2024/07/22 by Chenzi Xu · 6 citations
Arts and Humanities · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Astrophysics #Computer science #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Linguistics #Mandarin Chinese #Mathematics #Philosophy #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Physics #Speech recognition #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation #Tone (literature) #Variation (astronomy)
paper · doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2024.101341
published in Journal of Phonetics 106, 101341 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2024/07/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
With an aim to investigate the nature of Mandarin neutral tone through the lens of language variation and change, this study examines the pitch patterns of speech sequences containing neutral tone syllables, i.e. those that do not have any of the four canonical lexical tones and are often overlooked in prior studies of tones, in two Mandarin varieties: Standard Mandarin and Plastic Mandarin spoken in Changsha, China. Using Generalised Additive Mixed Models, the study shows (a) that f0 contours of a sequence of neutral tone syllables following various lexical tones converge in the end at a low pitch in both Mandarin varieties, and (b) that the low pitch target of neutral tone syllables tends to be the same across the two Mandarin varieties. The cross-dialectal comparison favours the phonological account that neutral tone is underlyingly underspecified and attracts the boundary tone. It suggests that the constant pitch target across two Mandarin varieties with distinct lexical tone contours may be attributed to the stable transfer of prosodic structure in the Standard-Plastic variation.