Experimental study of disyllabic sentences in Standard Chinese

The influence of intonations on the contour patterns of Chinese disyllabic sentences was investigated for combinations of intonations and focuses found in disyllabic sentences.16 tonal combinations were used to design 16 disyllabic sentence groups.Each sentence group contained three kinds of focuses(broad,former,and latter),as well as two kinds of intonations(declarative and interrogative).The 16 sentence groups all include groups having the third tone.Analysis of the expression of focuses showed that the difference between the pitch peak of the latter focus and the pitch peak of the former focus was of the utmost importance in distinguishing the focuses.The results also show that Chinese intonation has stable core disyllabic units.The position of the interrogative information in the disyllabic sentences is determined by the placement of the syllable's pitch peaks.The pitch peak in the interrogative structure is found to be higher than the pitch peak in the declarative structure.