Tonal Contrast Research Articles

Tonal Contrast in Early Pentasyllabic Poems: A Quantitative Study of Three Poem Collections

Abstract Some researchers, including Wang Li 王力 (1900–1986) and Xu Qing 徐青 (1934–), have claimed—based on evidence provided by cursory observations of tonal arrangement—that pre-Yongming poets also attempted to create tonal contrast effects in pentasyllabic poems. In order to assess the validity of these claims, this study adopted a quantitative approach to the analysis of tonal contrasts in three early pentasyllabic poem collections: the “Nineteen Ancient Poems,” pentasyllabic poems written by Cao Zhi 曹植 (192–232), and pentasyllabic poems written by Xie Lingyun 謝靈運 (385–433). Unlike any previous study, the research presented in this article interprets tonal contrast data obtained in these poems in an enriched context. The author compares the tonal contrast rates in the poems written before the Yongming 永明 era (483–93) to tonal contrast rates obtained from narrative texts written in the same period, as well as to the ratios expected under the condition of random tonal arrangement. The results of these comparisons reveal that there is no simple answer to the question of whether tonal contrast existed in early pentasyllabic poems. Tonal contrast appears to have been in an intricate transitional stage that was likely initiated with an intuitive act of creativity rather than an intentional manipulation of tones to obtain a particular known effect.

Tone and Stress in Choguita Rarámuri (Tarahumara) Word Prosody

This paper presents the word-prosodic system of Choguita Raramuri, a Uto-Aztecan language that displays both stress-accent and tone with complex morphological conditioning. While closely related languages have been documented to possess culminative word prominence involving both stress and contrastive tone (Demers, Escalante, and Jelinek 1999 and Hagberg 1989), no variety of Raramuri had been described as featuring lexical tone. On the basis of phonological evidence and a detailed acoustic investigation, we propose that (i) stress-accent and tone are phonologically distinct systems in Choguita Raramuri; (ii) stress-accent and tone are independent in terms of their acoustic encoding; (iii) both stress-accent and tone are governed in their distribution and makeup by lexical and morphological conditions; (iv) the tone system features a three-way contrast between HL, L, and M; and (v) lexical tonal contrasts are exclusively realized in stressed syllables—that is, tonal distribution is dependent on stress-accent.

The perception of Mandarin lexical tones by listeners from different linguistic backgrounds

Abstract Two groups of non-native adult learners of Mandarin in Australia were directly compared in their ability to perceive monosyllabic Mandarin words contrasting in lexical tones. They differed in their linguistic experience (non-heritage (n=10), heritage (n=12)). A group of eight native Mandarin speakers and a group of ten functionally monolingual speakers of Australian English were included as controls. All non-native learners used English as their primary language of communication. However, the heritage learners were able to communicate in Cantonese as well as English. The primary question of interest was whether heritage learners’ knowledge of contrastive tone in Cantonese might give them an advantage over English-speaking learners in perceiving tone contrasts in Mandarin. In general, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups of learners in their response patterns. Of the six tone contrasts examined (T1-T2, T1-T3, T1-T4, T2-T3, T2-T4, T3-T4), the two groups significantly differed only on T1-T4. The heritage learners were less accurate on T1-T4 than the non-heritage learners who are monolingual speakers of Australian English. On the other hand, the non-heritage learners were more accurate than Australian English speakers with no prior experience with Mandarin on all tone contrasts. Thus, we conclude that simply having an exposure to and functional knowledge of another tonal language since early childhood does not guarantee accurate perception of Mandarin tones in comparison with adult learners without prior experience with tonal languages.

Mental representation of tonal spreading in Bemba: Evidence from elicited production and perception

Previous research has shown that listeners from tonal languages are better at processing tone compared to speakers from non-tonal languages. However, most of this research has tested Asian tone languages, particularly those which have many tonal contrasts and a dense tone-to-syllable association. In this paper we investigate the mental representation of derived tones in Bemba, a Bantu language that has a two-way tone contrast but which shows robust tone spreading patterns. Specifically, we test ternary high-tone spreading, a process that is unique from a phonological perspective. In a production task we test whether ternary spread can be extended to non-words. We complement this with an AX discrimination task comparing binary vs ternary spread, which are phonologically contrastive, on the one hand, with a tonally similarly salient but non-phonologically relevant contrast, on the other. We show that in both the production and percep- tion of non-words, ternary spread is distinct from binary spread, suggesting that derived tone is equally mentally represented as lexical tone is in Asian tone languages.

Constraints of Tones, Vowels and Consonants on Lexical Selection in Mandarin Chinese.

Previous studies have shown that when speakers of European languages are asked to turn nonwords into words by altering either a vowel or consonant, they tend to treat vowels as more mutable than consonants. These results inspired the universal vowel mutability hypothesis: listeners learn to cope with vowel variability because vowel information constrains lexical selection less tightly and allows for more potential candidates than does consonant information. The present study extends the word reconstruction paradigm to Mandarin Chinese--a Sino-Tibetan language, which makes use of lexically contrastive tone. Native speakers listened to word-like nonwords (e.g., su3) and were asked to change them into words by manipulating a single consonant (e.g., tu3), vowel (e.g., si3), or tone (e.g., su4). Additionally, items were presented in a fourth condition in which participants could change any part. The participants' reaction times and responses were recorded. Results revealed that participants responded faster and more accurately in both the free response and the tonal change conditions. Unlike previous reconstruction studies on European languages, where vowels were changed faster and more often than consonants, these results demonstrate that, in Mandarin, changes to vowels and consonants were both overshadowed by changes to tone, which was the preferred modification to the stimulus nonwords, while changes to vowels were the slowest and least accurate. Our findings show that the universal vowel mutability hypothesis is not consistent with a tonal language, that Mandarin tonal information is lower-priority than consonants and vowels and that vowel information most tightly constrains Mandarin lexical access.

Older people's experiences of using tactile paving

Tactile paving has been designed in response to the needs of vision-impaired pedestrians to be independent, mobile, confident and safe when using the external environment. Tactile paving is not without its critics because it can adversely affect other pedestrians particularly older people, and those with mobility impairments. Interviews were conducted at eight selected road crossing sites in Edinburgh to determine older people's experiences of using specific road crossings, in particular their views and experiences of using tactile paving. Two hundred participants were interviewed who were aged 65 years and older, and who appeared not to have a significant health issue or disability that was affecting their mobility. In addition, eight pedestrians who had significant mobility issues and 30 pedestrians who had moderate to severe vision impairment were interviewed. Findings demonstrate the importance of training in tactile paving for pedestrians with a vision impairment; the need for a review of the guidance on tactile paving such that greater emphasis is placed on detectability and tonal contrast, and tonal contrast; a consideration as to whether seven types of tactile paving is too many; and the need to minimise the effects of topography, particularly slope at road crossings.

Effects of dialectal differences in the use of native-language acoustic cues on the production and perception of second language stops

The present study investigated whether the relative importance of specific acoustic properties in native language dialects affects the extent to which acoustic properties are used in the production and perception of a second language. The case at hand centered on acquisition of English voiced and voiceless stops by two groups of Korean dialect speakers, Kyungsang and Seoul Korean. Both dialect speakers use the same acoustic cues for the Korean stops, but their relative importance is different: Specifically Seoul speakers employ VOT and F0, and Kyungsang speakers primarily use VOT due to their use of F0 for lexical tone contrast. Given such dialectal differences, this study explored whether Kyungsang and Seoul Korean speakers made distinct use of these two cues to signal the word-initial stops in English where VOT and, less importantly, onset F0 are additionally used for stop contrast. The results showed that in production, both dialect speakers showed a parallel pattern for VOT and F0; however, in perception, Kyungsang listeners had greater reliance on VOT but less on F0 compared with Seoul listeners. These results partly support the feature hypothesis (McAllister et al., 2002) and provide new insight into the relationship between speech production and perception.

Development and validation of a new Mandarin tone identification test

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to develop a new Mandarin tone identification test (MTIT) to assess the Mandarin tone identification ability of children with hearing impairment (HI) and at age around 7 years; and to evaluate the reliability and sensitivity of the MTIT. MethodsThe word materials to be used in the MTIT were developed in Phase I. Monosyllables were chosen to represent the daily repertoire of young children and to avoid the influence of co-articulation and intonation. Each test stimulus set contained four words, with one target, one containing contrastive tone, and two unrelated distracters. All words were depicted using simple pictures, and the test targets in quiet or in noise were presented using recorded stimuli on a custom software. Phase II evaluated the reliability and sensitivity of the MTIT. Participants were 50 normal-hearing native-Mandarin speakers around 7 years of age. ResultsIn Phase I, the MTIT was developed as described above. The final test consists of 51 words that are within the vocabulary repertoire of children aged 7 years. In Phase II, with the Mandarin tone identification scores collected from 50 children, the repeated measure ANOVA showed a significant main effect of S/N on MTIT performance (p<0.001). Pairwise comparisons revealed a significant difference in performance across the five S/N conditions (p<0.01) when S/N varied from −30 to −10dB. Cronbach's alpha at −15dB S/N was 0.66, suggesting satisfactory internal consistency reliability. A paired-samples t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the test–retest scores across the five S/N conditions (p>0.05). ConclusionsCompared with the available Mandarin tone identification tools, MTIT systematically evaluated the tone identification performance in noisy environment for normal hearing children at age around 7 years. Results also showed satisfactory internal consistency reliability, good test–retest reliability and good sensitivity. In the near future, MTIT could be used to evaluate tone perception ability of children with hearing impairment and help to design hearing rehabilitation strategies for this population at the age critical for their language learning.

Tone and sentence perception in young Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of cochlear implantation in young children in terms of (1) perception of lexical tones in quiet, (2) perception of sentences in quiet and in noise, (3) the effects of five demographic variables (i.e., preoperative hearing level, age at implantation, duration of cochlear implants use, maternal educational level, and whether a child underwent a hearing aid trial before implantation) on lexical tone perception and sentence perception, and (4) the relationship between lexical tone perception and sentence perception. Methods96 participants, aged from 2.41 years to 7.09 years, were recruited in mainland China. The children exhibited normal cognitive abilities and received unilateral implants at an average age of 2.72 years, with ages ranging from 0.69 to 5 years of age. ResultsThe mean score for tone identification was 77% (SD=13%; chance level=50%). Tone 2/tone 3 was the most difficult tone contrast to identify. Children with a longer duration of CI use and whose mothers had more years of education tended to perform better in sentence perception in quiet and in noise. Having undergone a hearing aid trial before implantation and more residual hearing were additional factors contributing to better sentence perception in noise. The only demographical variable that related to tone perception in quiet was duration of CI. In addition, while there was a modest correlation between tone perception and sentence perception in quiet (rs=0.47, p<0.001), the correlation between tone perception in quiet and sentence perception in noise was much weaker (rs=−0.28, p<0.05). ConclusionsThe findings suggested that most young children who had been implanted before 5 years of age and had 1–3 years of implant use did not catch up with their aged peers with normal hearing in tone perception and sentence perception. The weak to moderate correlation between tone perception in quiet and sentence perception might imply that the improvement of tone perception in quiet may not necessarily contribute to sentence perception, especially in noise condition.

Perception of tones by infants learning a non-tone language

This article examines the perception of tones by non-tone-language-learning (non-tone-learning) infants between 5 and 18months in a study that reveals infants’ initial sensitivity to tonal contrasts, deterioration yet plasticity of tonal sensitivity at the end of the first year, and a perceptual rebound in the second year. Dutch infants in five age groups were tested on their ability to discriminate a tonal contrast of Mandarin Chinese as well as a contracted tonal contrast. Infants are able to discriminate tonal contrasts at 5–6months, and their tonal sensitivity deteriorates at around 9months. However, the sensitivity rebound sat 17–18months. Non-tone-learning infants’ tonal perception is elastic, as is shown by the influence of acoustic salience and distributional learning: (1) a salient contrast may remain discriminable throughout infancy whereas a less salient one does not; (2) a bimodal distribution in tonal exposure increases non-tone-learning infants’ discrimination ability during the trough in sensitivity to tonal contrasts at 11–12months. These novel findings reveal non-tone-learning infants’ U-shaped pattern in tone perception, and display their perceptual flexibility.

Voice Onset Time merger and development of tonal contrast in Seoul Korean stops: A corpus study

This paper is an apparent-time study of sound change in a three-way laryngeal contrast of Korean stops. The data are drawn from a read speech corpus distributed by the National Institute of the Korean Language. Voice Onset Time (VOT) of sentence initial stops and f0 of the first two vowels of the sentence produced by 117 Seoul Korean speakers were measured to determine how VOT and f0 realization of stop categories vary by speakers' age (range: 19–71) and gender. This is the first large-scale study of its kind based on data gathered from Seoul residents. The results replicate previous findings that the VOT values of aspirated stops are shortening in younger speakers' speech with the VOT difference between aspirated and lenis stops reducing accordingly and that this change is more advanced in female speech than in male speech. The novel finding of the study is that there is a trend of enhanced f0 distinction between aspirated and lenis stops, whereby the f0 distinction is amplified and extends further into the phrase in the speech of younger compared to older speakers and in the speech of female compared to male speakers. The results confirm that the establishment of tonal contrast and the loss of VOT distinction are taking place in tandem rather than in separate stages. The result also indicates that f0 enhancement as sound change is mediated by structural categories, namely all [+spread glottis] sounds including /h/ rather than narrowly targeting threatened segmental contrast in stop consonants.

Tones in Hakka Infant-Directed Speech: An Acoustic Perspective

This study explores lexical tones in Hakka infant-directed speech (IDS) in comparison with adult-directed speech (ADS), investigating whether lexical tones are hyperarticulated and distorted in Hakka IDS. Special attention is directed at the tonal contrast between unchecked and checked tones, an issue never investigated previously. Sixteen mother-infant dyads participated in this study, with infants' age ranging from 6 to 26 months. The speech stimuli contained 18 disyllabic phrases in the form of C_1V_1C_2V(C), where C_1 and C_2 are voiceless consonants and V_1 (a corner vowel [i, a, u]) carried the target tone. Mothers interacted with their infants and the researcher naturally at their homes. Interviews were recorded as IDS and ADS. For each recording, the first two clear tokens of each target tone were segmented out for acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency (F_0) by PRAAT. Results show that lexical tones in IDS are phonetically enhanced by exaggerated F_0 contour, elevated F_0 mean, widened F_0 range, steepened F_0 slope, lengthened F_0 duration, and expanded tonal distance. Yet they are not distorted because they can still be distinguished by one or more F_0 cues. All hyperarticulated cues contribute to perceptually salient linguistic signals, and help infants with tonal identification and categorical learning. More significantly, checked and unchecked tones have different tonal behaviors in ADS and IDS. Both tone types overlap in ADS, but separate in IDS. This tonal separability results from glottalization of the [p, t, k] codas in the production of checked-tone syllables in spontaneous and continuous speech.

Eğitim ve eşitlik talebiyle şekillenen Osmanlı kadın hareketinin milliyetçi söyleme eklemlenmesi

Boundaries determined by the exact line of definition of women's movement may seem difficult in esence the women's movement, put against the masculine power to change life limiting values arises. Every social structure according to the dynamics emerging in different time frames and the basic demands are prioritized problematic may vary. This material comes to the variability of conditions, women's movements in different societies at different times, with different rhetoric and demands the emergence and perhaps one of the reasons is the most important. This is a similar pattern, evident in the Ottoman Empire from the last period of modernization / westernization efforts have been followed along with. Empire of the legitimacy of the religious laws are not familiar with the area of political and social structures, sounds exactly tell about the contrast in tone is heard has been rising with each passing day. The basic demands of the women's movement from the Ottoman Tanzimat Period also benefit from educational opportunities focused on. Rather, the demand for equality has been devoted to overcoming some problems everyday. Not inconsistent with the provisions of Islamic equality to stand out of concern voiced emphasis has been prevented. After the proclamation of the II. Constitution the women's movement and articulation of the nationalist rhetoric with nationalist rhetoric that was the start to use similar language. Islamic emphasis has also been added to the nationalist rhetoric. Equal emphasis began to be sought in the old Turkish society and has been claimed not to be contrary to culture, tradition.

The Grammaticalization of Daimonie at Iliad 24.194

Homer’s use of the address form δαιµονίη for Hekabe atIliad24.194, has been particularly troublesome, and these problems have remained largely unresolved because the word’s etymology, its later use, and its generally negative tone contrast with the otherwise non-confrontational tone of Priam’s speech atIl.24.194-199. This mismatch has led to a wide range of interpretations, and no general consensus. In this paper I argue that the term here appears to be undergoinggrammaticalizationin the direction of a discourse particle, and as such does not characterize the addressee but the context of Priam’s subsequent speech. Although use of the term by later authors shows that this process was terminated, nevertheless, the development of δαιµόνιε proposed here patterns with that of other divine address forms such as Latinmehercule!andedepol!, Frenchmon Dieu!, Englishoh my God!, etc. which have come to function like other discourse particles such aswow!

Tonal alignment in Deori

This paper reports on the results from an experiment on tone in Deori, a language spoken by about 20,000 people in Assam (India). Data from 10 speakers where the target word bearing the tonal contrast appeared in the sentence medial position is presented. Time-normalized pitch of different words shows that words may have a lexically specified high or low tone. A high tone may contrast with a low tone, but its phonetic implementation of rise or fall in a disyllabic word depends on whether the syllable on which the contrast appears is initial or final. A tonal contrast on the first syllable leads to a falling contour, but when the contrastive tone appears on the second syllable of a disyllabic word then the tonal contour is falling. Exceptions to this pattern appear in closed disyllables where a steep rise in either the low or high tone is not observed. A high or a low tone may also contrast with a word which is not specified with any tone, in which case there is no rise or fall. Statistical analyses show that Deuri tones exhibit phonetic properties that are dependent on contextual factors like syllable position and segmental properties.

Realization of Thai tone change in the Northern Thai dialect of Chiang Mai

Recent studies have found evidence of tone change in progress among Thai speakers. In particular, changes in the high tone, traditionally considered a level tone, have caused some to suggest it should instead be considered a contour tone (Zsiga, 2008; Teeranon and Rungrojsuwan, 2009). However, the previous research has focused primarily on the Central Thai dialect found in Bangkok, the standard dialect of Thai. This study examines the current state of tones in the Northern Thai dialect of Chiang Mai, which has six contrastive tones, rather than the five found in Central Thai. This data allows for a comparison to both the Central Thai literature as well as previous studies of Northern Thai, to examine whether Northern Thai is undergoing tone change as well and whether it exhibits similar changes to those reported for Central Thai. Significant exposure to Central Thai via mass media as well as the education system, and widespread bi-dialectalism, may carry the influences of Central Thai tone changes into Northern Thai as well. This study aims to provide further insight into the ongoing changes in the Thai tonal space, in order to clarify the nature of Thai tones today.

Study, Copy, and Conquer

Schumann's 1842 chamber music exemplifies a common theme in his critical writings, that to sustain a notable inherited tradition composers must not merely imitate the past but reinvent it anew. Yet Schumann's innovative practices have not been sufficiently acknowledged, partly because his instrumental repertory seemed conservative to critics of Schumann's day and beyond, especially when compared to his earlier experimental piano works and songs. This essay offers a revisionist perspective by exploring three chamber movements that recast sonata procedure in one of two complementary ways: either the tonic key monopolizes the exposition (as in the first movement of the Piano Quartet in E♭ major, op. 47), or a modulating main theme undercuts a definitive presence of the tonic key at the outset (as in the first movement of the String Quartet in A major, op. 41, no. 3, and the finale of the String Quartet in A minor, op. 41, no. 1). Viewed against conventional sonata practice, these chamber movements appear puzzling, perhaps even incoherent or awkward, since they thwart the tonal contrast of keys so characteristic of the form. Yet these unusual openings, and the compelling if surprising ramifications that they prompt, signal not compositional weakness but rather an effort to reinterpret the form as a way of strengthening its expressive power. My analyses also draw on other perspectives to illuminate these sonata forms. All three movements adopt a striking thematic idea or formal ploy that evokes a specific Beethovenian precedent; yet each movement also highlights Schumann’s creative distance from his predecessor by departing in notable ways from the conjured model. Aspects of Schumann’s sketches, especially those concerning changes made during the compositional process, also illuminate relevant analytical points. Finally, in the analysis of the finale of the A-minor quartet, I consider how Schumann’s evocation of Hungarian Gypsy music may be not merely incidental to but supportive of his reimagined sonata form. Ultimately, the perspectives offered here easily accommodate—even celebrate—Schumann’s idiosyncratic approach to sonata form. They also demonstrate that Schumann’s earlier experimental tendencies did not contradict his efforts in the early 1840s to further advance his inherited classical past.

The phonetics of Yucatec Maya and the typology of laryngeal complexity

Abstract We examine the known typology of laryngeal complexity (SILVERMAN 1997a, b) in light of phonetic research (FRAZIER 2009) showing that Yucatec Maya uses contrastive tone and phonation type. The phonetic patterns in YM suggest that articulatory incompatibility is the most important factor in enforcing the phasing of tone and non-modal phonation, but that perceptual factors account for the distribution of phasing patterns. Furthermore, YM is similar to the unrelated languages Danish and Acoma which show that creaky voice conditions preceding high pitch. We motivate future research on cross-linguistic differences in the production of creak and its interaction with pitch and gender.

Relationship Between Tone Perception and Production in Prelingually Deafened Children With Cochlear Implants

Performance in tone perception and production are correlated in prelingually deafened pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users across individuals. Demographic variables, such as age at implantation, contribute to the performance variability. Poor representation of pitch information in CI devices hinders pitch perception and affects perception of lexical tones in cochlear implant users who speak tonal languages. One hundred ten Mandarin-speaking, prelingually deafened CI subjects and 125 typically developing, normal-hearing subjects were recruited from Beijing, China. Lexical tone perception was measured using a computerized tone contrast test. Tone production was judged by native Mandarin-speaking adult listeners as well as analyzed acoustically and with an artificial neural network. A general linear model analysis was performed to determine factors that accounted for performance variability. CI subjects scored ≈ 67% correct on the lexical tone perception task. The degree of differentiation of tones produced by the CI group was significantly lower than the control group as revealed by acoustic analysis. Tone production performance assessed by the neural network was highly correlated with that evaluated by human listeners. There was a moderate correlation between the overall tone perception and production performance across CI subjects. Duration of implant use and age at implantation jointly explained ≈ 29% of the variance in the tone perception performance. Age at implantation was the only significant predictor for tone production performance in the CI subjects. Tone production performance in pediatric CI users is dependent on accurate perception. Early implantation predicts a better outcome in lexical tone perception and production.

Descripción fonética de los tonos del maya yucateco

The porpouse of the paper is to analysis of the vowels of Yucatec Maya, as well as a phonetic description of the realizations of tones. First, short vowels are distinguished from long vowels, and then special attention is paid to long vowels which show phonological tones. Finally, some considerations about the tonal contrast are outlined.