Variation in loanword adaptation: A case from Mandarin Chinese

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832096144
Author(s):  
Yangyu Chen ◽  
Yu-An Lu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Adaptation Pattern ◽  
Syllable Duration ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Mandarin Speakers

Mandarin speakers tend to adapt intervocalic nasals as either an onset of the following syllable (e.g. Bruno → bù.lŭ .n uò), as a nasal geminate (e.g. Daniel → dā n.n í.ěr), or as one of the above forms (e.g. Tiffany → dì.fú. n í or dì.fē n.n í). Huang and Lin (2013, 2016) identified two factors that may induce the nasal gemination repair: (1) when stress falls on the pre-nasal vowel and (2) when the pre-nasal vowel is a non-high lax vowel. They hypothesized that Mandarin Chinese speakers insert a nasal coda to perceptually approximate the stronger nasalization and longer syllable duration associated with the stressed syllables, and the shorter vowel duration of a lax vowel because the vowels in closed syllables are shorter in Mandarin. The results from two forced-choice identification experiments and an open-ended transcription task showed that although Mandarin speakers’ choices of different repairs were indeed biased by the different phonetic manipulations, suggesting an effect of perceptual similarity, their decisions were mainly guided by native phonotactics. The overall findings suggest that phonotactic, phonetic, as well as non-linguistic (i.e. frequency) factors interact with each other, resulting in the variable adaptation pattern.

The influence of Chinese Focused Cleft wh-constructions on Chinese speakers’ L2 knowledge of English wh-movement

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
Fuyun Wu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Mandarin Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English ◽  
Native Mandarin Chinese Speakers

Previous studies of Mandarin speakers’ intuitions about grammatical and ungrammatical wh-movement constructions in L2 English have produced mixed results. Some studies show that such speakers neither fully accept grammatical wh-constructions, nor fully reject constructions that violate locality constraints. The present study examines the possibility that learners may be transferring the Chinese Focused Cleft wh-construction (FCW) into their English grammars, and that transfer is persistently influential. It is argued that the FCW, which produces structures superficially similar to English wh-movement questions, does not involve movement. Two experimental studies are reported. The first tests native Mandarin Chinese speakers’ intuitions about the FCW in order to provide evidence bearing on lack of movement in the FCW. The second tests the intuitions about grammatical and ungrammatical English wh-movement of advanced L2 learners of English whose L1 was Mandarin. The results support the claim that advanced Chinese learners of English interpret English wh-constructions like Chinese FCWs.

Modelling Mandarin speakers’ phonotactic knowledge

Phonology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-275
Author(s):  
Shuxiao Gong ◽  
Jie Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Formal Modelling ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Lexical Statistics ◽  
Mandarin Speakers ◽  
Phonotactic Learning ◽  
Native Mandarin Chinese Speakers

This paper investigates the nature of native Mandarin Chinese speakers’ phonotactic knowledge via an experimental study and formal modelling of the experimental results. Results from a phonological well-formedness judgement experiment suggest that Mandarin speakers’ phonotactic knowledge is sensitive not only to lexical statistics, but also to grammatical principles such as systematic and accidental phonotactic constraints, allophonic restrictions and segment–tone co-occurrence restrictions. We employ the UCLA Phonotactic Learner to model Mandarin speakers’ phonotactic knowledge, and compare the model's well-formedness predictions with speakers’ judgements. The disparity between the model's predictions and the well-formedness ratings from the experiment indicates that grammatical principles and the lexicon are still not sufficient to explain all of the variations in the speakers’ judgements. We argue that multiple biases, such as naturalness bias, allophony bias and suprasegmental bias, are effective during phonotactic learning.

scholarly journals Subjacency Violations in Second Language Acquisition: Some Evidence from Chinese Mandarin Speakers of L2 English

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Xia Dai
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Follow Up Study ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Mandarin Speakers

The literature review shows that many previous studies have used Subjacency to test the availability of UniversalGrammar (UG) in second language acquisition. Schachter (1989) claimed that L2 learners do not have access to UGprinciples, while Hawkins and Chan (1997) suggested that L2 learners had partial availability of UG, for they foundthere was a strong difference between the elementary L2 learners and the advanced L2 learners in judging theungrammaticality of Subjacency violations; that is, the elementary L2 learners owned the highest accuracy. Underthe hypothesis of partially availability of UG in second language acquisition, L2 learners are only able to acquire theproperties instantiated in their L1s. Although they may accept violations of universal constraints, it is only at facevalue; rather the L2 learners develop different syntactic representations from the native speakers. This study has beenundertaken as a follow-up study of Hawkins and Chan (1997), and tested on L1 Mandarin speakers of L2 English injudging the grammaticality of their Subjacency violations. The results of the Grammaticality Judgement Test showthat the accuracy of Chinese speakers in judgement increased with English proficiency and that they rejectedresumptives inside islands as a repair. Contrary to the previous findings, this study provides evidence that UG isavailable in adult second language acquisition.

scholarly journals The use of discourse markers but and so by native English speakers and Chinese speakers of English

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binmei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.

English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yilan Liu ◽  
Sue Ann S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate nasalance scores of speakers of different languages, little research has examined the nasalance characteristics of second language learners. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The goal of the current study was to examine whether English nasalance values of Mandarin Chinese speakers are similar to those of native English speakers, examining the potential effect of the first language on the nasalance scores of the second language production. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Thirty-two adults (16 Mandarin Chinese speakers and 16 native English speakers) with a normal velopharyngeal anatomy participated. Nasalance scores of various speech stimuli were obtained using a nasometer and compared between the 2 groups. <b><i>Results and Conclusions:</i></b> Chinese learners of English produced higher nasalance scores than native English speakers on prolonged vowel /i/ and /a/, the syllable “nin,” and non-nasal sentences and passages. The first language effect on nasalance of the second language found in the current study suggests the importance of linguistic consideration in the clinical evaluation of resonance.

Preservation and deletion in Mandarin loanword adaptation

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-243
Author(s):  
Tae-Eun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Mandarin Speakers

This paper is about how English inputs that are not allowed in the native Mandarin phonology are adapted to Mandarin phonotactics in Mandarin loanwords. The focus of the discussion is on whether or not the elements in the inputs are preserved or deleted and what causes the phenomena. Through analyses of English consonant adaptation in Mandarin loanwords, the functions of both borrowers’ perception and the native Mandarin phonology are consistently found. The high preservation of the nasal consonants in any syllabic position clearly shows the functions, in that the salient segments are usually preserved and the acceptance of nasal codas in Mandarin phonology makes Mandarin speakers easily perceive the nasal sounds even in the coda positions. Furthermore, English /m/ and /n/ in the final positions are usually differently adapted into Mandarin loanwords. English /m/ mostly forms an independent syllable by vowel insertion while /n/ is mostly adapted into the coda nasal of the preceding syllable (e.g., English loam → Mandarin lú-mǔ, English pint → Mandarin pǐn-tuō). This tendency is due to the function of Mandarin phonology, because a nasal /n/ is allowed as a coda consonant, but /m/ is not allowed. The high deletion of English /ɹ/ in the coda or in the consonant clusters also supports the argument. The English /ɹ/, except in the initial position, is not easily perceived due to its own vowel-like quality and the fact that it is a non-Mandarin phoneme. Lastly, the higher preservation of consonants in the initial clusters than in the final clusters also shows the close relationship between perception and Mandarin phonology. Even though Mandarin does not allow consonant clusters in any position, final consonant clusters should be harder for Mandarin speakers to perceive. The reason is that in Mandarin phonology, consonants usually do not come in the final positions while all the consonants except /ŋ/ can come in the initial positions. More frequent deletion of consonants in final CCC clusters than in CC clusters can be identically explained.

ADAPTATION STRATEGIES OF RUSSIAN PHONETIC LOANWORDS IN CHINESE. PHONETIC AND GRAPHIC ASPECTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-63
Author(s):  
Kirill I. Semenov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Chinese Texts

This article considers phonetic and graphic transformations of Russian loanwords in Chinese. The study comprises an analysis of both proper and common nouns, as well as both loanwords included in dictionaries and those used in the Internet. The data considered make it possible to detect the main trends in the adaptation of Russian consonants in Chinese, as well as to localize the hypothetical influence of the Russian-Chinese pidgin on current loanword adaptation in Mandarin Chinese. It is noted that there is a dramatic discrepancy between the norms of transliteration prescribed by the PRC media and the usage in the Internet. Furthermore, a significant level of specificity of the hieroglyphic N-grams in the loanwords is revealed, compared to the reference corpus of the Chinese texts. The author expects that the results of the work will be useful for specialists both in phonetic typology and in NLP.

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