Constructing initial phonology in Mandarin Chinese: Syllabic or subsyllabic? A masked priming investigation (original) (raw)
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Recent research has put forward the idea that Chinese speech production is governed by the syllable as the fundamental phonological unit. However, it may be that onset priming might be more difficult to obtain in Mandarin Chinese. Therefore, in this study, the degree of overlap between prime and target was increased from C to CV (i.e., extending beyond the phoneme) as well as whether primes and targets had an overlapping structure (CV vs. CVN). Subsyllabic priming effects were found (i.e., onset + vowel overlap but not purely onset overlap), contrasting with the claim that the syllable is the compulsory building block in the initial construction of Mandarin Chinese phonology.
The Primacy of Abstract Syllables in Chinese Word Production
Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 2015
Convergent evidence suggests that syllables play a primary and distinctive role in the phonological phase of Mandarin Chinese word production. Specifically, syllables are selected before other phonological components and guide subsyllabic encoding. The proximity of phonological syllables to word representations in Chinese languages ensures that they are also activated automatically by word perception. Therefore, in contrast to Indo-European languages, syllables but not necessarily subsyllabic components such as initial consonants can be perceptually primed in production. We tested this prediction in 2 masked-priming experiments. To isolate relevant phonological activation originating in primes, we used single character masked primes whose corresponding tones and lexical meanings always differed from those of the targets' first morphemes. Related primes potentially activated the atonal first syllables or the first consonants of target words. To strongly engage production-specific...
Cognition, 2010
In Mandarin Chinese, speakers benefit from fore-knowledge of what the first syllable but not of what the first phonemic segment of a disyllabic word will be (Chen, J.-Y., , contrasting with findings in English, Dutch, and other Indo-European languages, and challenging the generality of current theories of word production. In this article, we extend the evidence for the language difference by showing that failure to prepare onsets in Mandarin (Experiment 1) applies even to simple monosyllables (Experiments 2-4), and confirm the contrast with English for comparable materials (Experiments 5, 6). We also provide new evidence that Mandarin speakers do reliably prepare tonally unspecified phonological syllables (Experiment 7). To account for these patterns, we propose a language general proximate units principle whereby intentional preparation for speech as well as phonological-lexical coordination are grounded at the first phonological level below the word at which explicit unit selection occurs. The language difference arises because syllables are proximate units in Mandarin Chinese, whereas segments are proximate in English and other Indo-European languages. The proximate units perspective reconciles the aspiration toward a language general account of word production with the reality of substantial cross-linguistic differences.
Activation of segments, not syllables, during phonological encoding in speech production
The mental lexicon, 2006
Two experiments are reported that tested whether syllables can be primed in English speech production using a (masked) priming paradigm. In Experiment 1, we presented masked syllable primes for 45 ms. In Experiment 2, primes were presented for either 45 ms or 105 ms under unmasked conditions. In both experiments, we tested three different SOAs, namely −200 ms, 0 ms, and +200 ms. Both under masked and under unmasked conditions phonological priming effects were obtained. However, no evidence for a syllabic priming effect was found. Instead, at SOAs −200 ms and 0 ms, priming effects increased when the segmental overlap between prime and target was increased. This outcome supports a segmental overlap account but contradicts the syllable priming hypothesis. The theoretical implications of the results for current theories of phonological encoding are discussed.
Influence of prime lexicality, frequency, and pronounceability on the masked onset priming effect
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2010
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language Paseo Mikeletegi 69 20009-Donostia (Spain) phone: +34 639926454 email: m.dimitropoulou@bcbl.eu 2 Abstract The present study investigates the origins of the masked onset priming effect (MOPE). There are two alternative interpretations that account for most of the evidence reported on the MOPE, so far. The Speech Planning account (SP) identifies the locus of the MOPE in the preparation of the speech response. In contrast, the dual-route theory proposes that the effect arises as a result of the processing of the prime by the nonlexical route. In a series of masked onset priming word naming experiments we test the validity of these accounts by manipulating the primes' frequency, their lexical status and pronounceability. We found consistent MOPEs of similar magnitude with high and low frequency prime words as well as with pronounceable nonwords. Contrarily, when primes consisted of unpronounceable consonantal strings the effect disappeared, suggesting that pronounceability of the prime is a prerequisite for the emergence of the MOPE. These results are in accordance with the predictions of the SP account. The pattern of effects obtained in the present study further defines the origins of the MOPE. 3 Acknowledgments This research has been partially supported by Grants SEJ2006-09238/PSIC and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 (CSD2008-00048) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The authors are grateful to Mark Seidenberg for providing information regarding his ongoing work. Thanks are also due to Johannes Ziegler and Conrad Perry for valuable comments on the operation of the CDP+ model. This manuscript wouldn't have been possible without the helpful comments by Sachiko Kinoshita, Betty Mousikou and an anonymous reviewer on earlier drafts. 4
Producing continuous speech in L2 is a challenging task. We accept that the composition of speech tempo involves multiple linguistic levels of contributions. We further hypothesize that respective contributions in the speech signal could be better accounted for through normalization of acoustic contributions, and examined the English phonetic inventory, the way stress type (primary, secondary and tertiary), boundary type (non-phrase final, continuation rise, final rise and final fall), as well as focus status (non-focus, function words, broad focus and narrow focus). Analyses of speech data of L1 vs. Mandarin L2 English not only verified the contribution of each factor examined, but also demonstrate in what explicit ways the temporal composition of Taiwan Mandarin L2 English differs from the L1 norm. In short, a discrepancy between linguistic awareness and phonetic execution leads to difficulties by lower level units such as segments and stress patterns; whereas higher level planning difficulties leads to deviations exhibited in boundary adjustments and realization of broad and narrow focus contrasts. We believe the results shed new light on temporal composition both L1 and L2 English, facilitate better understanding of tempo structure that can be directly applied to L2 teaching and computer aided training.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2018
Speech production studies have shown that phonological unit initially used to fill the metrical frame during phonological encoding is language specific, that is, a phoneme for English and Dutch, an atonal syllable for Mandarin Chinese, and a mora for Japanese. However, only a few studies chronometrically investigated speech production in Korean, and they obtained mixed results. Korean is particularly interesting as there might be both phonemic and syllabic influences during phonological encoding. The purpose of this study is to further examine the initial phonological preparation unit in Korean, employing a masked priming task (Experiment 1) and a phonological Stroop task (Experiment 2). The results showed that significant onset (and onset-plus, that is, consonant–vowel [CV]) effects were found in both experiments, but there was no compelling evidence for a prominent role for the syllable. When the prime words were presented in three different forms related to the targets, namely, w...
A Challenge to Whole-word Phonology? A Study of Japanese and Mandarin
Language Learning and Development, 2023
Phonological models of early word learning often assume that child forms can be understood as structural mappings from their adult targets. In contrast, the whole-word phonology model suggests that on beginning word production children represent adult targets as holistic units, reflecting not the exact sound sequence but only the most perceptually salient elements or those that align with their own vocal patterns. Here we ask whether the predictions of the whole-word model are supported by data from children learning Japanese or Mandarin, both languages with phonotactic structures differing from any so far investigated from this perspective. The Japanese child word forms are found to include some characteristics suggestive of whole-word representation, but in Mandarin we find little or no such evidence. Instead, some children are found to make idiosyncratic use of whole syllables, substituting them for target syllables that they match in neither onset nor rime. This result, which neither model anticipates, forces reconsideration of a key tenet of the whole-word model – that early word production is based on word-size holistic representations; instead, at least in some languages, the syllable may serve as the basic representational unit for child learners.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2013
Previous word production research employing the implicit-priming paradigm has shown that speakers can benefit from advance knowledge of the initial word form of the word to be produced. In Dutch and English, a single onset segment is sufficient to produce the benefit, but a complete syllable (without the tone) is required in Mandarin Chinese. These findings have been interpreted as suggesting language-dependent proximate units for word-form encoding, which are intrinsic to a language-specific system. Nonetheless, the absence of a segment effect in Mandarin Chinese might have to do with the orthographic characteristics of the prompts, which are syllable-based and could have motivated the production system to place more emphasis on the syllable than on the segment. Two experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, we employed the implicitpriming paradigm with both spoken and written prompts, and in Experiment 2 we adopted a picture version of this paradigm. Spoken prompts are less likely to encourage an orthographically induced syllable bias, and picture naming involves no prompts, leaving no room for any syllable bias that prompts might induce. The results from both experiments showed syllable preparation effects but no segment preparation effects, regardless of whether prompts were written, spoken, or absent. These findings suggest that the syllable as the proximate unit in Mandarin Chinese word production is an intrinsic, and not an accidental or task-dependent, property of the production system.
The structure of the Mandarin syllable: why, when and how to teach it. (edited reprint)
In: Kolpachkova, E. N. ed. Problemy kitajskogo i obščego jazykoznanija. K 90 letiju S. E. Jachontova. (Problems in Chinese and general linguistics. Sergey Yakhontov anniversary volume in honor of his 90th birthday.) Saint Petersburg State University., 2016
While learning pronunciation of the basic syllabary of Mandarin, the students mostly have to rely on imitating their teachers. The author suggests that timely explanation of Mandarin syllable structure and its functional components in the early stage of teaching Mandarin pronunciation can make Mandarin syllabary acquisition more efficient. First, two basic models of Chinese syllable structure are introduced: traditional Initial-Final model, and the modern Onset-Rime model. The latter one, adopted as a basis of the widely accepted Pinyin spelling system, is viewed as more appropriate for teaching Chinese as L2. The four traditional components at the level of segments – an initial, a medial, a main vowel and a terminal (C, G, V, X) are introduced then. Explanation of their particular articulatory properties follows. The author claims that devoting more attention to these components and drawing on the traditions of the old Chinese phonology would be highly benefitial for teaching Mandarin pronunciation (unlike the “Western” phonological approach working with the concept of vowels and consonants).