The Control of Fundamental Frequency in Chinese Aphasics: Impaired or Intact Prosody

由漢語失語症病人的基頻表現看其音律掌控能力

薩文蕙(Wen-Hui Sah)

《Concentric： Studies in Linguistics》 30卷1期 (2004/06) Pp. 129-149

https://doi.org/10.6241/concentric.ling.200406_30(1).0007

摘要

臨床上依聽覺判斷，一般將維氏(Wernicke's)病人定位為音律表現完好，而將布氏(Broca's)病人歸為音律異常(dyprosody)。然音律(prosody)一辭包羅甚廣，舉凡基頻、字長、強度等聲學特性均在其範疇中。本研究以句首基頻效應(P1 effect)及句尾基頻下降現象(peak-to-valley F0 fall)為指標，檢驗以音律表現完好與否來區分布氏及維氏兩種病人的有效性。本研究實驗組有八名失語症病人。根據波士頓失語診斷測驗，布氏病人共四位，維氏病人共四位。控制組為四位健康的正常人。實驗者設計了四組長度不同的句子；每組八句，每句之關鍵字為同一聲調，八句平均使用國語中四個聲調。受試者須將實驗者所呈現的句子唸出，所有語料均錄音並進行聲學分析。最後，將分析結果加以統計考驗。實驗結果顯示，布氏病人的基頻表現並非全面性損壞，他們仍能掌控某些特性；而維氏病人未如一般預期能完好地處理基頻。是以，不同基頻特性的損壞彼此間是可分離的(dissociable)。此外，若僅以音律一詞來界定，而不釐清是以音律（甚至於基頻）的那些特性作區分，未免失之籠統，以致無法作出有效的失語症分類判斷。

關鍵字

基頻 ； 句首基頻效應 ； 句尾基頻下降 ； 失語症 ； 音律 ； 分離性的損壞

並列摘要

This study explores in what way the sentence-final peak-to-valley F0 fall and the P1 effect manifest themselves in Chinese aphasic speech and detects the extent to which aphasics exert control over fundamental frequency concerning different sentence lengths and tones. Four Broca's aphasics, four Wernicke's aphasics and four age-matched normal controls are tested. The results indicate that the terminal peak-to-valley F0 fall is a significant feature of intonation contour in both Chinese normal and aphasic speech. Regarding the P1 effect, Broca's aphasics are impaired in programming this prosodic feature, whereas Wernicke's patients remain intact in this ability. The information obtained here suggests that the impairments in different prosodic features are dissociable. Therefore, we need to reconsider the validity of the clinical view that differentiates Broca's from Wernicke's aphasics in terns of ”dysprosody” or ”normal prosody.”

並列關鍵字

fundamental frequency ； sentence-final peak-to-valley F0 fall ； the P1 effect ； aphasia ； prosody ； dissociable impairment

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