Do English speakers assimilate Mandarin tones to English prosodic categories?

Connie K. So, Catherine T. Best

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paper

    Abstract

    ![CDATA[This study examined whether native English (NE) speakers perceive non-native tones of Mandarin in terms of their English intonational categories (Flat pitch, Question, Uncertainty, and Statement). The results indicated that NE listeners assimilated non-native tones to their native intonational categories, which share phonetic similarities with those of Mandarin tones. Thus, the assumption that assimilations of non-native prosodic categories (e.g., tones) to native prosodic categories - an extension from the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) - is supported.]]
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationInterspeech 2008: Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, incorporating SST 2008, held in Brisbane, Qld. 22-26 September, 2008
    PublisherCausal Productions
    Number of pages1
    Publication statusPublished - 2008
    EventInternational Speech Communication Association. Conference -
    Duration: 9 Sept 2012 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceInternational Speech Communication Association. Conference
    Period9/09/12 → …

    Keywords

    • intonation (phonetics)
    • second language acquisition
    • Mandarin dialects
    • English speakers
    • prosodic analysis (linguistics)
    • Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM)

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