Quam Carolyn, Creel Sarah C
Center for Research in Language, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
Departments of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 11;12(1):e0169001. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169001. eCollection 2017.
Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like-not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.
以往的研究主要考虑了声调语言经验对辨别语言音高能力的影响，但熟练的双语听力需要在每种语言环境中对声音变化进行差异处理。在此，我们探讨对于普通话-英语双语者而言，音高在一种语言中表示词义区别而在另一种语言中不表示时，他们在普通话语境和英语语境中对音高的处理是否会有所不同。在三项眼动跟踪的单词学习实验中，结果表明声调语调双语者会根据语言环境来处理声调。在实验1中，51名普通话-英语双语者和26名没有声调经验的英语使用者学习了带有声调的与普通话兼容的新单词。普通话-英语双语者的表现优于英语使用者，并且对于双语者来说，总体准确率与普通话优势程度相关。实验2向24名普通话-英语双语者和25名英语使用者教授了带有类似普通话声调、但类似英语音素和音位结构的新单词。当单词类似英语时，实验1中观察到的普通话优势消失了。实验3在被试内设计中对比了类似普通话和类似英语的单词，提供了更强的证据表明双语者能够针对特定声调语言进行处理。双语者（N = 58），无论语言优势程度如何，比没有普通话经验的英语使用者（N = 28）更关注声调，但仅当单词类似普通话时——而非类似英语时。因此，普通话-英语双语者会根据单词内的语言环境来调整声调处理方式。
