Syllabification of Intervocalic Consonants by High School Learners of English: Onsets or Codas?

高中生英語元音與元音間輔音的分音節探就：聲母或韻尾？

鄭明中(Ming-Chung Cheng)

音節 ； 分音節 ； 聲母 ； 韻尾 ； 響度 ； syllable ； syllabification ； onset ； coda ； sonority

聯大學報

12卷2期（2015 / 12 / 01）

105 - 119

英文

本研究主要目的在於探究母語為國語及閩南語的高中英語學習者的英語分音節能力。本研究的參與者為20 名高中生，他們至少都有三年以上的英語學習經驗。為了探究他們分音節的能力，本研究採用一個由44 個假字隨意編排而成的字表作為研究材料，學生們被要求在這些假字上劃出分音節符號。使用假字的目的在於避免學生們先前的字彙學習影響到實驗結果，而這些假字是依據響度排序原則、曲拱原則、聲母最大量原則，以及聲母優先原則所設計出來的。研究結果敘述如下：第一，學生在對VCV 進行分音節時幾乎沒有問題。第二，就錯誤率而言，學生面臨來自曲拱原則的問題多於來自響度排序原則的問題，特別是當元音之間的輔音為唇音時。這也顯示他們的母語對於英語分音節的能力有所影響。第三，就VCXCYCZV 而論，當CX 為/s/時，/s/會被分為是前面音節的韻尾，這顯示出英語/s/的特殊性。第四，對於其他VCXCYCZV 類型，當CYCZ 可以成為一個複聲母時，學生所遭遇的分音節問題較少，但是當 CXCY 可以形成一個複韻尾時，學生則有較多分音節問題產生。

This study targeted to explore the syllabification abilities of high school learners of English whose native tongues are Mandarin and Southern Min. Twenty high school learners took part in this study. They have learned English for at least three years. Each student was given a randomly-arranged 44-item syllabification test and was required to place a syllable boundary in VCV, VCXCYV and VCXCYCZV. Pseudo words were used in the test for fear that the subjects’ previous word knowledge might affect the results. These items were designed in terms of sonority sequencing principle (SSP), obligatory contour principle (OCP), maximal onset principle (MOP) and onset first principle (OFP). Results were stated as follows. First, learners met with few difficulties in syllabifying VCV. Second, in terms of error rates, learners encountered more difficulties in OCP than in SSP, especially for bilabial consonants, which showed that their native language had an influence on their syllabification of English syllables. Third, in terms of VCXCYCZV, when CX is /s/, it was usually syllabified as a coda of the preceding syllables. This displayed the special status of /s/ in English, compared with that in Mandarin and Southern Min. Fourth, for other VCXCYCZV types, these learners faced few difficulties when CY and CZ could form a complex onset, but they had more syllabification problems when CX and CY could form a complex coda.

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