Testing the Productivity of Chinese Tone Sandhi

测试汉语连读的效率

• 批准号: 0750773
• 负责人: Jie Zhang
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2013-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0750773&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Testing; Productivity; Chinese; Tone; Sandhi

The majority of the world's languages are tone languages. In Mandarin, for example, the syllable "ma" said with a high level pitch has a completely different meaning from the same syllable said with a high-to-low falling pitch ("mother" vs. "to scold"). The tone on a syllable sometimes changes according to the linguistic context in which it is found; this process is known as "tone sandhi." In Mandarin a mid-low-high dipping tone will change to a mid-high rising tone when it is placed immediately before another dipping tone. The patterns of tone sandhi in a language can be extremely intricate, and many mysteries remain unsolved as to how speakers internalize these patterns. This project investigates the extent to which native speakers of various Chinese dialects can apply tone sandhi patterns to novel words. The results will shed light on the nature of phonological knowledge, in particular, whether articulatory constraints, perceptual distinctiveness, and the lexical frequencies of tone sandhi patterns constitute part of the knowledge that speakers have about the tone system of their language. Due to the international nature of the research, the project also fosters collaborative relations between U.S. and Chinese institutions.

世界上大多数语言都是声调语言。例如，在普通话中，用高音调说的音节“妈”和用高到低的音调说的音节（“妈妈”和“妈妈”）的意思完全不同。“骂”)。一个音节的音调有时会根据它所处的语言环境而变化；这个过程被称为“变调”。在普通话中，当一个中低高的下沉音被置于另一个下沉音之前时，它就会变成中高的上升音。语言中的变调模式可能极其复杂，关于说话者如何内化这些模式，还有许多未解之谜。本项目调查了不同汉语方言的母语人士在多大程度上可以将变调模式应用于新语。研究结果将揭示语音知识的本质，特别是，发音限制、感知独特性和变调模式的词汇频率是否构成说话者对其语言声调系统的知识的一部分。由于研究的国际性质，该项目还促进了美国和中国机构之间的合作关系。