tone language speakers’ acquisition of english intonation 英语专业毕业论文

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

2、reatendedtofocusonintonationlanguagespeakersacquiringotherintonationlanguagesoronlyonproduction.Thosestudiesmainlyfoundobviousinfluencefromthelearner’sfirstlanguage(henceforthL1).Therearesurprisinglyfewstudiesconcerningtonelanguagespeakers’acquisitionofEn

3、glishintonation.Therefore,thisstudywillaimtopresenttonelanguagespeakers’competenceinEnglishintonation,basedondatafromMandarinEnglishspeakers’andCantoneseEnglishspeakers’perceptionandcomprehensionofEnglishintonation.Everylanguagehasitsownintonationsystem;c

4、ertaincorrelationsexistbetweenintonationpatternswithspecialmeanings.ResearchtellsusthatthedifficultiesinthelearningofL2intonationpatternsareoftenduetothenon-equivalenceoftheintonationstructureofthelearners’L1andtheL2structure(e.g.Cruz-Ferreira,1983).Manda

5、rinandCantonesearetonelanguagesandEnglishisanintonationlanguage,anddifferentuseismadeoftheacousticcomponentsoftoneandintonationinthesethreelanguages.Thispaperisorganizedasfollows.Section2willprovidethetheoreticalbackgroundregardingtoneandintonationinManda

6、rin,Cantonese,andEnglish.Section3willpresenthypotheses,themethodologyofthisstudyandresultsofthetests.Section4extendsthediscussionincludingthedataanalysisofthefournon-nativeEnglishgroupssoastoexaminethehypotheses.Section5concludeswithasummaryofthemajorfind

7、ingsofthisstudyandlimitationsofthisresearch.2.TheoreticalBackgroundTonereferstothepitchontheindividualsyllableandintonationreferstotheheightofpitchonthesentencelevel.Trask(1999)andYip(2002)havesuggestedexplanationsfortoneandintonationandtheyagreethattonea

8、ndintonationaretwopartsofthesamephoneticstructurewherethedifferentdistributionofpitchisthedeterminingfactorindistinguishingthetwo.However,toneonlyexistsintonelanguagesandintonationexistsatthesentencelevelinalllangua