《2020年度碩論佳作獎》

姓名：翁瑋呈（國立交通大學外國語文學系暨外國文學與語言學碩士班）

論文題目：台灣華閩雙語者韻尾塞音位置對比流失

指導教授：Sang-Im Lee-Kim教授

中文摘要

台灣華語為台灣的主導語言，而台灣閩南語則是一支在地根基語言。年輕的華閩雙語者大部分時間接觸到的語言為台灣華語，而接觸台灣閩南語的時間相對有限，間接導致他們對於這個語言的不完整習得。著眼於韻尾塞音微弱的語音訊號，本研究將探討年輕華閩雙語者韻尾塞音的不完整習得。為了能更了解韻尾塞音的位置對比，本研究將進行兩個感知實驗及一個口語實驗。

第一個感知實驗為三擇一的塞音辨識實驗，依閩南語流利程度招募了三十八個華閩雙語者(20個閩南語不流利的受試者/18個閩南語流利的受試者)及十五個母語為韓語的韓國人參與此實驗。實驗刺激項是根據台灣閩南語的塞音而製成。韓國人對於這個實驗展現了極高的辨識能力，而閩南語流利的受試者的表現卻與閩南語不流利的受試者平分秋色，甚至閩南語流利的受試者表現的更差一些。第二個感知實驗為二級區分測驗，共有三十八個華閩雙語者(21個閩南語不流利的受試者/17個閩南語流利的受試者)及十八個母語為韓語的韓國人參加。實驗結果與上一個感知實驗的結果一致，韓國人一樣展現了極高的判斷力。這指出了韓國人因為母語的塞音而有廣博的經驗，因此可以準確判斷塞音的位置。而在該實驗，閩南語流利的受試者表現的比閩南語不流利的受試者出色，歸因於接觸閩南語的時間較長而有較多的經驗。這些經驗也使得他們更能掌握韻母至韻尾塞音的過渡階段。總體來說，華閩雙語者對於塞音的位置對比尚未完全流失，但是台灣閩南語在世代之間的傳承並沒有很成功，這也導致了年輕華閩雙語者對於台灣閩南語的不完整習得。

該研究也進行了一個口語實驗探討華閩雙語者在口語上的塞音位置對比。共有二十一位閩南語流利的受試者參加了本實驗。其中有十五位受試者參加了三擇一的塞音辨識實驗，有十一位參加了二級區分測驗。此研究結果顯示塞音的構音位置具有一定的模式。唇音/p/在不同韻母環境下的準確率是最高的，而位於齒槽的塞音/t/則相對於其他位置的塞音更容易被省略或置換，至於位在軟顎的塞音/k/在/i/韻母的環境下容易被保留下來，但是在/a/韻母的環境下則可能會有變化。此外，本篇研究也發現塞音的感知及口語之間的關聯性呈現正相關並且在統計上是顯著的，說明了較差的感知能力也會導致較差的口語能力。這篇研究致力於探討年輕華閩雙語者因為閩南語的不完整習得而導致了塞音位置對比流失，藉此提供音變的共時證據。

英文摘要

Taiwan Mandarin (TM) is an official and dominant language in Taiwan spoken over the entire island whereas Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) is a non-official and local substratum language. Young Mandarin-Min bilinguals, therefore, often have a limited exposure to TSM, which may result in imperfect learning of the language. Focusing on weak phonetic cues to unreleased final stops, this thesis explored imperfect acquisition of the unreleased final stops by bilingual speakers. To draw a fuller picture of the patterns of final stop place contrasts, two perception and one production experiments were carried out. 

Thirty-eight Mandarin-Min bilingual listeners (20 TSM-weak and 18 TSM-fluent) and 15 Korean listeners participated in a 3-AFC identification experiment. Korean speakers were included as a baseline group as they were shown to perform well on the unreleased final stop identification through positive L1 transfer. The stimuli were made based on TSM unreleased final stops. Korean listeners showed a near ceiling performance whereas TSM-fluent listeners were similar to TSM-weak listeners. Next, thirty-eight Mandarin-Min bilingual listeners (21 TSM-weak and 17 TSM-fluent) and 18 Korean listeners participated in an AXB discrimination task. Consistent with the results of the identification task, Korean listeners, again, performed with a high accuracy, indicating that the extensive experience with the final stops in their native language has led to their good sensitivity to stop places. In this task, TSM-fluent listeners performed better than TSM-weak listeners, which can be attributed to their greater exposure to TSM; the experience with TSM has helped enhance their sensitivity to vowel transitions for stop place contrasts. Taken together, the results showed that the place contrasts of the finals are not completely lost by the Mandarin-Min bilinguals, however, TSM was not transmitted successfully across generations, leading to imperfect acquisition.

A production study was carried out to explore how Mandarin-Min bilinguals implement the final stops in their production. Twenty-one TSM-fluent speakers who participated in the identification and/or the discrimination task have participated in the production task. The results showed that places of articulation modulate specific patterns of stop production; /p/ was produced with the highest accuracy rate across vowel contexts, /t/ was particularly prone to deletion and substitution, and /k/ was well preserved before /i/ but was subject to such changes before /a/. Furthermore, the correlation between production and perception was positive and statistically significant, indicating that poor perception is a likely source of poor production. The findings of this study contribute synchronic evidence for a potential sound change, namely the loss of stop place contrasts, arising from imperfect learning of TSM by young bilingual speakers.

研究貢獻

This study examined the loss of final stop place contrasts among young Mandarin-Min bilingual speakers in Taiwan. Taiwan Mandarin (TM) is an official and dominant language in Taiwan spoken over the entire island whereas Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) is a non-official and local substratum language. Young bilingual speakers, therefore, often have a limited exposure to TSM, which may result in imperfect learning of the language. Focusing on weak phonetic cues to unreleased final stops, we explore the patterns of imperfect acquisition of the final stops by bilingual speakers to provide synchronic evidence for the loss of final stop place contrasts.