TONE LANGUAGE SPEAKERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH INTONATION 英语专业毕业论文

《TONE LANGUAGE SPEAKERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH INTONATION 英语专业毕业论文》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。

1、TONELANGUAGESPEAKERS’ACQUISITIONOFENGLISHINTONATION1.IntroductionWhiletheEnglishpronunciationofsecondlanguage(henceforthL2)learnersisamajorareaofresearchinterest,theacquisitionofEnglishintonationhasnotbeenconsideredtoagreatextent.Thepreviousstudiesinthisareatendedtofocusonintonationlanguagespeakers

2、acquiringotherintonationlanguagesoronlyonproduction.Thosestudiesmainlyfoundobviousinfluencefromthelearner’sfirstlanguage(henceforthL1).Therearesurprisinglyfewstudiesconcerningtonelanguagespeakers’acquisitionofEnglishintonation.Therefore,thisstudywillaimtopresenttonelanguagespeakers’competenceinEngl

3、ishintonation,basedondatafromMandarinEnglishspeakers’andCantoneseEnglishspeakers’perceptionandcomprehensionofEnglishintonation.Everylanguagehasitsownintonationsystem;certaincorrelationsexistbetweenintonationpatternswithspecialmeanings.ResearchtellsusthatthedifficultiesinthelearningofL2intonationpat

4、ternsareoftenduetothenon-equivalenceoftheintonationstructureofthelearners’L1andtheL2structure(e.g.Cruz-Ferreira,1983).MandarinandCantonesearetonelanguagesandEnglishisanintonationlanguage,anddifferentuseismadeoftheacousticcomponentsoftoneandintonationinthesethreelanguages.Thispaperisorganizedasfollo

5、ws.Section2willprovidethetheoreticalbackgroundregardingtoneandintonationinMandarin,Cantonese,andEnglish.Section3willpresenthypotheses,themethodologyofthisstudyandresultsofthetests.Section4extendsthediscussionincludingthedataanalysisofthefournon-nativeEnglishgroupssoastoexaminethehypotheses.Section5

6、concludeswithasummaryofthemajorfindingsofthisstudyandlimitationsofthisresearch.2.TheoreticalBackgroundTonereferstothepitchontheindividualsyllableandintonationreferstotheheightofpitchonthesentencelevel.Trask(1999)andYip(2002)havesuggestedexplanationsfortoneandintonationandtheyagreethattoneandintonat

7、ionaretwopartsofthesamephoneticstructurewherethedifferentdistributionofpitchisthedeterminingfactorindistinguishingthetwo.However,toneonlyexistsintonelanguagesandintonationexistsatthesentencelevelinalllangua