Mandarin Chinese Research Articles

Crossmodal correspondence between lexical tones and visual motions: a forced-choice mapping task on Mandarin Chinese

Abstract Crossmodal correspondence refers to the phenomenon in which individuals match stimulus features (e.g., auditory pitch) with different sensory modalities (e.g., visual size). While studies on correspondences exhibited by suprasegmentals have mostly focused on pitch-size and pitch-shape associations, audiospatial binding observed in the production and perception of Mandarin tones, where pitch of the syllable distinguishes word meanings, sheds light on the symbolic potential of auditory pitch. In the present study, a forced-choice mapping task was conducted in the form of a word guessing game, where native Mandarin listeners select the meaning of an auditory “alien” word from two visual motions. The results showed that: (1) listeners reliably match auditory tones with visual motions in the way that pitch trajectories are congruent with spatial movements, (2) vowel category impacts tone-motion correspondence when syllables are articulated in non-contour tones, and (3) the capacities in driving the tone-motion correspondence are different across tonal categories. These findings further contribute to our understanding of the sound symbolic potential of lexical tones and expand the boundary of crossmodal correspondence that can be demonstrated by pitch.

Request for confirmation sequences in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract As a social action, requesting confirmation involves presenting a proposition to be (dis)confirmed and seeking another’s (dis)confirmation of the proposition. This article provides an overview of the lexico-syntactic and prosodic resources used by participants to perform requests for confirmation (RfCs) and to respond to RfCs in Mandarin face-to-face interactions. Drawing on statistical results of the frequencies of a variety of linguistic resources in RfC sequences, this study shows that declaratives are the most frequently used syntactic forms for RfCs in the Mandarin data. Tags, such as shiba ‘right?’, are also frequently used by the speaker to seek (dis)confirmation from the recipient. The RfCs in the data also exhibit one prominent prosodic pattern. That is, a larger number of RfC turns in Mandarin end with falling pitch movement with very moderate slope from mid (M) to low (L). This prosodic pattern stems from the interplay between tones and intonation in Mandarin. In the responses to RfCs, a majority of them are confirmations. Also, response tokens, such as dui ‘right’ and en ‘en’ with falling intonation, are used highly frequently in responses to RfCs in the Mandarin data. Findings in this study afford cross-linguistic research on RfC sequences.

Chinese version of the Tendency to Avoid Physical Activity and Sport (TAPAS) scale: testing unidimensionality, measurement invariance, concurrent validity, and known-group validity among Taiwanese youths

Background and objectivesPsychosocial factors affect individuals’ desire for physical activity. A newly developed instrument (Tendency to Avoid Physical Activity and Sport; TAPAS) has been designed to assess the avoidance of physical activity. Considering cultural differences could be decisive factors, the present study aimed to translate and validate the TAPAS into Chinese (Mandarin) for Taiwanese youths, and further cultural comparisons are expected.MethodsStandard translation procedure (i.e., forward translation, back translation, and reconciliation) was used to translate the English TAPAS into the Chinese TAPAS. Following translation, 608 youths (mean [SD] age 29.10 [6.36] years; 333 [54.8%] women) participated in the study via a snowballing sampling method with an online survey. All participants completed the Chinese TAPAS and additional instruments assessing weight stigma and psychological distress. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the Chinese TAPAS and multigroup CFA to examine measurement invariance across gender (men vs. women) and weight status (overweight vs. non-overweight). Pearson correlations were used to examine the concurrent validity; independent t-tests between gender groups and weight status groups were used to examine the known-group validity.ResultsConsistent with the English version, the Chinese TAPAS was found to have a one-factor structure evidenced by CFA results. The structure was invariant across gender and weight status groups evidenced by multigroup CFA results. Concurrent validity was supported by significant associations with the related constructs assessed (r = 0.326 to 0.676; p < 0.001). Known-group validity was supported by the significant differences in TAPAS total scores between gender and weight status groups (p = 0.004 and < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.24 and 0.48).ConclusionThe Chinese version of the TAPAS is a valid and reliable instrument assessing individuals’ avoidance of physical activity and sports due to underlying psychosocial issues among Taiwanese youths. It is anticipated to be applied within a large Asian population, as well as cross-cultural comparisons, for further explorations in health, behavioral and epidemiological research and practice.

A normative study of speech development in Mandarin-speaking infants and children

Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the development of speech ability in Mandarin-speaking infants and children with normal hearing using MUSS and to provide a normal value control for the evaluation of speech ability in children with hearing loss. Methods: From September 2012 to January 2023, a total of 256 infants and children aged 1-60 months in Mandarin language environment participated in this study. 200 infants and children aged from 1 to 60 months were finally included, whose hearing was considered normal according to the history collection, high-risk registers for hearing loss and hearing screening. All infants and children were divided into 10 groups with 20 infants or children in each group. They were: 1 month, 2-3 months, 4-6 months, 7-9 months, 10-12 months, 13-18 months, 19-24 months, 25-36 months, 37-48 months, and 49-60 months. Using SPSS 19.0 software for data analysis, we calculated regression equations based on fitting curves. Results: The language ability of infants and children with normal hearing increased with age and reached ceiling at 56.5months.The regression equation was: score=-0.009 3×(age) 2+2.179×(age)+6.718 6, r2=0.85; age=0.003 9×(score) 2+0.148 4×(score)+2.708, r2=0.85. Conclusions: The speech ability of infants and children with normal hearing shows an increasing trend with age. Scores of different speech skills can be predicted according to their age. Age can also be predicted according to their scores of different speech skills.

Phonological Errors Analysis in Mandarin Pronunciation by Students of the Mandarin Language Program at Hasanuddin University

Mandarin pronunciation is a crucial aspect of language acquisition, setting it apart from languages like Indonesian. Mandarin pronunciation is characterized by vowels, consonants, and tones, and errors in any of these can drastically alter word meanings. This research delves into Mandarin pronunciation errors among students in the Mandarin Language and Chinese Culture Study Program at Hasanuddin University. It comprehensively examines vowels, consonants, and tones to identify common pronunciation mistakes made by students. The research employs a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach, calculating and descriptively explaining the frequency and percentage of errors. Findings reveal that students tend to err in key areas, particularly consonants and tones, including vowel substitution, omission, addition, and difficulty identifying similar-sounding Mandarin characters. These results underscore the importance of a thorough understanding of Mandarin phonology in the context of Mandarin language learning in Indonesia.

Research on the Training and Application Methods of a Lightweight Agricultural Domain-Specific Large Language Model Supporting Mandarin Chinese and Uyghur

In the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP), the lack of support for minority languages, especially Uyghur, the scarcity of Uyghur language corpora in the agricultural domain, and the lightweight nature of large language models remain prominent issues. This study proposes a method for constructing a bilingual (Uyghur and Chinese) lightweight specialized large language model for the agricultural domain. By utilizing a mixed training approach of Uyghur and Chinese, we extracted Chinese corpus text from agricultural-themed books in PDF format using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, converted the Chinese text corpus into a Uyghur corpus using a rapid translation API, and constructed a bilingual mixed vocabulary. We applied the parameterized Transformer model algorithm to train the model for the agricultural domain in both Chinese and Uyghur. Furthermore, we introduced a context detection and fail-safe mechanism for the generated text. The constructed model possesses the ability to support bilingual reasoning in Uyghur and Chinese in the agricultural domain, with higher accuracy and a smaller size that requires less hardware. It (our work) addresses issues such as the scarcity of Uyghur corpora in the agricultural domain, mixed word segmentation and word vector modeling in Uyghur for widespread agricultural languages, model lightweighting and deployment, and the fragmentation of non-relevant texts during knowledge extraction from small-scale corpora. The lightweight design of the model reduces hardware requirements, facilitating deployment in resource-constrained environments. This advancement promotes agricultural intelligence, aids in the development of specific applications and minority languages (such as agriculture and Uyghur), and contributes to rural revitalization.

Needs Analysis of Mandarin Language Learning Assisted by the Wordwall Game Application on Students a University in Padang

In the digital era, the integration of technology in education is becoming increasingly crucial to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. One prominent tool in the context of Mandarin language instruction is Wordwall, a game-based learning platform that offers various interactive activities. This article aims to elucidate and evaluate the benefits of using Wordwall in the context of Mandarin language teaching and learning. The research conducted is of a descriptive nature. The respondents for this study were 52 students at Padang State University enrolled in Mandarin language courses. The subjects of this research consisted of 52 UNP study program students (45 women and 7 men) aged between 19 and 20 years who were selected using the random sampling technique.Data collection utilized a questionnaire through Google Forms and assessments of quizzes on the Wordwall game. The research data were analyzed qualitative by conducting validity tests, reliability tests, and classical assumption tests. The research findings conclude that learning with Wordwall makes the learning process easy, enjoyable, and assists students in understanding Mandarin. Furthermore, the implications of this research suggest that learning through the application of play techniques using the Wordwall game is highly suitable for beginner Mandarin language learners.

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs on disability and vocational rehabilitation of injured male migrant workers in Singapore

PurposeThere are over 300,000 male migrant workers in Singapore. Around 600 major workplace injuries are reported in Singapore each year, mainly in the manufacturing and construction injuries. Migrant workers who are affected by workplace injuries often face many challenges, including not being able to work and thus may be repatriated to their home countries, which affects their financial status and that of their families, whom they support. This research aims to explore the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of injured migrant workers in Singapore, towards disability and vocational rehabilitation.Design/methodology/approachFifteen male migrant workers, from Bangladesh, China and India, who had acquired disabling injuries in their workplaces in Singapore, were identified through purposive sampling. They were interviewed by a male interviewer, either in Mandarin Chinese or with the assistance of interpreters for Bengali-English and Tamil-English. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated to English, then analysed thematically.FindingsThe interviewees generally had a pessimistic outlook on their disability, which often impacted negatively on their self-worth and familial relationships. Many of them also had little knowledge of vocational rehabilitation and had not yet seriously considered future job prospects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no similar studies exploring the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of injured migrant workers in Singapore towards disability and vocational rehabilitation.

Soundscape descriptors in eighteen languages: Translation and validation through listening experiments

This paper presents the outcomes of the “Soundscape Attributes Translation Project” (SATP), an international initiative addressing the critical research gap in soundscape descriptors translations for cross-cultural studies. Focusing on eighteen languages – namely: Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese – the study employs a four-step procedure to evaluate the reliability and cross-cultural validity of translated soundscape descriptors. The study introduces a three-tier confidence level system (Low, Medium, High) based on “adjusted angles”, which are a measure proposed to correct the soundscape circumplex model (i.e., the pleasant-eventful space proposed in the ISO 12913 series) of a given language. Results reveal that most languages successfully maintain the quasi-circumplex structure of the original soundscape model, ensuring robust cross-cultural validity. English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Dutch, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish achieve a “High” confidence level. French, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, and Vietnamese demonstrate varying confidence levels, highlighting the importance of the preliminary translation. This research significantly contributes to standardized cross-cultural methodologies in soundscape perception research, emphasizing the pivotal role of adjusted angles within the soundscape circumplex model in ensuring the accuracy of dimensions (i.e., attributes) locations. The SATP initiative offers insights into the complex interplay of language and meaning in the perception of environmental sounds, opening avenues for further cross-cultural soundscape research.

Continuous Theta-Burst Stimulation on the Left Posterior Inferior Frontal Gyrus Perturbs Complex Syntactic Processing Stability in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract The structure of human language is inherently hierarchical. The left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (LpIFG) is proposed to be a core region for constructing syntactic hierarchies. However, it remains unclear whether LpIFG plays a causal role in syntactic processing in Mandarin Chinese and whether its contribution depends on syntactic complexity, working memory, or both. We addressed these questions by applying inhibitory continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) over LpIFG. Thirty-two participants processed sentences containing embedded relative clauses (i.e., complex syntactic processing), syntactically simpler coordinated sentences (i.e., simple syntactic processing), and non-hierarchical word lists (i.e., word list processing) after receiving real or sham cTBS. We found that cTBS significantly increased the coefficient of variation, a representative index of processing stability, in complex syntactic processing (esp., when subject relative clause was embedded) but not in the other two conditions. No significant changes in d′ and reaction time were detected in these conditions. The findings suggest that (a) inhibitory effect of cTBS on the LpIFG might be prominent in perturbing the complex syntactic processing stability but subtle in altering the processing quality; and (b) the causal role of the LpIFG seems to be specific for syntactic processing rather than working memory capacity, further evidencing their separability in LpIFG. Collectively, these results support the notion of the LpIFG as a core region for complex syntactic processing across languages.

Exploring the Variation of Third Tone Sandhi in Native Chinese Mandarin: An Acoustic Analysis

Tone is one of the most prominent, distinctive, and significant properties of the Chinese language. In the realm of tone sandhi, one of the most interesting phenomena is the Tone 3 sandhi (T3). T3 sandhi is one of the rules in the phonological change, a low T3 syllable inevitably changes to a rising tone (T2) when it is followed by another T3 syllable. This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanism of the third tone (T3) sandhi in Mandarin Chinese, comparing the acoustic features in both real words and pseudowords. The current study employed a qualitative descriptive method and PRAAT6310 acoustic analysis software. The findings of the study demonstrated that T3 sandhi in real words of the Chinese language resembles pseudowords and is likely computed naturally in a phonological cognition process. This research provides an important reference value for research in the fields of tonal variation in Chinese language and language acquisition.

Enhancing tonal‐language learning through music: A review of experimental methods and melodic intonation therapy influences

AbstractThis literature review explores the impact of music on tonal language learning, with a focus on Mandarin Chinese. Utilising searches across major databases such as ERIC (EBSCO), ProQuest Central, Google Scholar, and Web of Science from 2005 to 2024, we selected relevant peer‐reviewed English‐language articles examining music's role in aiding tone acquisition and related cognitive processes. From 30 publications, findings are categorised into theoretical relationships, cognitive effects, melodic intonation therapy (MIT) applications and digital music applications. Theoretical frameworks emphasise the correlation between musicality and language proficiency, highlighting musicians' enhanced tonal perception and production skills. Cognitive effects include music's influence on pronunciation, memory and cultural understanding. MIT's effectiveness in tonal language learning is then discussed, emphasising its potential to improve cortical representations of tone categories. Finally, digital music applications are examined, focusing on language learning apps incorporating music for personalised and engaging learning experiences. The review finds significant literature reporting that music‐based methodologies, aligned with experiential learning paradigms, hold significant potential in Mandarin Chinese acquisition. They enhance listening comprehension, spoken language production, and understanding of grammar and syntax. Similar to MIT principles, music‐assisted tonal language learning utilises exaggerated melody and rhythm to improve language production, especially with complex words. This review is motivated by the recognition of music's potential benefits in language education, especially for tonal languages. It aims to provide educators and researchers with insights into effective methods and applications, guiding instructional practices and stimulating further empirical investigations in this interdisciplinary field. Ultimately, it contributes to the ongoing discourse on optimising tonal language learning methodologies.

Challenges and Strategies in Teaching Mandarin Chinese Tones

Tone instruction is an integral component of Chinese as an additional language (CAL) education. The present study aimed to explore the challenges and strategies of teaching of Mandarin Chinese tones in the multilingual and multicultural context of Macau SAR, China. Employing a qualitative methodology, this study drew on multiple data sources (e.g. classroom observations and interviews) of five participants. It revealed various challenges in teaching Mandarin Chinese tones, such as the backgrounds of CAL learners, the teaching context, and the sociocultural environment. At the same time, the teacher participants employed a range of strategies that included cognitive, emotional, and behavioural aspects to address these challenges. This study not only enriches our understanding of the complexities of Mandarin Chinese tones teaching but also provides practical implications for CAL teachers in teaching Mandarin Chinese tones within complex teaching contexts.

On the aspectual values of gradable predicates in Mandarin Chinese†

AbstractThis study presents a syntactic analysis of the different aspectual readings of a gradable predicate in Mandarin Chinese. It is argued that such predicates contain an uninterpretable/underspecified [α dynamic] feature that needs a value. To receive a value, the feature must be in a c‐command relation with a functional element. For example, a functional element like the degree adverb hen ‘very,’ which is in the head of the Degree Phrase, can assign the feature with a negative value, and the predicate has a stative reading. In contrast, a null atelic morpheme in the head of the Inner Aspect Phrase can give a plus value to the predicate and it has an atelic and dynamic reading. The present study also discusses the telic reading of the same kind of predicates functioning either as the main predicate or a secondary one. It is argued that a covert telic morpheme is responsible for the telic reading. The proposed analysis shows that a syntactic account is as plausible as a lexical one, providing a comprehensive understanding of the aspectual readings of gradable predicates in Mandarin Chinese.

Control, inner topicalisation, and focus fronting in Mandarin Chinese: modelling in parallel constraint-based grammatical architecture

This paper proposes a formal analysis of two displacement phenomena in Mandarin Chinese, namely inner topicalisation and focus fronting, capturing their correlational relationships with control and complementation. It examines a range of relevant data, including corpus examples, to derive empirical generalisations. Acceptability-judgment tasks, followed by mixed-effects statistical models, were conducted to provide additional evidence. This paper presents a constraint-based lexicalist proposal that is couched in the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). The lexicon plays an important role in regulating the behaviour of complementation verbs as they participate in the displacement phenomena. Unlike previous analyses that cast inner topicalisation and focus fronting as restructuring phenomena, this lexicalist proposal does not rely on hypothesised clause-size differences. It captures the empirical properties more accurately and accounts for a wider range of empirical patterns. Adopting the formally explicit framework of LFG, this proposal uses constraints that have mathematical precision. The constraints are computationally implemented using the grammar engineering tool Xerox Linguistic Environment, safeguarding their precision.

Implementation of Roleplaying Method to Train Speaking Skill of Students of Mandarin Language Education Universitas Negeri Malang

This study aims to describe the application of the roleplaying method to train the speaking skills of students of Mandarin Language Education Study Program State University of Malang. The theme of this roleplaying method is 学校 (school) with eight dialogs, namely (1) 新学生 (New Student), (2) 老师 (Teacher), (3) 介绍 (Introduction), (4) 上课 (Lesson), (5) 汉语 (Chinese), (6) 休息 (Break Time), (7) 学习 (Study), and (8) 作业 (Doing Assignment). This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach. The data sources in this study were 32 students of the Chinese Language Education Study Program Class of 2022. The results showed that the application of the roleplaying method in research activities went well. The results of the assessment and evaluation of the roleplaying dialog showed that most students were fluent in Chinese dialog although there were some mistakes in pronunciation of tone and intonation. Students stated that the roleplaying method was able to make students feel confident and help train students' Chinese language skills, especially in speaking and grammar skills, and make learning interesting and fun.

Understanding young high-achieving Chinese L2 learners’ experiences: a case study in an Australian primary school

ABSTRACT Chinese (Mandarin) is taught as an L2 in many Australian primary schools and is considered challenging for English-speaking students to learn. This case study is an inquiry into the experiences of young high-achieving Chinese L2 learners’ (from an English-speaking background) in an Australian primary school. This study aims to search for the answers to ‘why’ and ‘what makes’ high-achieving students perform well and become high-achievers in Chinese L2 learning. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, the findings of the multiple case study reveal that both internal and external factors play a role in supporting high-achieving students’ learning. Internal factors include self-confidence, positive attitudes towards L2 learning, and interest in L2 learning. External factors relate to continuously learning the same L2 curriculum and family support in language learning. This study highlights the importance of understanding the experiences of young high-achieving Chinese L2 learners and the factors that affect their learning for English-speaking background students.

A PRISMA-driven Review of Speech Recognition based on English, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Urdu Language

Urdu Language ranks ten and is continuously progressing. This unique PRISMA-Driven review deeply investigates Urdu speech recognition literature and adjoin it with English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi languages frame-works conceptualizing wider global perspective. The main objective is to unify progress on classical Artificially Intelligent (AI) and recent Deep Neural Networks (DNN) based speech recognition pipeline encompassing Dataset challenges, Feature extraction methods, Experimental design and the smooth integration with both Acoustic models (AM) and Language models (LM) using Transcriptions. A total of 176 articles were extracted from Google Scholar database for each language with custom query design. Inclusion criteria and quality assessment leads to end up with 5 review and 42 research articles. Comparative research questions have been addressed and findings were organized by four possible speech types: Isolated, connected, continuous and spontaneous. The finding shows that English, Mandarin, and Hindi languages used spontaneous speech size of 300, 200 and 1108 hours respectively which is quite remarkable as compared to Urdu spontaneous speech data size of only 9.5 hours. For the same data size reason, the Word Error Rate (WER) for English falls below 5% while for Mandarin Chinese the alternative metric Character Error Rate (CER) is mostly used that lies below 25%. The success of English and Chinese Speech recognition leads to incomparable accuracy due to wide use of DNNs like Conformer, Transformers, E2E-attention in comparison to conventional feature extraction and AI models LSTM, TDNN, RNN, HMM, GMM-HMM; used frequently by both Hindi and Urdu.

Identification of amine-producing bacterium (APB) in Chinese fermented mandarin fish (Chouguiyu) by high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent methods

Identifying the main amine-producing bacteria (APB) in fermented foods is the key to controlling the biogenic amines (BAs) content. This study investigated the BAs contents and bacterial profiles in fourteen Chinese fermented mandarin fish (Chouguiyu). The orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis was used to explore the potential relationship between bacteria and BAs profiles. Identification of unclassified APB and verification of amine-producing capacity by the culture-dependent method. The results show that the total BA contents of Chouguiyu were in the range of 81.9–860 mg/kg-1. The predominant BAs in Chouguiyu were putrescine, cadaverine, histamine and tyramine. Three bacterial species (Lactobacillus sakei, unclassified Enterobacteriaceae, Morganella psychrotolerans) were closely related to BAs production. The nucleotide sequence comparison showed that Citrobacter sp. was 100 % identical to the unclassified Enterobacteriaceae.

UG-schematic Annotation for Event Nominals: A Case Study in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract Divergence of languages observed at the surface level is a major challenge encountered by multilingual data representation, especially when typologically distant languages are involved. Drawing inspiration from a formalist Chomskyan perspective towards language universals, Universal Grammar (UG), this article uses deductively pre-defined universals to analyze a multilingually heterogeneous phenomenon, event nominals. In this way, deeper universality of event nominals beneath their huge divergence in different languages is uncovered, which empowers us to break barriers between languages and thus extend insights from some synthetic languages to a non-inflectional language, Mandarin Chinese. Our empirical investigation also demonstrates this UG-inspired schema is effective: With its assistance, the inter-annotator agreement (IAA) for identifying event nominals in Mandarin grows from 88.02% to 94.99%, and automatic detection of event-reading nominalizations on the newly-established data achieves an accuracy of 94.76% and an F1 score of 91.3%, which significantly surpass those achieved on the pre-existing resource by 9.8% and 5.2%, respectively. Our systematic analysis also sheds light on nominal semantic role labeling. By providing a clear definition and classification on arguments of event nominal, the IAA of this task significantly increases from 90.46% to 98.04%.