知识百科：绕口令为什么绕口
大家一定都尝试过各种不同的绕口令。有的时候绕口令太拗口了，你是不是会怪你的舌头不灵活?为什么绕口令这么“绕口”?舌头是最大的问题吗?一起看看下面的文章，也许你会有新的认识。Your tongue is connected to the floor of your mouth by a vertical piece of
tissue called the lingual frenulum (舌系带). In some people the lingual fraenulum
is too short, and this condition causes speech impediments. This can be
corrected through a specific surgery which clips the tissue, allowing for freer
movement of the tongue, and more ease of articulation.
This condition raises the question: Is it the tongue that is responsible
for our inability to say tongue twisters like "toy boat" three times fast? Is
the lingual frenulum too restrictive to allow for such rapid movement? Or is it
a glitch in our brains that accounts for the phenomenon of tongue twisters?
This question has gone unresolved for many years, but some studies point to
the brain as the culprit. Evidence to support this came first from a 1982
experiment conducted by researchers Ralph Haber and Lyn Haber. In their
experiment, college-age test subjects silently read sentences containing tongue
twisters. Sentences that were similar in complexity, but which did not contain
tongue twisters, were used as a control.
Interestingly, the Habers found that it took longer for the subjects to
silently read sentences featuring tongue-twisters than it did sentences that did
not contain them. What's important about the findings is that if our tongues are
to blame, then we should have no problem silently reading sentences with tongue
twisters. The fact that we don't read tongue-twister sentences as quickly
suggests that the brain is the culprit for our troubles with similar-sounding
sentences.
The findings indicate that phonology plays a major role not only in the way
we say words, but also how we process them while reading. When we read, one of
the ways we sort them into comprehensible packages is by the arrangement of the
sounds, or phonemes.
When we're presented with phonemes strung together in difficult
arrangements -- such as the /oy/ leading to /b/ when repeating "toy boat" -- our
tendency to rely in part on phonology may be what trips us up, especially when
coupled with the request to articulate the words in a rapid-fire manner.
It's also possible that your tongue simply isn't capable of performing the
articulation of "toy boat" quickly. /Oy/ is tricky to say before a /b/. To make
the /oy/ sound, the middle your tongue contacts the top of your palate. For the
/b/ sound, your tongue must return to its resting place at the floor of your
mouth, and your lips must part. This difficult movement -- especially in quick
succession -- could also account for this particular tongue twister.
Regardless of whether it's a physical or a cognitive error that is
responsible for tongue twisters, don't feel too badly about not being able to
say "toy boat" three times fast. You're most likely still a very good speaker.
If you're an average person, you make only about one error for every thousand
words you say.
页:
[1]