Tone 3 in Pekinese

A preliminary study on the online processing of anticipatory tonal coarticulation - Evidence from eye movements

While the f0 realization of lexical tones vary extensively in contexts, little has been known on how listeners process the variation in lexical tones due to contextual effects such as tonal coarticulation in spoken word recognition. This study thus aims to fill the knowledge gap in tone perception with evidence from two types of anticipatory tonal coarticulation effects in Tianjin Mandarin, i.e., the slope raising effect due to a following low-falling tone and the overall-height raising effect due to a following low-dipping tone. An eye-tracking experiment with the Visual World Paradigm was carried out to compare participants' eye movements when they heard targets in three types of anticipatory raising conditions, i.e., the Slope Raising condition, the Overall-height Raising condition, as well as the No Raising condition (the baseline). The eye movement results showed significant differences in the proportion of looks to target between the Slope Raising condition versus the other two conditions, whereas the Overall-height Raising condition did not differ significantly from the No Raising condition. The findings thus suggest the facilitatory effect of tonal coarticulation cues in the anticipation of the upcoming tones, but listeners in this study seemed to be only sensitive to the raising in the f0 slope rather than the overall raising in the f0 height.

Encoding category-level and context-specific phonological information at different stages: An EEG study of Mandarin third-tone sandhi word production

Pronunciation of words or morphemes may vary systematically in different phonological contexts, but it remains unclear how different levels of phonological information are encoded in speech production. In this study, we investigated the online planning process of Mandarin Tone 3 (T3) sandhi, a case of phonological alternation whereby a low-dipping tone (T3) changes to a Tone 2 (T2)-like rising tone when followed by another T3. To examine the time course of the encoding of the abstract category-level (underlying form) and context-specific phonological form (surface form) of T3, we conducted an electroencephalographic (EEG) study with a phonologically-primed picture naming task and examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) time-locked to the stimulus onset as well as speech response onset. The behavioral results showed that targets primed by T3 or T2 primes yielded shorter naming latencies than those primed by control primes. Importantly, the EEG data revealed that T3 primes elicited larger positive amplitude over broad frontocentral regions roughly in the 320-550 ms time window of stimulus-locked ERP and -500 to -400 ms time window of response-locked ERP, whereas T2 primes elicited larger negative amplitude over left frontocentral regions roughly in the -240 to -100 ms time window of response-locked ERP. These results indicate that the underlying and the surface form are encoded at different processing stages. The former presumably occurs in the earlier phonological encoding stage, while the latter probably occurs in the later phonetic encoding or motor preparation stage. The current study offers important implications for understanding the processing of phonological alternations and tonal encoding in Chinese word production.

The Role of Categorical Perception and Acoustic Details in the Processing of Mandarin Tonal Alternations in Contexts: An Eye-Tracking Study

This study investigated the perception of Mandarin tonal alternations in disyllabic words. In Mandarin, a low-dipping Tone3 is converted to a high-rising Tone2 when followed by another Tone3, known as third tone sandhi. Although previous studies showed statistically significant differences in F0 between a high-rising Sandhi-Tone3 (T3) and a Tone2, native Mandarin listeners failed to correctly categorize these two tones in perception tasks. The current study utilized the visual-world paradigm in eye-tracking to further examine whether acoustic details in lexical tone aid lexical access in Mandarin. Results showed that Mandarin listeners tend to process Tone2 as Tone2 whereas they tend to first process Sandhi-T3 as both Tone3 and Tone2, then later detect the acoustic differences between the two tones revealed by the sandhi context, and finally activate the target word during lexical access. The eye-tracking results suggest that subtle acoustic details of F0 may facilitate lexical access in automatic fashion in a tone language.

Investigating the Lexical Representation of Mandarin Tone 3 Phonological Alternations

Phonological alternations pose challenges for models of spoken word recognition in how surface information is mapped onto stored representations in the lexicon. In the current study, an auditory-auditory priming lexical decision experiment was conducted to investigate the alternating representations of Mandarin Tone 3 in both half-third and third tone sandhi contexts. In Mandarin, a full Tone 3 (213) is reduced to an abridged tone (21) when followed by Tone 1, Tone 2, or Tone 4 (half-third tone sandhi), and Tone 3 is replaced by Tone 2 when followed by another Tone 3 (third tone sandhi). In the half-third sandhi block, disyllabic targets with a half-third (21) or full-third (213) tone FIRST syllable and a Tone 2 (35) or Tone 4 (51) second syllable were preceded by either a half-third prime, a full-third prime, or a control prime. In the third tone sandhi block, third-tone sandhi disyllabic targets with a half-third or full-third SECOND syllable were preceded by either a half-third prime, a full-third prime, or a control prime. Results showed that both half-third and full-third primes elicited significantly faster reaction times relative to the control Tone 1 condition. The size of the facilitation was not influenced by prime condition, target frequency, targets' first syllable tone or targets' second syllable tone. These data suggest that Mandarin T3 may be a more abstract tone and stored as the first syllable for both types of sandhi words.

The Role of Surface and Underlying Forms When Processing Tonal Alternations in Mandarin Chinese: A Mismatch Negativity Study

Phonological alternation (sound change depending on the phonological environment) poses challenges to spoken word recognition models. Mandarin Chinese T3 sandhi is such a phenomenon in which a tone 3 (T3) changes into a tone 2 (T2) when followed by another T3. In a mismatch negativity (MMN) study examining Mandarin Chinese T3 sandhi, participants passively listened to either a T2 word [tʂu2 je4] /tʂu2 je4/, a T3 word [tʂu3 je4] /tʂu3 je4/, a sandhi word [tʂu2 jen3] /tʂu3 jen3/, or a mix of T3 and sandhi word standards. The deviant in each condition was a T2 word [tʂu2]. Results showed an MMN only in the T2 and T3 conditions but not in the Sandhi or Mix conditions. All conditions also yielded omission MMNs. This pattern cannot be explained based on the surface forms of standards and deviants; rather these data suggest an underspecified or underlying T3 stored linguistic representation used in spoken word processing.

The Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones by Native Speakers of Burmese

This study examines the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native speakers of Burmese who use lexical tones in their first language (L1) but are naïve to Mandarin. Unlike Mandarin tones, which are primarily cued by pitch, Burmese tones are cued by phonation type as well as pitch. The question of interest is whether Burmese listeners can utilize their L1 experience in processing unfamiliar Mandarin tones. Burmese listeners' discrimination accuracy was compared with that of Mandarin listeners and Australian English listeners. The Australian English group was included as a control group with a non-tonal background. Accuracy of perception of six tone pairs (T1-T2, T1-T3, T1-T4, T2-T3, T2-T4, T3-T4) was assessed in a discrimination test. Our main findings are 1) Mandarin listeners were more accurate than non-native listeners in discriminating all tone pairs, 2) Australian English listeners naïve to Mandarin were more accurate than similarly naïve Burmese listeners in discriminating all tone pairs except for T2-T4, and 3) Burmese listeners had the greatest trouble discriminating T2-T3 and T1-T2. Taken together, the results suggest that merely possessing lexical tones in L1 may not necessarily facilitate the perception of non-native tones, and that the active use of phonation type in encoding L1 tones may have played a role in Burmese listeners' less than optimal perception of Mandarin tones.

Tone Attrition in Mandarin Speakers of Varying English Proficiency

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the degree of dominance of Mandarin-English bilinguals' languages affects phonetic processing of tone content in their native language, Mandarin.

METHOD

We tested 72 Mandarin-English bilingual college students with a range of language-dominance profiles in the 2 languages and ages of acquisition of English. Participants viewed 2 photographs at a time while hearing a familiar Mandarin word referring to 1 photograph. The names of the 2 photographs diverged in tone, vowels, or both. Word recognition was evaluated using clicking accuracy, reaction times, and an online recognition measure (gaze) and was compared in the 3 conditions.

RESULTS

Relative proficiency in English was correlated with reduced word recognition success in tone-disambiguated trials, but not in vowel-disambiguated trials, across all 3 dependent measures. This selective attrition for tone content emerged even though all bilinguals had learned Mandarin from birth. Lengthy experience with English thus weakened tone use.

CONCLUSIONS

This finding has implications for the question of the extent to which bilinguals' 2 phonetic systems interact. It suggests that bilinguals may not process pitch information language-specifically and that processing strategies from the dominant language may affect phonetic processing in the nondominant language-even when the latter was learned natively.

The Neural Substrates Underlying the Implementation of Phonological Rule in Lexical Tone Production: An fMRI Study of the Tone 3 Sandhi Phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese

This study examined the neural substrates underlying the implementation of phonological rule in lexical tone by the Tone 3 sandhi phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. Tone 3 sandhi is traditionally described as the substitution of Tone 3 with Tone 2 when followed by another Tone 3 (33 →23) during speech production. Tone 3 sandhi enables the examination of tone processing in the phonological level with the least involvement of segments. Using the fMRI technique, we measured brain activations corresponding to the monosyllable and disyllable sequences of the four Chinese lexical tones, while manipulating the requirement on overt oral response. The application of Tone 3 sandhi to disyllable sequence of Tone 3 was confirmed by our behavioral results. Larger brain responses to overtly produced disyllable Tone 3 (33 > 11, 22, and 44) were found in right posterior IFG by both whole-brain and ROI analyses. We suggest that the right IFG was responsible for the processing of Tone 3 sandhi. Intense temporo-frontal interaction is needed in speech production for self-monitoring. The involvement of the right IFG in tone production might result from its interaction with the right auditory cortex, which is known to specialize in pitch. Future studies using tools with better temporal resolutions are needed to illuminate the dynamic interaction between the right inferior frontal regions and the left-lateralized language network in tone languages.

Representation and Processing of Lexical Tone and Tonal Variants: Evidence from the Mismatch Negativity

Pronunciation variation is ubiquitous in the speech signal. Different models of lexical representation have been put forward to deal with speech variability, which differ in the level as well as the nature of mental representation. We present the first mismatch negativity (MMN) study investigating the effect of allophonic variation on the mental representation and neural processing of lexical tones. Native speakers of Standard Chinese (SC) participated in an oddball electroencephalography (EEG) experiment. All stimuli have the same segments (ma) but different lexical tones: level [T1], rising [T2], and dipping [T3]. In connected speech with a T3T3 sequence, the first T3 may undergo allophonic change and is produced with a rising pitch contour (T3V), similar to the lexical T2 pitch contour. Four oddball conditions were constructed (T1/T3, T3/T1, T2/T3, T3/T2; standard/deviant). All four conditions elicited MMN effects, with the T1–T3 pair eliciting comparable MMNs, but the T2–T3 pair asymmetrical MMN effects. There were significantly greater and earlier MMN effects in the T2/T3 condition than that in the reversed T3/T2 condition. Furthermore, the T3/T2 condition showed more rightward MMN effects than the T2/T3 condition and the T1–T3 pair. Such asymmetries suggest co-activation of long-term memory representations of both T3 and T3V when T3 serves as the standard. The acoustic similarity between the activated T3V (by the standard T3) and the incoming deviant stimulus T2 induces acoustic processing of the tonal contrast in the T3/T2 condition, similar to that of within-category lexical tone processing, which is in contrast to the processing of between-category lexical tones observed in the T2/T3, T1/T3, and T3/T1 conditions.

The role of phonological alternation in speech production: evidence from Mandarin tone sandhi

We investigate the role of phonological alternation during speech production in Mandarin using implicit priming, a paradigm in which participants respond faster to words in sets that are phonologically homogeneous than in sets that are phonologically heterogeneous. We test whether priming is obtained when words in a set share the same tones at the underlying level but have different tones at the surface level-i.e., when the set includes a word that undergoes a phonological alternation which changes the tone. Sets that are heterogeneous at the surface level (in which the heterogeneity is due to a phonological operation) failed to elicit priming, as did sets that are heterogeneous at the underlying and surface levels (in which the heterogeneity is due to the lexical representations). This finding suggests that the phonological alternation was computed before the initiation of articulation, offering evidence that the progression from underlying phonological representations to articulatory execution may be mediated online by phonological input-to-output mapping. Furthermore, sets of words that are heterogeneous only at the surface level showed a different trend than sets of words that are heterogeneous at both levels, suggesting that both the surface and underlying levels of representation play a role during speech production.

Implicit target substitution and sequencing for lexical tone production in Chinese: an FMRI study

In this study, we examine the neural substrates underlying Tone 3 sandhi and tone sequencing in Mandarin Chinese using fMRI. Tone 3 sandhi is traditionally described as the substitution of Tone 3 with Tone 2 when followed by another Tone 3 (i.e., 33→23). According to current speech production models, target substitution is expected to engage the posterior inferior frontal gyrus. Since Tone 3 sandhi is, to some extent, independent of segments, which makes it more similar to singing, right-lateralized activation in this region was predicted. As for tone sequencing, based on studies in sequencing, we expected the involvement of the supplementary motor area. In the experiments, participants were asked to produce twelve four-syllable sequences with the same tone assignment (the repeated sequences) or a different tone assignment (the mixed sequences). We found right-lateralized posterior inferior frontal gyrus activation for the sequence 3333 (Tone 3 sandhi) and left-lateralized activation in the supplementary motor area for the mixed sequences (tone sequencing). We proposed that tones and segments could be processed in parallel in the left and right hemispheres, but their integration, or the product of their integration, is hosted in the left hemisphere.

Influences of lexical tone and pitch on word recognition in bilingual infants

Infants' abilities to discriminate native and non-native phonemes have been extensively investigated in monolingual learners, demonstrating a transition from language-general to language-specific sensitivities over the first year after birth. However, these studies have mostly been limited to the study of vowels and consonants in monolingual learners. There is relatively little research on other types of phonetic segments, such as lexical tone, even though tone languages are very well represented across languages of the world. The goal of the present study is to investigate how Mandarin Chinese-English bilingual learners contend with non-phonemic pitch variation in English spoken word recognition. This is contrasted with their treatment of phonemic changes in lexical tone in Mandarin spoken word recognition. The experimental design was cross-sectional and three age-groups were sampled (7.5months, 9months and 11months). Results demonstrated limited generalization abilities at 7.5months, where infants only recognized words in English when matched in pitch and words in Mandarin that were matched in tone. At 9months, infants recognized words in Mandarin Chinese that matched in tone, but also falsely recognized words that contrasted in tone. At this age, infants also recognized English words whether they were matched or mismatched in pitch. By 11months, infants correctly recognized pitch-matched and - mismatched words in English but only recognized tonal matches in Mandarin Chinese.

The effect of intertalker variations on acoustic-perceptual mapping in Cantonese and Mandarin tone systems

PURPOSE

This study investigates the impact of intertalker variations on the process of mapping acoustic variations on tone categories in two different tone languages.

METHOD

Pitch stimuli manipulated from four voice ranges were presented in isolation through a blocked-talker design. Listeners were instructed to identify the stimuli that they heard as lexical tones in their native language.

RESULTS

Tone identification of Mandarin listeners exhibited relatively stable normalization regardless of the voice, whereas tone identification of Cantonese listeners was unstable and susceptible to the influence of intertalker variations. In the case of Cantonese listeners, intertalker variations had a larger effect on the perception of F0 height dimension than of F0 slope dimension.

CONCLUSION

The comparison between Cantonese and Mandarin listeners' performances reveals an interaction of intertalker variations and the types of tone contrasts in each language. For Cantonese tones, which depend heavily on F0 height distinctions, intertalker variations result in F0 overlapping and, consequently, ambiguities among them in isolated tone perception. For Mandarin tones, which are distinctive in terms of their F0 contours, the differences in F0 contours alone seem sufficient to elicit reliable tone identification. Intertalker variations therefore have relatively limited effect on Mandarin tone perception.

Tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation in Tianjin Chinese

We present in this article an acoustic study on tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation in Tianjin Chinese. Our results indicate that Tianjin tone sandhi is likely influenced by Standard Chinese and is undergoing a number of changes, causing variations and exceptions to the sandhi patterns, and the majority of the sandhis are non-neutralizing, contra traditional descriptions. Tonal coarticulation in Tianjin exhibits a number of well-known cross-linguistic properties: progressive assimilation, regressive dissimilation, a greater progressive effect, and a number of High/ Low asymmetries. Despite the dissimilatory properties observable from both tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation, they seem to have different characteristics, indicating different sources for the two processes.

Effect of intonation on cantonese lexical tones

In tonal languages, there are potential conflicts between the FO-based changes due to the coexistence of intonation and lexical tones. In the present study, the interaction of tone and intonation in Cantonese was examined using acoustic and perceptual analyses. The acoustic patterns of tones at the initial, medial, and final positions of questions and statements were measured. Results showed that intonation affects both the FO level and contour, while the duration of the six tones varied as a function of positions within intonation contexts. All six tones at the final position of questions showed rising FO contour, regardless of their canonical form. Listeners were overall more accurate in the identification of tones presented within the original carrier than of the same tones in isolation. However, a large proportion of tones 33, 21, 23, and 22 at the final position of questions were misperceived as tone 25 both within the original carrier and as isolated words. These results suggest that although the intonation context provided cues for correct tone identification, the intonation-induced changes in FO contour cannot always be perceptually compensated for, resulting in some erroneous perception of the identity of Cantonese tone.

Mismatch negativity to pitch contours is influenced by language experience

A cross-language study utilizing the mismatch negativity (MMN) evoked response was conducted to explore the influence of language experience on the preattentive cortical processing of linguistically relevant pitch contours. Chinese and English subjects were presented with Mandarin Chinese tones while the mismatch negativity (MMN) response was elicited using a passive oddball paradigm. Two oddball conditions were constructed with a common deviant, a low falling rising contour tone (T3). One condition consisted of two tones that are acoustically similar to one another (T2/T3: T2, high rising contour=standard). The other condition consisted of two tones that are acoustically dissimilar to one another (T1/T3: T1, high level=standard). These tonal pairs enabled us to assess whether different degrees of similarity between pitch movements exert a differential influence on preattentive pitch processing. Results showed that the mean MMN amplitude of the Chinese group was larger than that of the English group for the T1/T3 condition. No group differences were found for the T2/T3 condition. The mean MMN amplitude was larger for the T1/T3 relative to the T2/T3 condition for the Chinese group only. By virtue of these language group differences, we infer that early cortical processing of pitch contours may be shaped by the relative saliency of acoustic dimensions underlying the pitch patterns of a particular language.

Learning phonetic categories by tracking movements

We explore in this study how infants may derive phonetic categories from adult input that are highly variable. Neural networks in the form of self-organizing maps (SOMs; ) were used to simulate unsupervised learning of Mandarin tones. In Simulation 1, we trained the SOMs with syllable-sized continuous F(0) contours, produced by multiple speakers in connected speech, and with the corresponding velocity profiles (D1). No attempt was made to reduce the large amount of variability in the input or to add to the input any abstract features such as height and slope of the F(0) contours. In the testing phase, reasonably high categorization rate was achieved with F(0) profiles, but D1 profiles yielded almost perfect categorization of the four tones. Close inspection of the learned prototypical D1 profile clusters revealed that they had effectively eliminated surface variability and directly reflected articulatory movements toward the underlying targets of the four tones as proposed by . Additional simulations indicated that a further learning step was possible through which D1 prototypes with one-to-one correspondence to the tones were derived from the prototype clusters learned in Simulation 1. Implications of these findings for theories of language acquisition, speech perception and speech production are discussed.

Activation of the left planum temporale in pitch processing is shaped by language experience

Implicit, abstract knowledge acquired through language experience can alter cortical processing of complex auditory signals. To isolate prelexical processing of linguistic tones (i.e., pitch variations that convey part of word meaning), a novel design was used in which hybrid stimuli were created by superimposing Thai tones onto Chinese syllables (tonal chimeras) and Chinese tones onto the same syllables (Chinese words). Native speakers of tone languages (Chinese, Thai) underwent fMRI scans as they judged tones from both stimulus sets. In a comparison of native vs. non-native tones, overlapping activity was identified in the left planum temporale (PT). In this area a double dissociation between language experience and neural representation of pitch occurred such that stronger activity was elicited in response to native as compared to non-native tones. This finding suggests that cortical processing of pitch information can be shaped by language experience and, moreover, that lateralized PT activation can be driven by top-down cognitive processing.

Perception of Mandarin lexical tones when F0 information is neutralized

In tone languages, the identity of a word depends on its tone pattern as well as its phonetic structure. The primary cue to tone identity is the fundamental frequency (F0) contour. Two experiments explore spoken word recognition how listeners perceive Mandarin monosyllables in which all or part of the F0 information has been neutralized. In Experiment 1, tone languages supposedly critical portions of the tonal pattern were neutralized with signal processing techniques, yet identification of the tonal pattern remained quite good. In Experiment 2, even more drastic removal of tonal information was tested, using stimuli whispered by Mandarin speakers, or signal processed to remove the pitch cues. Again, performance was surprisingly good, showing that listeners can use secondary cues when the primary cue is unavailable. Moreover, a comparison of tone perception of naturally whispered monosyllables and the signal processed ones suggests that Mandarin speakers promote the utility of secondary cues when they know that the primary cue will be unavailable. The flexible use of cues to tone in Mandarin is similar to the flexibility that has been found in the production and perception of cues to phonetic identity in Western languages.

Depth of phonological recoding in short-term memory

In testing the hypothesis that surface phonetic form is included in short-term memory (STM) representation, the tone sandhi phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese was exploited, and, as a prerequisite, the hypothesis that tonal similarity affects STM of verbal material in a tone language was also tested. In Experiment 1, subjects recalled visually presented sequences of seven monosyllabic Chinese morphemes having either the same tone or different tones. More errors were made on the monotonal sequences than on the multitonal sequences, confirming the effect of tonal similarity on STM. In Experiment 2, subjects recalled visually presented sequences of disyllabic nonsense words. The sequences were designed in such a way that half of them were subject to the tone sandhi rule in Mandarin Chinese, whereas the other half were not. The consequence of applying the tone sandhi rule, as designed, was to make all the first characters in the sequences identical in pronunciation, thus creating potential phonological confusion. More errors, indeed, occurred on the sequences subject to the tone sandhi rule than on those not subject to it, indicating the existence of a surface phonetic representation in STM. The findings in this study provide further insight into the phonological mechanism of STM. Different accounts for this mechanism are also discussed in the light of the new findings.