本研究著重於(1)探討英語母語人士是否能使用中文適當地表達情緒，(2)比較中英文母語人士的情緒語的語音是否有異同。將中英文母語人士可被認知的情緒語音作比較，其中比較的語音特色有音高、音長、音強。藉由比較兩組的語音特質，我們可得知英文母語人士使用中文表達情緒上的困難，也可知道在表達不同情緒時使用不同的語音特色。
藉由劇情引導情緒，參與者必須表達四種基本情緒(開心、生氣、難過、害怕)及普通當作控制變因。分別由十六位英語母語人士及十六位中文母語人士表達這些情緒語，並由另外十六位中文母語人士來評斷這些情緒語是否可被認知。我們將記錄及分析可被認知的情緒語語音特質。本研究所分析的語音特質包括句子的音頻幅度、每一個音節的音頻平均質、句子及音節長度、音節的強度，我們將比較兩組語言人士的語音特質異同及情緒種類的語音特質異同。本研究的發現如下：
(1)中文母語人士的所有情緒語認知率皆高於英文母語人士。其中所有的中文母語人士所表達的情緒語都有很高的認知率，然而由英文母語人士所表達的開心、生氣、害怕卻是得到較低的認知率，導致此結果的原因包括口音、語音信號及文化特有音素的影響。
(2)首先整句話的音頻一起分析，兩組母語人士皆使用相似的音頻幅度，然而兩組母語人士所表達的開心及中文母語人士所表達的害怕皆使用較小的音頻幅度，因為這些情緒的表達皆使用較高且平穩的音頻。當只分析第一句話時，難過相較於普通卻有較高的音頻，這可能是使用中文表達難過時的語音特色之一。由英語母語人士所表達的第二句話有較多的音頻變化，因為藉由這些強烈的語音變化，他們所表達的情緒可更容易被認知。
(3)由英文母語人士所表達的情緒語句子長度皆長於中文母語人士，但是由於兩組間比較基準(普通)的音長有很大的差異，導致在中文母語人士的情緒語中只有生氣有較短的音長。在英文母語人士的情緒語中，有較高活性的情緒皆有較短的語音長度。當比較兩組間的音節長度，只有害怕有較多相似的音節長度；此外，第一、二句話的最後一個音節長度皆有被延長的現象，此現象在第二句話的「的」特別明顯，它延續了前一個音「來」的韻尾。然而，當說話者在表達低活性的情緒如難過，「的」延續前一個音的現象就不會發生，反而變成降落的音調。
(4)兩組語言人士的情緒語音在生氣和開心時皆有較大的語音強度，而在難過及害怕時則使用較低的語音強度。中文母語人士善長使用聲音強度的寬幅來表達不同的情緒，然而，英文母語人士卻傾向於使用相同強度寬幅來表達所有情緒。

This thesis aims to (1) ascertain whether native speakers of English can express emotions successfully in Mandarin Chinese, and (2) examine how emotional expressions by native speakers of English, who are learners of Mandarin, differ from native speakers of Mandarin when the emotional portrayals are recognizable. The recognizable emotional portrayals by native speakers of English are compared with those of native speakers of Mandarin. The acoustic features, including F0 parameters, duration, and the intensity values, are analyzed. By comparing these acoustic features of the two groups, the obstacles on using Mandarin to express emotions by native speakers of English may be revealed and how the acoustic features differ when different emotions are expressed.
The four basic emotions (JOY, ANGER, SADNESS, FEAR) and NEUTRAL as a control were elicited by adopting the scenario approach. The recognition of emotional portrayals from 16 native speakers of English (NS-E) and 16 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese (NS-C) were conducted by 16 native Mandarin raters. The acoustic data of each emotion was recorded to compare prosodic variations between the two groups. F0 range in sentential level, mean F0 of each syllable, the sentential duration, syllabic duration, and the intensity of each segment were analyzed within each emotional expression and compared between the two groups. The findings of this study are summarized as follows:
(1)The recognition rates of all emotion categories in NS-C are higher than those of NS-E. All emotions are recognized well when uttered by NS-C, but JOY, ANGER, FEAR have low recognition rates by NS-E for the cause of accents, vocal cues, and culture-specific components.
(2)Both groups adopt similar F0 range at the whole sentence level; however, JOY in both group and FEAR in the NS-C group have small F0 range since these emotions are pronounced with constantly high pitch and little changes. At the first sentence level, SADNESS has a higher F0 range than NEUTRAL, which could be the characteristics of showing SADNESS in Mandarin. More pitch variations is found in S2 by NS-E as NS-C use stable pitch in high activation emotions, but NS-E use a lot of pitch variations to indicate their emotion changes.
(3)The overall sentence durations of NS-E were longer than NS-C in all emotional categories since level tones tend to be lengthened by the non-native speakers. As the duration of reference point (NEUTRAL) is significantly different between the two groups, only ANGER has fast duration in the NS-C group. Emotions with high activations are all found to have short duration in the NS-E group. As to the comparison of syllable durations between the two groups, there are more segments found to have similar duration in FEAR between the two groups. Also, the final segments in both S1 and S2 are lengthened. The phenomenon is especially found in de5, which reduplicates the tail of the preceding tone, lai2. But when a low activation emotion such as SADNESS is portrayed, it does not reduplicate the preceding tone but has a falling tone.
(4)ANGER and JOY are emotions found with high intensity values, while SADNESS and FEAR are those with low intensity values in both groups. Native speakers are good at using different intensity range to indicate different emotions, but non-native speakers tend to stick to the same intensity range to express all emotions.

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