What Is a Tone Language?

McCawley, James D.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-267350-4.50009-1

Cited by 143 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Languages that utilize phonologically contrastive variations in pitch at the lexical level are called tone languages (McCawley, 1978). In tone languages, such as most East Asian and African languages, words with the same vowels and consonants have different meanings depending on the lexical tones in which they are enunciated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

Shen

Deutsch

Rayner

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Using the visual world paradigm, the present study investigated on-line processing of fine-grained pitch information prior to lexical access in a tone language; specifically how lexical tone perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 was influenced by the pitch height of the tone at onset, turning point, and offset. Native speakers of Mandarin listened to manipulated tone tokens and selected the corresponding word from four visually presented words (objects in Experiment 1 and characters in Experiment 2) while their eye movements were monitored. The results showed that 87% of ultimate tone judgments were made according to offset pitch height. Tokens with high offset pitch were identified as Tone 2, and low offset pitch as Tone 3. A low turning point pitch served as a pivotal cue for Tone 3, and prompted more eye fixations on Tone 3 items, until the offset pitch directed significantly more fixations to the final tone choice. The findings support the view that lexical tone perception is an incremental process, in which pitch height at critical points serves as an important cue.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

Shen

Deutsch

Rayner

2013

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…Mandarin syllable structure is fairly limited [1], allowing for roughly 400 segmental combinations [2], but adding lexical tones quadruples the number of potential syllables. The syllable ‘ma,’ for example, can mean horse , mother , hemp , or to scold depending on its tone [3]. For a Mandarin speaker, then, exploiting lexical pitch facilitates word identification.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

Quam

Creel

2017

PLoS ONE

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Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.

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“…The mora has been established as a tone-bearing unit in the phonological literature (McCawley, 1978;Odden, 1995;Yip, 2002). Hyman (1993: 77) has gone further to propose that, at least with regard to phonological patterns, the mora is the only possible tone-bearing unit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

F₀Timing and Tone Contrasts in Luganda

Myers¹,

Namyalo²,

Kiriggwajjo³

2018

Phonetica

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Scholars of Luganda (Bantu, Uganda) have described a contrast between falling and high tone, which is limited to syllables with a long vowel or a coda. The contrast has been represented with H on the first mora of a falling-tone syllable and on both moras in a high-tone syllable. This article explores this contrast through an instrumental study of the timing of f₀ events in Luganda. It was found that the 2-tone classes differed in the timing of both the f₀ rise and the subsequent f₀ fall, supporting a reanalysis of the contrast as one between an early high tone and a late high tone. It was also found that for the speakers in this study, the contrast was limited to syllables with long vowels. The timing of f₀ events was sensitive to the duration of segments in the CVC interval centered on the high-toned syllable, including non-moraic elements and consonants outside the syllable. The association of a tone to a syllable identifies the segments relevant for the timing of the f₀ contour, but that timing is not directly sensitive to the interval of the syllable.

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What Is a Tone Language?

Cited by 143 publications

References 2 publications

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

F₀Timing and Tone Contrasts in Luganda

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What Is a Tone Language?

Cited by 143 publications

References 2 publications

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

On-line perception of Mandarin Tones 2 and 3: Evidence from eye movements

Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

F0Timing and Tone Contrasts in Luganda

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F₀Timing and Tone Contrasts in Luganda