基於新加坡小學華文教材語料庫的語音負擔分析

Phonological Functional Load in Singapore Primary School Textbooks: A Corpus-based Analysis

語音負擔是指某個語音單位（聲母、韻母、聲調、音節）在語音傳遞過程所承載的信息量，也叫音位功能負擔。教材語音負擔作為重要的語音量化指標，對漢語語音習得、語音要素的等級劃分以及語音教學內容的編排都會產生直接或間接的影響。本文利用新加坡小學華文教材語料庫結合數理統計原理對教材中包括聲母、韻母、聲調等語音構成要素進行語音負擔測算。結果顯示，漢語聲母、韻母和聲調的語音負擔不是平均的，總體上韻母的語音負擔最重，其次是聲母，聲調的語音負擔最輕。但從平均負擔量看，聲調的語音負擔卻最重；聲、韻、調內部子系統的語音負擔也存在較大差異。造成漢語語音負擔差異的原因主要是各語音構成要素在使用頻率上存在差異，頻率與語音負擔成正比。但頻率不是改變語音負擔的唯一因素，語音系統內部配置，語音單位元之間的對立或者互補關係也會直接影響二元對立的語音負擔。這些初步結論對漢語語音習得研究和教學研究都具有參考價值。

Phonological functional load refers to the amount of information carried by a phonetic unit (consonants, vowels, tones and syllables) in a phonological transmission process and is also called phoneme functional load. As an important phonological quantification indicator, textbook phonological load has a direct or indirect impact on Chinese phonetic acquisition, classification of phonetic elements, and the content arrangement of phonetics teaching. Applying statistical principles to the Singapore primary school Chinese textbook corpus, this paper seeks to compute the phonological load of the textbook phonetic constituent elements, including consonants, vowels, and tones. Results indicate that the phonological load of Chinese consonants, vowels and tones is uneven. Vowels in general have the highest phonological load, followed by consonants, with tones having the lowest phonological load. However, an examination from the point of view of average load reveals that tones command the highest phonological load, with a greater difference in the phonological load of the internal subsystems of consonants, vowels and tones. The main cause for the difference in Chinese phonological load lies in a difference in the usage frequency of various phonetic constituent elements, with frequency being proportional to phonological load. However, frequency is not the sole factor that changes phonological load. The internal configuration of phonetic systems and the opposing or complimentary relationship between phonetic units would also directly affect the phonological load of binary oppositions. These preliminary conclusions are of reference value to the research and pedagogy of phonetic acquisition of Chinese as a second language.