Tone perception in Cantonese and Mandarin: A cross-linguistic comparison

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of linguistic experience on tone perception. Both Cantonese (in Experiment 1) and Mandarin (in Experiment 2) tones, including both lexical and nonlexical tones, were presented to three groups of subjects: Cantonese, Mandarin, and English native speakers. Subjects were asked to determine whether two auditorily presented tones were the same or different. The interval between the presentation of the two tones, and the level of interference during this interval, were manipulated. Native speakers did better at discriminating tones from their own languages than the other two groups of subjects, for both lexical and nonlexical tones. Subjects did worst when they were required to count backward during the interstimulus interval. Cantonese speakers were better than both Mandarin and English speakers at discriminating Cantonese tones, and there was no difference between Mandarin and English speakers, except in one condition. Mandarin speakers did better than both Cantonese and English speakers, and Cantonese speakers did better than English speakers, at discriminating Mandarin tones. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of language background, differences between Cantonese and Mandarin tones, and the nature of encoding in short-term memory.

Effects of linguistic experience on the perception of high-variability non-native tones

“…As a result, their task may not be demanding enough to differentiate the two groups (i.e., both groups' accuracy rates in level tone identifications were noticeably higher than those reported in the current study). This possibility can be further tested by replicating studies that used single-speaker stimuli and reported null tone language experience effects (e.g., Hao, 2012;Lee et al, 1996) with a high-variability listening paradigm.…”

“…Lee et al (1996) found that while their Cantonese listeners were better than English listeners at discriminating Mandarin tones, Mandarin listeners did not perform better than English listeners in Cantonese tone discrimination. They claimed that the asymmetric tone experience effects were due to the fact that Cantonese has more tones (six) than Mandarin (four) and is therefore harder to acquire and perceive than Mandarin.…”

“…While some studies reported that tone speakers outperformed non-tone speakers in non-native tone perception (Liang and van Heuven, 2007;Wayland and Guion, 2004), others found no significant performance difference between the two groups Hao, 2012;So and Best, 2010). Yet other researchers have found selective advantages of tone language experience in the perception of non-native tones (Lee et al, 1996;Qin and Jongman, 2015;Qin and Mok, 2011).…”

Identification and discrimination of Mandarin Chinese tones by Mandarin Chinese vs. French listeners

“…Second, tonal information seems to interact with segmental information in lexical access (Fox & Unkefer, 1985;Lee, 2000). Findings of crosslinguistic differences between native speakers of tonal and nontonal languages have been somewhat less consistent, but generally point to, respectively, linguistic vs. nonlinguistic perception of tones (Fox & Unkefer, 1985;Gandour & Harshman, 1978;Wang, 1976;Lee & Nusbaum, 1993;Lee, Vakock, & Wurm, 1996). Recent neuroimaging studies support this view: Left hemisphere structures are recruited to process tone contours for speakers of Thai or Chinese, whereas right hemisphere structures are engaged for speakers of nontonal languages (Gandour, Wong, & Hutchins, 1998;Gandour, Wong, Hsieh, Weinzapfel, Van Lancker, & Hutchins, 2000;Klein, Zatorre, Milner, & Zhao, 2001).…”

Chinese tone and intonation perceived by L1 and L2 listeners

“…Gandour (1983) studied perceptual similarity between pairs of natural tones in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese and Thai, but the task did not involve the perceptual identification of tones. Similarily, Vakoch and Wurm (1996) presented natural tokens of Mandarin and Cantonese tones to Mandarin, Cantonese and English listeners in a discrimination task. Their results indicate that English listeners discriminate the tones less successfully than listeners who speak a tone language.…”