Question

有没有哪位救苦救难的英语高手翻译下下面的论文，在下不胜感激。有关语言学的，我快被老师逼疯了，救命！

4.1 Results for Mandarin speakers
The results of this study revealed a difference in the Mandarin group’s perception of the Tone 1/Tone 4 and Tone 2/Tone 3 contrasts. The difference suggests that despite the fact that all the four tones were selected in the same way, the similarities between Tones 2 and 3 may have created confusion not only for the non-native listeners but also for the native listeners. The results are not too surprising given that Tones 2 and 3 have been identified in a number of studies as one of the most confusing tone pairs in Mandarin (Blicher et al. 1990, Huang 2001, Kiriloff 1969, Li and Thompson 1977, and Sun 1998). Apparently, the 184 Xianghua Wu, Hua Lin confusion is due to the similarities in the occurrence of the turning point and the F0 difference between the tonal onset and the turning point. Shen and Lin (1990) suggest that the timing of the turning point and the F0 difference between the tonal onset and the turning point have to meet a threshold; that is, the turning points are at 14% and 48% of the total duration for Tone 2 and Tone 3, respectively, while the F0 difference between the tonal onset and the turning point is 17.5 Hz for Tone 2 and 38.6 Hz for Tone 3 (p. 152). Therefore, those tones with the turning point occurring between 14% and 48%, and the F0 difference which ranges from 17.5 to 38.6Hz between the tonal onset and the turning point is most likely to cause confusion. In this study, both Tones 2 and 3 fall into the confusion range: the turning point was at 27% for Tone 2 and 40% for Tone 3 of the total pitch length, whereas the F0 between the tonal onset and the turning point was 29.8 Hz for Tone 2 and 47.25 Hz for Tone 3. Thus it is clear that because of the loss of certain perceptual cues due partially to the fact that the tokens for the two tones were synthesized using the same duration, the tokens on the Tone2/Tone3 continuum in this study were difficult for the native Mandarin speakers to identify and discriminate accurately.
4.2 Results for English speakers
non-categorically. Nevertheless, as observed by Hallé et al. (2004), speakers of non-tone languages have substantial sensitivity when perceiving lexical tones. This is confirmed in this study in which the identification curves exhibit sigmoid shapes and steep slopes on both continua not only for the Mandarin group but also for the English group. Moreover, the English listeners with prior music training exhibited significantly higher advantage in the discrimination of Mandarin tone contrasts.

Answer 1

！！！！！声明：1.文章是我自己翻译的，所以文章中专业名词为我根据理解臆造的，请自己查证。（学这个专业的肯定能看懂）2. 没有查询相关专业知识，也没有更多的前后文和背景知识，所以不足之处请斧正。

4.1关于汉语言者的研究结果

这项研究展示了汉语言者对第一声和第四声以及第二声和第三声之间的对比的不懂看法。这种不同表明，尽管这四个声调是有相同的方式定义的但是第二声和第三声之间的相似性导致了这种困惑，这种困惑不仅困扰着学习汉语的外国人，就连说汉语的中国人也觉得困扰。但是这一结论也不是特并令人惊讶，因为此前已有多项研究表明第二声和第三声是汉语中最容易让人困惑的一对音调。表面上来看，这种（184吴向华、林华）困惑是由于转调点的相似和起调和转调点之间的基频差所导致的。沈、林二人指出，转音点的时间和基频差都有一个临界值；也就是说，第二声和第三声的转音点分别位于音长的14%和48%处；同样地，第二声和第三声的起音和转音之间的的基频差分别为17.5赫兹和36.8赫兹。因此，那些转音点在音长的14%---48%之间、基频差在17.5---38.6赫兹之间的音调就会产生混淆。在这项研究中，第二声和第三声都陷入了这个混淆区，他们的转音点分别为27%和40%处，而基频差分别为29.8赫兹和47.25赫兹。因此我们能很清楚地知道，由于这两个音之间共用了一段相同的标记区，一定程度上导致了某些感知线索的遗失，所以在这项研究中普通话为母语者很难准确地识别和区分在第二声和第三声的连续体上的标记。

4.2关于英语语言者的研究结果

虽然不能断言，但是根据Hallé et al. (2004)的研究， 非音调语言者对于音调的感知也是相当敏感的。这项研究也确认了这点，因为不管是汉语组还是英语组的识别曲线都呈现出S型和陡坡型。而且接受过音乐训练的英语语言者在对汉语音调的区分方面显得更敏锐一些。

以上为整篇翻译，以下为逐句对照。

4.1 Results forMandarin speakers关于汉语言者的研究结果
The results of this study revealed adifference in the Mandarin group’s perception of the Tone 1/Tone 4 and Tone2/Tone 3 contrasts.这项研究展示了汉语言者对第一声和第四声以及第二声和第三声之间的对比的不懂看法。 The differencesuggests that despite the fact that all the four tones were selected in thesame way, the similarities between Tones 2 and 3 may have created confusion notonly for the non-native listeners but also for the native listeners. 这种不同表明，尽管这四个声调是有相同的方式定义的但是第二声和第三声之间的相似性导致了这种困惑，这种困惑不仅困扰着学习汉语的外国人，就连说汉语的中国人也觉得困扰。The results are
not too surprising given that Tones 2 and 3 have been identified in a number ofstudies as one of the most confusing tone pairs in Mandarin (Blicher et al.1990, Huang 2001, Kiriloff 1969, Li and Thompson 1977, and Sun 1998). 但是这一结论也不是特并令人惊讶，因为此前已有多项研究表明第二声和第三声是汉语中最容易让人困惑的一对音调。Apparently, the184 Xianghua Wu, Hua Lin confusion is due to the similarities in the occurrenceof the turning point and the F0 difference between the tonal onset and the turning point. 表面上来看，这种（184吴向华、林华）困惑是由于转调点的相似和起调和转调点之间的基频差所导致的。Shen and Lin(1990) suggest that the timing of the turning point and the F0 differencebetween the tonal onset and the turning point have to meet a threshold; 沈、林二人指出，转音点的时间和基频差都有一个临界值；that is, the turning points are at 14% and 48% of the
total duration for Tone 2 and Tone 3, respectively, while the F0 difference
between the tonal onset and the turning point is 17.5 Hz for Tone 2 and 38.6 Hz
for Tone 3 (p. 152).也就是说，第二声和第三声的转音点分别位于音长的14%和48%处；同样地，第二声和第三声的起音和转音之间的的基频差分别为17.5赫兹和36.8赫兹。Therefore, those tones with the turningpoint occurring between 14% and 48%, and the F0 difference which ranges from17.5 to 38.6Hz between the tonal onset and the turning point is most likely tocause confusion. 因此，那些转音点在音长的14%---48%之间、基频差在17.5---38.6赫兹之间的音调就会产生混淆。In this study, both Tones 2 and 3 fall into the confusionrange: the turning point was at 27% for Tone 2 and 40% for Tone 3 of the totalpitch length, whereas the F0 between the tonal onset and the turning point was29.8 Hz for Tone 2 and 47.25 Hz for Tone 3. 在这项研究中，第二声和第三声都陷入了这个混淆区，他们的转音点分别为27%和40%处，而基频差分别为29.8赫兹和47.25赫兹。Thus it is clear that because of the loss of certain perceptual cues due
partially to the fact that the tokens for the two tones were synthesized usingthe same duration,the tokens on the Tone2/Tone3 continuum in this study weredifficult for the native Mandarin speakers to identify and discriminateaccurately.因此我们能很清楚地知道，由于这两个音之间共用了一段相同的标记区，一定程度上导致了某些感知线索的遗失，所以在这项研究中普通话为母语者很难准确地识别和区分在第二声和第三声的连续体上的标记。

4.2 Results for English speakers关于英语语言者的研究结果
Non-categorically. Nevertheless, asobserved by Hallé et al. (2004), speakers of non-tone languages havesubstantial sensitivity when perceiving lexical tones.虽然不能断言，但是根据Hallé et al. (2004)的研究， 非音调语言者对于音调的感知也是相当敏感的。This is confirmed in this study in which the identification curves exhibit sigmoid shapes andsteep slopes on both continua not only for the Mandarin group but also for theEnglish group. 这项研究也确认了这点，因为不管是汉语组还是英语组的识别曲线都呈现出S型和陡坡型。Moreover, the English listeners with prior music training exhibitedsignificantly higher advantage in the discrimination of Mandarin tonecontrasts.而且接受过音乐训练的英语者在对汉语音调的区分方面显得更敏锐一些。