Prosodical Labeling for Mandarin
现代汉语韵律标注
Hana Triskova 廖敏; David Sehnal

Abstract 摘要
The present paper describes the software PALM, designed to grasp and analyze the rhythm of Mandarin utterances. The functions of the software were tested on a small database consisting of 23 sentences recorded in slow tempo and in fast tempo. As a first step, the utterances were prosodically transcribed. The transcription captures stress features and horizontal segmentation. Theoretical fundaments of prosodic transcription are outlined (a simplified version of prosodic transcription is proposed to be used in teaching Mandarin as a second language). Transcribed utterances were broken into entries corresponding to syntactic words, then labeled for various features (both prosodical and grammatical). Query function allows retrieval of the instances – either words, or syllables –sharing various combinations features (for words: number of syllables, syntactic function, stress pattern etc.; for syllables: level of stress, tonality etc.). Count function allows statistical processing of the search results. PALM was designed as a tool for finding links between rhythmical structure of the Mandarin utterance, its grammatical structure and speech tempo.

The present paper describes the software PALM, designed to grasp and analyze the rhythm of Mandarin utterances. The functions of the software were tested on a small database consisting of 23 sentences recorded in slow tempo and in fast tempo. As a first step, the utterances were prosodically transcribed. The transcription captures stress features and horizontal segmentation. Theoretical fundaments of prosodic transcription are outlined (a simplified version of prosodic transcription is proposed to be used in teaching Mandarin as a second language). Transcribed utterances were broken into entries corresponding to syntactic words, then labeled for various features (both prosodical and grammatical). Query function allows retrieval of the instances – either words, or syllables –sharing various combinations features (for words: number of syllables, syntactic function, stress pattern etc.; for syllables: level of stress, tonality etc.). Count function allows statistical processing of the search results. PALM was designed as a tool for finding links between rhythmical structure of the Mandarin utterance, its grammatical structure and speech tempo.