Differentiated Prosodic Adaption of Chinese and English Poetry: An Acoustic Approach to Reading of Chinese Tang Poetry and Shakespearean Sonnets

This paper explored the prosodic patterns of Chinese and English poetry reading as well as similarities and differences between them, based on the theory of Poetic Function and the Genre-specific Hypothesis. Duration, pitch and intensity patterns of a total of 110 poems read by 5 native English speakers and 6 Chinese native speakers were analyzed and the results demonstrated that both Chinese and English poetry reading realized the rhythm scheme through intensity range, but differed in the adoption of other acoustic cues for other properties respectively. Chinese native speakers applied duration to realize semantic rhythm while English native speakers adopted pitch to realize meter. This paper also has implications for the teaching of poetry reading, improving readers' understanding and appreciation of Chinese and English poetry.