Intonation perception in English: Effects of stimulus amplitude and listeners’ language background

Abstract

The contour of fundamental frequency (F0) of the final word is the primary acoustic cue for intonation production and perception in English utterances. On the other hand, speakers of Mandarin Chinese may have to use other acoustic cues such as amplitude and duration rather than F0 contours to differentiate intonation contrasts since F0 contours carry lexical meaning in Mandarin Chinese. The goal of this study was to examine the role of the final word amplitude in intonation perception of English sentences. The final word amplitude was manipulated at three levels relative to the carrier sentence: −6, 0, and +6 dB. F0 contours of the final word were controlled continuously from falling to rising patterns. Listeners’ task was to identify the sentence intonation: question or statement. Preliminary results showed the intonation boundary shifted from slightly falling F0 contours to slightly rising F0 contours as the final word amplitude decreased for Chinese listeners, but the boundary did not change for the three amplitudes for English listeners. These results imply that Chinese listeners may use the final word amplitude as a secondary cue to perceive intonation contrasts in English, while English listeners may primarily rely on F0 contours for intonation perception.