臺灣地區國語句法歧義句之聲學線索

Abstract

歧義現象是指語言文字的不明確，而造成句子有兩種或多種可能的解釋。然而，歧義句的歧義現象較常出現於書面語中，在口語表達時，我們聽者很少會因為句子潛在的歧義性而誤判句子的意思；這是因為句子所在的上下文，以及說話者說話的方式幫助聽者判別句意。在這份研究中，我們有興趣的是後者─「說話者說話的方式」，也就是句子由說話者的口中說出時，究竟多了什麼線索是書面語缺乏的。雖然探討歧義句界限的相關研究不少，但大多數都是以非聲調語言為主，有關聲調語言中的歧義句界限現象研究，相較之下就顯的匱乏許多，探討臺灣地區語言歧義句界限現象的研究更可以說是寥寥無幾。因此此研究以誘發性語料，針對臺灣地區國語歧義句，探討界限週圍音節的聲學現象。 在產生 (production) 實驗中設計了八種類型歧義句，每一類型歧義句皆含兩種句意。實驗進行過程為：施測者敘述情境後並詢問一個與情境相關的問題(前導問句)，發音人聽完情境和問題後必須依據電腦螢幕上所提示之無標點符號句子，自然地回答施測者的情境問題。實驗結果顯示，停頓現象容易出現在較強界限之後，在感知實驗中答對率較高的句子會有較長停頓時長。音節強度受界限強度影響甚弱，在感知實驗中錯誤的音節強度會混淆受試者。跨較強界限的基頻重設範圍會有較大數值，且答對率較高的句子較強界限與較弱界限的數值會有較大差距。句尾延長現象普遍出現在較強界限的界限前音節，而答對率高與低的句子其較強界限與較弱界限的時長差距皆很大。

Syntactic ambiguity arises when an utterance can be represented by more than one syntactic structure. Syntactic ambiguity may cause difficulty processing sentences, due to the lack of speech cues. In this study, we are interested in how speakers differentiate the competing meanings. There have been few studies on syntactic ambiguity in tone language. This study seeks to explore how native Taiwan Mandarin speakers use pause or acoustic features, such as intensity, f0, and duration, to disambiguate syntactically ambiguous sentences. Eight types of syntactically ambiguous sentence pairs with contrasting structures were elicited by asking subjects to answer question in different scenarios. Results showed that pauses can be observed across boundary with higher syntactic hierarchy (stronger boundary). The intensity of the post-boundary syllable was not effective in documenting syntactic boundaries. Greater of f0 reset ranges were observed across stronger boundary. Duration is the most consistent cue. The stronger the boundary, the longer the lengthening in pre-boundary syllable.