Tone Production Research Articles

The Labyrinth: using new music experience in the performance of historical music

The education of a classical violinist – or mine at least, and I see scant evidence that anything else holds today – begins based on a mainstream Romantic ideal consisting of works, geniuses, and concepts of musical authenticity. This is quite useful as a tool to cajole the young violinist into learning the essentials of tone production and playing styles but is at odds with a questioning attitude towards normative traditions that might allow the musician greater interpretive freedom after gaining that technique. While the historically informed performance (HIP) movement was an early, important manifestation of this sort of questioning attitude, the experimental/avantgarde tradition, which has run parallel to these others from the early twentieth century, has not often been applied to the interpretation of historical music. The experimental tradition does not assume conventional tone production or historical authenticity: instead, it is asking the musician to interpret the symbols on the page according to their own artistically informed predilections and contexts to produce new performances emanating from the artwork, thereby transferring more responsibility for the performance from the composer to the musician. To what extent might the experience of the performer be allowed to contribute to the performance of a historical work? As part of a three-year artistic research project in Stockholm, I have been looking into ways of using interpretive techniques gleaned from the study of new music and applying these to historical works. This article describes some existing research that questions the traditional interpretive paradigm, along with the ontology of a musical work and its interpretation, and concludes with a case study, “The Labyrinth,” showing one way that these sorts of attitudes can be put into practice for a genre of music to which they seldom, if ever, have been applied.

Production of Mandarin and Fuzhou lexical tones in six- to seven-year-old Mandarin-Fuzhou bilingual children

AbstractThis study investigated the production of Mandarin and Fuzhou lexical tones by Mandarin-Fuzhou bilingual children. Forty children aged 6;11 to 7;6 and two groups of adults (Mandarin speakers and Fuzhou speakers) were asked to produce pre-selected familiar monosyllabic words. Adult judges' perceptual judgments and acoustic analysis showed that: (1) overall, these children's production performance of Mandarin tones was similar to adults', with very high accuracy; (2) children did not reach adult-like production competence in Fuzhou tones by age 7;6; and (3) there was an imbalance in children's development of the seven lexical tones in Fuzhou. Children's late and unbalanced development of Fuzhou tones could be ascribed to their unbalanced Mandarin-Fuzhou exposure, and it is argued that children might transfer the characteristics of the Mandarin tonal system to their production of Fuzhou tones.

High variability phonetic training facilitates perception-to-production transfer in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants: An acoustic investigation.

This study primarily aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) for children with cochlear implants (CIs) via the cross-modal transfer of perceptual learning to lexical tone production, a scope that has been largely neglected by previous training research. Sixteen CI participants received a five-session HVPT within a period of three weeks, whereas another 16 CI children were recruited without receiving any formal training. Lexical tone production was assessed with a picture naming task before the provision (pretest) and immediately after (posttest) and ten weeks after (follow-up test) the completion of the training protocol. The production samples were coded and analyzed acoustically. Despite considerable distinctions from the typical baselines of normal-hearing peers, the trained CI children exhibited significant improvements in Mandarin tone production from pretest to posttest in pitch height of T1, pitch slope of T2, and pitch curvature of T3. Moreover, the training-induced acoustic changes in the concave characteristic of the T3 contour was retained ten weeks after training termination. This study represents an initial acoustic investigation on HVPT-induced benefits in lexical tone production for the pediatric CI population, which provides valuable insights into applying this perceptual training technique as a viable tool in clinical practices.

A cross-linguistic review of citation tone production studies: Methodology and recommendations.

The study of citation tones, lexical tones produced in isolation, is one of the first steps towards understanding speech prosody in tone languages. However, methodologies for investigating citation tones vary significantly, often leading to limited comparability of tone inventories, both within and across languages. This paper presents a systematic review of research methods and practices in 136 citation tone studies on 129 tonal language varieties in China, including 99 studies published in Chinese, which are therefore not easily available to an international scientific readership. The review provides an overview of possible analytical decisions along the research pipeline, and unveils considerable variation in data collection, analysis, and reporting conventions, particularly in how f0, the primary acoustic correlate for tone, is operationalised and reported across studies. Key methodological issues are identified, including small sample sizes and inadequate transparency in communicating methodological decisions and procedure. This paper offers a clear road map for citation tone production research and proposes a range of recommendations on speaker sampling, experimental design, acoustic processing techniques, f0 analysis, and result reporting, with the goal of facilitating future tonal research and enhancing resources for underrepresented tonal varieties.

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.

Perceptions of Choral Tone: A Review of Literature

The purpose of this literature review was to synthesize research related to perceptions of choral tone and to provide implications for future research and praxis. Although considerable research exists on the topic of choral tone, choral music professionals have indicated contradictory philosophies of what makes “good” choral tone. To highlight these contradictions, this literature review includes common interpretations of tone, vocal tone, and choral tone; factors that influence choral tone production; and issues regarding the perception of choral tone. Implications and research-based suggestions for how choral directors may approach choral tone are also shared.

Shadowing textbook and authentic materials in beginning L2 learners’ acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones in spontaneous speech

Abstract Addressing the lack of research examining the use of discourse-level speech input in beginning L2 learners’ Mandarin tone production in spontaneous speech, this study compares the effects of authentic videos and textbook audios as shadowing materials on beginners’ multisyllabic tone production in spontaneous speech and learner attitudes. Fourteen college students, randomly divided into the “authentic” and “textbook” groups, shadowed for four weeks. From the pretest to the posttest, both groups significantly improved tone accuracy in sentence-level spontaneous speech with no significant differences between groups. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of learners’ responses show that (1) both groups had positive attitudes toward the materials, (2) authentic materials generated greater interest, and learners appreciated shadowing authentic conversations or conversations that mimic natural discourse, and (3) the learners primarily cared about whether the materials were comprehensible, interesting, and accessible. The findings shed light on using authentic materials to teach L2 pronunciation.

Bidialectal acoustic realization of tones is influenced by dialect experience and homophone status

While evidence shows that interlingual cognates can enhance cross-language phonetic assimilation in production, it is reasonable to assume that interlingual homophones can enhance cross-language phonological interference. Distinct from cognates, interlingual homophones do not share semantic content, which may affect the degree of co-activation observed across languages. The present study examines this hypothesis in a group of bidialectal speakers, whose lexicon consists of a large number of inter-dialectal homophones. Productions of Chengdu Mandarin tones by Chengdu Mandarin and Standard Mandarin speakers were examined in a word naming task. The results showed that bidialectal speakers’ native tone productions were influenced by their experience in speaking Standard Mandarin as well as the inter-dialectal homophone status of the lexical item. Additionally, both of these influences were modulated by the structure of the inter-dialect tone categories. The findings support the similarity between bidialectal and bilingual speech processing and provide novel evidence for bilingual speech models from the level of suprasegmental processing.

Acoustic Analyses of Tone Productions in Sequencing Contexts Among Cantonese-Speaking Preschool Children With and Without Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Pitch variations (tone productions) have been reported as a measure to differentiate Cantonese-speaking children with and without childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). This study aims to examine fundamental frequency (F0) changes within syllables and the effects of syllable structure, lexical status, and syllable positions on F0 in Cantonese-speaking preschool children with and without CAS. Six children with CAS, six children with non-CAS speech sound disorder plus language disorder (S&LD), 22 children with speech sound disorder only (SSD), and 63 children with typical speech-language development (TD) performed the tone sequencing task (TST). Growth curve analysis was employed to analyze and compare the F0 values within syllables with three Cantonese tones (high level, high rising, and low falling). The analysis considered the effects of syllable structure (vowel and consonant-vowel), lexical status (word and nonword), and syllable position (initial, medial, and final) on F0, as well as comparisons within and between groups. Within each group, the effects of syllable structure and position on F0 values were found with different patterns. Between-group comparisons showed that the CAS group had reduced F0 contrasts. The CAS group could be differentiated from the control groups based on interactions of F0 with syllable structure and position, but not lexical status. The dissimilarity of F0 values detected between the CAS and SSD/TD groups was more prominent than that observed between the CAS and S&LD groups. This study demonstrated that Cantonese-speaking children with CAS had difficulty in varying F0 within syllables as compared to those without CAS, suggesting pitch variation difficulty and language-specific impairment profiles in CAS. Future investigations of objective measures for identifying Cantonese speakers with CAS and cross-linguistic investigations using growth curve analysis and the TST are suggested.

Investigating Perception to Production Transfer in Children With Cochlear Implants: A High Variability Phonetic Training Study.

This study builds upon an established effective training method to investigate the advantages of high variability phonetic identification training for enhancing lexical tone perception and production in Mandarin-speaking pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients, who typically face ongoing challenges in these areas. Thirty-two Mandarin-speaking children with CIs were quasirandomly assigned into the training group (TG) and the control group (CG). The 16 TG participants received five sessions of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) within a period of 3 weeks. The CG participants did not receive the training. Perception and production of Mandarin tones were administered before (pretest) and immediately after (posttest) the completion of HVPT via lexical tone recognition task and picture naming task. Both groups participated in the identical pretest and posttest with the same time frame between the two test sessions. TG showed significant improvement from pretest to posttest in identifying Mandarin tones for both trained and untrained speech stimuli. Moreover, perceptual learning of HVPT significantly facilitated trainees' production of T1 and T2 as rated by a cohort of 10 Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing, which was corroborated by acoustic analyses revealing improved fundamental frequency (F0) median for T1 and T2 production and enlarged F0 movement for T2 production. In contrast, TG children's production of T3 and T4 showed nonsignificant changes across two test sessions. Meanwhile, CG did not exhibit significant changes in either perception or production. The results suggest a limited and inconsistent transfer of perceptual learning to lexical tone production in children with CIs, which challenges the notion of a robust transfer and highlights the complexity of the interaction between perceptual training and production outcomes. Further research on individual differences with a longitudinal design is needed to optimize the training protocol or tailor interventions to better meet the diverse needs of learners.

Regional differences in the production of tones in standard mandarin

This study investigates the intricate patterns of tonal variations in monosyllabic words across distinct regional accents of Standard Mandarin, with a focus on Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing. Due to the differing tonal systems of the local Chinese dialects in the three cities, speakers from these areas may exhibit distinct patterns in their production of tones in Standard Mandarin, influenced by their native Chinese dialects. Therefore, to capture the nuances of tonal differences, the study extracts the time-normalized f0 values of four tones (i.e., level, rising, dipping, and falling tones) from monosyllabic words in a Mandarin Chinese speech corpus. The overall f0 contours of the four tones within and across the three regional accents are modeled using growth curve analysis. We expect to find that regional accents of Standard Mandarin exhibit significant tonal variations such that the tone shapes of speakers from Shanghai and Guangzhou may significantly deviate from those of Beijing speakers. Specifically, there are variations in contour shape and temporal dynamics, particularly in the quadratic term for dipping tones and the slopes of rising and falling tones. These findings can provide valuable insights into the intricate characteristics of regional tonal variations in Standard Mandarin.

Perceptual training facilitates Mandarin tone production for preschoolers with cochlear implants: Evidence from acoustic analysis

This study primarily aimed to investigate the benefits of an established perceptual training in the production of lexical tones for Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with cochlear implants (CIs). Thirty-two pediatric CI recipients were tested in this study. Half of the child participants received five sessions of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) within a period of three weeks, whereas the other half served as control who did not receive the formal training. Production of Mandarin tones was recorded before the provision (pretest) and after (posttest) the completion of the training protocol, which was coded and analyzed acoustically with automatic pitch tracking implemented in the software of Praat. Results showed significantly enhanced concave characteristic of dynamic pitch contours for the trained children’s Mandarin tones produced in posttest relative to pretest using growth curve analysis. Moreover, a tonal ellipse analysis indicated significantly improved tone differentiability and tone hit rate from pretest to posttest following training. By contrast, no significant changes were observed in the control children between the two test sessions. The findings represent initial acoustic evidence of HVPT-induced benefits in lexical tone production for CI users, which supports the application of this perceptual training protocol to aural rehabilitation practice.

Resonators in free reed instruments: Good, bad, and unusual effects

Western free reed instruments such as the accordion and the harmonica do not typically use pipe resonators. Yet even without pipes there are two sorts of resonators employed. In the case of mouth blown instruments, free-reed or not, the resonances of the players vocal tract are quite significant. Less often recognized as resonators are the reed chambers necessary to provide a secure mounting for the reed and to properly direct the airstream. The acoustical properties of these may or may not be beneficial. Because of their different reed construction, the Asian free-reed mouth organs require pipe resonators in to function. This paper will present examples of ways in which reed chamber and pipe resonances can enhance or interfere with tone production, as well as some interesting special effects produced by intentional mismatches between reed and resonator.

Repetition and practice. Developing mental training with young violinists: a collaboration.

Mental training has been used successfully by professional musicians and athletes, yet rarely applied in pedagogical processes. As research in neuroscience can now explain how it connects to the processes of learning, its application and adaptation in pedagogy can now be explored. The aim of this mixed methods study was to investigate concepts of repetition and practice with mental training, and discuss adaptations for young violinists, to include attention, awareness, and creative musicality. Three exercises were developed with nine students (average age 8). The first involved creation of imagery, followed by physical practice; the second alternated mental imagery with physical practice; the third involved concurrent use of physical practice and mental imagery. Results of the first exercise indicate heightened awareness of technical skill; self-discovery of bow control, speed and distribution, tone production improvements and an ability to sustain longer notes post-mental training (Z = -2.666, p = 0.008 and Z = -2.670, p = 0.008). Observations from the second and third exercises include student experimentation with concepts of musical interpretation, an eagerness to repeat repertoire (≥ 5 times) and increased self-awareness of technical and musical accomplishments. The research suggests that mental training can be adapted for younger learners, that it encourages collaboration in the pedagogical process, and develops student self-awareness of the cognitive and physical processes of violin playing.

Acquisition of Mandarin tones by Canadian first graders: Effect of prior exposure to tonal and non-tonal languages.

This study examines the tone productions of school-aged children with and without a tonal language background who are learning Mandarin as a second language (L2) or heritage language in Mandarin-English bilingual schools in Western Canada. Tones are frequently identified as one of the most challenging aspects of phonology for Mandarin L2 learners to acquire. In this study, tone productions of bilingual children from three home language backgrounds, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese, were compared for transcribed accuracy using mixed effects logistic regression. In addition, the fundamental frequency contours of correct tone productions were fitted with generalized additive mixed models to analyse the acoustic differences between groups. Error patterns were also analysed for possible Cantonese substitutions. Our results suggest that children with a Cantonese background are more accurate in tone productions than children with an English language background, but they also made more errors than their peers with a Mandarin language background. These findings suggest that a tonal language background could result in positive transfer among school-age children who are in the early stages of learning Mandarin as an L2.

A Study on the Production of Mandarin Lexical Tones and Disyllabic Sequences Containing the Third Tone by Intermediate-Level Chinese Learners from Laos

A Study on the Production of Mandarin Lexical Tones and Disyllabic Sequences Containing the Third Tone by Intermediate-Level Chinese Learners from Laos

The use and effective analysis of vocal spectrum analysis method in vocal music teaching

Abstract As computer science and technology continue to evolve and become more pervasive, their application in analyzing the audio spectrum of vocalizations offers valuable insights for vocal music education. This study introduces a method utilizing Fourier transform analysis to examine time-frequency domain signals in vocal teaching. Initially, voice frequencies are collected during vocal music instruction. Subsequently, these frequencies are processed to extract characteristic sequences, which are then reduced in scale to develop a model for voice spectrum recognition tailored to vocal music education. This model facilitates detailed spectral analysis, enabling the investigation of its auxiliary benefits in vocal music teaching, particularly in identifying prevalent instructional challenges. Our findings indicate that during training on vowels “a” and “i,” professional singers’ pitch at 4kHz declined to between −15 and −18 dB, whereas students’ pitch varied around ±6dB, trending upwards. In cases of air leakage, significant gaps were observed at frequencies of 5500Hz, 10500Hz, and 14500Hz. At the same time, students exhibited missing frequencies at 7kHz, 12kHz, and 14kHz during glottal tone production, with pronounced, abrupt peaks occurring when vocal folds were tightly constricted and devoid of excessive links. This research substantiates the theoretical and practical benefits of digital spectrum technology in enhancing vocal music education, thereby providing a scientific and supportive role.

The boundary-induced modulation of obstruents and tones in Thai

Limited studies have suggested that tones can be strengthened in domain-initial positions, suggesting that domain-initial strengthening (DIS) effects in a tone language extend beyond the first segment of a prosodic domain. However, these studies have yielded unclear results. This study investigated whether DIS causes boundary-induced changes in tones. This study analyzed the maximum fundamental frequency (f0) of the falling, mid, and low tones in Thai along with acoustic measures of consonants, including the Voice Onset Times (VOTs) of /b/, /p/, and /pʰ/, frication duration of /f/, and consonant-induced f0 perturbation effects associated with these four consonants in domain-initial and domain-medial positions. Some evidence of DIS effects on tones was found, suggesting that DIS effects in a tone language can extend to tone production realized with the vowel that is beyond the first segment. Additionally, the VOTs of /b/, /p/, and /pʰ/ were more negative, unchanged, and longer, respectively, the frication of /f/ was longer, and f0 following /pʰ/ was raised in a domain-initial position compared to a domain-medial position. The findings contribute to the current understanding of the prosody-phonetics interface, particularly with respect to the relationship between DIS and the realization of tones.

Tonal intelligibility within a paragraph

Abstract This study considers the performance of tone pronunciation and morpheme intelligibility by L2 Polish Mandarin learners. A mixed-effects ordinal regression model and Tukey’s HSD multiple test were used to examine the start-point, end-point, of syllables as a means of assessing their intelligibility by L2 Polish learners regarding the tones with the sequence T0, T1, T2, T4 > T3.and T0, T1> T2, T4 > T3, respectively. Students’ tone pronunciation at different stages of learning was compared, i.e. first at less than A1 level of proficiency and then after achieving an A2 level of proficiency according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), with the interval of a 22-week intensive Chinese class. The results suggest that in the case of the steady pitch produced for T0 and T1, L2 Polish learners found it easy to control the vibration speed of the vocal folds over two stages. Additionally, progress in successfully producing T4 was exhibited with improving control over the individual tonal register span, implying that competent tonal production develops with time. It remains unclear whether the reason why the low-range T3 is acquired last is down to the habitually high pitched range of spoken Polish, or a more universally observable phenomenon where T3 is liable to be confused with other tones in production.

Considerations of dialect on the identification of speech sound disorder in Vietnamese-speaking children.

The dialect spoken by children influences diagnostic decision-making regarding the identification and severity of speech sound disorder (SSD). The primary objective was to review papers that examined the influence of dialect on the identification of SSD in Vietnamese-speaking children. Five studies of mono- and multilingual Vietnamese-speaking children living in Vietnam and Australia were reviewed to examine the influence of dialect on the assessment and analysis children's speech. The main Vietnamese dialects (Standard, Northern, Central, Southern) differ in the production of consonants, vowels and tones. Most speech assessments define correct production using the standard dialect of a language. Insights from recent studies of Vietnamese provide recommendations for also considering dialect in diagnostic decision-making. First, we recommend adding column(s) to the assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults in the child's family or community. Second, we calculate the accuracy of production twice, based on the standard form and dialectal form. Third, we report the percentage of consonants correct-standard (PCC-S) and percentage of consonants correct-dialect (PCC-D). Diagnostic decision-making is influenced by dialectal variation in children's speech, so speech and language therapists need to compare standard and dialectal productions when undertaking assessments, analysis and diagnostic decision-making. What is already known on the subject Most speech assessments use the standard form of a dialect as the correct production. The standard dialect is used for diagnosis of SSD and identification of intervention targets. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This paper examines five research studies of Vietnamese to identify ways to consider dialect in speech and language therapy assessment and analysis. Vietnamese provides a complex environment for this examination since there are numerous Vietnamese dialects and they differ according to consonants, vowels and tones. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Speech and language therapists are encouraged to add column(s) to their assessment score sheet that includes the dialectal variants spoken by adults and to report the PCC-S and PCC-D.