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We present an Exemplar-Theoretic confidence-sensitive dynamic programming model of speech production, PEBLS (Phonological Exemplar-Based Learning System), and test it with real acoustic speech signals. We focus on the computational problem of how to generate an output that generalizes over a collection of unique, variable-length signals, without resorting to a priori phonological units such as phones or syllables. We show that PEBLS displays pattern-entrenchment behaviour, central to Exemplar Theory's account of phonologization.

This paper reviews a previous assumption that contour tones are units (i.e., Contour Tone Unit, CTU) in Asian tone languages and can therefore spread, assimilate, or dissimilate as wholes. One problem for such an assumption is that not all Asian languages pattern uniformly, and some show a rather different, prototypically African tone language pattern. Furthermore, the assumption yields analytical gaps which need to be covered by more arbitrary rules. In this paper non-CTU approaches are proposed to re-analyze contour tone sandhi in various Chinese dialects with broader generalizations and stronger explanations. The paper also argues against the CTU since the contrast between it and the non-CTU has never been reported. Despite the fact that some phonetic differences have been discovered between two identical contour tones, the differences are not necessarily mapped with different contour tone representations (i.e., CTU vs. non-CTU). In sum, since the CTU is not beneficial analytically and theoretically, there is no reason to consider it as part of Universal Grammar.

Lexical tone identification requires a number of secondary cues, when main tonal contours are unavailable. In this article, we examine Mandarin native speakers' ability to identify lexical tones by extracting tonal information from sonorant onset pitch (onset contours) on syllable-initial nasals ranging from 50to 70 ms in duration. In experiments I and II we test speakers' ability to identify lexical tones in a second syllable with and without onset contours in isolation (experiment I) and in a sentential context (experiment II). The results indicate that speakers can identify lexical tones with short distinctive onset contour patterns,they also indicate that misperception of tones 213 and 24 are common. Furthermore, in experiment III, we test whether onset contours in a following syllable can be utilized by listeners in tone identification. We find that onset contours in the following syllable also contribute to the identification of the target lexical tones. The conclusions are twofold: (1) Mandarin lexical tones can be identified with onset contours; (2) tonal domain must be extended to include not just typical cues of tones but also coarticulated tonal patterns.