A study on the features of chest and abodominal breathing between reciting and chanting Chinese poetry

Abstract

This research studies the features of chest and abdominal breathing between reciting and chanting Chinese poems of different styles. Eight participants were recruited to recite and chant 85 modern style poems and 39 Song poems. The chest and abdominal breathing signals as well as speech signal were recorded simultaneously. Programs for breathing analysis have been written to extract parameters, such as breathing reset amplitude, time of inhalation phase, and slope of exhalation phase. The results show that the poem chanting has a larger depth of breathing and amount of breath, and more frequent exhalations compared with the poem reciting. In both poem reciting and chanting, the pause and declination of chest breathing is closely correlated with the prosodic boundaries. The major function of chest breathing in speaking is to keep the chest extended and provide enough breath for articulation and chest resonance. The function of abdominal breathing is to provide stable sub-glottal pressure through contraction of abdominal muscle and diaphragm, controlling continuous airflow to produce continuous sound.