Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2013 May;133(5):3016-29. doi: 10.1121/1.4795775.
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.
本研究采用视觉世界范式,考察了在声调语言中,词汇通达之前对细微音高信息的在线加工,具体探讨了普通话第二声和第三声的声调感知如何受到起始点、转折点和终点音高的影响。实验 1 中,汉语母语者听经处理后的声调,并从四个视觉呈现的词中(实验 1 为物体,实验 2 为汉字)选择与声调相对应的词,同时监测他们的眼动。结果表明,87%的最终声调判断是根据终点音高做出的。高终点音高的声调被识别为第二声,低终点音高的被识别为第三声。低转折点音高是第三声的关键提示,促使更多的眼注视第三声的项目,直到终点音高明显引导更多的注视投向最终的声调选择。研究结果支持这样一种观点,即词汇声调感知是一个渐进的过程,其中关键点的音高起着重要的作用。