Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation to a number of people for their invaluable assistance in preparation and development of this thesis. My most sincere thanks my tutor, Mr. who gives me lots of advice on designing experiments, including simplifying the manipulation and the ways to control the independent variable. 44264

The Effect of Distal Rhythm on Sound Disambiguation

Abstract  Three experiments designed to investigate the effect of distal rhythm on sound disambiguation. In Experiment 1, three types of duration were manipulated in two word phrase with lexically ambiguous (e.g. xi, an; xian). Proximal rhythm affected the rate which participants heard one word or two words. In Experiment 2, lengthening the experimental materials into 6 word sequences with final word ambiguous and putting on the same three types of duration as Experiment 1 confirm the effect of distal rhythm on word segmentation and the difference between proximal rhythm and distal rhythm. Experiment 3 used the materials of Experiment 2 and was operated under three new types of duration to finally find the specific range of distal rhythm that participants can hear the final word or two words of sequences without confusion. Overall, this research identifies distal duration as a factor in word segmentation and the stronger influence of distal rhythm than the lexical stress itself. 

Keywords: duration; distal rhythm; proximal rhythm; word segmentation 

远距离韵律对消岐音的影响

摘要用三个实验来探究远距离韵律对消岐音的影响。在第一个实验中，将三种音长作用于字面上带有歧义的词组，如“xi an”，既可以组成“西安”，也可以组合“先”。这个实验证明了近距离韵律可以影响被试听到词或词组的概率。在第二个实验中，将实验一中的实验材料加长成带有歧义的6个词序列`优尔|文\论*文-网www.youerw.com，并用与实验二相同的音长作用来进行实验，以此来证明远距离韵律对分割词语的影响以及远距离韵律与近距离韵律的影响不同。实验三的材料与实验二相同，但用了三种新的不同的音长来进行实验，以此来得出被试能够消除歧义，没有太大疑虑地判断出序列的最后，是一个词还是两个词的远距离韵律范围。总的来说，这篇论文证明了远距离韵律是分割词语的影响因素，同时也证明了远距离韵律的作用大于近距离韵律。

毕业论文关键词：音长；远距离韵律；近距离韵律；词语分割

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 3

3. Experiment 1 5

3.1 Method 5

3.1.1 Participants and Design 5

3.1.2 Materials 5

3.1.3 Procedure 6

3.2 Results and Discussion 6

4. Experiment 2 9

4.1 Method 9

4.1.1 Participants and Design 9

4.1.2 Materials 9

4.1.3 Procedure 9

4.2 Results and Discussion 10

5. Experiment 3 12

5.1 Method 12

5.1.1 Participants and Design 12

5.1.2 Materials 12

5.1.3 Procedure 12

5.2 Results and Discussion 12