Identification of Mandarin Tone-2 and Tone-3 in Disyllabic Contexts by Chinese Natives and Japanese Students

Chinese: there is a significant interaction between toneidentification and tone contexts:(FT1(1,7)=12.37, p<0.05; FT2(1,7)=13.51, p<0.05; FT3(1,7)=48.02, p<0.05; FT4(1,7)=17.34, p<0.05), together with a gradient fromeasy-to-difficult pattern among Chinese:T3+X>X+T3 >T2+X>T1+X>T4+X. They perceive the test contours in these three contexts (+T1, +T2, +T4) as T3(*) from the fifth contour; perceive the first three contours as T2 while perceive the fourth to seventh as T1, and identify the eighth to twelfth contours, namely, the low-falling ones as T4. Japanese: perceptual boundary between T2 and T3 from Japanese students is not as evident as Chinese participants. However, significant interaction is also found between tone context and perceptual identification(FT2(1, 7) = 9.01, p<0.05; FT3(1, 7) = 14.04, p<0.05).T2-T3 continuum in T1+X combination are more likely to be identified by Japanese students as T2 compared to other combinations. Similar results can be seen in T4+X. When the contours of the T2-T3 are before the context tone, they have better chance to be identified as T3. It is less difficult to learn tones before than after.