Syllable Contrastive Study Between English And Chinese

The thesis makes a systematic contrastive study between English and Chinese syllables generally concentrating on their differences.In the current syllable contrastive study between English and Chinese, there are several weak points. 1) The contrastive studies, especially the ones specializing in differences, are not systematic;2) The contrastive study mainly concentrates on the phonetic aspect. A great deal of work is done from the angle of structure, while other important aspects such as function and usage do not receive enough concern that they deserve. 3) Most of those studies are inclined to compare Chinese syllables by the criterion of English syllables, thus the characteristics of Chinese syllables are not thoroughly digged out.Taking these weak points of the former studies into consideration, the paper mainly adopts inductive method, statistical method, contrastive method and descriptive method, and has done some work in the following aspects: 1) Comparing English syllables and Chinese syllables from various angles. From internal, the paper studies from constituents, structure types, and structure layers. From external, the paper studies from juncture, usage and function;2) Paying more attention to the differences rather than similarities. The paper has got several pairs of relative characteristics from different aspects: being pieced together and unity, diversity and simplicity, one dimension and two-dimension, continuity and discreteness, nonreversibility and reversibility, structurity and meaning-directivity;3) Conducting the study on different levels and in a systematic way. The paper makes a summary of the main characteristics of English and Chinese syllables. Finally, the paper makes a conclusion at relative linearity and nonlinearity.The thesis has both theoretical and practical value. From the aspect of theory, it can not only help us to get a deeper understanding of the English and Chinese syllables, but also enable us to understand the essential characteristics of English and Chinese languages. The basic unit of a system can usually show the nature of the whole system. Syllable is the smallest phonetic structure unit that can be intuitivelyidentified. The analysis of the differences between English and Chinese syllables will do us a favor in understanding the main characteristics and the differences of the two language systems. English syllables have linear features because English is a grammatical language;Chinese syllables have nonlinear features because Chinese belongs to semantic language. From the practical point of view, the systematic contrastive description and summary of the main characteristics of English and Chinese syllables on different levels is also of some directive significance to the phonetic teaching practice of the native speakers of English learning Chinese as well as the native speakers of Chinese learning English as the second language.