Acquisition of weak syllables in tonal languages: acoustic evidence from neutral tone in Mandarin Chinese

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping TANG ◽  
Ivan YUEN ◽  
Nan XU RATTANASONE ◽  
Liqun GAO ◽  
Katherine DEMUTH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Beijing Mandarin ◽  
Neutral Tone

AbstractWeak syllables in Germanic and Romance languages have been reported to be challenging for young children, with syllable omission and/or incomplete reduction persisting till age five. In Mandarin Chinese, neutral tone (T0) involves a weak syllable with varied pitch realizations across (preceding) tonal contexts and short duration. The present study examined how and when T0 was acquired by 108 Beijing Mandarin-speaking children (3–5 years) relative to 33 adult controls. Lexicalized (familiar) and non-lexicalized (unfamiliar) T0 words were elicited in different preceding tonal contexts. Unlike previous reports, the present study revealed that children as young as three years have already developed a phonological category for T0, exhibiting contextually conditioned tonal realizations of T0 for both familiar and unfamiliar items. However, mastery of adult-like pitch and duration implementation of T0 is a protracted process not completed until age five. The implications for the acquisition of weak syllables more generally are discussed.

Usage, media, and grammaticalization

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83
Author(s):  
Liang Tao
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
Beijing Mandarin ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This report presents a case study on a current grammatical change in a rhetorical question 不是…吗 (isn’t it the case…?) and its spreading from spoken Beijing Mandarin to Mandarin Chinese in general. The study addresses three interrelated issues that concern the development and spreading of this new pattern: (1) usage-based language variation and change in spoken Beijing Mandarin; (2) Socio-cultural factors that may have promoted the adaptation of the new pattern in Mandarin Chinese; and (3) the impact of media, which may enhance the rapid spreading of the pattern in China. The report offers another instance of usage as the main driving force leading to language variation and grammaticalization.

Children's use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: a view from Mandarin Chinese

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
PENG ZHOU ◽  
YI (ESTHER) SU ◽  
STEPHEN CRAIN ◽  
LIQUN GAO ◽  
LIKAN ZHAN
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Language Research

ABSTRACTHow do children develop the mapping between prosody and other levels of linguistic knowledge? This question has received considerable attention in child language research. In the present study two experiments were conducted to investigate four- to five-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to prosody in ambiguity resolution. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking to assess children's use of stress in resolving structural ambiguities. Experiment 2 took advantage of special properties of Mandarin to investigate whether children can use intonational cues to resolve ambiguities involving speech acts. The results of our experiments show that children's use of prosodic information in ambiguity resolution varies depending on the type of ambiguity involved. Children can use prosodic information more effectively to resolve speech act ambiguities than to resolve structural ambiguities. This finding suggests that the mapping between prosody and semantics/pragmatics in young children is better established than the mapping between prosody and syntax.

Children's knowledge of wh-quantification in Mandarin Chinese

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
PENG ZHOU
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Early Emergence ◽  
Quantificational Variability

ABSTRACTWh-words in Mandarin Chinese exhibit quantificational variability. Aside from a typical interrogative reading, wh-words can also have an existential indefinite reading or a universal reading. Which reading it is depends on the linguistic environments in which they occur. The present study investigates Mandarin-speaking children's sensitivity to the linguistic environments for the noninterrogative use of wh-words: the existential reading and the universal reading. The results show that young children exhibited adultlike sensitivity to the licensing environments for the noninterrogative use of wh-words. Given the difficulty that children may have in using the input data to learn the interpretation of wh-words and the early emergence of this knowledge, we propose that the licensing mechanism for the noninterrogative use of wh-words is innate.

scholarly journals The four tones of Mandarin Chinese

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 180-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen van de Weijer ◽  
Marjoleine Sloos
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
First Language ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Beijing Mandarin

In this paper we discuss the four tones of Standard (Beijing) Mandarin Chinese. First, we will suggest a proposal for their phonological representation. Then, we discuss the order in which they are acquired in first language acquisition, relating this both to the representations we propose and to the relative frequency with which these tones appear in the most frequently used Chinese words. It turns out that the former predicts the order of acquisition more closely than the latter: We provide an explanation for this based on the early stage at which the tones are acquired.

Developmental knowledge of inter- and intraword boundaries: Evidence from American and Mandarin Chinese speaking beginning readers

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Hsia
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Beginning Readers ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Phonological Constraints ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Chinese And English ◽  
Chinese Subjects

AbstractThis article addresses native monolingual American and Mandarin Chinese incipiently bilingual children's ability to detect and identify inter- and intraword boundaries. Two hypotheses are reported: first, that young children will demonstrate similar patterns in their segmentation behavior, and that there will be a developmental progression in this behavior; and second, that Mandarin Chinese subjects learning to read Chinese and English simultaneously will segment English words more readily into syllables than American subjects, treating them as Chinese monosyllables (C)V(C). Although results partially support the first hypothesis, no group main effect was found. However, when the same subjects' intraword segmentation patterns were further analyzed to probe their awareness of adult phonological constraints while spontaneously segmenting words into (C)VC or CV(C) units, there was evidence of difference in group segmentation patterns. With time, though, the bilingual subjects appear to develop nativeike phonological constraints.

A study of cometary eruptions through OH radio-lines

1999 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
A.M. Silva ◽  
R.D. Miró
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
The Other ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Radio Lines ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Sudden Rise

AbstractWe have developed a model for theH2OandOHevolution in a comet outburst, assuming that together with the gas, a distribution of icy grains is ejected. With an initial mass of icy grains of 108kg released, theH2OandOHproductions are increased up to a factor two, and the growth curves change drastically in the first two days. The model is applied to eruptions detected in theOHradio monitorings and fits well with the slow variations in the flux. On the other hand, several events of short duration appear, consisting of a sudden rise ofOHflux, followed by a sudden decay on the second day. These apparent short bursts are frequently found as precursors of a more durable eruption. We suggest that both of them are part of a unique eruption, and that the sudden decay is due to collisions that de-excite theOHmaser, when it reaches the Cometopause region located at 1.35 × 105kmfrom the nucleus.

The Modification of Hypernasality in Young Children

1984 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moya L. Andrews ◽  
Sarah J. Tardy ◽  
Lisa G. Pasternak
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Voice Therapy

This paper presents an approach to voice therapy programming for young children who are hypernasal. Some general principles underlying the approach are presented and discussed.

Lexical Comprehension in Young Children With Developmental Delays

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa A. Kouri
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Group Status ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Lexical Concepts

Lexical comprehension skills were examined in 20 young children (aged 28–45 months) with developmental delays (DD) and 20 children (aged 19–34 months) with normal development (ND). Each was assigned to either a story-like script condition or a simple ostensive labeling condition in which the names of three novel object and action items were presented over two experimental sessions. During the experimental sessions, receptive knowledge of the lexical items was assessed through a series of target and generalization probes. Results indicated that all children, irrespective of group status, acquired more lexical concepts in the ostensive labeling condition than in the story narrative condition. Overall, both groups acquired more object than action words, although subjects with ND comprehended more action words than subjects with DD. More target than generalization items were also comprehended by both groups. It is concluded that young children’s comprehension of new lexical concepts is facilitated more by a context in which simple ostensive labels accompany the presentation of specific objects and actions than one in which objects and actions are surrounded by thematic and event-related information. Various clinical applications focusing on the lexical training of young children with DD are discussed.

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