Perception of Tone by Native Mandarin Chinese Listeners: Optimal Auditory Perception

Previous studies have found the perception of lexical tones associated with task types, acoustic/phonetic aspects of the tones, and language experience. But seldom has the interaction of these factors been studied. To fill the void, the present study, with an empirical experiment of 2x2x2 factorial design, investigated the perception of Mandarin tones by native listeners of Mandarin Chinese, who discriminated between pair-wise tone inputs from the right ear. The pair-wise stimuli consisted of familiar tonal contrasts versus unfamiliar contrasts. The stimuli were presented in speech sounds (i.e., real tones) versus in non-speech sounds (sinewave tones). The subjects were required to judge whether pair-wise tone tokens fitted into the same tone category (category discrimination) versus whether they were exactly identical (auditory discrimination). The study revealed that the perception of Mandarin tones is influenced significantly by task types and familiarity with the F0 contours. However, the effect of phonetics varies depending on the interaction of task types and familiarity with the F0 contours. The subjects performed better in nonspeech context than in speech context on two conditions: (1) in the category discrimination between familiar tonal contrasts, and (2) in the auditory (non-categorical) discrimination between unfamiliar tonal contrasts

Pitch ability as an aptitude for tone learning

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience completed a Mandarin word learning task, as well as tests of pitch ability, musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability. Pitch ability measures improved predictions of learning performance beyond musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability and also predicted transfer of learning to new talkers. In sum, although certain nontonal measures help predict successful tone learning, the central components of tonal aptitude are pitch-specific perceptual measures

Context effects on second-language learning of tonal contrasts.

Studies of lexical tone  learning generally focus on monosyllabic contexts, while reports of phonetic learning benefits associated with input variability are based largely on experienced learners. This study trained inexperienced learners on Mandarin tonal contrasts to test two hypotheses regarding the influence of context and variability on tone  learning. The first hypothesis was that increased phonetic variability of tones in disyllabic contexts makes initial tone  learning more challenging in disyllabic than monosyllabic words. The second hypothesis was that the learnability of a given tone varies across contexts due to differences in tonal variability. Results of a word learning experiment supported both hypotheses: tones were acquired less successfully in disyllables than in monosyllables, and the relative difficulty of disyllables was closely related to contextual tonal variability. These results indicate limited relevance of monosyllable-based data on Mandarin learning for the disyllabic majority of the Mandarin lexicon. Furthermore, in the short term, variability can diminish learning; its effects are not necessarily beneficial but dependent on acquisition stage and other learner characteristics. These findings thus highlight the importance of considering contextual variability and the interaction between variability and type of learner in the design, interpretation, and application of research on phonetic learning

The Influence of Tone Inventory on ERP without Focal Attention: A Cross-Language Study

This study investigates the effect of tone inventories on brain activities underlying pitch without focal attention. We find that the electrophysiological responses to across-category stimuli are larger than those to within-category stimuli when the pitch contours are superimposed on nonspeech stimuli; however, there is no electrophysiological response difference associated with category status in speech stimuli. Moreover, this category effect in nonspeech stimuli is stronger for Cantonese speakers. Results of previous and present studies lead us to conclude that brain activities to the same native lexical tone contrasts are modulated by speakers’ language experiences not only in active phonological processing but also in automatic feature detection without focal attention. In contrast to the condition with focal attention, where phonological processing is stronger for speech stimuli, the feature detection (pitch contours in this study) without focal attention as shaped by language background is superior in relatively regular stimuli, that is, the nonspeech stimuli. The results suggest that Cantonese listeners outperform Mandarin listeners in automatic detection of pitch features because of the denser Cantonese tone system

Tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation in Fuzhou Min

This study examines the completeness of Fuzhou tonal neutralisation and its interaction with tonal coarticulation. In Fuzhou, Tone 44, 242 and 53 are allegedly neutralised into Tone 44 preceding Tone 53. Acoustic data, analysed with Linear Mixed Modelling, show no significant difference in pitch height between neutralised tones, suggesting complete neutralisation in production. A forcedchoice identification test reveals that Fuzhou speakers are unable to distinguish these neutralised tones perceptually. Further acoustic data show how the output of categorical tone sandhi may be modified by tonal coarticulation, with dissimilatory effects superimposed on the sandhi tone.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from International Phonetic Association: London via https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2015/Papers/ICPHS0939.pd

Perception of nonnative tonal contrasts by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin sequential bilinguals

This study examined the role of acquisition order and crosslinguistic similarity in influencing transfer at the initial stage of perceptually acquiring a tonal third language (L3). Perception of tones in Yoruba and Thai was tested in adult sequential bilinguals representing three different first (L1) and second language (L2) backgrounds: L1 Mandarin-L2 English (MEBs), L1 English-L2 Mandarin (EMBs), and L1 English-L2 intonational/non-tonal (EIBs). MEBs outperformed EMBs and EIBs in discriminating L3 tonal contrasts in both languages, while EMBs showed a small advantage over EIBs on Yoruba. All groups showed better overall discrimination in Thai than Yoruba, but group differences were more robust in Yoruba. MEBs’ and EMBs’ poor discrimination of certain L3 contrasts was further reflected in the L3 tones being perceived as similar to the same Mandarin tone; however, EIBs, with no knowledge of Mandarin, showed many of the same similarity judgments. These findings thus suggest that L1 tonal experience has a particularly facilitative effect in L3 tone perception, but there is also a facilitative effect of L2 tonal experience. Further, crosslinguistic perceptual similarity between L1/L2 and L3 tones, as well as acoustic similarity between different L3 tones, play a significant role at this early stage of L3 tone acquisition.Published versio

Speaker normalization in the perception of Mandarin Chinese tones

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/102/3/10.1121/1.420092.This study investigated speaker normalization in perception of Mandarin tone 2 (midrising) and tone 3 (low-falling–rising) by examining listeners’ use of F0 range as a cue to speaker identity. Two speakers were selected such that tone 2 of the low-pitched speaker and tone 3 of the high-pitched speaker occurred at equivalent F0 heights. Production and perception experiments determined that turning point (or inflection point of the tone), and ΔF0 (the difference in F0 between onset and turning point) distinguished the two tones. Three tone continua varying in either turning point, ΔF0, or both acoustic dimensions, were then appended to a natural precursor phrase from each of the two speakers. Results showed identification shifts such that identical stimuli were identified as low tones for the high precursor condition, but as high tones for the low precursor condition. Stimuli varying in turning point showed no significant shift, suggesting that listeners normalize only when the precursor varies in the same dimension as the stimuli. The magnitude of the shift was greater for stimuli varying only in ΔF0, as compared to stimuli varying in both turning point and ΔF0, indicating that normalization effects are reduced for stimuli more closely matching natural speech

Acoustic Realization and Perception of English Lexical Stress by Mandarin Learners

The acquisition of English lexical stress by Mandarin L2 learners was examined. An acoustic study focusing on the implementation of mean F0, max F0, duration, intensity, and F2 in stressed and unstressed vowels in noun-verb word pairs contrasting in stress location (e.g. object-object) was conducted. The results indicate that native English speakers use all correlates in nouns but rely mostly on duration in verbs. The learners use these cues more consistently across different contexts. A perceptual study utilizing the disyllabic nonword 'dada', with resynthesized max F0, duration, and vowel quality indicates that full vowels induce stronger stress perception in all listener groups. Beginning listeners relied on duration, advanced listeners focused on max F0, while native listeners used both in perception. The similarities and differences in prosodic systems between Mandarin and English, as well as the possible discrepancies in production and perception data from second language learning research were discussed

Language-specificity in auditory perception of Chinese tones

PL1213, LoC Subject Headings: Auditory perception, Chinese language--Tone, Chinese language--Phonolog