The Alternating Relation Between The Speech Prosody And The Respiratory Rhythm In Chinese Learners

Respiration is at the same time the most important physiological function of human race, and the base of different phonation. Given the mutual relation between the mandarin prosodic features and the respiratory rhythms in speech activity, the research on respiration characteristics in relation to mandarin prosodic features when mandarin learners are reading, retelling, and narrating, is helpful to further understand the difficulties of learning mandarin Chinese, and to improve the methodology of teaching a second language.Using the methods of physiological experiment in combination with acoustical experiment, this dissertation measures the process of respiration and acoustics with the help of the instruments such as respiratory transducers, Praat and MiniSpeech Lab. The main physiological indicators and the acoustical indicators include inspiration duration and the expiration duration (Ti, Te), inspiration amplitude and the expiration amplitude (Ci, Ce), inspiration slope and the expiration slope (Ki, Ke), etc.As experimental samples, twenty-four Chinese learners (twelve male and twelve female) from Korea, Japan, the United States and Thailand are assigned to read, retell and narrate the texts in mandarin Chinese. By recording and measuring their respiration and speech sounds in different conditions, this dissertation attempts to explore the interactive relationship between speech prosody and respiratory rhythm in learning mandarin Chinese.This research project aims to:1) by using the method of quantification, analyze the respiratory curves in different conditions and conclude the respiratory characteristics according to respiratory parameters, so that the corresponding relation between respiratory units and prosodic units can be exposed;2) analyze the phenomenon of pause-extension and its corresponding respiration in different conditions, and explore the influence of physiological respiration on the pause-extension;3) by comparing and explaining the respiratory characteristics in different conditions, examine the cooperative relation of acoustics, physiology and psychology in mandarin Chinese expression;4) compare the similarities and differences of respiratory characteristics between Chinese learners and Chinese native speakers in the same condition.Compared to retelling and narrating, reading respiration is most closely associated with the prosodic levels. The respiratory differences between the individuals are relatively small as well. The reading respiratory curves are neat. On the influences of prosody, grammar and the semantic meaning, the reading respiratory curves appear steep, normal and flat in different degrees. Each of them corresponds to different prosodic features, and the respiratory parameters will change in terms of speech expression. Regarding the corresponding relationship between the respiratory units and the prosodic units in the task of reading, the breathing group (BG) corresponds to sentences, breathing segment (BS) corresponds to intonation phrase, and breathing unit (BU) corresponds to prosodic words. The levels of the prosodic unit and the respiratory parameters are positive correlation. In most situations of reading, the pauses are normal, though there are cases of abnormal pauses as well. Compared to Chinese native speakers, though reading respiration is relatively regular, the learners have more breathing units, different respiratory curves and abnormal pauses etc.Retelling respiration is overdetermined by prosody, grammar, semantic meaning, physiological condition and cognition. According to the respiratory curves, featured by some respiratory features which belong to the spontaneous speech respiration appear, such as the breath curve tending to be complex, the corresponding relation between the respiratory unit and the prosodic unit becoming loose, the respiratory differences of the subjects increasing, abnormal pause appearing so many times, breaking the respiratory regularity etc. Moreover, compared with Chinese native speakers, breath curves of Chinese learners are more complicated, the predictability is obviously depressed and the number of abnormal pause increase.The spontaneous speech respiration has the highest randomness, and the relation with the prosodic level is most distant. The spontaneous speech respiration which is most influenced by the physiological condition, cognitive processing, context and mood state tends to be complex of the breath curve, and the differences between the individual respiratory features are visible. Though the breath level in this state also can be divided into breathing group (BG), breathing segment (BS) and breathing unit (BU), the discrepancy of the different breath levels reduces, the boundaries are more vague, the correspondence between the breath levels and the prosodic levels are more complex. In this condition, compared with Chinese native speakers, the frequency of the abnormal pause is very large, and the position of the abnormal pause is rather flexible. The abnormal pause-extension has no significant correlation with the prosodic level, and its different categories correspond to the different breath forms.To sum up, the dissertation supposes that, in the speech condition, the increasing of the cognitive processing difficulty leads to the descent of the respiratory monitor. The more the psychological resources consumed by organizing the speech are, the farther the relationship between the respiration and the prosody is, and the more complex of the respiration is.