Chinese tone and intonation perceived by L1 and L2 listeners

Abstract

Pitch is used in Chinese both at the word level to differentiate between four (or more) lexical tones and at the sentence level. A functional view claims that if some phonetic dimension is exploited in one area of the grammar (including the phonology) it will not be used to the same extent in another part of the phonology. We addressed the issue by asking how well learners of Chinese as a second language (L2) perceive pitch variations at word and sentence-levels. We assume that if there is competition between these two uses of pitch, we should expect L2 speakers whose native language (L1) is a tone language to be more sensitive to lexical tones and less sensitive to sentence intonation than L2 speakers whose L1 is a non-tone language. Eighty-one Chinese-speaking (Beijing dialect) subjects participated in two laboratorycontrolled perception experiments, on lexical tone and sentence intonation (statement vs. question), in which we manipulated the intonation contour of an entire utterance as well as that of the final syllable. We recruited one group of L1 listeners (native Beijing speakers) and three groups of L2 listeners, i.e. two groups with a tone-language L1 (Nantong and Changsha dialect) and one group with non-tone language L1 (Uygur, an Altaic language). Results revealed that in perceiving tones and intonation in Beijing dialect, relative to L1 performance, L2 listeners with a non-tone-language L1 (Uygur) proved less sensitive to lexical tones but were at the same time more sensitive to intonation than L2 listeners with a tone-language L1. These results support the functional view, i.e., if some phonetic dimension is exploited in one area of the grammar, e.g. lexical tones, it will not be used to the same extent in another part of the phonology, e.g. sentence intonation. CHINESE TONE AND INTONATION PERCEIVED BY L1 AND L2 LISTENERS 3