Experimental Research On Thai Students Who Acquire Chinese Interrogations Intonation

Because of the range is difficult to define, the classification in it is complex and it has complicated relationship with other rhythm elements, intonation has became a difficult and important problem in linguistic field, and it is also the most difficult phonetic features for foreign students to study, so, the difficulty become to be the main cause of foreign students speaking with a strong foreign accent. Therefore, further research on intonation will help foreign students grasping standard Chinese.This paper, by means of acoustic experiment, extracts the sentence pitch range, the starting pitch, the ceiling and floor pitch location, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern and the sentence relief, then, researches the Chinese interrogations intonation on experimental sentences and natural sentences. Through comparing the differences between Thai students and Chinese students on reading Chinese interrogations, we try to find out the features of Thai students who acquire Chinese interrogations intonation. The paper totally divides into five parts:The first part is the introduction. Based on the summary of preceding research on intonation concept and Chinese intonation tone, the paper puts forward some research angle.The second part is the design of experiments. Used Chinese interrogations as materials, the paper select experimental sentences and natural sentences pitch dates of Thai students and Chinese students with the methods of acoustic experiment and comparison analysis. The main parameters are: the sentence pitch range, the starting pitch, the ceiling and floor pitch location, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern and the sentence relief.The third part is analyses on experimental sentences of Thai students who acquire Chinese interrogations intonation. Experimental sentences include 9 simple sentences, 592 specimens and 36 sample sentences. Research shows that the sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is smaller than Chinese students. The starting pitch of Thai students is lower than Chinese students, among the Thai students, boy's starting pitch is too low, in the other hand, and girl's is too high. The ceiling locations of Thai students and Chinese students are roughly same, but there are many differences between Thai students and Chinese students on the floor pitch location. There are many differences between Thai students and Chinese students on the last stressed syllable tone-pattern, the performance of Thai girl is closer to Chinese students. The delineate range of Thai students is less than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is far less than Chinese students; Thai girl's is same with Chinese students.The fourth part is the analyses on natural sentences of Thai students who acquire Chinese interrogations intonation. Natural sentences include 217 simple sentences, 12,400 specimens and 868 sample sentences. Research shows that: in the no question mark structure interrogations, sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitches of Thai students are higher than Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitches are higher, in the other hand, and boys are similar with Chinese students. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, and the floor pitch locations of Thai students are always same with that of Chinese students. The last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students mainly express the trend of descend, compared with Thai boy, Thai girl's trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern are more notable. The delineate range of Thai students is greater than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is same with Chinese students, Thai girl's is far greater than Chinese students.In the interrogations only with interrogative modal particle, sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitch of Thai students is similar with Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitches are higher, in the other hand, and boy's is lower. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, and the floor pitch locations of Thai students are always located at the previous word of interrogative modal particle. The trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students are not obvious, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai boy mainly express the trend of rise, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai girl mainly express the trend of descend. The delineate range of Thai students is less than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is far less than Chinese students, Thai girl's is same or higher than Chinese students.In the affirmative-negative question, sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitch of Thai students is similar with Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitches are similar with Chinese students, in the other hand, and boy's is lower. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, and the floor pitch locations of Thai students are always same with that of Chinese students. The last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students mainly express the trend of descend, compared with Thai boy, Thai girl's trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern are more notable. The delineate range of Thai students is less than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is far less than Chinese students; Thai girl's is same with Chinese students.In the alternative question, sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitch of Thai students is similar with Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitches are similar with Chinese students, in the other hand, and boy's is lower. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, and the floor pitch locations of Thai students are always same with that of Chinese students. The last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students mainly express the trend of descend, compared with Thai boy, Thai girl's trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern are more notable. The delineate range of Thai students is greater than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is greater than Chinese students slightly; Thai girl's is far greater than Chinese students.In the interrogations with Wh- words. Sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitch of Thai students is similar or higher than Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitch are similar or higher than Chinese students, in the other hand , boy's is similar or lower than Chinese students. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, and the floor pitch locations of Thai students are always same with that of Chinese students. The last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students mainly express the trend of descend, compared with Thai boy, Thai girl's trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern are more notable. The delineate range of Thai students is greater than Chinese students, Thai boy's delineate range is similar with Chinese students slightly; Thai girl's is greater than Chinese students.In the interrogations with interrogative modal particle and Wh- words, sentence pitch ranges of Thai students are obviously narrow; the gap between men and women is small. The starting pitch of Thai students is similar or higher than Chinese students, among the Thai students, girl's starting pitch are similar or higher than Chinese students, in the other hand , boy's is similar or lower than Chinese students. The ceiling locations of Thai students are mainly located at verb in sentence, but there are many differences between Thai students and Chinese students on the floor pitch location. The trend of descend of last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai students are not obvious, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai boy mainly express the trend of rise, the last stressed syllable tone-pattern of Thai girl mainly express the trend of descend. The delineate range of Thai students is lower than Chinese students, Thai boy's sentence relief express the trend of rise, Thai girl's delineate range is similar or greater than Chinese students slightly. The fifth part is the total characteristics of Thai students who acquire Chinese interrogations intonation. Studies show that there are many differences between experimental sentences and natural sentences on the starting pitch, the ceiling and floor pitch location and the last stressed syllable tone-pattern, on the other hand, the result of experimental sentences and natural sentences on the sentence pitch range and the sentence relief is similar, but there are some differences in them. We think the results which are confirmed by natural sentences are believable, in the future; the research of language in Chinese for foreigners should pay more attention to natural sentences.