Cover not available

Article published In: Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報)
Vol. 52:1 (2017) ► pp.28–54

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The effect of pitch interplay on English-speaking learners of Mandarin

 | University of Victoria
Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.52.1.02luo
Abstract
This study examines how native English speakers perceive and produce intonation and tone in Mandarin statements and unmarked questions. The results showed, as predicted, that English speakers had less difficulty perceiving intonation and sentence-final tone when the pitch movement of both was in the same direction than when it was not. On the production side, English speakers performed much better at producing tone than intonation. The intelligibility of their question intonation was especially compromised, likely due to their narrow pitch range. The English speakers also consistently produced more final rising pitch in Mandarin unmarked questions, suggesting phonological influence from their native language. Findings highlight the role of language experience in language learning, and the importance of pedagogical awareness.
摘要
本实验探讨了汉语语调和句末声调对英语为母语的汉语学习者的影响。实验结果表明当语调和声调的基频走势一致时，学习者在听辨语调和句调时正确率都较高。在无句法标记的疑问句的输出中，二语学习者普遍音域较窄，句末音高突出。本实验再次强调了母语的影响以及语调在课堂教学中的重要性。
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Background
    • 1.2Mandarin pitch interplay in L1 speech
    • 1.3Mandarin pitch interplay in L2 speech
    • 1.4Research questions and predictions
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Material
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Intonation perception
    • 3.2Tone perception
    • 3.3Intonation production
    • 3.4Tone production
  • 4.Summary and discussion
    • 4.1Perceptual findings
    • 4.2Production findings
      • 4.2.1Intonation production
      • 4.2.2Tone production
    • 4.3Pedagogical implication
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
References
Backman, N. (1979). Intonation errors in second language pronunciation of eight Spanish-speaking adults learning English. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin, 4(2), 239–266.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barlow, J. S. (1998). Intonation and second language acquisition: A study of the acquisition of English intonation by speakers of other languages (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Hull, Kingston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2013). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.3.56). Retrieved from [URL].
Bolinger, D. (1989). Intonation and its uses. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Broselow, E., Hurtig, R. R., & Ringen, C. (1987). The perception of second language prosody. In G. Ioup & S. Weinberger (Eds.), Interlanguage phonology: The acquisition of a second language sound system (pp. 350–361). Cambridge, MA: Newbury House Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R. (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, G. T. (1974). The pitch range of English and Chinese speakers. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 21, 159–171.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Connell, B. A., Hogan, J. T., & Rozsypal, A. J. (1983). Experimental evidence of interaction between tone and intonation in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Phonetics (11), 337–351. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cruz-Ferreira, M. (1987). Non-native interpretive strategies for intonational meaning: An experimental study. Sound Patterns in Second language Acquisition, 103–120.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeFrancis, J. F. (1963). Beginning Chinese. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derwing, T., & Munro, M. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 379–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, M., & Baumann, S. (2007). An introduction to intonation – functions and models. In J. Trouvain & U. Gut (Eds.), Non-native prosody: Phonetic description and teaching practice (pp. 25–51). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, C., & Chen, A. J. (2000). Universal and language-specific effects in the perception of question intonation. In Y. Baozong, Taiyi Huang, & Xiaofang Tang (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th international conference on spoken language processing ICSLP (pp. 91–94). Beijing: China Military Friendship Publish.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gut, U., Trouvain, J., & Barry, W. J. (2007). Bridging research on phonetic descriptions with knowledge from teaching practice – the case of prosody in non-native speech. In J. Trouvain & U. Gut (Eds.), Non-native prosody: Phonetic description and teaching practice (pp. 3–21). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hadding-Koch, K., & Studdert-Kennedy, M. (1964). An experimental study of some intonation contours. Phonetica, 111, 175–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hirschberg, J., & Ward, G. (1995). The interpretation of the high-rise question contour in English. Journal of Pragmatics, 24(4), 407–412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ho, A. T. (1976). Mandarin tones in relation to sentence intonation and grammatical structure. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 1–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, D. (2003). Perceiving question intonation: The role of pre-focal pause and delayed focal peak. In M. Solé, D. Recasens, & J. Romero (Eds.), Proceedings of the international congress of phonetic sciences (pp. 755–758). Barcelona, Spain.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jilka, M. (2007). Different manifestations and perceptions of foreign accent in intonation. In J. Trouvain & U. Gut (Eds.), Non-native prosody: Phonetic description and teaching practice (pp. 77–96). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratochvil, P. (1998). Intonation in Mandarin Chinese. In D. Hirst & A. Di Cristo (Eds.), Intonation systems: A survey of twenty languages (pp. 417–431). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, O. J. (2005). The prosody of questions in Beijing Mandarin (Unpublished doctoral Dissertation). Ohio State University, Ohio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lepetit, D. (1989). Cross‐linguistic influence in intonation: French/Japanese and French/English. Language Learning, 39(3), 397–413. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liang, J., & van Heuven, V. J. (2007). Chinese tone and intonation perceived by L1 and L2 listeners, In C. Gussenhoven & T. Riad (Eds.), Tones and tunes: Experimental studies in word and sentence prosody (pp. 27–61). Berlin / NewYork: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lieberman, P. (1965). On the acoustic basis of the perception of intonation by linguists. Word-Journal of the International Linguistic Association, 21(1), 40–54.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lin, M. C. (2004). On production and perception of boundary tone in Chinese intonation. Paper presented at International symposium on tonal aspects of languages: With emphasis on tone languages, Beijing, China.
Liu, F., & Xu, Y. (2005). Parallel encoding of focus and interrogative meaning in Mandarin intonation. Phonetica, 62(2–4), 70–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ma, J. K., Ciocca, V., & Whitehill, T. L. (2006). Effect of intonation on Cantonese lexical tones. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120(6), 3978–3987. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Major, R. C. (2001). Foreign accent: The ontogeny and phylogeny of second language phonology. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGory, J. T. (1997). Acquisition of intonational prominence in English by Seoul Korean and Mandarin Chinese speakers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ohio State University, OhioGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mennen, I. (2004). Bi-directional interference in the intonation of Dutch speakers of Greek. Journal of Phonetics, 32(4), 543–563. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Phonological and phonetic influences in non-native intonation. In J. Trouvain & U. Gut (Eds.), Non-native prosody: Phonetic description and teaching practice (pp. 53–76). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohala, J. J. (1984). An ethological perspective on common cross-language utilization of F0 of voice. Phonetica, 41(1), 1–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J., & Hirschberg, J. (1990). The meaning of intonational contours in the interpretation of discourse. In P. Cohen, J. Morgan, & M. Pollack (Eds.), Intentions in communication (pp. 271–311). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rasier, L., & Hiligsmann, P. (2007). Prosodic transfer from L1 to L2: Theoretical and methodological issues. Nouveaux cahiers de linguistique française, 281, 41–66.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scherer, K. R., Ladd, D. R., & Silverman, K. E. (1984). Vocal cues to speaker affect: Testing two models. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 76(5), 1346–1356. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2012). E-Prime user’s guide. Pittsburgh: Psychology Software Tools, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, N. S. (1986). Tone, stress, and intonation in Mandarin Chinese (doctoral dissertation). University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1990). The prosody of Mandarin Chinese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, X. S. (1989). Toward a register approach in teaching Mandarin tones. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, 24(3), 27–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tseng, C. Y. (1981). An acoustic phonetic study on tones in Mandarin Chinese. Brown University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). On the role of intonation in the organization of Mandarin Chinese speech prosody. Paper presented at Eurospeech / INTERSPEECH, Geneva, Switzerland.
Ueyama, M. (2000). Prosodic transfer: An acoustic study of L2 English vs. L2 Japanese. PhD dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ueyama, M., & Jun, S. A. (1996). Focus realization of Japanese English and Korean English intonation. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 110–125.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ultan, R. (1978). Some general characteristics of interrogative systems. Universals of Human Language, 41, 211–248.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vaissière, J. (2005). Perception of Intonation, In D. B. Pisoni & R. E. Remez (Eds.), The handbook of speech perception (pp. 236–263). MA: Blackwell, Malden. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vance, T. J. (1976). An experimental investigation of tone and intonation in Cantonese. Phonetica, 33(5), 368–392. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Visceglia, T. & Fodor, J. D. (2006). Fundamental frequency in Mandarin and English: Comparing first- and second-language speakers. In C. Lleoa (Ed.), Interfaces in multilingualism: Acquisition and representation (pp. 27–59). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, P., & Shi, F. (2010). The undulating scale of interrogative sentence intonation of Beijing Mandarin. Nankai Linguistics, 21, 004.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wells, J. C. (2006). English intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willems, N. (1982). English intonation from a Dutch point of view. Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, C., & Chan, M. K. (2010). The perception of Mandarin Chinese tones and intonation by American learners. Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association, 45(1), 7–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yuan, J. H. (2004). Intonation in Mandarin Chinese: Acoustics, perception, and computational modeling (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Cornell University, New York.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006). Mechanisms of question intonation in Mandarin. In Q. Huo, B. Ma, E -S. Chng, & H. Li (Eds), Chinese spoken language processing (pp. 19–30). Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Perception of intonation in Mandarin Chinese. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130 (6), 4063–4069. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeng, X. L., Martin, P., & Boulakia, G. (2004). Tones and intonation in declarative and interrogative sentences in Mandarin. Paper presented at International symposium on tonal aspects of languages: With emphasis on tone languages, Beijing, China.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Y. H., & Yuan, J. H. (2011). A cross‐linguistic study of intonation: English learners’ production of Mandarin intonation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129 (4), 2681–2681. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Calhoun, Sasha, Paul Warren & Mengzhu Yan
2023. Cross-language influences in the processing of L2 prosody. In Cross-language Influences in Bilingual Processing and Second Language Acquisition [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 16], ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Zhu, Junling
2023. Critical Literature Review on Teaching Chinese as a World Language in the Context of Globalization. Language and Sociocultural Theory 9:2 ► pp. 202 ff. DOI logo
Neal, Robert
2022. How do L1 Chinese raters process the L2 Chinese speech signal at the sentence level with respect to accentedness, comprehensibility and intelligibility?. Chinese as a Second Language Research 11:2 ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue