A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Thai Interrogative Sentences

This paper mainly adopts acoustic experimental methods to analyze the intonation characteristics of interrogative sentence in Chinese and Thai languages,and compares the intonation characteristics of interrogative sentence in Chinese and Thai languages,including high-pitched points,low pitched points and pitch ranges of whole sentences and prosodic words,so as to reveal the similarities and differences of the intonation characteristics of interrogative sentence in Thai and Chinese.The intonation characteristics of Chinese interrogative sentences:(1)The biggest difference between the interrogative and the declarative sentence is interrogative particle “Ma”,and it is mainly reflected in the pitch of the prosodic words at the end of the sentence.At the end of interrogative sentences,the mean of the high and low pitch points of prosodic words is larger than that of declarative sentences.(2)The biggest differences between interrogative pronouns “who”,“what”,“where” and declarative sentences is mainly reflected in the high-pitched points.(3)The difference between the selective interrogative sentences and declarative sentences is mainly reflected in the high-pitched points and the low-pitched points.The intonation characteristics of Thai interrogative sentences:(1)The difference between the interrogative and the declarative sentence is interrogative particle “Ma” in Thai,and it is mainly reflected in the high-pitched points.(2)The differences between the special interrogative sentence of interrogative pronouns “who”,“what”,“where” and declarative sentences in Thai is mainly reflected in the high-pitched points and pitch ranges.(3)The difference between the selective interrogative sentences and declarative sentences in Thai is mainly reflected in the high-pitched points.Comparison of intonation between Chinese and Thai interrogative sentences:(1)There are significant differences in the whole sentence and the high-pitched and low-pitched points of prosodic words between Chinese and Thai interrogative sentences.The mean of the high and low pitch points of Chinese interrogative sentences is larger than that of Thai interrogative sentences.(2)There are significant differences in the whole sentence and the high-pitched points of prosodic words between the special interrogative sentence of Chinese and Thai disyllabic prosodic words and the special interrogative sentence of Chinese and Thai trisyllabic prosodic words.The mean of the high-pitched points of special interrogative sentences in Chinese is larger than that of Thai interrogative sentences.(3)There are significant differences in the whole sentence and the high-pitched points of prosodic words of selective interrogative sentences between the Chinese and Thai.The mean of the high-pitched points of selective interrogative sentences in Chinese is larger than that of Thai interrogative sentences.The intonation difference between Chinese and Thai interrogative questions is mainly reflected in the high-pitched point.The high-pitched point,low-pitched point and pitch ranges of Chinese interrogative questions are generally higher than that of Thai interrogative questions.