The Experimental Study Of The Lengthening Ratio In Guangzhou Mandarin

Based on the "Theory of Intonation Patterns",a deep and thorough research was conducted on the sound materials(including three sentence types)of Guangzhou Mandarin,as spoken by fifty native speakers(25 males and 25 females).The research was completed through calculating the basic acoustic parameter duration of the syllables,using the lengthening ratio.The different intonation hierarchies of Guangzhou Mandarin were investigated in the paper according to the view on intonational hierarchy;put forward by Shi Feng.This research is based on intonation patterns and is conducted by comparing and contrasting of different intonational hierarchy.This included:the declarative sentence(natural focused sentence),which was the basic pattern;unmarked interrogative sentence and focused sentence,both of which were varied patterns.These three types of sentences(declarative,unmarked interrogative and focused)were used for the investigation and analysis;following was comparing the corresponding intonations of sentence patterns in Standard Mandarin.The comparative analysis between Standard Mandarin and Guangzhou Mandarin revealed similarities and differences within the framework of universal intonation traits.Furthermore,it shows the negative impact of dialects for native Cantonese speakers when communicating in standard Mandarin.In this light it seems beneficial for Cantonese speakers to learn standard Mandarin.As indicated,in terms of prosodic boundary,the lengthening ratio of the 3rd,6th,and 10th words in a declarative sentence,unmarked interrogative sentence,and focused sentence are all greater than 1,which proves that prosodic boundary segments are extended in Guangzhou Mandarin.However,this extension is less than that of the corresponding syllable in Standard Mandarin within the same type of sentence.As a result,the rhythm of Standard Mandarin is evidently stronger than that of Guangzhou Mandarin via hearing.Amongst all 3 types of sentences,Guangzhou Mandarin is obviously inclined to prolong the monosyllabic verbs,but Standard Mandarin does not have this feature.Regarding the unmarked interrogative sentence,the position of the longest syllable in an unmarked interrogative sentences in Guangzhou Mandarin is the same,and it is the end of the whole sentence,which completely indicates the characteristics of the boundary and tone in the unmarked interrogative sentence.However,comparing the last words of the entire sentences of Guangzhou Mandarin and Standard Mandarin,it can be established that the lengthening ratio of Standard Mandarin has always been more than that of Guangzhou Mandarin;therefore denoting the interrogative tone of Guangzhou Mandarin is less noticeable than that of Standard Mandarin.Moreover,in the focused sentence,regardless of the position of the focused words in Guangzhou Mandarin,the maximum lengthening ratio is constantly the final word of the entire sentence,whereas the maximum lengthening ratio in Standard Mandarin is the last word of the focused word within a whole sentence.This demonstrates,in Standard Mandarin,the focus is more significant than that of Guangzhou Mandarin.Different tones and gender factors had no significant effect on the lengthening ratio of declarative sentences and unmarked interrogation sentence in Guangzhou Mandarin.