The development of the perception of Cantonese lexical tones

Abstract

This study investigated the development of Cantonese tone perception. Fifteen listeners were tested for each of four age groups: 4, 6 and 10 years old and adults. The stimuli were the six contrastive Cantonese tones produced with the monosyllabic target word /ji/, for which each tone represented a concrete object. The six target words were produced by a male native speaker of Cantonese within a carrier phrase. Listeners had to identify the target words, presented within the carrier phrase, by selecting one of two pictures. These pictures represented one of eight minimal pair contrasts: High Level &#118 - &#118 Mid Level; High Level &#118 - &#118 Low Level; Mid Level &#118 - &#118 Low Level; High Level &#118 - &#118 High Rising; High Rising &#118 - &#118 Low Rising; Low Rising &#118 - &#118 Low Level; Low Falling &#118 - &#118 Low Rising; Low Falling &#118 - &#118 Low Level. Overall, performance improved from age 4;0 to age 6;0, and from age 6;0 to age 10;0. By 10 years of age, children performed as accurately as adults. The Mid Level &#118 - &#118 Low Level and the High Rising &#118 - &#118 Low Rising contrasts were perceived with lower overall accuracy than all other contrasts. The differences in the relative level of difficulty among contrasts was explained in terms of the similarity in the fundamental frequency contour and range between the members of tone pairs. The results support the idea that the perception of lexical tones achieves adult performance at about 10 years of age.