Laboratory Models, Dynamics, Corpora, CNRS, University Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France.
Neuroreport. 2024 Apr 3;35(6):399-405. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000002021. Epub 2024 Mar 1.
In tonal languages, tone perception involves the processing of both acoustic and phonological information conveyed by tonal signals. In Mandarin, in addition to four canonical full tones, there exists a group of weak syllables known as neutral tones. This study aims to investigate the impact of lexical frequency effects and prosodic information associated with neutral tones on the auditory representation of Mandarin compounds. We initially selected disyllabic compounds as targets, manipulating their lexical frequencies and prosodic structures. Subsequently, these target compounds were embedded into selected sentences and auditorily presented to native speakers. During the experiments, participants engaged in lexical decision tasks while their event-related potentials were recorded. The results showed that the auditory lexical representation of disyllabic compounds was modulated by lexical frequency effects. Rare compounds and compounds with rare first constituents elicited larger N400 effects compared to frequent compounds. Furthermore, neutral tones were found to play a role in the processing, resulting in larger N400 effects. Our findings showed significantly increased amplitudes of the N400 component, suggesting that the processing of rare compounds and compounds with neutral tones may require more cognitive resources. Additionally, we observed an interaction effect between lexical frequency and neutral tones, indicating that they could serve as determining cues in the auditory processing of disyllabic compounds.
在声调语言中，声调感知涉及到由声调信号传达的声学和语音信息的处理。在普通话中，除了四个典型的全调外，还有一组被称为轻声的弱音节。本研究旨在探讨与轻声相关的词汇频率效应和韵律信息对普通话复合词听觉表征的影响。我们首先选择双音节复合词作为目标，操纵它们的词汇频率和韵律结构。随后，将这些目标复合词嵌入到选定的句子中，并以听觉方式呈现给母语为普通话的人。在实验过程中，参与者在进行词汇决策任务的同时记录他们的事件相关电位。结果表明，双音节复合词的听觉词汇表征受到词汇频率效应的调节。稀有复合词和稀有首音节的复合词与常见复合词相比，诱发的 N400 效应更大。此外，研究发现中性调在处理中起作用，导致更大的 N400 效应。我们的研究结果显示 N400 成分的振幅显著增加，表明处理稀有复合词和中性调的复合词可能需要更多的认知资源。此外，我们观察到词汇频率和中性调之间的交互效应，表明它们可以作为双音节复合词听觉处理的决定性线索。
