ISCA Archive ICSLP 1992
ISCA Archive ICSLP 1992

Temporal structure in bisyllabic word frame: an evidence for relational invariance and variability from standard Chinese

Jianfen Cao

The effort of this paper is concentrated on searching for relational invariance in temporal distribution of the bisyllabic structure in Standard Chinese by observing the durational variabi I ity of bisyllabic words indifferent conditions with regard to context, position, stress type and so on in real speech. Experimental results indicate that both of durational variability of bisyllabic words and temporal distribution within the word in Chinese are determined by multiple influences from either higher or lower layers, however, the influence from morphophonemic contrast of word-stress is the most powerful one, and the other influences must be governed by such morphophonemic constraint. In this sense, temporal structure in Chinese is word-stress dominated, and as relational invariance, such word-stress based temporal patterns are relatively stable and kept as a fixed group in the continuous speech through intrinsic adjustment and compensation.Consider ing of the special status of bisyllabic words, this kind of patterns may be served as a miniature on timing of real speech in Standard Chinese.