Acquisition of weak syllables in tonal languages: acoustic evidence from neutral tone in Mandarin Chinese. Issue 1 (2nd August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: TANG, Ping; YUEN, Ivan; XU RATTANASONE, Nan; GAO, Liqun; DEMUTH, Katherine
• Is Part Of: Journal of child language. Volume 46:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2018-08-02
• Subjects: weak syllables, -- Mandarin Chinese, -- neutral tone; Children -- Language -- Periodicals; 401.9305
• DOI: 10.1017/S0305000918000296
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-0009

Abstract

Abstract: Weak syllables in Germanic and Romance languages have been reported to be challenging for young children, with syllable omission and/or incomplete reduction persisting till age five. In Mandarin Chinese, neutral tone (T0) involves a weak syllable with varied pitch realizations across (preceding) tonal contexts and short duration. The present study examined how and when T0 was acquired by 108 Beijing Mandarin-speaking children (3–5 years) relative to 33 adult controls. Lexicalized (familiar) and non-lexicalized (unfamiliar) T0 words were elicited in different preceding tonal contexts. Unlike previous reports, the present study revealed that children as young as three years have already developed a phonological category for T0, exhibiting contextually conditioned tonal realizations of T0 for both familiar and unfamiliar items. However, mastery of adult-like pitch and duration implementation of T0 is a protracted process not completed until age five. The implications for the acquisition of weak syllables more generally are discussed.