）. Two groups of participants were formed： a continuation group and a reading comprehension group. The former was required to continue in Chinese a text with its ending removed, while the latter needed to complete the Q＆A questions after reading the same text. The effect of the tasks was measured by examining the CSL learners＇ correct use of the Chinese SPS in three aspects -- the circum-construction, the use of prepositions and the use of the locative. The study found that the continuation group made significant improvement from the pretest to the posttests while the reading comprehension group did not. Moreover, the continuation group outperformed the reading comprehension group significantly in the posttests, though there was no significant difference between them in the pretest. The results showed that CT can facilitate CSL learners＇ acquisition of the Chinese SPS, with a better effect than the reading comprehension task.
文摘Monkey language models are defined for Chi-nese Phrase Networks, and scale-free features of Chinese Phrase Networks are uncovered. It is pointed out that the ratio of average degree to the total number of nodes ( k /N ) is close to a constant. Simulation for the evolution of phrase networks indicates that one of the important reasons for power law distributions is the word selection frequency, which, when tuned aptly, can make the monkey language present similar statistic traits as that of natural languages. Power law tails emerge at large k, and the exponent is about 6. Comparison between monkey model and natural language shows that humans are able to use Chinese words resources in more effective and compact ways to express their inten-tions. All the results demonstrate an important fact that the least effort principle is the basis of Chinese Phrase Networks.
