閩南語幼兒塞擦音習得研究

The Production of Affricates by a Taiwanese-Acquiring Child

袁家敏(Chia-Min Yuan)

指導教授 ： 蔡素娟

國立中正大學/文學院/語言學研究所/碩士(2015年)

摘要

本論文是兒童學習閩南語塞擦音的長期性個案研究。為了客觀的呈現該幼兒的塞擦音習得狀況，本研究採用聲學方式測量幼兒的塞擦音，進而了解該幼兒的塞擦音習得是否受到標記性假說(markedness hypothesis)或詞頻效應(lexical frequency effect)的影響。
標記性假說是指對於那些標記性較低的(unmarked)語音，幼兒學習得較早；而對於那些標記性較高的(marked)語音，幼兒學習得較晚。然而，有些文獻發現詞頻也會影響幼兒的語言習得，幼兒習得高出現頻率的語音較早，習得低出現頻率的語音較晚。
本論文的語料取自於國立中正大學的台灣閩南語兒童語料庫(Tsay, 2007/ 2014)，本研究從中挑選了一名幼兒的閩南語口語語料。語料採樣分別是在該幼兒的年齡：兩歲一個月到兩歲兩個月(第一時期)、兩歲八個月到兩歲九個月(第二時期)、三歲三個月到三歲四個月(第三時期)。
塞擦音的聲學特徵有三種：摩擦噪音時長(frication duration)、噪音強度變化時間(amplitude rise time)、靜默時長(silence duration)。本研究測量塞擦音的聲學特徵，以成人語料的測量結果作為比較的基準，並以統計分析幼兒與成人的塞擦音數值是否達到統計上的顯著性，從而客觀地得知該幼兒的塞擦音發音是否達到成人塞擦音的發音基準。
關於標記性假說，本研究發現在此幼兒的塞擦音習得中，較低標記性的(unmarked)硬顎塞擦音(palatal affricates)發得比較高標記性的(marked)齒齦塞擦音(alveolar affricates)正確，此外，較低標記性的(unmarked)送氣硬顎塞擦音(aspirated palatal affricates)發得比較高標記性的(marked)不送氣硬顎塞擦音(unaspirated palatal affricates)正確。本研究的結果與標記性假說符合，因為較低標記性的語音習得得比較高標記性的語音要好。
關於詞頻的影響，本研究發現塞擦音出現頻率(affricate occurring frequency)與幼兒的塞擦音發音正確率的相關性，沒有達到統計上的顯著性，因此，此幼兒的塞擦音習得沒有受到詞頻的影響。
關於幼兒的塞擦音習得的長期發展，本研究發現此幼兒的塞擦音習得狀況會隨著年齡而有所變化，例如，送氣硬顎塞擦音/tɕh/的發音都是最正確、最穩定的；不送氣硬顎塞擦音/tɕ/的發音正確率次之，且隨著年齡有所進步；送氣齒齦塞擦音/tsh/的正確率在第一及第三時期都是最低的；不送氣齒齦塞擦音/ts/的正確率在第二時期比/tsh/低，在第三時期有進步。除此之外，本研究亦發現此幼兒對於塞擦音的摩擦噪音部份(fricative portion)，掌握的比塞擦音的靜默部份(silent portion)還要好。
整體而言，本論文的研究結果與標記性假說(markedness hypothesis)ㄧ致，不過並沒有受到詞頻(lexical frequency effect)的影響。此外，研究結果發現這位以閩南語為母語的幼兒，習得硬顎塞擦音(palatal affricates)比習得齒齦塞擦音(alveolar affricates)要來得早，並且習得送氣硬顎塞擦音(aspirated palatal affricates)比不送氣硬顎塞擦音(unaspirated palatal affricates)要來得正確。

關鍵字

噪音強度變化時間 ； 摩擦噪音時長 ； 聲學測量 ； 閩南語 ； 塞擦音 ； 兒童語言習得 ； 靜默時長 ； 標記性假說 ； 詞頻效應

並列摘要

This thesis is a longitudinal study on the acquisition of Taiwanese affricates. The goal of this study is to test the markedness hypothesis and the lexical frequency effect hypothesis. Taiwanese affricates produced by a Taiwanese-acquiring child were investigated to test the hypotheses. The accuracy of the child’s production was based on acoustic measurements.
Markedness (Jakobson, 1968) has been an essential issue in language acquisition, with the tendency that the less marked segments would be acquired earlier than the more marked segments. Lexical frequency also plays a role in language acquisition (e.g., Edwards and Beckman, 2008). Some studies have shown that language acquisition follows the prediction of markedness, while other studies argue that lexical frequency affects language acquisition. The goal of this acoustic study is to use the acquisition of affricates of a Taiwanese child to test the above two hypotheses.
The speech data of a child’s affricates used in this study were taken from the Taiwanese Child Language Corpus (Tsay, 2007, 2014). Taiwanese is Southern Min Chinese spoken in Taiwan. It has four affricates, i.e., unaspirated alveolar /ts/, aspirated alveolar /tsh/, unaspirated palatal /tɕ/, and aspirated palatal /tɕh/. The corpus speech data of a child in three periods (2;1-2;2), (2;8-2;9) and (3;3-3;4) were analyzed. Three acoustic correlates of the child’s affricates, i.e., frication duration, amplitude rise time, and silence duration, were measured. The acoustic measurement of child’s production were compared with that of the adults.
The results of this study support the markedness hypothesis. We found that the less marked palatal affricates /tɕ/ and /tɕh/ were more accurate than the more marked alveolar affricates /ts/ and /tsh/, and that the less marked aspirated /tɕh/ were more accurate than the more marked unaspirated /tɕ/. Therefore, the acquisition of palatal affricates /tɕ/ and /tɕh/ preceded that of the alveolar affricates /ts/ and /tsh/, and the acquisition of the aspirated /tɕh/ was earlier than the unaspirated /tɕ/.
Regarding lexical frequency effect hypothesis, affricate occurring frequency was not significantly correlated with the overall production accuracies of the child. Consequently, our findings do not support the lexical frequency effect hypothesis.
In the aspect of longitudinal development, we found that the aspirated palatal /tɕh/ consistently had the highest accuracy from Period I to Period III. The unaspirated palatal /tɕ/ was lower in accuracy than the aspirated palatal /tɕh/ across all three periods. The aspirated alveolar /tsh/ had the lowest accuracy in Period I and III. The unaspirated alveolar /ts/ was lower in accuracy than the aspirated alveolar /tsh/ in Period II. Besides, the child had a better control in the fricative portion of the affricates than in the silent portion of the affricates.
In conclusion, the markedness hypothesis was supported, but the lexical effect hypothesis was not supported by the results of this study. Also, our findings suggest that the Taiwanese-acquiring child acquired palatal affricates earlier than alveolar affricates, and that the aspirated palatal affricate was acquired earlier than the unaspirated palatal affricate.

並列關鍵字

amplitude rise time ； frication duration ； acoustic measurements ； Taiwanese ； affricates ； child language acquisition ； silence duration ； markedness ； lexical frequency

參考文獻

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