Cantonese-English Bilinguals Research Articles

Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Variation in Bilingual Speech: Cantonese /n/ > [l] Merger in Early Cantonese-English Bilinguals.

/n/ is merging with /l/ in Cantonese, as well as in several other Chinese languages. The Cantonese merger appears categorical, with /n/ becoming /l/ syllable-initially. This project aims to describe /n/ and /l/ in Cantonese and English speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals to better understand the status of the merger in Cantonese and its potential for cross-linguistic mutual influence. We examine early bilinguals' (n = 34) speech using the Speech in Cantonese and English (SpiCE) corpus, focusing on pre-vocalic /n/ and /l/ onsets in both languages. Items were auditorily coded for their perceived category identity, and two acoustic measures anticipated to have the potential to differentiate /n/ and /l/ within and across languages were applied. In English, bilinguals maintained a clear contrast between /n/ and /l/ in the auditory coding and in acoustic measurements. In Cantonese, however, there were higher rates of [l] for /n/ items, in line with the merger, and [n] for /l/ items, indicating hypercorrection of the pattern. Across languages, bilinguals produced language-specific /l/s, but there were no acoustic differences between Cantonese and English /n/. The participation of Cantonese /n/ in a sound change does not appear to compromise English /n/s' patterning, suggesting that Cantonese and English /n/ are maintained as distinct categories in the minds of early bilinguals.

Phonological planning in Cantonese–English bilingual speech production

Purpose: Findings from previous speech production research suggest that the nature of phonological planning units is language-specific, with phonemes as the planning units in Dutch and English but syllables in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. However, little is known about how multilingual speakers possessing languages with distinctive phonological planning units plan for their speech. This study was conducted to investigate the roles of syllable and phoneme in Cantonese (L1) and English (L2) production among Cantonese–English bilinguals. Design: A picture version of the form-preparation task was employed, where participants named aloud (in their L1 and L2) small sets of pictures repeatedly. The names of the pictures in a set either shared the same word-initial syllable, word-initial phoneme, or were unrelated. Participants’ L1 and L2 proficiencies were measured. Data and analysis: 53 Cantonese–English bilinguals participated. The naming latency data were submitted for linear mixed effects modeling analyses. Findings: Significant priming effects on naming latency, relative to an unrelated control, were found when the response words shared the same word-initial syllable but null effects were found when they shared merely the same word-initial phoneme in both L1 and L2 production. Critically, in L2 English production, a significant negative association was observed between the size of syllable priming and the participant’s English vocabulary size. Furthermore, significant English phonemic priming was observed among the participants higher in spoken English proficiency but not among the lower proficiency counterparts. Originality: This study provides clear evidence showing the multifaceted effects of L2 proficiency on L2 phonological planning using a picture naming task. Significance: The present findings indicate the significant impact of L1 on L2 phonological planning. Yet, this L1-to-L2 influence would be modulated in different ways by the different aspects of one’s L2 proficiency.

Language Contact Within the Speaker: Phonetic Variation and Crosslinguistic Influence.

A recent model of sound change posits that the direction of change is determined, at least in part, by the distribution of variation within speech communities. We explore this model in the context of bilingual speech, asking whether the less variable language constrains phonetic variation in the more variable language, using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals. As predicted, given the phonetic distributions of stop obstruents in Cantonese compared with English, intervocalic English /b d g/ were produced with less voicing for Cantonese-English bilinguals and word-final English /t k/ were more likely to be unreleased compared with spontaneous speech from two monolingual English control corpora. Whereas voicing initial obstruents can be gradient in Cantonese, the release of final obstruents is prohibited. Neither Cantonese-English bilingual initial voicing nor word-final stop release patterns were significantly impacted by language mode. These results provide evidence that the phonetic variation in crosslinguistically linked categories in bilingual speech is shaped by the distribution of phonetic variation within each language, thus suggesting a mechanistic account for why some segments are more susceptible to cross-language influence than others.

The structure of acoustic voice variation in bilingual speech.

When a bilingual switches languages, do they switch their voice? Using a conversational corpus of speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals (n = 34), this paper examines the talker-specific acoustic signatures of bilingual voices. Following the psychoacoustic model of voice, 24 filter and source-based acoustic measurements are estimated. The analysis summarizes mean differences for these dimensions and identifies the underlying structure of each talker's voice across languages with principal component analyses. Canonical redundancy analyses demonstrate that while talkers vary in the degree to which they have the same voice across languages, all talkers show strong similarity with themselves, suggesting an individual's voice remains relatively constant across languages. Voice variability is sensitive to sample size, and we establish the required sample to settle on a consistent impression of one's voice. These results have implications for human and machine voice recognition for bilinguals and monolinguals and speak to the substance of voice prototypes.

The Influence of Prior Linguistic Knowledge on Second Language Semantic Implicit Learning: Evidence from Cantonese–English Bilinguals

AbstractPrevious studies have shown that prior linguistic knowledge affects semantic implicit learning when stimuli are presented in the first language. We report an experiment that investigated whether such crosslinguistic influence from the first language would still emerge in the second language for semantic implicit learning of novel articles and fire/water semantic category mappings, a semantic distinction that is explicitly marked by semantic radicals in Chinese but not in English and a type of form–meaning connections that has not been investigated. We found that 30 Cantonese–English bilinguals and 30 native English speakers learned the target form–meaning connections and that the knowledge that they developed may have been implicit, as shown through post‐experiment verbal reports. Moreover, the bilingual group was significantly faster than the English group in distinguishing fire/water English nouns. These findings extend the range of semantic‐based regularities that can be learned at the implicit level and suggest that the markings of fire/water distinctions in Chinese affect second language task performance.

The own-voice benefit for word recognition in early bilinguals.

The current study examines the self-voice benefit in an early bilingual population. Female Cantonese–English bilinguals produced words containing Cantonese contrasts. A subset of these minimal pairs was selected as stimuli for a perception task. Speakers’ productions were grouped according to how acoustically contrastive their pronunciation of each minimal pair was and these groupings were used to design personalized experiments for each participant, featuring their own voice and the voices of others’ similarly-contrastive tokens. The perception task was a two-alternative forced-choice word identification paradigm in which participants heard isolated Cantonese words, which had undergone synthesis to mask the original talker identity. Listeners were more accurate in recognizing minimal pairs produced in their own (disguised) voice than recognizing the realizations of speakers who maintain similar degrees of phonetic contrast for the same minimal pairs. Generally, individuals with larger phonetic contrasts were also more accurate in word identification for self and other voices overall. These results provide evidence for an own-voice benefit for early bilinguals. These results suggest that the phonetic distributions that undergird phonological contrasts are heavily shaped by one’s own phonetic realizations.

Multilingual learning and cognitive restructuring: The role of audiovisual media exposure in Cantonese–English–Japanese multilinguals’ motion event cognition

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Can learning additional languages affect what we perceive to be similar events? The current study explores the impact of learning a second language (L2) and a third language (L3) on how motion is categorized in functional Cantonese–English–Japanese multilinguals. Specifically, it examines the extent to which L1 speakers of Cantonese (equipollent-framed) with an L2-English (satellite-framed) and an L3-Japanese (verb-framed) restructure their lexicalization and conceptualization of voluntary motion through audiovisual media exposure to the target language. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 150 participants were recruited and divided into five groups: three groups of monolinguals in Cantonese, English, and Japanese as well as Cantonese–English bilinguals and Cantonese–English–Japanese multilinguals. Participants were given a linguistic encoding task and a non-linguistic similarity judgement task. Data and analysis: Mixed-effects modelling was used to compute participants’ encoding patterns and categorical preferences, as well as the correlation between audiovisual media exposure and the degree of cognitive restructuring. Findings/conclusions: Multilinguals’ L1-based verbalization and categorization showed reverse transfer from both L2 and L3. The degree of cognitive restructuring was modulated by audiovisual media exposure to TV watching in English and Japanese. Originality: This study extends the thinking-for-speaking hypothesis from bilingualism to multilingualism and explores the language–thought interface through reverse cross-linguistic influence. It focuses on how functional Cantonese–English–Japanese multilinguals with partially overlapping language systems encode and gauge similarity of voluntary motion in their L1, which is a rarely studied language combination. Significance/implications: Looking at the cognitive effects of additional language learning can shed light on the mechanism of cognitive restructuring in the thinking-for-speaking perspective, and inform the language learning question of how learners integrate both linguistic and non-linguistic experience to recalibrate their cognitive dispositions when given sufficient multimodal input.

Acculturation and attitudes toward code-switching: A bidimensional framework.

Aims and objectives:Code-switching, the spontaneous switching from one language to another within a single speech event, is often performed by bilinguals who have mastered a communicative competence in two languages. It is also a social strategy – using linguistic cues as a means to index social categories and group solidarity. Code-switching is, therefore, linked to attitudes, seen as a reflection of the speaker and their values and identities. Traditionally perceived negatively, attitudes toward code-switching have been shown to be acceptable in certain cases, such as in multilingual contexts. However, it has yet to be determined empirically whether attitudes toward code-switching are associated with individual social characteristics, including cultural identity and identity negotiation. Adopting the bidimensional model of acculturation, the goal of the study was to investigate the relationships among cultural identity and code-switching attitudes. Specifically, we sought to examine whether the bidimensional framework can be used to characterize and distinguish biculturals and whether such distinctions result in differences in code-switching attitudes and other related factors.Data and analysis:Cantonese-English bilinguals (n = 67) reported their language background and completed questionnaires relating to identity and code-switching.Findings:The findings suggest the bidimensional model was successful in classifying biculturals versus non-biculturals and, additionally, that biculturals could be differentiated according to their strength of cultural identification, which we designated as strong biculturals, Canadian-oriented biculturals, Chinese-oriented biculturals, and weak biculturals. Findings also revealed significant group differences in code-switching attitudes and other factors, such as code-switching comfort and preference, among the bicultural subgroups.Implications:The study supports the hypothesis that code-switching is linked to bicultural identity. The results conclude that a more nuanced classification of biculturals is meaningful, as individual differences in cultural identification among biculturals are linked to significant differences in code-switching comfort, code-switching preference, code-switching attitudes, and multicultural attitudes.

Literacy within a language affects bilinguals’ spoken language processing: evidence from grammaticality judgments

ABSTRACT Bilinguals can be proficient in oral language without necessarily knowing how to read and write in at least one of their languages. Literacy has been shown to affect language processing in monolinguals. In the present study, we test if literacy affects grammaticality judgments for Cantonese–English bilinguals who varied in Chinese literacy abilities. There are grammatical differences between oral Cantonese and written Chinese (e.g. modal verb placement). We compared response times for Chinese sentences that were either congruent or incongruent in spoken and written grammaticality. We found that for some incongruent sentences, proficient readers had significantly slower response times than congruent sentences. Unproficient readers were not affected by the grammaticality of the written form. These results show that literacy within a language can impact spoken language processing.

Bilingual talker identification with spontaneous speech in Cantonese and English: The role of language-specific knowledge

Previous research has shown that implicit or explicit knowledge about a language lends itself to improved talker recognition performance. In the context of this language familiarity effect, it is apparent that bilinguals are better at generalizing voice learning across their known languages compared to monolingual listeners [Orena et al., JASA, 146 (2019)]. Other work suggests that training in an unknown language generalizes to a known language more robustly than the reverse [Winters et al., JASA 123 (2008)]. The current study launches from these previous studies. This project uses excerpted Cantonese and English snippets from spontaneous interview speech from Cantonese-English bilinguals in a talker identification training experiment with Cantonese-English bilingual listeners and bilingual listeners with no knowledge of Cantonese (or related languages). Listeners are assigned to either Cantonese or English training, and then all listeners are tested on both Cantonese and English utterances to assess learning for the trained language and generalization to the bilingual's second language. Results of a multilingual questionnaire quantify listeners' code-switching abilities and multilingual competence, which, given prior research, should account for some individual differences. Using spontaneous productions, as opposed to read speech, improves the ecological validity of this research and broadens its implications.

The role of passage length on acoustic voice variability in bilingual speech

An individual's voice is determined in part by the limitations of their anatomy and physiology, in addition to language-specific phonological and phonetic structure. When a bilingual switches between languages, how much do they change their voice? Previous work using a corpus of spontaneous speech from early Cantonese-English bilinguals found surprisingly little variability across individuals' languages [Johnson et al., Proc. of Interspeech (2020)] compared to earlier research on across-talker acoustic voice variability [Lee et al., JASA (2019)]. A crucial difference between these two studies, however, is passage length. A longer passage (e.g., 30 min) potentially allows for a more stable structure to emerge in a principal components analysis, while a shorter sample (e.g., 2 min or less) may instead be subject to ephemeral variation, and potentially misrepresent the overall variability of a voice. Building on Johnson et al. (2020), the present study asks: to what extent does passage length impact the results of principal components and canonical redundancy analyses designed to elucidate within-talker (across languages) and across-talker (within language) idiosyncratic variation? These results are important for theories of talker recognition, identification, and discrimination, in addition to improving understanding of talker-specific acoustic-phonetic variation.

Inter-sentential Code-switching and Language Dominance in Cantonese–English Bilingual Children

This paper examines the relationship between language dominance and the under-investigated topic of inter-sentential code-switching in Hong Kong Cantonese–English bilingual children. Longitudinal data for six children showing different dominance patterns were analysed. MLU differentials (Yip & Matthews, 2006) were adopted to measure dominance based on five criteria: methodological compatibility, typological comparability, gradient measurement, variance validity, and multifaceted compatibility. Our results showed that bilingual children produced more inter-sentential code-switching in the context of their non-dominant language and less in their dominant-language context. We account for this asymmetry in relation to mechanisms of inhibitory control (Gross & Kaushanskaya, 2015). Further, we propose that intrasentential and inter-sentential code-switching each have a different status in bilingual children’s developing grammar, underlining the methodological importance of separating the two constructs in future investigations. We also suggest that, in societies where intra-sentential code-switching is a social norm, inter-sentential code-switching could serve as signs of early bilinguals’ dominance status.

Spoken word recognition of L2 using probabilistic phonotactics in L1: evidence from Cantonese-English bilinguals

Previous research in various languages has demonstrated that probabilistic phonotactics may serve as a cue to locate the beginnings and endings of spoken words in speech. It was hypothesized these types of information in L1 might also be used in spoken word recognition of L2 by fluent bilingual listeners. The present study used a word-spotting experiment investigate whether Cantonese-English bilingual listeners make use of their L1 (Cantonese) probabilistic phonotactic information in recognizing spoken words in L2 (English) speech. The results showed that the Cantonese-English bilingual listeners made use of L1 probabilistic phonotactics to recognize L2 words in speech.

Lexically-guided perceptual learning in early Cantonese-English bilinguals.

Bilinguals are capable of retuning phonetic categories in both languages through lexically-guided perceptual learning, but recent work suggests that some bilingual speakers may lose the ability to adapt in the native language. In the study reported here, early Cantonese-English bilinguals, who are on average English-dominant, successfully retuned Cantonese /f/. Scores of Cantonese-English dominance were not shown to correlate with phonetic retuning. The results are discussed in light of what may support the maintenance of perceptual flexibility in a lesser-used language.

Language attitudes modulate phonetic interactions between languages in bilingual speakers in diglossic settings

Abstract Bilinguals’ attitudes toward their languages can be a major source of linguistic variability. However, the effect of attitudes on crosslinguistic phonetic interactions in bilinguals remains largely unexplored. This study investigated the possibility of such effects in Cantonese-English bilinguals in Hong Kong (n = 26). Participants produced near-homophones in each language on separate days. Formant values of Cantonese [ɐ] and English [ʌ] and degrees of diphthongization of Cantonese [o] and [ai], and English [oʊ] and [ai], were analyzed as a function of language proficiency, use, and language attitude scores drawn from a background questionnaire. Participants’ attitudes toward Cantonese were predictive of the acoustic difference between similar Cantonese and Hong Kong English (HKE) vowels: More Cantonese-oriented speakers produced greater acoustic distance between crosslinguistically similar vowels. No effects of English attitudes, proficiency, or use were found. These results demonstrate that bilinguals’ attitude toward their native language can affect the degree of phonetic similarity between the two languages they speak.

Lexically guided perceptual learning in Cantonese-English bilinguals: A web replication study

Speech is incredibly variable, yet listeners have little difficulty adapting to new talkers. One proposed mechanism for how listeners rapidly map novel variants to established categories is perceptual learning. This study is a web replication of our previous work, which implements a version of perceptual learning that leverages lexical knowledge to retune phonetic categories [Norris et al., Cogn. Psychol. 47, 2014 (2003)]—here, Cantonese [f]. Embedded in a lexical decision task, Cantonese-English bilingual participants heard words where [f] was expected (e.g., 豆腐 dau6fu6 “tofu”), but replaced with an ambiguous [f]-[s] sound. Participants then categorized tokens from ambiguous nonword-nonword continua. Lab participants in the experimental condition successfully retuned Cantonese [f], compared to controls. Replicating this finding online demonstrates the viability of the paradigm outside the lab for this population, and provides precedent for future work. By recruiting from the same population as our lab study, we can more directly compare lab and web results than previous studies with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. This provides a clearer picture of how the participants’ environments drive variability in online speech perception research.Speech is incredibly variable, yet listeners have little difficulty adapting to new talkers. One proposed mechanism for how listeners rapidly map novel variants to established categories is perceptual learning. This study is a web replication of our previous work, which implements a version of perceptual learning that leverages lexical knowledge to retune phonetic categories [Norris et al., Cogn. Psychol. 47, 2014 (2003)]—here, Cantonese [f]. Embedded in a lexical decision task, Cantonese-English bilingual participants heard words where [f] was expected (e.g., 豆腐 dau6fu6 “tofu”), but replaced with an ambiguous [f]-[s] sound. Participants then categorized tokens from ambiguous nonword-nonword continua. Lab participants in the experimental condition successfully retuned Cantonese [f], compared to controls. Replicating this finding online demonstrates the viability of the paradigm outside the lab for this population, and provides precedent for future work. By recruiting from the same population as our lab st...

Cognitive restructuring in the bilingual mind: motion event construal in early Cantonese–English bilinguals

abstractLanguages differ typologically in motion event encoding (Talmy, 2000). Furthermore, the cross-linguistic variations in lexicalization modulate cognition in a dynamic and task-dependent manner (Slobin, 1996a). This study aims to investigate whether early Cantonese–English bilinguals behave differently from monolinguals in each language when lexicalizing and categorizing voluntary motion in different language contexts. Specifically, monolinguals were instructed and narrated in their native languages. We assigned bilinguals to a monolingual and a bilingual context by manipulating immediate language use in their oral descriptions. Results from monolinguals suggested an effect of language on event conceptualization. However, results from bilinguals showed that their performances patterned with English monolinguals in both event lexicalization and conceptualization regardless of the language context. These findings indicate that early exposure to a second language has motivated speakers to converge to a single lexicalization pattern compatible for both languages. And the degree of convergence is modulated by the amount of language contact with each language. The study demonstrates that participants draw on their linguistic knowledge during the non-verbal task and provides evidence for L2-biased cognitive restructuring within the framework of thinking-for-speaking.

“You’re a Juksing”: Examining Cantonese–English Code-Switching as an Index of Identity

Code-switching, the spontaneous switching from one language to another, shows unique structural and functional patterns in different bilingual communities. Though historically viewed as negative, it has been documented as an acceptable way of speaking in certain contexts, namely multilingual communities. We investigated the implications of code-switching on bilinguals’ language attitudes and identities in Toronto, a distinctly multilingual and multicultural metropolis. Twelve Cantonese–English bilinguals participated in a semi-structured interview discussing their code-switching and language attitudes. Interviews were then evaluated using a critical realist framework and analysed via first and second cycle coding. Code-switching elicited mixed emotions: It was a source of pride, but also a reminder of weak Cantonese language skills due to others’ metalinguistic comments and judgments. Participants’ code-switching indexed them as juksings, labelling them as Chinese individuals born and raised overseas, de-authenticating their Chinese group membership. Results are discussed with regard to ethnic identity and intra-group communication.

Phonological Awareness Trajectories: Young Spanish-English and Cantonese-English Bilinguals.

This study focused on the phonological awareness skills of 72 Spanish-English and 86 Cantonese-English bilinguals, all enrolled in bilingual and mainstream classrooms in the same schools. Bilinguals were assessed on phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and knowledge of book reading each year from kindergarten until second grade. Individual growth modeling analysis revealed no difference in growth trajectories of English phonological awareness between (a) Spanish-English and Cantonese-English bilinguals and (b) children enrolled in bilingual and mainstream programs. Within-language decoding, vocabulary, and knowledge of book reading were associated with the estimated average initial levels of phonological awareness skills, while only knowledge of book reading had significant effects on the estimated growth trajectory of phonological awareness skills. These findings suggest that young bilinguals with different home languages may have similar growth trajectories in English phonological awareness skills during early elementary school years. The findings have implications for early educational practices.

Better than native: Tone language experience enhances English lexical stress discrimination in Cantonese-English bilingual listeners

While many second language (L2) listeners are known to struggle when discriminating non-native features absent in their first language (L1), no study has reported that L2 listeners perform better than native listeners in this regard. The present study tested whether Cantonese-English bilinguals were better in discriminating English lexical stress in individual words or pseudowords than native English listeners, even though lexical stress is absent in Cantonese. In experiments manipulating acoustic, phonotactic, and lexical cues, Cantonese-English bilingual adults exhibited superior performance in discriminating English lexical stress than native English listeners across all phonotactic/lexical conditions when the fundamental frequency (f0) cue to lexical stress was present. The findings underscore the facilitative effect of Cantonese tone language experience on English lexical stress discrimination.