A Study Of The Interaction Between Rhythm And Respiration In Shanghai Dialect And Putonghua Reading Discourse

Respiration is an important foundation for speech activities. The respiratory system provides an aerodynamic source. Furthermore, it can maintain the constant subglottal air pressure during speech through ongoing control the respiratory muscles, and it's vital to speech activities. The main contents include: prosodic and respiratory features of Shanghai dialect and Mandarin during reading texts, as well as correspondence between prosody and respiration, the main conclusions are as follows:Prosodic features: 1) the number of prosodic groups between Shanghai dialect and Mandarin are the same, and others are approximate, in detail, males' are larger than females' in Shanghai dialect which is contrary to Mandarin. 2) the length of speech duration and prosodic units are positively correlated; the distribution of prosodic groups are consistent, while there are different in other sides such as the average duration of silent segments. 3) the division of Shanghai dialect can be different from Mandarin' which means prosodic units may break restrictions from the grammar units.4) In terms of the degree of integration of prosodic units, there are more coherent in Shanghai dialect, coinciding with relatively narrow pitch range and weaker rhythm, which are opposed to Mandarin.Respiratory characteristics:1) there are some similarities and differences in respiratory parameters, and they have positive relationship between respiratory duration, amplitude and slope when these parameters are in front of different respiratory units, i.e., the greater respiratory unit may be, the larger the value of the respiratory parameters may show; and vice versa. 2) Respiratory graphs show that the respiratory amplitude and slope in Shanghai dialect are relatively smaller than Mandarin, totally speaking, the graphs of Shanghai dialect with smaller fluctuations exhibit special characteristics.The relationship between prosody and respiration: 1) prosodic groups and intonational phrases are the most closely to the respiratory units throughout the respiratory cycles; the turning of sentences may appear the largest respiratory units; others appears more flexible. 2) the change of prosodic units will affect the respiratory units. Correspondingly, a prosodic group can be related to 1-2 respiratory cycles, an intonational phrase roughly corresponds to one respiratory cycle, respiration with small fluctuations may be influenced by prosodic phrases and prosodic words.