Downstep in pitch contour of Chinese Putonghua is examined using subtly designed sentences by controlling tone combinations. The results show both automatic and nonautomatic downstep phenomena exist in Chinese. In non-automatic downstep, low tones compress downwards the pitch range of the following syllables. and the main influence of downstep is on topline. Low tone not only lower the topline behind it, but also raise the high tones before it, the effects are compatible with each other. In automatic downstep, the topline of pitch contour in intonational phrase is presented as a linear downtrend, but it differs among speakers due to the effect of personal stress practice. In comparison with downstep phenomenon in other tone or non-tone languages, the downstep ratio in Chinese is not constant, and the domain of downstep is not limited within the adjacent tones.
The acoustic and perceptive characteristics of discourse units, including clauses, simple sentences, compound sentences and paragraphs, were studied. The acoustic characteristics were based on the analysis of a speech corpus consisted of ten monologues. The Perceived Boundary Strength （PBS） of the monologues was labeled on a five-point scale by 25 partici- pants. The main results are as follows： （1） There is a significant difference in the PBS of clauses （corresponding to intonational phrase）, sentences （including simple sentences and compound sentences） and paragraphs. But the PBS of simple sentences and compound sentences is the same, and the pitch reset and pause are also not significantly different between these two kinds of boundaries. （2） The pitch-based cue used to distinguish clauses, sentences and paragraphs appears to be the difference between pre- and post-boundary syllables, but not simply the pitch value of either syllable alone. （3） Declination mainly occurs within intonational phrases, whereas there is no consistent global declination in sentences or in paragraphs. （4） Pauses are longer and more varied at the boundary of larger discourse units. Moreover, there is a significant positive correlation between pause duration and degree of pitch reset at clause boundaries, but not at sentence or paragraph boundaries.
The perceptive multi-dimension structure of Chinese syllables is studied by psychological-physical experiment. The results indicate that FO and duration are interrelated to two main dimensions of the perceptive structure of Chinese syllable. And the prosodic characteristics such as the position of syllable in prosodic hierarchical structure, as well as the stress will be induced the various distribution of syllable in perception space.
