An ERP Study On Metrical Feet In Chinese

Syllables are not isolated in the flow of speech. Rather, they stand inside prosodic structures. Foot, being one of key elements in phonology, attracts attention of many scholars who use this concept extensively in their research on the interface between prosody and syntax as well.However,unlike stress-timed language,there is no stress alternating between syllables in Chinese, therefore,there are no consistency views about the nature of Chinese metrical feet.Some scholars believe that Chinese feet are stress feet,some do not think so.This thesis explores the nature, types, etc. of Chinese metrical feet through maneuvering the stress positions by Event-Related Potentials, a neuro-physiological technology. Theories of metrical feet, nature of Chinese feet, types and dividing criteria shall be discussed according to experimental results.Experiment shows that stressed positions are different over P300, the ERP component exemplifying the degree of complexity of mutations in the consistency judgment task of stress. P300 is distributed differentially in its significance, according to which the thesis reaches the following conclusions:First, Chinese feet are stress feet. The foot may have a role to play in assigning stress in Chinese. Chinese feet are characteristically similar to stress-timed languages.Second, Chinese feet are left-headed. Comparison between foot theories and the experiment results rejects the hypothesis of right-headed feet while accommodates the hypothesis of left-headed feet.Third, Opinions of Duanmu(2007) on 1+2 type attributive structures are not supported via a comprehensive analysis. Instead, the thesis holds that “Generalized Trochee Hypothesis” proposed by Sui(2013) for Chinese is more relevant to Chinese, Chinese feet are left-headed and feet are built recursively in 1+2 type attributive structures.The initial syllable, being a foot by itself, does not constitute a foot with the second syllable under the influence of syntax and semanteme.