Perception of intonation in Cantonese

This study investigated the significance of different intonation markers in intonation perception, and the effect of lexical tone on the perception of intonation. Six tonal contrasts at the final position were presented to twelve listeners in three presentation conditions: complete sentence, carrier-only and final-syllable-only. Results showed similar perceptual accuracy in both complete sentence and final-syllable-only conditions, but significantly poorer performance was observed in the carrier-only condition. This showed that intonation markings at the final position are important for correct intonation identification, when compared with perceptual cues of the carrier. In addition, differences in perceptual accuracy were noted for statements and questions embedded with different tones at the final position, suggesting that lexical tone has an effect on the identity of intonation.