Kuang Jianjing
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., USA.
Phonetica. 2013;70(1-2):1-23. doi: 10.1159/000353853. Epub 2013 Oct 23.
Multiple-level tone contrasts are typologically disfavoured because they violate the dispersion principles of maximizing perceptual distance and minimizing articulatory effort. This study investigates the tonal dispersion of a multiple-level tone system by exploring the cues used in producing and perceiving the five level tones of Black Miao. Both production and perception experiments show that non-modal phonations are very important cues for these tonal contrasts. Non-modal phonations significantly contribute to the dispersion of the five level tones in two ways: either by enhancing pitch contrasts or by providing an additional contrastive cue. Benefiting from more than one cue, the level tones T11, T33 and T55 are well distinguished in the tonal space; by contrast, the level tones T22 and T44, only contrasting in pitch, are the most confusable tones. The tonal registers model proposed in this article sheds light on the different uses of non-modal phonations across languages.
多层次声调对比在类型学上不受青睐，因为它们违反了最大化感知距离和最小化发音努力的离散原则。本研究通过探究用于产生和感知黑苗语五个声调的线索，来调查多层次声调系统的声调离散情况。发音和感知实验均表明，非模态发声是这些声调对比的非常重要的线索。非模态发声通过两种方式显著促进了五个声调的离散：要么增强音高对比，要么提供额外的对比线索。得益于不止一种线索，声调T11、T33和T55在声调空间中得到了很好的区分；相比之下，仅在音高上有对比的声调T22和T44是最容易混淆的声调。本文提出的声调音域模型揭示了非模态发声在不同语言中的不同用途。
