婴儿呀呀语偏向目标语之音高研究

论文摘要

此项研究以跟踪调查研究实验语音数据对两名长沙儿童的早期音高发展进行量化分析对比,从三个方面分析了儿童早期音高发展规律,从而探讨了儿童前语言阶段的音高是否表现出相应的成人语言的声调特征。具体的三个方面是:1.对婴儿从八个月到一岁三个月的音高特征分析;2.对前语言阶段和前语言阶段与语言阶段交叠的两个时期的音高特征的对比分析;3.对呀呀语和早期词汇音高特征的对比分析。 研究对象包括两名长沙儿童:一名男性儿童LSY和一名女性儿童AJR。前者在湘语和普通话的语言环境中成长;后者生活在湘语、普通话和些许英语的语言环境中.前者的语料截取从8个月到工岁3个月的10个小时的录音材料,包括1848个音段,可分析的音节数是2484个。AJR的语料截取从9个月到1岁3个月的15个小时的录音材料,包括2407个音段,其中可分析的音节数是6143个. 本研究运用软件Praat对每一音节上的音高进行语音分析,对基频曲线从起始点到终点平均取11点。对每一个录音段的所有基频取样点进行归一化,生成Lz-score图。Lz-score图的纵轴平均分成五份,然后转成相应的五度值。此方法参照了Shi（1990）和Zhu（2004）的方法。 结果表明:1,包括呀呀语和早期词汇在内的音高特征均避免低音高和复杂曲折音高;2,前语言阶段和前语言阶段与语言阶段交叠的两个时期的音高特征呈现一致的规律;3,呀呀语和早期词汇的音高特征表现统一的规律。 本研究的研究结论为:LSY和AJR两名长沙儿童呈现的呀呀语音高区别特征（包括呀呀语和早期词汇）表明,在声调语言环境下前语言阶段的音高发展,有着普遍的共同趋势。两名长沙儿童的前语言阶段和前语言阶段与语言阶段交叠的两个时期的音高特征呈现一致的规律和呀呀语和早期词汇的音高特征表现统一的规律表明呀呀语和早期词汇是紧密相连的。Lee,Lee and Chen（2005）为了比较香港儿童和长沙儿童的相对音高值,对每一录音段的平音高,升音高的起止点和降音高的起止点的均值取平均值,结果表明香港儿童的相对音高值低于长沙儿童。与Lee,Lee and Chen（2005）的结论相比,本研究的结果表明两名长沙儿童的相对音高值是一致的。这一现象可归因于两名儿童的共同生活的语言环境的影响。在声调语言环境下的两名长沙儿童的前语言阶段的这些音高发展规律,共同体现了音高发展的普遍趋势和相应环境中的早期词汇的音高语音特点。儿童前语言阶段的音高特征规律的探讨揭示了儿童声调获得的机制。指出了普遍语法的存在和环境输入对声调获得的影响。

论文目录

• 摘要
• ABSTRACT
• Index to Figures
• Index to Tables
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Literature Review
• 2.1 Previous Studies on Infant Acquisition of Native Language at the Pre-linguistic Stage and the Linguistic Stage
• 2.1.1 Discontinuity Model
• 2.1.2 Continuity Model
• 2.1.2.1 Evidence for Continuity from Segmental Production in Infants
• 2.1.2.2 Evidence in Support of Continuity from Infant Pitch Perception
• 2.1.2.3 The Production of Tone in Early Language Development
• 2.1.2.4 The Production of Pitch Contours at the Babbling Stage
• 2.2 Aims of the Present Research
• Chapter 3 Methodology
• 3.1 Data
• 3.1.1 Subjects
• 3.1.2 Recording Procedure and Data Collection
• 3.1.3 Data Extraction, Transcription and Analysis
• 3.1.4 The Criteria for CV Segmentation
• 3.2 The Conversion of FO to Relative Pitch Level
• 3.2.1 The Reason for Using the Lz-score instead of z-score
• 3.2.2 Lz-score Calculation and Pitch Curves based on the Praat Script
• 3.2.3 The Effect of Lz-score Processing
• 3.2.4 Conversion
• 3.3 Lz-score Praat Script Validity on Adult Testing
• Chapter 4 Results
• 4.1 Analysis of Pitch Contours of the Word and Babble Vocalizations in Two Changsha Infants: LSY and AJR
• 4.1.1 Phonetic Characteristics of Infant Pitch Contours
• 4.1.2 Comparison of Level and Non-level Pitch Contours
• 4.1.3 Comparison of Minimum FO, Maximum FO, Mean Value and Standard Deviation of Pitch Contours
• 4.1.4 Comparison of Mean Pitch Level, Mean Beginning Level of Falling and Rising Contours and Mean Terminal Level of Falling and Rising Contours
• 4.1.5 The Slope of Rising and Falling Pitch Contours
• 4.2 Pitch Contour Types at the Babbling Stage and the Babbling—Words Stage
• 4.2.1 The Criteria for Word
• 4.2.2 Pitch Contour Types
• 4.3 The Pitch Contours in Babbling and Early Words
• 4.3.1 The Phonetic Characteristics of Babbling and Early Words
• 4.3.2 Percentage of Various Pitch Contours in Babbling and Words
• 4.4 Summary
• Chapter 5 Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgements
• 附录A 攻读学位期间所发表的学术论文目录
• 附录B Tables
• 附录C Partial Lz-score Praat Script
• 附录D 详细中文摘要