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.Thepreviousstudiesinthisareatendedtofocusonintonationlang

2、uagespeakersacquiringotherintonationlanguagesoronlyonproduction.Thosestudiesmainlyfoundobviousinfluencefromthelearner’sfirstlanguage(henceforthL1).Therearesurprisinglyfewstudiesconcerningtonelanguagespeakers’acquisitionofEnglishintonation.Therefore,thisstudywillaimtopresenttonelanguages

3、peakers’competenceinEnglishintonation,basedondatafromMandarinEnglishspeakers’andCantoneseEnglishspeakers’perceptionandcomprehensionofEnglishintonation.Everylanguagehasitsownintonationsystem;certaincorrelationsexistbetweenintonationpatternswithspecialmeanings.Researchtellsusthatthediffic

4、ultiesinthelearningofL2intonationpatternsareoftenduetothenon-equivalenceoftheintonationstructureofthelearners’L1andtheL2structure(e.g.Cruz-Ferreira,1983).MandarinandCantonesearetonelanguagesandEnglishisanintonationlanguage,anddifferentuseismadeoftheacousticcomponentsoftoneandintonationi

5、nthesethreelanguages.Thispaperisorganizedasfollows.Section2willprovidethetheoreticalbackgroundregardingtoneandintonationinMandarin,Cantonese,andEnglish.Section3willpresenthypotheses,themethodologyofthisstudyandresultsofthetests.Section4extendsthediscussionincludingthedataanalysisofthefo

6、urnon-nativeEnglishgroupssoastoexaminethehypotheses.Section5concludeswithasummaryofthemajorfindingsofthisstudyandlimitationsofthisresearch.2.TheoreticalBackgroundTonereferstothepitchontheindividualsyllableandintonationreferstotheheightofpitchonthesentencelevel.Trask(1999)andYip(2002)hav

7、esuggestedexplanationsfortoneandintonationandtheyagreethattoneandintonationaretwopartsofthesamephoneticstructurewherethedifferentdistributionofpitchisthedeterminingfactorindistinguishingthetwo.However,toneonlyexistsintonelanguagesandintonationexistsatthesentencelevelinalllangua