The effect of phonotactic structure on novel lexical tone perception

Abstract

Results from several studies suggest that the tonal status of the listener’s first language (L1) accurately predicts novel tone discrimination ability. However, other studies show that novel tone discrimination is more complex than a simple dichotomy between tonal and non-tonal L1s, and that L1 prosodic features and acoustic properties of the target tones interact in predicting accuracy. The current study furthers this literature by examining phonotactic factors affecting novel tone discrimination. We examine the interaction between L1 and syllable structure in predicting discrimination accuracy. Tone discrimination studies typically operate under the implicit or explicit hypothesis that consonant-vowel (CV) syllables with familiar segments are the best tokens to use for tone perception tests. We test this hypothesis by including syllable structure as a predictor. This permits the examination of the interaction between L1 and syllable structure, as well as the effect of unfamiliar phonotactic structures on novel tone discrimination via consonant-consonant-vowel (CCV) syllables for native Mandarin participants and CV syllables with /ŋ/ onsets for native English participants. The results of the current study shed light on the effect of L1 background on novel tone discrimination across syllable types, as well as the effects of unfamiliar phonotactic structures on discrimination sensitivity.