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An Experimental Study of Stress and Tone in Mandarin Chinese

Research Project

Project/Area Number 60450056
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Research Field 中国語・中国文学
Research InstitutionKanagawa University (1987)
The University of Kitakyushu (1985-1986)

Principal Investigator

NASU Kiyoshi  Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kanagawa University, 外国語学部, 教授 (90038381)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 王 徳新  北九州大学, 外国語学部, 教授
渡辺 茂彦  北九州大学, 外国語学部, 助教授
服部 昌之  北九州大学, 外国語学部, 教授
望月 八十吉  北九州大学, 外国語学部, 教授
Project Period (FY) 1985 – 1987
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 1988)
Budget Amount *help
¥5,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1987: ¥200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000)
Fiscal Year 1986: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 1985: ¥4,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,500,000)
KeywordsMandarin / Tone / Stress / 中国語 / 音調 / 強勢 / 実験
Research Abstract

i. Stress
(1) Mandarin Chinese has both stress accent and tone (pitch accent). "Qinsheng" is an unstressed syllable and has no proper tone and is usually short. One of the difficulties in describing Chinese prosody is how to treat "Qinsheng" in which pitch, stress, and length are all intermingled. The hitherto held views are roughly the following three: (i) it accompanies stress accent; (ii) it relates to both tone and stress accent; (iii) it is a kind of tone, hence Mandarin Chinese has five tone levels. In the 1950's another view based on an experimental study was advanced that the quality of "Qinsheng" lies not in stress but in length. Yet another theory has been put forward that, although "Qinsheng" is generally considered to be an enclytic syllable, there are some cases in which it is a proclitic syllable, which fact was confirmed by our experiment.
(2) Dissyllabic words usually have their second syllable stressed, but in some sentencesthe stress shifts to the first syllable. The phenomenon is conceivably not contrast-emphasis but rhythm stress.
ii. Tone and Intonation
(1) It is often pointed out that, of the four tones, Tone-2 and Tone-3 are similar, but in ordinary discourse the sound shape of the two tones is frequently reversed. Our experiment also shows that in ordinary discourse each of the four tones can be level tone, namely the same as tone-1.
(2) According to Professor Y. R. Chao, the relationship between tone and sentence intonation is represented by two methods: simultaneous addition and successive addition. Our experiment confirmed the former, but did not verify the latter. It remains to be explored how tone is influenced by intonation.

Report

(3 results)
  • 1988 Final Research Report Summary
  • 1987 Annual Research Report
  • 1986 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (5 results)

All Other

All Publications (5 results)

  • [Publications] 那須清: 現代中国語総合研究会会報. 第6号. 1-115 (1986)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Related Report
      1988 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Publications] 那須清: 北九州大学外国語学部紀要. 第60号. 61-80 (1987)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Related Report
      1988 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Publications] NASU,Kiyoshi: "A Bibliography of Chinese Phonetics" Bulletin of the Society of Joint Research on Modern Chinese. No.6. 1-115 (1986)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
    • Related Report
      1988 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Publications] NASU,Kiyoshi.: "Prosody in Standard Chinese: A Survey of Studies on Stress" Bulletin of the Faculty of Foreign Studies, Kitakyushu University. No.60. 61-70 (1987)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
    • Related Report
      1988 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Publications] 那須清: 北九州大学外国語学部紀要. 第60号. 61-80 (1987)

    • Related Report
      1986 Annual Research Report

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Published: 1987-03-31   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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