Intonation Patterns of Yes-No Questions for Chinese EFL learners

摘要：

The present study investigates Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ intonation pattern of yes-no questions on the basis of AM theory. According to our study, American speakers adopt a low-level (L*) or low rising tone (L*H) on nuclear accents no matter the nuclear accent is on the medial or final part of a sentence. By contrast, Chinese EFL learners apply a high-level (H*) or falling (H*L) tone when a nuclear accent falls on the medial part of a sentence but a falling (H*L) or low rising tone (L*H) when it is on the final part. The final boundary tone of Chinese EFL learners can be either high (H%) or low (L%) while American speakers mainly apply the H% boundary tone. Besides, Chinese EFL learners’ pitch movements of nuclear accents in yes-no questions are similar to those of statements.

作者: JI Xiaoli WANG Xia LI Aijun

作者单位: Zhejiang University andInstitute of Linguistics, CASS Institute of Linguistics, CASS and Nokia Research Center, Beijing Institute of Linguistics, CASS

会议类型: 国际会议

会议名称: 2009 Oriental COCOSDA International Conference on Speech Database and Assessments(2009 国际语音交互标准数据评估技术大会)

会议地点: 北京

会议语种:英文

页码: 88-93

在线出版日期: 2009-08-10（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）