英語複合詞及片語重音研究：比較台灣高等英語學習者與以英語為母語的外國人

A Study of English Compound and Phrasal Stress: A Comparison between Taiwanese Advanced English Speakers and Native English Speakers

許立昭(Li-chao Hsu)

指導教授 ： 江文瑜

國立臺灣大學/文學院/語言學研究所/碩士(2009年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU.2009.02249

摘要

本研究的所探討的問題有三個，第一，比較英語複合詞及片語重音在聲學上的差異，尤其是在重音節(more prominent rhymes)上的比較；第二，比較台灣高等英語學習者在英語複合詞及片語重音上與以英語為母語的外國人有什麼聲學上的差異，此聲學上的差異又分為三大類：音高(F0)、音量(intensity)、音長(duration)，下又細分成14個參數；第三，我們也探討台灣高等英語學習者是否能在聲學特質展現區別複合詞與片語的現象。因為中文和英文有很不一樣的音調特色，如：中文是個偏向聲調的語言 (a tone language)，英文是個偏向重音和音調的語言 (a stress-and-intonation language)，中文的每個音節傾向於等長，然而英文是非重音節即弱化，因為這些差異，我們認為台灣英語學習者會有若干的語言困擾。
研究中共有51位台灣高等英語學習者與50位外國母語人士，男女幾乎均等，全部受試者個別接受實驗，念出30個句子，其中有20個句首隨機安插我們要觀察的10個複合詞和10個片語。聲譜圖用Praat切割後，跑統計ANOVA來依依檢視每個參數。
針對三個研究問題的發現有：(1) 由於複合詞與片語的主重音(more prominent rhymes)與非主重音(less prominent rhymes)的排列不同，造成兩種結構的聲學表現在音高、音量、音長上有顯著不一樣；(2)台灣高等英語學習者與外國母語人士在複合詞與片語的聲學表現有許多差異，首先，音高方面：台灣學生在複合詞與片語的音高範圍(F0 range)都和母語人士不同，複合詞的音高調準(F0 alignment)則是明顯比母語人士來得晚，其次，音長方面：台灣學生在複合詞的非重音節(less prominent rhymes)的長度及複合詞與片語的兩音節中間停頓都比母語人士長，至於音量上兩組在重音節(more prominent rhymes)沒有顯著差異 (3)台灣學生的口語表現無法明確區分出複合詞與片語兩種不同的重音模式。本研究除了指出台灣學生與母語人士的聲學上差異外，尤其台灣學生無法明顯弱化非重音節(less prominent rhymes)，也推測是母語為中文所造成的影響，對第二語言學習與教學有重大貢獻。

關鍵字

複合詞重音 ； 片語重音 ； 聲學特色 ； 第二語言韻律 ； 台灣學生

並列摘要

Extensive foreign accent studies have long recognized the crucial role of second language (L2) prosody to successfully convey linguistic and pragmatic meaning in exchanges with native speakers. However, much less work has been dedicated to the prosodic differences in fundamental frequency (F0), intensity, and duration between Taiwanese advanced English speakers (NNG) and native English speakers (NG). In order to bridge the gap, the present thesis (1) compares the acoustic features between compounds and phrases, (2) compares the acoustic correlates in English compound and phrasal stress between NNG and NG, and (3) examine if NNG can differentiate compounds from phrases. We hypothesize that Taiwanese advanced English speakers might encounter L1 interference as Mandarin Chinese and English belong to two different language systems, with the former being more like a syllable-timing and a tone language and the latter being more like a stress-timing and a stress-and-intonation language.
In the thesis, an experiment was conducted with the participation of 51 Taiwanese speakers and 50 native English speakers. Each participant was asked to speak 30 sentences in which the tested compounds or phases are imbedded in the initial position with the rest being exactly the same. The prosodic values were first extracted from the speech data by using Praat, and then mixed two-way ANOVA tests were carried out to identify the significant disparity between the two groups.
The major findings are as follows. (1) Compounds and phrases differ significantly in all F0, intensity, and duration parameters. (2) NNG’s performance differs significantly from NG’s in some F0 parameters, such as a different F0 range in both compounds and phrases and a later F0 alignment in compounds, and in some duration parameters, such as a longer duration for the less prominent rhymes in compounds and a longer pause duration in compounds and phrases. However, NNG resembles NG in most intensity parameters. (3) NNG does not demonstrate distinct acoustic correlates to differentiate compounds from phrases. Observing from the results, we stipulate Taiwanese speakers have not mastered English prosodic characteristics and are interfered by L1. We assume the concept of prominence is not emphasized in Mandarin Chinese, and thus NNG is weaker at manipulating the less prominent rhymes. The thesis underlines the impact of L1 interference and further suggests pedagogical implications of highlighting the placement of primary stress and appropriate F0, intensity, and duration values for less prominent rhymes in English.

並列關鍵字

compound stress ； phrasal stress ； acoustic features ； second language prosody ； Taiwanese speakers

參考文獻

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