第二語言學習中之母語韻律轉移現象－－以中文使用者產出英文語調為例

Prosody Transfer in Second Language Acquisition: Tonal Alignment in the Production of English Pitch Accent by Mandarin Native Speakers

本文探討母語韻律中之音調對整對第二語言韻律產出之影響，研究對象為中文使用者如何產出英文中L*H 之語調。中文為聲調語言，不同音調可區別字義之不同，而英文為語調語言，不同音調可區別不同言談及語用之功能。前人研究顯示，中文裡聲調中基頻的對整以音節為單位，且一致地對整於音節尾，而英文的語調是以韻律片語為單位，且對整常因語速或音節長度等語音現象而產生不同。基於此二語言韻律及音調使用上之不同，本文探討母語轉移現象是否會發生。研究結果顯示，中文使用者在產出英文中L*H 語調時，使用與母語一致的音調對整方式，且其對整不受語速之影響。相對的，英文使用者產出L*H 語調時，對整上較為彈性，且受語速快慢而有對整前後之不同。

This study examines how the tonal alignment in L1 influences the production of L2 prosody, focusing on the realization of English L*+H pitch accent (i.e., listing contour) produced by Mandarin Chinese speakers. While Mandarin uses pitch mainly to signal lexical contrast, English uses it to convey discourse/pragmatic meaning (post-lexical). It has been observed in the literature that the F0 of lexical tone in Mandarin is syllable bound, while English pitch accent is contextually governed by various phonetic factors, including speech rate and syllable duration. Given these functional and prosodic differences, we ask whether prosodic transfer at the level of tonal alignment occurs across languages in which the grammatical function of pitch in L1 (Mandarin) differs fundamentally from that in L2 (English). Our results show that the L1 alignment pattern (syllable-bound) remains dominant in Mandarin native speakers' production of English listing contour; additionally, the speech rate effect on tonal timing is less consistent in the Mandarin production. Implications on second language learning and pedagogy are discussed.