A Primary Analysis Of The Intonation Of Chinese Imperative Sentences

This paper investigates the intonation of imperatives, especially those having mild mood such as request and persuasion, in Mandarin Chinese. These sentences are called weak imperatives in this paper. Grouping the sentences by length and function, with the help of computer, and focusing on the fundamental frequency, this paper tries to summarize the pitch pattern of Chinese weak imperatives. Many ideas and methods of phonological description are borrowed from Pierrehumbert's AM theory.The experiments show that boundary tone is crucial in deciding the sentence pattern. The starting and ending pitch of imperatives may be higher than those of statements, but the declining tendency is usually a little stronger than that of the corresponding statements. The weak intonation is shown in the following features: low fundamental frequency, narrow pitch range, and the rising of boundary tone. Comparing to the statements, the rising of weak imperatives' boundary tone is always within 40％of the pitch height (measured by Hz) of the corresponding statements, and the lowering within 20％of the pitch height of the corresponding statements.Tone needs to be taken into consideration in the phonological description of Chinese intonation. The intonation can be shown in the boundary tone, on the foundation of tone. This paper supports the idea that the description of Chinese intonation cannot copy the AM theory, and changes to meet the characteristics of Chinese are needed.The combinations of H and L of beginning and ending boundary tones in weak imperatives are various. The only pattem that does not exist is [L％—], which relates to sentences that starts with a low boundary tone and ends with a normal tone.There is a continuum of change among different types of weak imperatives, and there are no clear cuts between different types. In general, the weak imperatives cited in this paper can be listed from the weak to the strong as follows: persuasion, advice, request, urgency, and crying for help. The intonation of statement is similar to that of persuasion, but the latter extends more in terms of the strength of intonation.