Acoustic differences in adult-directed and child-directed monosyllabic Mandarin tone productions

Abstract

To investigate the acoustic differences in adult- and child-directed monosyllabic Mandarin tone productions, twenty-one mothers of preschool children labeled pictures that represented monosyllabic words to their children and to another adult. Their productions were low-pass filtered to eliminate lexical information. Five judges determined the target tones based on the filtered stimuli. Acoustic analyses were performed on the productions in which the target tones were correctly identified by four or more of the judges. Preliminary results showed no duration difference in the four tones in adult-directed and child-directed productions. Overall, all the four tones were produced at significantly higher f0s in child-directed productions than in adult-directed productions. Specifically, child-directed Tone 1 productions were produced at significantly higher f0s, and the f0 contours exhibited higher positive f0 slopes and were not as level as in adult-directed Tone 1 productions. Child-directed Tone 2 productions were produced at higher f0s, spanned at larger f0 ranges but maintained the same rising slopes as in adult-directed productions. Child-directed Tone 3 and Tone 4 productions had the same f0 shapes as in adult-directed productions but were produced at higher f0s (Work supported by NIDCD).