An Optimality-theoretic Analysis Of The Acquisition Of English Sentence Stress By Chinese EFL Learners

The present study is an analysis of the acquisition of English sentence stress by Chinese EFL learners based on Optimality Theory, aimed at helping the Chinese EFL learners to overcome "Chinese Accent". Sentence stress is a prominent feature in English. Incorrect placement of sentence stress will be detrimental to the comprehensible message which the speaker intends to convey and to the understanding in utterance. Mastering the sentence stress properly will not only get a better command of English rhythm and intonation, but also improve the oral expression and communicational comprehension ability. The sentence stress in English has been a challenge in the study of English. Although lots of stress theories made many proper explanations, the effect is not ideal enough.The present study attempts to answer the following four research questions:1) Which main principles will the Chinese EFL learners and native speakers adopt as the constraints in the distribution of sentence stress?2) Will Chinese EFL learners have any constraint hierarchical ranking with obvious path (pattern)? If yes, what is the demotion of constraint hierarchical ranking during different stages like?3) Will native speakers have any constraint hierarchical ranking? If yes, what is the demotion of constraint hierarchical ranking like?4) Are the constraints moved between different stages? If yes, how are they moved?The present study adopts both empirical and theoretical methods. At the beginning, it presents Optimality Theory as the theoretical basis. Optimality Theory, put forward by Prince and Smolensky(1993), which has a dramatic impact on most areas in linguistics besides phonology, such as children’s language acquisition, second language acquisition, syntax, semantics etc. is a generative phonology theory and becomes an important theory of linguistics. Through collecting and labeling data by the acoustic software---Praat, the present study aims at finding which words are prominent. Then, based on the Optimality Theory, through analyzing the four major principles of distribution of sentence stress (including the domains of word class, semantics, syntax, as well as pragmatics) in regulating accent percolation as constraints in the aspect of OT, the present study explains the distribution of English sentence stress through a ranking of constraint hierarchy containing, explores the constraint hierarchical ranking of each grade and presents those constraint hierarchies by the candidate competing tables.Finally, through comparing with the path of constraint demotion of all stages of subjects, and based on the analysis of OT and the software Praat and SPSS, the researcher can present the following findings as the answers of above questions:1) There are four main principles as the constraints in the distribution of sentence stress:content words stressed principle, rightmost words stressed principle, leftmost words stressed principle, and new information priority principle;2) Chinese EFL learners undergo the demotions of constraint hierarchical ranking with obvious path which varies with different stages in learning process of the distribution of English sentence stress. The difference between different stages lies in the difference of occurring frequency of violated constraints. The constraint hierarchical ranking of high school students is:ALIGN-IP-LEFT>> ALIGN-IP-RIGHT>>DEP-IO>>NEW-IP, and the constraint hierarchical ranking of college students is:DEP-IO>>NEW-IP>>ALIGN-IP-LEFT>>ALIGN-IP-RIGHT;3) The native speakers also undergo the demotion of constraint hierarchical ranking:NEW-IP>>DEP-IO>>ALIGN-IP-RIGHT>>ALIGN-IP-LEFT;4) The constraint in each demotion of constraint hierarchical ranking during different stages and of native subjects are moved as this path:NEW-IP constraint moves from the undominated position to the dominated position in the hierarchy; ALIGN-IP-RIGHT and ALIGN-IP-LEFT constraints move from the dominated position to the lower position in the hierarchy.Through the specific analysis, the researcher draws a conclusion that the varied reasons affect the Chinese EFL learners to master the distribution of sentence stress due to their incorrect position in the demotion of constraint hierarchical ranking. For one side, they didn’t master the English sentence stress theory appropriately. Most of them are familiar with the content words stressed principle, but do not master the new information principle. On the other side, they lack enough imitation and more practice on new information priority principle.The present study can impel the Chinese EFL learners to break through those barriers-the retroactive effects of Chinese and to make a skillful use of sentence stress. Besides, the data by analyzing the sentence stress studies can also be used for the related academic paper and monograph.