Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T23:57:24.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tuning out tone errors? Native listeners do not down-weight tones when hearing unsystematic tone errors in foreign-accented Mandarin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2020

Eric Pelzl Open the ORCID record for Eric Pelzl [Opens in a new window] ,
Matthew T. Carlson ,
Taomei Guo ,
Carrie N. Jackson  and
Janet G. van Hell
Eric Pelzl*
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
Matthew T. Carlson
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
Taomei Guo
Affiliation:
Beijing Normal University
Carrie N. Jackson
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
Janet G. van Hell
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
*
Address for correspondence: Eric Pelzl, E-mail: pelzlea@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Listeners can adapt to errors in foreign-accented speech, but not all errors are alike. We investigated whether exposure to unsystematic tone errors in second language Mandarin impacts responses to accurately produced words. Native Mandarin speakers completed a cross-modal priming task with words produced by foreign-accented talkers who either produced consistently correct tones, or frequent tone errors. Facilitation from primes bearing correct tones was unaffected by the presence of tone errors elsewhere in the talker's speech. However, primes bearing tone errors inhibited recognition of real words and elicited stronger accentedness ratings. We consider theoretical implications for tone in foreign-accent adaptation.

Keywords

foreign-accented speechadaptationcross-modal priminglexical tonesMandarin
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 215 - 222
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baese-Berk, MM, Bradlow, AR and Wright, BA (2013) Accent-independent adaptation to foreign accented speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 133, EL174–EL180. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4789864CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, D, Mächler, M, Bolker, B and Walker, S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67, 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradlow, AR and Bent, T (2008) Perceptual adaptation to non-native speech. Cognition 106, 707–729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brehm, L, Jackson, CN and Miller, KL (2019) Speaker-specific processing of anomalous utterances. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 72, 764–778, 174702181876554. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818765547CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cai, Q and Brysbaert, M (2010) SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles. PLoS One 5, e10729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, NF, Wee, D, Tong, R, Ma, B and Li, H (2016) Large-scale characterization of non-native Mandarin Chinese spoken by speakers of European origin: Analysis on iCALL. Speech Communication 84, 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2016.07.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y and Xu, Y (2006) Production of Weak Elements in Speech – Evidence from F0 Patterns of Neutral Tone in Standard Chinese. Phonetica 63, 47–75. https://doi.org/10.1159/000091406CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, CM and Garrett, MF (2004) Rapid adaptation to foreign-accented English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 116, 3647. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1815131CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grey, S and Van Hell, JG (2017) Foreign-accented speaker identity affects neural correlates of language comprehension. Journal of Neurolinguistics 42, 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2016.12.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grohe, A.-K, Poarch, GJ, Hanulíková, A and Weber, A (2015) Production inconsistencies delay adaptation to foreign accents. Sixteenth Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ann_Kathrin_Grohe/publication/281741688_Production_inconsistencies_delay_adaptation_to_foreign_accents/links/55f68fed08ae1d9803976fc7.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hanulíková, A, van Alphen, PM, van Goch, MM and Weber, A (2012) When one person's mistake is another's standard usage: The effect of foreign accent on syntactic processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 24, 878–887.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopp, H (2016) Learning (not) to predict: Grammatical gender processing in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 32, 277–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658315624960CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idemaru, K and Holt, LL (2011) Word recognition reflects dimension-based statistical learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 37, 1939–1956. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025641Google ScholarPubMed
Kleinschmidt, DF and Jaeger, TF (2015) Robust speech perception: Recognize the familiar, generalize to the similar, and adapt to the novel. Psychological Review 122, 148–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038695CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C-Y (2007) Does horse activate mother? Processing lexical tone in form priming. Language and Speech 50, 101–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309070500010501CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, W-S and Zee, E (2014) Chinese phonetics. In Huang, C-TJ, Li, Y-HA and Simpson, A (eds), The handbook of Chinese linguistics. Wiley Blackwell, pp. 369–399.Google Scholar
Lev-Ari, S (2015) Comprehending non-native speakers: Theory and evidence for adjustment in manner of processing. Frontiers in Psychology 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01546CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQueen, JM and Huettig, F (2012) Changing only the probability that spoken words will be distorted changes how they are recognized. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131, 509–517. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3664087CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miracle, WC (1989) Tone production of American students of Chinese: A preliminary acoustic study. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 24, 49–65.Google Scholar
Mitterer, H, Chen, Y and Zhou, X (2011) Phonological abstraction in processing lexical-tone variation: Evidence from a learning paradigm. Cognitive Science 35, 184–197. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01140.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pelzl, E (2018) Second language lexical representation and processing of Mandarin Chinese tones. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2019) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. http://www.R-project.org/Google Scholar
Reinisch, E and Holt, LL (2014) Lexically guided phonetic retuning of foreign-accented speech and its generalization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 40, 539–555. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034409Google ScholarPubMed
Samuel, AG and Larraza, S (2015) Does listening to non-native speech impair speech perception? Journal of Memory and Language 81, 51–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.01.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sereno, JA and Lee, H (2014) The contribution of segmental and tonal information in Mandarin spoken word processing. Language and Speech 58, 131–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830914522956CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, XS (1989) Toward a register approach in teaching Mandarin tones. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 24, 27–47.Google Scholar
Shuai, L and Malins, JG (2017) Encoding lexical tones in jTRACE: A simulation of monosyllabic spoken word recognition in Mandarin Chinese. Behavior Research Methods 49, 230–241. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0690-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Casteren, M and Davis, MH (2006) Mix, a program for pseudorandomization. Behavior Research Methods 38, 584–589. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193889CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Y, Jongman, A and Sereno, JA (2003) Acoustic and perceptual evaluation of Mandarin tone productions before and after perceptual training. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 113, 1033. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1531176CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Witteman, MJ, Weber, A and McQueen, JM (2014) Tolerance for inconsistency in foreign-accented speech. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 21, 512–519. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0519-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xie, X and Myers, EB (2017) Learning a talker or learning an accent: Acoustic similarity constrains generalization of foreign accent adaptation to new talkers. Journal of Memory and Language 97, 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.07.005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xie, X, Weatherholtz, K, Bainton, L, Rowe, E, Burchill, Z, Liu, L and Jaeger, TF (2018) Rapid adaptation to foreign-accented speech and its transfer to an unfamiliar talker. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143, 2013–2031. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5027410CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, H (2010) Phonological universals and tonal acquisition. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 45, 39–65.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Pelzl et al. Supplementary Materials

Pelzl et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Pelzl et al. Supplementary Materials(PDF)
PDF 440.3 KB