On the Learnability of Nuclear and Prenuclear Accents ― Using Taiwan Mandarin Learners of English as an Example

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry Chien ◽  
Janice Fon
Keyword(s):  
Taiwan Mandarin

From pitch contour variation to tone change

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-307
Author(s):  
Karen Huang
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Tone Sandhi ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
Taiwan Mandarin

Abstract This study illustrates how three level tones might have developed diachronically by comparing two synchronic Mandarin dialects. In Standard Mandarin (SM), the four lexical tones are denoted as /H, LH, L, HL/ or /H, R, L, F/ phonologically. However, based on evidence from two acoustic experiments, this study proposes that the four lexical tones in Taiwan Mandarin (TM) should be analyzed as /H, M, L, HM/, with /H, HM/ in a high register and /M, L/ in a low register. The proposed tonal structure can account for all the tone sandhi in TM using the framework of Optimality theory, and the register difference plays an important role in the analyses. Also, the new TM tonal representation has an advantage in explaining the absence of the SM Tone 2 Sandhi. The new tonal representations illuminate how pitch contour differences might have developed into structural tone changes.

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