Tone, intonation, and emphatic stress in L2 Mandarin speech by English and Cantonese learners

On the basis of a set of well-controlled sentences varying in sentence type, tone identity, and focus position, the present study compared F0 characteristics of Mandarin speech between native speakers and two groups of L2 learners whose native languages were Cantonese and English, respectively. The results showed systematically that most L2 errors in the F0 manifestations of tone, intonation, and emphatic stress could be explained by language transfer effects. The findings can be used to guide L2 learning of Mandarin.