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The aim of this paper is to outline the means for encoding information structure in Yucatec Maya. Yucatec Maya is a tone language, displaying a three-fold opposition in the tonal realization of syllables. From the morpho-syntactic point of view, the grammar of Yucatec Maya contains morphological (topic affixes, morphological marking of out-of-focus predicates) and syntactic (designated positions) means to uniquely specify syntactic constructions for their information structure. After a descriptive overview of these phenomena, we present experimental evidence which reveals the impact of the nonavailability of prosodic alternatives on the choice of syntactic constructions in language production.

Bilinguals have the sole option of conversing in one language in spite of knowing two languages. The question of how bilinguals alternate between their two languages, activating and deactivating one language, is not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the development of this process by researching bilingual children's abilities to selectively integrate lexical tone based on its relevance in the language being used. In particular, the current study sought to determine the effects of global conversation-level cues versus local (within-word phonotactic) cues on children's tone integration in newly learned words. Words were taught to children via a conversational narrative, and word recognition was investigated using the intermodal preferential-looking paradigm. Children were tested on recognition of words with stimuli that were either matched or mismatched in tone in both English and Mandarin conversations. Results demonstrated that 3- to 4-year-olds did not adapt their interpretation of lexical tone changes to the language being spoken. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds were able to do so when supported by informative within-word cues. Results suggest that preschool children are capable of selectively activating a single language given word-internal cues to language.

This study aimed to describe the phonological development of Setswana-speaking children between the ages of 2;0 and 6;5 years. The study objectives were to: 1) describe the acquisition of four aspects of phonology in these children, namely vowels, consonants, lexical tone and phonological processes; 2) contrast Setswana phonological development in monolingual vs multilingual children; and 3) contrast typical vs atypical Setswana speech acquisition and determine the occurrence and nature of speech sound disorders in children acquiring Setswana. The participant group comprised 81 children from the North-West Province of South Africa. All children were attending preschool and were acquiring one of two varieties of Setswana investigated in this study, namely Sekwêna and Setlhaping. Sixty-five participants were acquiring Sekwêna and were recruited from Hebron, and the remaining 16 participants were acquiring Setlhaping and were recruited from Dry-Harts village. The study used a cross-sectional design to detail the stages of phonological development in children aged 2;0–6;5 years. For each of the varieties studied, participants were assigned to groups of six-month age bands (e.g. 2;6– 2;11 years). Findings add to data from a preliminary pilot study on the acquisition of Setswana segmental phonology (Mahura, 2014; Mahura & Pascoe, 2020). Prior to obtaining speech samples from Setswanaspeaking children, revisions were made to the assessment developed in the pilot study. This was done by addressing a number of limitations which had been documented following its use, including ensuring that all consonant phonemes were targeted in the initial word and penultimate syllable positions, as well as including syllabic consonants in these word positions. The picture stimuli were also changed, and an expert panel assessed the revised word list to ensure that all words were linguistically and culturally appropriate. Participants' speech was transcribed online using IPA symbols and audio recorded for later re-transcription to ensure reliability. The findings indicate that children acquiring Setswana have a full set of vowels in their phonetic inventories as early as 2;6 years, and possibly earlier. A large number of consonant phonemes occurring in the Setswana phonological system had either been acquired or mastered by 2;6–2;11 years. This was seen word-initially and in the penultimate syllable position, with only three phonemes still to be acquired at this age word-initially: only two phonemes with rounding, velar plosive /kʷʼ/ and alveolar nasal /nʷ/, were still emerging at 2;6–2;11 years and seen to be acquired at 3;0–3;5 years in the initial word position and voiced palato-alveolar affricate /ʤ/ was absent at 2;6–2;11 years. This phoneme was, however, seen to emerge in the 3;0–3;5-year group. Heterorganic compounds in the initial word position mainly consisted of /fj/ and were only seen in the speech of children who speak the Sekwêna variety. Conclusions on the age at which heterorganic compound /fj/ is acquired could not be made as it was not used by all children acquiring the Sekwêna variety, but instead observed in the speech of several participants across the different age bands. Although consonant clusters were not included in the consonant phonemes elicited as part of this study, they were noted in the inventories of children across the different age groups. A clear reduction in the occurrence of phonological processes was seen across age group, a pattern of development that can be expected in typically-developing children. Some of the phonological processes seen in Setswana-speaking children included assimilation (eliminated after 6;5 years), fronting (eliminated at 3;6 yeas), and stopping (eliminated at 4;0 years). Correct use of lexical tone was observed as early as 2;6–2;11 years. Furthermore, the speech sound skills of bi/multilingual children were found to be comparable to their monolingual peers, and sometimes slightly more advanced. Findings are related to existing theoretical frameworks used to describe speech sound acquisition. While the findings from this study are not yet generalisable to all Setswana-speaking children, they indicate that theoretical frameworks such as Stackhouse and Wells' (1997) psycholinguistic approach and Dodd's (1995; 2005) diagnostic framework can be applied to Setswana. Language specific differences that should be taken into account are presented. This data adds to knowledge on speech sound acquisition in Setswana-speaking children, urgently needed for the early assessment and identification of children with speech difficulties, which has been lacking to date. When speech difficulties are identified and addressed early, children's academic, psychosocial and life outcomes can be improved, but Setswana-speaking children are often not well served by speech and language therapists in South Africa due to a lack of relevant information and resources. This study set out to redress this situation. Lines for future research include using a larger sample of participants to allow data to be more generalisable, developing assessments for speech input processing as well as production and considering aspects of tone more comprehensively.

本文主要探討中文聲調在口語字彙觸接過程中所扮演的角色。實驗一藉由眼動實驗中的Visual World Paradigm作業，觀察中文聲調影響口語字彙辨識的時序歷程。受試者在聽到指導語和目標字之後，用滑鼠在螢幕上點選聽到的目標字，例如，螢幕上出現的字包含一個目標字：「摸」、一個競爭字(與目標字只有聲調相同：「挖」或是與目標字只有音段相同：「抹」)，以及兩個聲調與音段和目標字完全不同的無關字：「怒」、「菊」。為了觀察目標字、競爭字及無關字在口語字彙處理時的競爭，我們會計算各個字彙的凝視比例。實驗一中由於聲調與目標字相同的競爭字與目標字的第一個音段就開始產生差異，因此未觀察到聲調早期介入的影響。實驗二透過與實驗一相同的實驗程序及方法，操弄目標字和競爭字中聲調和前兩個音段(Cohort)的異同以探測更早期的聲調影響。螢幕呈現包含一個目標字「湯」、一個競爭字(前兩個音段和聲調皆與目標字相同：「胎」，或是只有前兩個音段相同但聲調與目標字不同：「泰」)，以及兩個聲調與音段和目標字完全不同的無關字「剖」、「痕」。結果顯示，聲調在語音訊息前兩個音段時就會產生影響，也就是聲調的影響在語音結束前即有作用。再者，本文發現聲調無法單獨且獨立地對於語音辨識產生影響，此看法與聲調表徵需以“toneme” node獨立地存在於the modified TRACE model的看法不盡相同 (Malins & Joanisse, 2010; Ye & Connine, 1999; Zhao, Guo, Zhou, & Shu, 2011)。 / The present study aims to examine the role of tonal information during Mandarin Chinese spoken character recognition. Two eye-tracking experiments were conducted with the visual world paradigm, which participants heard a Chinese monosyllabic character and used a mouse to click on the corresponding character in a visual array of 4 characters on the screen. Experiment 1 manipulated the relationship between the spoken target characters and written characters on the screen, including a target (e.g., /mɔ1/‘touch’), a tonal competitor (the tone was the same as target except segment: e.g., /wa1/‘dig’) or a segmental competitor (the segmental structure was the same with the target except tone: e.g., /mɔ3/ ‘wipe’), and two unrelated distractors (the segments and tone were different from target: e.g., /nu4/ ‘anger’, and /tɕy2/ ‘chrysanthemum’). The fixation proportions on target, competitors and the unrelated distractors were computed during the unfolding of the auditory target stimuli. The results showed tonal difference was detected before the end of auditory stream. However, no early involvement of tonal information was found, which may due to the tonal competitor and target shared no segment from the first phoneme. In order to examine the earlier tonal processing, Experiment 2 manipulated two types of cohort competitors sharing the initial two segments with the target (e.g., /tʰɑŋ1/ “soup”), a cohort-tone competitor, e.g., /tʰaj1/ “fetus” (both tone and initial two segments are the same with target) and a cohort-only competitor e.g., /tʰaj4/ “peaceful” (initial two segments is the same with the target but with different tone). Result showed that tone affected spoken character recognition while processing the two initial segments. In addition, tone could not affect spoken character processing independently, which might be inconsistent with the assumption that tone is a separate level of representation, called “toneme” node, in the modified TRACE model (Malins & Joanisse, 2010; Ye & Connine, 1999; Zhao et al., 2011).

This study investigated the possibility of pitch and tone register differences between native speakers of Taiwan and Beijing Mandarin by means of an acoustic analysis of three speech styles. Speech styles included spontaneous interview, spontaneous descriptive, and controlled read sentential speech. Data analysis included long segments of recorded speech in order to discern any statistically significant pitch register differences between the two dialects. Speech style and read tones were also analyzed. Results suggest that tones produced in Taiwan Mandarin are in a slightly lower register than those produced in Beijing Mandarin. Surprisingly, speech style was not a significant predictor of pitch register in long segments of recorded speech. Despite a limited sample size, this research effectively promotes the inclusion of sociolinguistic variables such as dialect in the field of tone research.

No description available.

This study examines the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native speakers of Greek who are naïve to Mandarin. Being able to discriminate between Mandarin lexical tones is essential for effective and accurate communication in the language. While there is an increasing number of research studying the perception of Mandarin tone by speakers from various backgrounds, the Greek language has not received much attention. By employing an AXB discrimination task, this study tested the perception of Mandarin tone pairs T1-T2, T1-T4, and T2-T3 by native speakers of Greek. Due to their acoustic similarity, these three pairs are often found to be the most confusing tone contrasts for non-native listeners of Mandarin. Greek speakers (NG) had the highest accuracy for T1-T2 (0.88), and similar accuracy rates for T1-T4 (0.83) and T2-T3 (0.82). Subsequently, the Greek speakers were divided into two groups based on their experience with learning or playing a musical instrument, as this is a factor that has been shown to affect tone perception. Compared to non-musicians (NG1), the group of musicians (NG2) had higher accuracy rates for T1-T2 and T1-T4, and a similar accuracy rate for T2-T3. For NG1, from easiest to hardest, the accuracy rates were: T1-T2(0.93)>T1-T4(0.92)>T2-T3(0.82). For NG2, the accuracy rates were: T2-T3(0.82)≥T1-T2(0.82)>T1-T4(0.74). These findings could improve our understanding in regard to the factors that can affect the perception of Mandarin lexical tone by native Greek speakers, which might contribute to language pedagogy. / 本论文旨在研究以零基础普通话希腊语母语人士对普通话声调范畴的感 知能力。为了进行有效和准确的研究，本文实施了普通话发音辨别实验。虽 然声调范畴感知能力的研究越来越多，但以希腊语母语者为研究对象的研究 并不多见。通过 AXB 发音辨别测试，本论文调查了希腊语为母语的人士对普 通话 T1-T2、T1-T4、T2-T3 三组声调组合的辨识感知。由于声音的相似性， 这三对声调组合对非普通话母语的听众经常被发现是最容易被混淆的。结果 发现，讲希腊语的人士（NG）对这三组声调组合辨识的准确度为：T1-T2 （0.88）是最高的，T1-T4（0.83）和 T2-T3（0.82）是相似的。有研究认为 音乐训练可以影响对声调的感知，所以接着实验参与者根据学习或演奏乐器 的经验又被分成两组。与非音乐背景人群（NG1）相比，有音乐背景人群 （NG2）T1-T2 和 T1-T4 的准确率更高，但对 T2-T3 组合的结果是一样的。若 从最简单到最难排序，有音乐背景人群（NG1）的准确度是：T1-T2 （0.93）>T1-T4（0.92）>T2-T3（0.82）。而无音乐背景人群（NG2），准 确度是：T2-T3（0.82）≥T1-T2（0.82）>T1-T4（0.74）。这些发现可以帮 助理解以希腊语为母语的人对普通话声调感知困难的根源，所以对语言教学 法的相关讨论会有所贡献。