摘要
为验证Eckman(1991)提出的“中介语结构一致假说”,本文通过一项实证研究探讨了母语为汉语的英语学习者的辅音丛产出。本文主要研究的问题是:(1)受试者对辅音丛的产出是否符合摩擦音加爆破音原则与可分解原则;(2)受试者在产出辅音丛时,哪种修改策略使用得最多。
在此研究中,目标语形式是英语中符合两项语言普遍规则——摩擦音加爆破音原则与可分解原则的辅音丛,受试者是15名来自湖南大学的英语学习者,他们的母语都是汉语。本研究中的实验包括两项任务:读单词和回答问题。2名实验者使用高质量的索尼ICD-SX35录音笔收集了所有受试者的语言产出,并且对所得语料进行了提取和语音标注。之后,本文作者将所得结果整理分类,并计算出受试者对每个目标语结构产出的准确度,同时标示出受试者在目标语错误产出中所采用的修改策略类别并计算出使用次数。
实验结果大致遵从了上述的两个普遍规则:受试者对摩擦音加爆破音结尾的辅音丛产出的正确率基本高于两个爆破音结尾的辅音丛产出的正确率,只有/-sp/这个辅音丛例外。本文将这一例外主要归因于本研究受试者还未习得包含该辅音丛的单词,并且英语中包含这一音节尾辅音丛的单词非常少;关于可分解原则,受试者对所有三位辅音丛的修改要明显高于由它们分解出的二位辅音丛的修改。因此,本研究中的中国英语学习者在产出普遍规则中标记性强的目标结构时正确率低于标记性弱的结构,遵从“中介语结构一致假说”的内容。另外,本研究的结果还反映出了音节首与音节尾位置的不对称性。实验数据表明,受试者对音节首辅音丛产出的正确率,不管是三位辅音丛还是二位辅音丛,都要高于音节尾辅音丛的正确率,再次体现出音节首的位置比音节尾的位置更为优越。
至于修改策略的使用,本研究中的受试者运用最多的是插音,尤其是插入中元音/(?)/。这一现象可能是由于中国学习者普遍偏好双音节以及在发音过程中矫枉过正面引起的。另外,虽然案例不多,受试者对/r/音的替换呈现出一种规律:后而的元音为/u/或者/u:/时,/r/被替换为/l/;后面跟其他元音时,/r/被替换为/lw/。造成这一现象的主要原因是/r/与/l/之间的高度相似性
The current study sets out to test the Interlanguage Structural Conformity Hypothesis (ISCH) with regard to the acquisition of English consonant clusters by Chinese learners of English as a second language (ESL). Since the ISCH claims that "the universal generalizations that hold for primary languages hold also for interlanguages" (Eckman 1991), English consonant clusters implied in the universal Fricative + Stop Principle and the Resolvability Principle were chosen as target forms.15 Chinese learners of English from Hunan University participated in the study. They were asked to perform two tasks:word-list reading and questions answering. The participants'output was recorded by a high-quality SONY ICD-SX35 digital voice recorder and transcribed twice by the author and once by one of her classmates to reach an acceptable inter-and intra-rater reliability. After the transcriptions, the author sorted the data and calculated the accuracy rate of the participants'performances on each target form, at the same time, labeled the modification strategies employed by the participants and figured out the frequencies.
The results generally conform to the statements in the two universal principles as mentioned above:the participants'performances on the fricative + stop final consonant clusters are generally better than those on the more marked stop + stop final consonant clusters, with the only exception of/-sp/, which might be caused by the difficulty of new words; all the three-member consonant clusters involved in the Resolvability Principle are modified more than their subsequent two-member consonant clusters. Therefore, Chinese learners of English in this study encounter greater difficulties in producing more marked consonant clusters, which is in support of the ISCH. In addition, the participants'performances also reflect an asymmetry between the positions of onsets and codas in syllables. The consonant clusters in the position of onsets are found to enjoy more privileged status over those in coda positions, because the accuracy rates of initial consonant clusters production are significantly higher than those of final consonant clusters production.
As for the modification strategies, the participants in the current study applied epenthesis most frequently with extensive insertions of schwa, which might attribute to Chinese learners'preference for disyllabicity and their hypercorrection in the production. Substitutions of/r/also appear with rules, mainly due to the high similarities in the distinctive features between/r/and /l/.
引文
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