Distinction between Mandarin Tones 2 and 3 for L1 and L2 Listeners
نویسنده
چکیده
Among the four Mandarin lexical tones, Tone 2 and Tone 3 have been found to be the most confusable perceptually for both native speakers and non-native speakers. This study investigates whether the overall tone duration serves as a perceptual cue and whether L1 and L2 listeners weigh the cue in the same manner in distinguishing the two tones. In doing so, two perceptual experiments using duration-normalized stimuli and non-normalized stimuli respectively were conducted on L1 and L2 Mandarin listeners. The results show that native listeners do not heavily rely on duration for the Tone 2Tone 3 distinction, whereas L2 listeners give more perceptual weight to duration. The overall tone duration is concluded to be an important parameter for L2 tone training and acquisition.
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