Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Chinese language - Phonetics'

This thesis provides a historical review of the theoretical and practical influence of Protestant missionaries on the late Qing Chinese language reformers. The origins of the language reform movement have always been concealed in historical records. The missionaries’ contribution to this movement has almost entirely been forgotten. With a focus on the key figures in the language reform movement, including W.A. P. Martin, John Macgowan, Joseph Edkins, Lu Zhuangzhang, and Wang Bingyao, this thesis attempts to demonstrate the similarities between the missionaries’ views on the Chinese language and those of their Chinese assistants. The Chinese reformers’ imitations of the missionaries’ language experiments are also outlined. In the historical context of late Qing China, the Chinese reformers made language reform a way of enhancing the national strength of China. Thus, they made modifications to the original Romanized system and invented their own written forms of phonetic characters. With reference to the collaborations between China and the West, the thesis emphasizes Western influence as one of the crucial aspects of the origin of the language reform movement in China. This movement is still ongoing today with the widespread use of the pinyin input method in computers and smartphones. The thesis is divided into two chapters, analysing both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of language reform. It demonstrates how the missionaries’ critique of the perceived defects of the Chinese language and their practice of changing the linguistic situation in China strongly affected the views and practice of the Chinese reformers. It also offers a critical analysis of the Chinese reformers’ rationale, including their eagerness to advance the modernity of China. The first chapter discusses their views on the defects of the Chinese language in terms of its ideographic features, chaotic grammatical structure, and the discrepancy between speech and writing; it examines how their statements, proposals, and debates on these issues amounted to a discursive formation that defined the classical Chinese language as an inadequate instrument for China’s modernization project. I argue that the Chinese reformers accepted the missionaries’ phonocentric critique of the Chinese language and recognized the need to reform it in order to revitalize Chinese civilization. Through an examination of the genealogy of the missionaries’ influence on the practice of the early Chinese language reformers, particularly Lu Zhuangzhang and Wang Bingyao, I argue in the second chapter that the early stage of language reform in China sought its embodiment in the missionaries’ language practice: it was carried out through a combination of defence, argument, and negotiation between the Chinese reformers and the missionaries, eventually resulting in a compromise between reforming the language and preserving the cultural essence of China. With the knowledge and institutions that had been produced, the reformers’ final objective was to increase the literacy rate of the Chinese population, as this would thus strengthen the power of China as a modern nation-state. Finally, by revisiting the historical contribution of the late Qing language reformers, I argue that language reform in China is an unfinished project.
published_or_final_version
English
Master
Master of Philosophy

This dissertation presents a cross-linguistic investigation of how nonnative sounds are perceived by second language (L2) learners in terms of their first language (L1) categories for an understudies language pair---Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Category mapping experiment empirically measured the perceived phonetic distances between Chinese sounds and their most resembling Japanese categories, which generated testable predictions on discriminability of Chinese sound contrasts according to Perception Assimilation Model (PAM). Category discrimination experiment obtained data concerning L2 learners' actual performance on discrimination Chinese sounds. The discrepancy between PAM's predictions and actual performances revealed that PAM cannot be applied to L2 perceptual learning. It was suggested that the discriminability of L2 sound contrasts was not only determined by perceived phonetic distances but probably involved other factors, such as the distinctiveness of certain phonetic features, e.g. aspiration and retroflexion. The training experiment assessed the improvement of L2 learners' performance in identifying Chinese sound contrasts with exposure to high variability stimuli and feedback. The results not only proved the effectiveness of training in shaping L2 learners' perception but showed that the training effects were generalizable to new tokens spoken by unfamiliar talkers. In addition to perception, the production of Chinese sounds by Japanese learners was also examined from the phonetic perspective in terms of perceived foreign accentedness. Regression of L2 learners' and native speakers foreign accentedness ratings against acoustic measurements of their speech production revealed that although both segmental and suprasegmental variables contributed to the perception of foreign accent, suprasegmental variables such as total and intonation patterns were the most influential factor in predicting perceived foreign accent. To conclude, PAM failed to accurately predict learning difficulties of nonnative sounds faced by L2 learners solely based on perceived phonetic distances. As Speech Learning Model (SLM) hypothesizes, production was found to be driven by perception, since equivalence classification of L2 sounds to L1 categories prevented the establishment of a new phonological category, thus further resulted in divergence in L2 production. Although production was hypothesized to eventually resemble perception, asynchrony between production and perception was observed due to different mechanisms involved.

Although tone plays an important role in Chinese speech perception, many issues regarding tone processing remained debatable. Among these issues, whether tone and segment are integrally or independently processed is the one that motivated this study. To investigate the integration vs. independence view of tone and segment (i.e., rime in this study) processing during Mandarin sentence comprehension, the present experiment adopted the violation paradigm and event- related potential (ERP) recording. Participants heard a series of sentences and judged whether each sentence made sense or not after its offset. The sentences included congruous sentences that embodied the original word (e.g., "观众"/guan1-zhong4/; "audience") and incongruous sentences that were created by mismatching tone (e.g., "观肿"/guan1-zhong3/), rime (e.g., " 观赚"/guan1-zhuan4/) or tone-plus-rime (e.g., "观转"/guan1-zhuan3/) of the second syllable of the original words in the congruous sentences. Larger N400 (250-400 ms) and P600 (500-700 ms) were evoked by the incongruous sentences than congruous sentences. Among the incongruous sentences, the N400 elicited by double violation (i.e., tone-plus-rime violation) was larger than rime violation, which was in turn larger than tone violation. The P600 evoked by tone violation was larger than rime violation in 500-600 ms, but they were comparable in 600-700 ms. In addition, the P600 evoked by tone and rime violation were both larger than double violation. The different ERP effects among the three violation conditions supported the independence view of tone and rime processing. Based on the results, a dynamic model of spoken word processing was proposed, in which the functional dissociation of tone and segment across different stages was taken into consideration.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 190 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-190). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

La tesi Estudi contrastiu de l’estructura sil·làbica del català i del xinès estàndards i de les implicacions segmentals més rellevants per als aprenents sinòfons estudia la pronunciació del català pel que fa als aspectes segmentals i als suprasegmentals relatius a l’estructura sil·làbica per part dels estudiants xinesos que parlen el xinès estàndard (mandarí/putonghuà) com a llengua materna (L1). És el primer treball que no només aborda de manera global els problemes de pronunciació del català que presenten els aprenents sinòfons sinó que també ofereix solucions per millorar l’aprenentatge de la llengua oral catalana. L’interès per l’estudi ha estat suscitat, d’una banda, per l’augment d’alumnes xinesos que venen a estudiar a les universitats catalanes, els quals presenten accents estrangers molt notables, i, de l’altra, per les grans diferències que existeixen entre ambdues llengües, tant a nivell fonètic com a nivell fonològic. L’estudi es basa en l’anàlisi contrastiva, per la qual cosa es comparen tots els sons del xinès i del català estàndards, les estructures sil·làbiques i la configuració dels diftongs i els triftongs de les dues llengües, així com les regles fonològiques que afecten el català. La comparació global i contrastiva ha permès localitzar les dificultats de pronunciació que normalment afronten els estudiants sinòfons. També s’han tingut en compte els trets de l’anglès i l’espanyol, perquè són les dues llengües que els estudiants xinesos normalment han après abans del català i, per tant, poden interferir, tant positivament com negativament, en les pronunciacions del català. La investigació s’ha realitzat a partir d’un corpus de 248 paraules respost per 19 informants d’entre 18 i 33 anys que estudien a Barcelona i parlen el xinès estàndard com a L1, l’anglès i l’espanyol com a L2 i L3, i el català i altres llengües com a L4/L5/etc., repartits en tres nivells de coneixement del català: nivell inicial-bàsic, nivell mitjà i nivell avançat. Les dades obtingudes han permès detectar els errors i les imprecisions que presenten a cada nivell, i agrupar-los en aspectes de prioritat alta (desviacions bàsiques per a la intel·ligibilitat), de prioritat baixa (imprecisions que no afecten la intel·ligibilitat) i d’atenció esporàdica (problemes que indiquen accents estrangers però que no causen problemes d’intel·ligibilitat). Finalment, els resultats han servit per proposar solucions pràctiques per facilitar el procés d’adquisició i de perfeccionament de la pronunciació de la llengua catalana.
The thesis Contrastive study of the syllabic structure of Standard Catalan and Standard Chinese and the most important segmental implications for Chinese-speaking students is a study of Catalan pronunciation by Chinese students who speak Standard Chinese (Mandarin/Putonghua) as their mother tongue (L1). We have focused on segments difficult to master and suprasegmental aspects related to syllable structure. It is the first work that deals with the problems of Catalan pronunciation faced by Chinese-speaking students and offers suggestions to improve the acquisition of oral Catalan. The interest in this study has been motivated, on the one hand, by the increasing number of Chinese students who come to study in Catalan universities and the remarkable foreign accents that they display, and, on the other, by the great phonetic and phonological differences between Catalan and Chinese. The study, based on the Contrastive Analysis theory, compares all the sounds of Standard Chinese and Catalan, their syllabic structures and vowel glide configuration of both languages, as well as the phonological rules that affect Catalan. The global and contrastive comparison serves to locate the pronouncing difficulties that the Chinese-speaking students normally face when speak Catalan. We have also considered the phonetic features of English and Spanish because they are the two languages Chinese students have normally learned before they start studying Catalan and, therefore, they can interfere, both positively and negatively, in their pronunciation of Catalan. The research has been based on a corpus of 248 words pronounced by 19 informants aged between 18 and 33 who study in Barcelona and speak Standard Chinese as L1, English and Spanish as L2 and L3, and Catalan and other languages as L4/L5/etc. They are divided into three groups according to their Catalan levels: initial-basic, middle, and advanced levels. The data obtained has allowed to detect the errors and inaccuracies that they have presented in each level, and classify them as high priority (great deviations that affect intelligibility), low priority (inaccuracies that do not affect intelligibility) and sporadic attention (foreign accents that do not affect intelligibility). Finally, the results have helped us to propose practical solutions to facilitate the acquisition and improvement of Catalan pronunciation.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-79). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Esta tesis doctoral ofrece una introducción teórica y dialectológica del vocalismo de dos variedades del mandarín estándar (SM): Pǔtōnghuà (el mandarín estándar de China) y Guóyǔ (el mandarín estándar de Taiwán o TM). Debido a que el mandarín estándar (tanto de China como de Taiwán) adoptó su modelo de pronunicación de la pronunciación del chino mandarín hablado en la zona de Beijing, se realiza un análisis contrastivo entre: el mandarín de Beijing (BM), y el mandarín estándar de Taiwán (TM) o Guóyǔ. La tesis consta de dos partes: la primera parte, y principal, se centra en el análsis acústico del vocalismo del mandarín de Taiwán. Dado que en la actualidad existe mucha polémica sobre el número y las características de las vocales del mandarín, se estudia exhaustivamente el vocalismo del mandarín de Taiwán con el fin de clasificar y definir fonéticamente las vocales de TM. Este vocalismo se compara con el BM a partir de datos bibliográficos. Asimismo se ofrece una propuesta de la transcripción AFI más adecuada para el vocalismo de TM. La segunda parte trata de las cuestiones del aprendizaje de pronunciación de las vocales del mandarín estándar por parte de los aprendientes bilingües castellano- catalán. A diferencia del castellano y del catalán, el sistema vocálico del mandarín posee múltiples variantes alofónicas lo que le hace un sistema mucho más complejo. A través del análisis de errores, se intenta descubrir las transferencias lingüísticas y dificultades de pronunciación de las vocales chinas producidas por los españoles.
This research offers a theorical and dialectological introduction of the vowels of two different varieties of Standard Mandarin (SM): Pǔtōnghuà (Standard Mandarin Spoken in China) and Guóyǔ (Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan). Considering that Standard Mandarin adopted the pronunciation from the Beijing dialect, the comparative analysis of Mandarin vowels between Beijing Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin is also conducted. This thesis is divided into two parts. The aim of the first part is to perform an acoustic analysis of Taiwan Mandarin vowels due to the fact that the Mandarin vowel system has been a controversial topic. In this section, the IPA phonetic transcription of Taiwan Mandarin vowels is also proposed. The second part focuses on the second language acquisition of Mandarin pronunciation by L1 bilingual Spanish/Catalan learners. Unlike Spanish and Catalan, Mandarin has complex vowel system that comprises several allofonic varieties of each phoneme. Therefore, we attempt to discover language transfer and pronunciation problems of Mandarin vowels pronounced by native Spanish/Catalan learners.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005.
"Submitted to Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 354-373).

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2000.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 29, 2000." Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Lenore Pogonowski. Dissertation Committee: Harold F. Abeles. Accompanying tape has Recitation of Chinese poems. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-257).

This dissertation examines the effects of semantic and phonetic radicals on Chinese character decoding by high-intermediate level Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners. The results of the main study (discussed in Chapter #5) suggest that the CFL learners tested have a well-developed semantic pathway to recognition; however, their phonological pathway is not yet a reliable means of character identification. Semantic radicals that correctly pertain to character meaning facilitated reaction time in semantic categorization tasks (Experiment #1), while radicals that had no immediately interpretable relation to character meaning had a strong inhibitory effect. The relativeaccuracy of phonetic radicals (for predicting the whole-character's pronunciation) did not measurably improve homonym recognition (Experiment #2). Subjects were then tested to determine their default processing modes in Chinese character reading. In a lexical decision task (Experiment #3) wherein semantic radicals or phonological components were blurred to delay recognition, surprisingly, the subjects were significantly slower in identifying pseudo-characters when the phonological component was blurred, indicating that, despite having unreliable phonological pathways to character recognition, the subjects were still utilizing that strategy first. These results were mirrored in a sentence reading task (Experiment #4) wherein a single character had either a blurred semantic radical or phonological component. This tendency to use the less developed pathway is explained as a default means of attempting character recognition as a result of subjects gleaning orthographic information from the densely packed phonological component and as a result of L1 (English) interference predisposing subjects to phonological decoding strategies.Such a study on CFL learner reading processes is an important step towards ameliorating CFL teaching methodologies. For this reason, the author contrasts the data on CFL learners with data taken from similar experiments with native Chinese speakers (in Chapter #6) in order to demonstrate concrete differences in character reading processes which should affect teaching practices between the two groups. The authorconcludes the dissertation by making targeted recommendations for CFL pedagogical practices based upon the results of the study on the effect of character-internal features on reading patterns by non-native readers of Chinese (Chapter #8).

Cette thèse traite de l’acquisition des occlusives sourdes /p t k/ et sonores /b d g/ du français par 11 locutrices taïwanaises de niveau intermédiaire à avancé. La situation de Taïwan est qualifiée de diglossique, les locuteurs parlent généralement deux langues dont les principales sont le chinois mandarin et le taïwanais. Le chinois mandarin possède les occlusives /p t k ph th kh/ tandis que le taïwanais possède les occlusives /b g p t k ph th kh/. L’analyse acoustique des logatomes CVCVCVC où C=/b d g p t k/ et V=/a i u/ révèle une grande hétérogénéité entre les locutrices : les indices des natifs du français pour opposer entre sourdes et sonores sont parfois utilisés par les non-natifs, parfois non. On note l’influence du chinois mandarin. Un test de perception révèle une moins bonne discrimination des paires de consonnes /b p/, /d t/ et /g k/ en syllabe CV si V=/a/, comparé à /i u/. Ces résultats suggèrent une tendance générale chez ces auditrices à mieux discriminer les occlusives du français lorsque le VOT des sourdes est plus long et à ne pas tenir compte du VOT négatif des voisées. En perception, les indices pour discriminer les occlusives aspirées et non-aspirées du chinois mandarin semblent ainsi également être utilisés en français. Nous n’avons pas relevé de signe d’une influence du taïwanais, où l’opposition de voisement existe cependant
This dissertation deals with the acquisition of French voiceless stops /p t k/ and voiced stops /b d g/ by 11 Taiwanese intermediate or advanced learners of L2 French. The linguistic situation in Taiwan is described as diglossia. Most speakers speak two languages, mainly Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese. Mandarin Chinese has plosives /p t k ph th kh/ while Taiwanese has /b g p t k ph th kh/. An acoustic analysis of CVCVCVC logatoms where C = /b d g p t k/ and V = /a i u/ shows important heterogeneity among speakers. The cues used by French native speakers to oppose voiceless and voiced stops are irregularly used by non-native speakers. The influence of Mandarin Chinese is noted. A perception test shows poorer discrimination among pairs of consonants (/b p/, /d t/ and /g k/) in CV syllable when V = /a/, as compared to /i u/. The results show that non-native listeners tend to, firstly, better discriminate the voiceless plosives of French when the VOT is longer and secondly, ignore the negative VOT of voiced stops. As regards perception, the cues used in Mandarin Chinese to discriminate between aspirated and non-aspirated stops consonants seem to be used in French too. No clue to the influence of Taiwanese has been found, although the opposition of voicing exists

La notion d' iconicité¦ est devenue aujourd'hui un sujet fécond au sein de la linguistique cognitive occidentale. Nous avons choisi d'étudier le problème de l'iconicité dans le cadre de la grammaire du chinois. Comme toute langue " idéographique", le chinois mandarin relève évidemment d'une iconicité de haut degré par son écriture. Dans l'histoire de linguistique chinoise, beaucoup d'é¦tudes ont été faites sur la ressemblance entre la forme du caractère chinois et le sens qu'il représente. Or, c'est depuis une trentaine d'années que nous avons commencé à développer la notion d'iconicité dans les domaines phonétique et syntaxique, avec l'introduction de la linguistique cognitive en Chine. Dans cette thèse, nous allons développer la notion d'iconicité dans la grammaire du chinois à travers trois aspects : la phonétique, l'écriture chinoise et la syntaxe. D'abondants exemples serviront de fil organisateur à notre exposé
The notion of iconicity has become an interesting topic in the Western cognitive linguistics today. We chose to study the problem of iconicity in the context of Chinese grammar. Like any "ideographic" language, the Mandarin Chinese reveal a high degree of iconicity by his writing. In the history of Chinese linguistics, many studies have been done on the similarity between the form of the Chinese character and the sense which it represents. However, we only began to develop the notion of iconicity in the phonetic and syntactic domains with the introduction of cognitive linguistics in China thirty years ago. In this thesis, we will develop the notion of iconicity in the grammar of Chinese in three aspects by giving abundant exemples: phonetics, Chinese characters and syntax

Cette étude d’ordre phonético-phonologique considère la prononciation en allemand L4 chez des apprenants tardifs cantophones de la première génération postcoloniale à Hong Kong. Pour ces locuteurs dont les langues source sont le cantonais (L1) et l’anglais (L2) de Hong Kong, ainsi que le putonghua/mandarin (L3), l’allemand est la quatrième langue orale (L4). La question des transferts linguistiques issus des langues source reste mal évaluée. À travers une analyseprincipalement auditive, nous cherchons à découvrir comment l’allemand lu est prononcé sous l’effet interférentiel attendu d’une ou de plusieurs langues source. Ce travail dégage des fautes typiques et quantifiables à travers l’exploitation d’enregistrements d’apprenants cantophones adultes. Ces données élicitées aux niveaux segmental et suprasegmental ont été comparées à celles d’un groupe contrôle de locuteurs natifs, ainsi qu’à la prononciation canonique retenue. Noustentons de déterminer les causes des déviances saillantes dues aux effets interférentiels des langues source relevant du niveau phonético-phonologique. Ce travail permettra de dégager des méthodes d’apprentissage plus adaptées, une fois les différents domaines identifiés, ayant trait aux difficultés spécifiques lors de l’acquisition de l’allemand L4. Ainsi, des exercices variés et bien adaptés à ce public d’apprenants permettront d’améliorer plus rapidement l’acquisition del’allemand oral. Ce travail était dicté par le souci de fournir un ensemble d’informations potentiellement utiles aux domaines linguistique et didactique
This thesis aims to investigate salient mispronunciations from Cantonese adult L4 learners of German in Hong Kong, in order to support the design of effective pedagogical and remedial instruction for pronunciation improvement. For these learners of the first post-colonial generation, the other source languages are Hong Kong English (L2) and putonghua/Mandarin (L3), both non-native/non-foreign languages. The overall aims of this study are to promote ourunderstanding of cross-linguistic interference between source languages and the target language in adult learners whose first language is genetically and typologically distant from German, as well as to identify typical linguistic features of German L4. The proposed approach involves a systematic contrastive description of phonology and phonetics primarily between German and Cantonese, followed by a shorter description of learners’ L2 and L3. To address the question of deviant features and language transfer, data gathered from students reading German were compared to native speaker data, as well as to a canonical form of pronunciation. The analysis of interlanguage data revealed segmental and suprasegmental deviations from the underlying canonical form, as well as contexts where L1 and L2 transfer effects are prominent. Thismethodology enabled us to propose an inventory of salient pronunciation errors, useful for the domain of linguistics and for pedagogical purposes. Though further studies should be conducted at both the segmental and suprasegmental level, this work contributes to our understanding of aspects of this particular L4 interlanguage

丁國偉.
論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007.
參考文獻(p. 851-857).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007.
Can kao wen xian (p. 851-857).
Ding Guowei.

Lexical tone plays an important role in tonal languages. Acoustically, pitch is determined by the periodicity of speech, which is measured as the fundamental frequency (F0) of acoustic signals. In each tonal language, there are a certain number of lexical tones that are described by distinctive pitch contours. Cantonese and Mandarin have four and six tones, respectively.
People with sensorineural hearing loss have difficulty in utilizing spectral information for speech recognition and rely heavily on temporal information. The temporal information of speech is divided into three parts, based on the rate of amplitude fluctuation: temporal envelope (below 50 Hz), periodicity (50-500 Hz), and fine structure (above 500 Hz).
Previous studies show that hearing-impaired people have difficulties in perceiving tones, even though they are aided with cochlear implants (CIs). In this thesis, two approaches are investigated to improve Chinese tone recognition. In the first approach, TEPCs go through a process of non-linear expansion in order to increase the modulation depth of periodicity-related amplitude fluctuation. Results of listening tests show that TEPC expansion leads to a noticeable improvement on tone identification accuracy. In the second approach, the effectiveness of enhancing temporal periodicity cues in noise is investigated. Temporal periodicity cues are simplified into a sinusoidal wave with frequency equivalent to the F0 of speech. This leads to a consistent and significant improvement on tone identification performance at different noise levels. This part of research is expected to be helpful in designing CI processing strategy for effective speech perception of tonal languages.
The goals of this thesis are to investigate what are the effective temporal cues for lexical tone perception of Chinese and how to manipulate or enhance these cues for better performance of tone perception. We adopt the research method of acoustic simulation with normal-hearing subjects. A four-channel noise-excited vocoder is used to generate test stimuli for tone identification.
We compare the contributions of temporal envelope and periodicity components (TEPCs) from different frequency regions to tone recognition in Cantonese and Mandarin. It is observed that TEPCs from high-frequency region (1-4 kHz) are more important than those from low-frequency region (< 1 kHz). In noise condition, tone recognition performance with temporal cues degrades and more spectral information is needed.
Yuan, Meng.
Adviser: Tan Lee.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 71-01, Section: B, page: 0565.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-146).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Young infants can discriminate a great variety of speech sounds both native and nonnative in their language environment. The focus of the perceptual reorganisation research to date has been on infants’ discrimination of nonnative segments, in particular, consonants and vowels. In tone languages (eg. Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai) phonemic distinctions are signalled not only by consonants and vowels, but also by lexical tone – consisting of variations in fundamental frequency (pitch) and related features. Although such languages are spoken by over half the world’s population, the development of lexical tone perception has been relatively neglected. This thesis addresses whether perceptual reorganisation occurs for tone in infancy. Overall, the results of experiments conducted support the hypotheses and the existence of perceptual reorganisation for tone in infancy, similar to that for consonants and vowels. Implications of the results for speech perception development theories, “tone space”, tone acquisition, and early word learning are discussed, and future studies relating to these issues suggested.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study examined the roles of sub-character processing, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge, measured using twelve different tasks hypothesized to indicate these four broad constructs, in Chinese character recognition and English word reading among 536 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners, second- and fifth-graders. The twelve tasks generally showed an increase in performance with grade level. Confirmatory factor analyses comparing alternative models of these four constituents of Chinese word reading revealed a dynamic pattern of children's latent linguistic or reading processing skills development: The best-fitting model of kindergartners' processing was one that included two broad constructs, broadly termed metalinguistic processing and orthographic processing. In contrast, second-graders showed a fine-grained sensitivity to four distinct skills of sub-character processing, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge. Finally, the latent processing skills of the fifth-graders converged into phonological and orthographic processing. The contributions of each of these initially specified constructs, i.e., sub-character processing, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge, to Chinese word reading varied across each separate grade in regression analyses. The sub-character processing construct was uniquely associated with kindergarten Chinese word reading only. In contrast, the morphological awareness construct was uniquely associated with Chinese word reading in both second- and fifth-graders. The orthographic knowledge construct was uniquely associated with word reading across ail three grades. However, the phonological awareness construct was not uniquely associated with Chinese word reading in any of the groups of children, though it was uniquely associated with English word reading, even with Chinese character recognition skill statistically controlled. These findings demonstrate how Chinese word reading might develop across age and highlight the importance of sub-character processing, morphological awareness and orthographic knowledge for Chinese word reading development as well as the importance of phonological awareness for English word reading.
Tong Xiuli.
Adviser: Catherine McBride-Chang.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: B, page: 3806.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-166).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese; includes Chinese characters.
School code: 1307.

Harrison, Alissa May.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-194).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Intonation´ؤlexical tone transfer --- p.3
Chapter 1.2 --- Unresolved issues of intonation-lexical tone transfer --- p.8
Chapter 1.3 --- Objectives of this study --- p.10
Chapter 1.4 --- Hypotheses of intonation-lexical tone transfer in L2 Mandarin --- p.12
Chapter 1.5 --- Methodology and experimental results --- p.13
Chapter 1.6 --- Major findings and conclusions --- p.15
Chapter 1.7 --- Outline of the thesis --- p.16
Chapter 2 --- "Background of Mandarin, English, and Japanese prosody" --- p.18
Chapter 2.1 --- Prosodic phonology --- p.19
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Defining the components of prosody --- p.19
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Theoretical basis for intonation and lexical tone inter- action --- p.23
Chapter 2.2 --- Mandarin prosody --- p.32
Chapter 2.3 --- English prosody --- p.41
Chapter 2.4 --- Japanese prosody --- p.49
Chapter 2.5 --- Summary of prosodic similarities and differences --- p.54
Chapter 3 --- Previous studies of intonation and lexical tone acquisition --- p.61
Chapter 3.1 --- Second language acquisition --- p.62
Chapter 3.1.1 --- Interlanguage --- p.62
Chapter 3.1.2 --- Defining transfer --- p.63
Chapter 3.1.3 --- Theories of L2 phonological acquisition --- p.66
Chapter 3.2 --- Comparison of first and second language acquisition --- p.71
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Lexical tone --- p.71
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Intonation --- p.74
Chapter 3.3 --- L1 intonation transfer in Mandarin L2 lexical tone acquisition --- p.77
Chapter 3.3.1 --- Initial hypotheses of intonation-lexical tone transfer --- p.77
Chapter 3.3.2 --- Experimental studies claiming intonation-lexical tone transfer --- p.85
Chapter 3.3.3 --- Unaddressed issues of previous studies --- p.91
Chapter 4 --- Methodology of production and perception experiments --- p.94
Chapter 4.1 --- Hypotheses --- p.94
Chapter 4.2 --- Design --- p.97
Chapter 4.3 --- Subjects --- p.101
Chapter 4.4 --- Procedures --- p.102
Chapter 4.5 --- Data transcription and statistical analysis --- p.105
Chapter 5 --- Results of production and perception experiments --- p.108
Chapter 5.1 --- Production experiment results --- p.108
Chapter 5.1.1 --- Effect of lexical tone category on pitch production --- p.109
Chapter 5.1.2 --- Effect of sentence type on pitch production --- p.119
Chapter 5.1.3 --- Summary of tone production results --- p.126
Chapter 5.2 --- Perception experiment results --- p.128
Chapter 5.2.1 --- Effect of lexical tone category on lexical tone identifi- cation --- p.128
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Effect of sentence type on lexical tone identification --- p.136
Chapter 5.2.3 --- Summary of tone perception results --- p.143
Chapter 6 --- Discussion of experimental results and intonation-lexical tone transfer hypothesis --- p.146
Chapter 6.1 --- Analysis of experimental results --- p.147
Chapter 6.1.1 --- Lack of postlexical tone transfer --- p.148
Chapter 6.1.2 --- Postlexical tone prior to lexical tone acquisition --- p.156
Chapter 6.1.3 --- Factors in lexical tone errors --- p.166
Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations of methodological design --- p.170
Chapter 6.2.1 --- Size of experimental data sample --- p.170
Chapter 6.2.2 --- Proficiency levels and testing --- p.172
Chapter 6.2.3 --- Method of elicitation --- p.173
Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.177
Chapter 7.1 --- Summary --- p.177
Chapter 7.2 --- Implications --- p.178
Chapter 7.2.1 --- Prosodic phonology --- p.178
Chapter 7.2.2 --- Second language acquisition --- p.180
Chapter 7.3 --- Future Work --- p.181
Chapter A --- Production Experiment Materials --- p.195
Chapter A.l --- Wordlist --- p.195
Chapter A.2 --- Sentences --- p.196
Chapter B --- Perception Experiment Materials --- p.199
Chapter B.l --- Wordlist --- p.199
Chapter B.2 --- Sentences --- p.200
Chapter C --- F0 contours of target word productions --- p.203

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0588. Adviser: Jose Ignacio Hualde. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-148) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

由於普通話的語音系統與粤方言的相去甚遠，粤方言人士學習普通話語音時，來自粤方言的語音干擾對學習產生障礙，發音因而有所偏差。本研究應用多元概化理論的統計方法，分析由4位國家級普通話測試員對37名大學本科生朗讀1218個普通話帶調音節的評分數據，從而描繪香港學生朗讀普通話音節的能力面貌。
本研究在音節朗讀能力分析上應用概化理論，能同時估計影響分數變異的多個誤差來源，以及估計各側面的變異量及其佔總變異量的比例。通過本研究可以進一步了解來自題目、評分者的測量誤差對分數概化精確性的影響。而且，本研究採用的數據是對聲母、韻母、聲調的分項評分，把音節分解為三個變量來分析，能彌補整體性評分的不足，從而確定朗讀普通話音節時的偏誤所在。本研究對朗讀能力進行分解，首先是在音節的層面，對音節之下的子能力（聲母、韻母、聲調）進行解構分析。然後，則分別在聲母和韻母的層面探究兩者的子能力。研究發現，聲母、韻母、聲調之間的關聯程度很高，但韻母最能區分被試的朗讀能力，聲母卻最弱。各種韻母之間的協方差明顯比各種聲母之間的為大，表明各類韻母背後所隱含的共同能力相對較強。研究結果也顯示，被試能力和題目之間的交互作用是相對主要的誤差來源。
除了解構音節朗讀能力外，本研究還針對音節測試的實際情況進行應用研究。通過題目數量、評分者人數以及測量設計的改變，驗證不同測試條件下的概化係數等各種技術指標。結果顯示，各種改變條件的測試方案皆具相當高的測量信度，證明在實際的測試要求下，音節朗讀測試能測出被試的普通話語音能力。
本研究基於大量客觀數據而概括出的學習難點和規律，為普通話教與學提供客觀參照，更具針對性地教好、學好音節發音。同時，也有助本地測試機構，制定更符合粤方言者能力特質的音節題目。評分者效應的誤差則為評分者培訓提供訊息，有助提升評分的準確性，建設穩定的評分者團隊。
As the phonological system of Putonghua is vastly different from that of Cantonese, the phonological interference from Cantonese poses critical learning obstacles to Cantonese speakers in their learning of Putonghua, which leads to various pronunciation errors. In this study, the statistical method Multivariate Generalizability Theory was used to analyze the rating data collected from 4 National Putonghua examiners' rating on the pronunciation of 1218 Putonghua syllables by 37 undergraduates at a university in Hong Kong. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability profiles and psychometric characteristics of Hong Kong students in the pronunciation of Putonghua syllables.
The application of generalizability theory on the study of the pronunciation competency of Putonghua syllables made it possible to analyze and estimate the multiple sources of errors which affected the variation of scores as well as the variance of each facet and its proportion against total variance. Through this study, it was possible to further understand the influence of measurement errors of test items and raters on the generalization of their accuracy. In the study, Putonghua syllables were divided into three variables (components: initials, finals and tones) and analytical scoring was applied in the analyses that could specify the location of errors in pronunciation, thus partly remedying the deficiency of holistic scoring. Deconstruction analysis of pronunciation competence was carried out in a 2-level hierarchy. First, the deconstruction took place at syllables in which initials, finals and tones were the sub-skills. Second, the initials and finals were also deconstructed. Research findings showed that correlations among initials, finals and tones were relatively high and that finals were the strongest in differentiating pronunciation competence while initials were the weakest. The covariances among various finals were apparently higher than those of initials. This implies that the mutual hidden competence linked to various types of finals was relatively strong. Findings also revealed that the interaction between subject’s competence and test items was the main source of errors.
In addition to the deconstruction analysis of pronunciation competence, applied research basing on the authentic situations of Putonghua tests was also conducted. Verification of technical specifications, including generalizability coefficients, was carried out under different testing conditions through changing test design and the number of test items and raters. The results showed that various testing solutions with the change in testing conditions possess high degree of measurement reliability, suggesting that syllable reading test could be used to examine pronunciation competence under authentic testing conditions.
In this study, learning difficulties and their patterns, which are derived from abundant unprejudiced data, provide objective reference to the teaching and learning of Putonghua syllable pronunciation with clear targets. These findings are also useful to local testing institutions in stipulating syllable reading tests which better suit the competence characteristics of Cantonese speakers. Furthermore, data and study results on rater errors offer reference for rater training which helps to promote the accuracy of rating, thus strengthening the quality of the rating team.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
陳志良.
"2013年7月".
"2013 nian 7 yue".
Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-127).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract in Chinese and English.
Chen Zhiliang.
Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- 研究背景 --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- 研究的目的、問題、預設與假設、內容、意義 --- p.2
Chapter 1.2.1 --- 研究目的 --- p.2
Chapter 1.2.2 --- 研究問題 --- p.3
Chapter 1.2.2.1 --- 音節的理論探討 --- p.3
Chapter 1.2.2.2 --- 應用研究探討 --- p.4
Chapter 1.2.3 --- 研究預設與假設 --- p.5
Chapter 1.2.4 --- 研究內容 --- p.6
Chapter 1.2.5 --- 研究意義 --- p.7
Chapter 第二章 --- 文獻綜述 --- p.9
Chapter 2.1 --- 普通話在香港的地位 --- p.9
Chapter 2.2 --- 普通話音節與漢語拼音 --- p.12
Chapter 2.3 --- 普通話音節分析 --- p.15
Chapter 2.4 --- 方言地區的普通話音節教學與學習 --- p.17
Chapter 2.5 --- 普通話音節評分方法 --- p.22
Chapter 2.6 --- 概化理論在普通話測試上的應用 --- p.27
Chapter 第三章 --- 研究方法 --- p.33
Chapter 3.1 --- 數據收集程序 --- p.33
Chapter 3.1.1 --- 被試 --- p.33
Chapter 3.1.2 --- 題目 --- p.33
Chapter 3.1.3 --- 評分者 --- p.35
Chapter 3.1.4 --- 評分方法 --- p.35
Chapter 3.2 --- 能力分解研究 --- p.36
Chapter 3.2.1 --- 子研究一：音節研究 --- p.36
Chapter 3.2.2 --- 子研究二：聲母研究 --- p.38
Chapter 3.2.3 --- 子研究三：韻母研究 --- p.39
Chapter 3.3 --- 應用研究 --- p.39
Chapter 3.3.1 --- 子研究一：組卷啟示 --- p.40
Chapter 3.3.2 --- 子研究二：考試設計探索 --- p.40
Chapter 3.3.2.1 --- G研究 --- p.40
Chapter 3.3.2.2 --- D₁研究：改變題目數量 --- p.40
Chapter 3.3.2.3 --- D₂研究：改變評分者人數 --- p.41
Chapter 3.3.2.4 --- D₃研究：（P：R）× I嵌套設計（不同的評分者評不同的被試） --- p.41
Chapter 3.3.2.5 --- D₄研究：（I：P）× R嵌套設計（不同的被試朗讀不同的音節） --- p.42
Chapter 第四章 --- 能力分解研究 --- p.44
Chapter 4.1 --- 子研究一：音節研究（三個因子模型） --- p.44
Chapter 4.1.1 --- G研究 --- p.44
Chapter 4.1.1.1 --- 測量目標p --- p.45
Chapter 4.1.1.2 --- 測量側面i --- p.45
Chapter 4.1.1.3 --- 測量側面r --- p.46
Chapter 4.1.1.4 --- 各效應之間的比較 --- p.46
Chapter 4.1.1.5 --- 交互效應 --- p.47
Chapter 4.1.2 --- 默認D研究 --- p.48
Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- 概化全域 --- p.48
Chapter 4.1.2.2 --- 默認D研究中的方差與協方差分量的估計 --- p.48
Chapter 4.1.2.3 --- 默認D研究中各效應在三個變量上的概化係數等指標 --- p.49
Chapter 4.1.2.4 --- 全域合成分數的研究 --- p.51
Chapter 4.1.2.5 --- 各變量對整體測試的貢獻比例 --- p.52
Chapter 4.1.3 --- D₁研究：改變評分者人數 --- p.52
Chapter 4.1.3.1 --- 模式設計 --- p.52
Chapter 4.1.3.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.53
Chapter 4.1.4 --- 小結 --- p.54
Chapter 4.2 --- 子研究二：聲母研究（七個因子模型） --- p.56
Chapter 4.2.1 --- G研究 --- p.56
Chapter 4.2.1.1 --- 測量目標p --- p.56
Chapter 4.2.1.2 --- 測量側面i --- p.59
Chapter 4.2.1.3 --- 測量側面r --- p.60
Chapter 4.2.1.4 --- 各效應之間的比較 --- p.60
Chapter 4.2.1.5 --- 交互效應 --- p.61
Chapter 4.2.2 --- 默認D研究 --- p.62
Chapter 4.2.2.1 --- 概化全域 --- p.62
Chapter 4.2.2.2 --- 默認D研究中的方差與協方差分量的估計 --- p.62
Chapter 4.2.2.3 --- 默認D研究中各效應在三個變量上的概化係數等指標 --- p.62
Chapter 4.2.3 --- D₂研究：改變評分者人數 --- p.65
Chapter 4.2.3.1 --- 模式設計 --- p.65
Chapter 4.2.3.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.65
Chapter 4.2.4 --- 小結 --- p.67
Chapter 4.3 --- 子研究三：韻母研究（四個因子模型） --- p.69
Chapter 4.3.1 --- G研究 --- p.69
Chapter 4.3.1.1 --- 測量目標p --- p.70
Chapter 4.3.1.2 --- 測量側面i --- p.71
Chapter 4.3.1.3 --- 測量側面r --- p.71
Chapter 4.3.1.4 --- 各效應之間的比較 --- p.72
Chapter 4.3.1.5 --- 交互效應 --- p.72
Chapter 4.3.2 --- 默認D研究 --- p.73
Chapter 4.3.2.1 --- 概化全域 --- p.73
Chapter 4.3.2.2 --- 默認D研究中的方差與協方差分量的估計 --- p.73
Chapter 4.3.2.3 --- 默認D研究中各效應在三個變量上的概化係數等指標 --- p.74
Chapter 4.3.3 --- D₃研究：改變評分者人數 --- p.76
Chapter 4.3.3.1 --- 模式設計 --- p.76
Chapter 4.3.3.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.76
Chapter 4.3.4 --- 小結 --- p.78
Chapter 4.4 --- 綜合討論 --- p.80
Chapter 第五章 --- 應用研究 --- p.82
Chapter 5.1 --- 描述統計 --- p.82
Chapter 5.1.1 --- 平均分和標準差 --- p.82
Chapter 5.1.2 --- 被試表現分析 --- p.85
Chapter 5.2 --- 子研究一：組卷啟示 --- p.87
Chapter 5.2.1 --- 難度控制組卷 --- p.87
Chapter 5.2.2 --- 組卷策略 --- p.88
Chapter 5.2.3 --- 借助計算機程序 --- p.90
Chapter 5.2.4 --- 組卷方式 --- p.90
Chapter 5.2.4.1 --- 教學導向組卷 --- p.90
Chapter 5.2.4.2 --- 測試導向組卷 --- p.91
Chapter 5.2.4.3 --- 教學導向與測試導向結合 --- p.92
Chapter 5.2.5 --- 小結 --- p.92
Chapter 5.3 --- 子研究二：考試設計探索 --- p.94
Chapter 5.3.1 --- G研究 --- p.94
Chapter 5.3.2 --- 默認D研究 --- p.95
Chapter 5.3.3 --- D₁研究：改變題目數量 --- p.96
Chapter 5.3.3.1 --- 取樣模式 --- p.96
Chapter 5.3.3.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.96
Chapter 5.3.4 --- D₂研究：改變評分者人數 --- p.97
Chapter 5.3.4.1 --- 取樣模式 --- p.98
Chapter 5.3.4.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.98
Chapter 5.3.5 --- D₃研究：（P：R）× I嵌套設計（不同的評分者評不同的被試） --- p.99
Chapter 5.3.5.1 --- 研究設計 --- p.99
Chapter 5.3.5.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.101
Chapter 5.3.6 --- D₄研究：（I：P）× R嵌套設計（不同的被試朗讀不同的音節） --- p.101
Chapter 5.3.6.1 --- 研究設計 --- p.101
Chapter 5.3.6.2 --- 研究發現 --- p.102
Chapter 5.3.7 --- 其他嵌套設計 --- p.103
Chapter 5.3.8 --- 小結 --- p.105
Chapter 第六章 --- 總結及建議 --- p.107
Chapter 6.1 --- 結語 --- p.107
Chapter 6.2 --- 主要結論 --- p.108
Chapter 6.2.1 --- 音節研究 --- p.108
Chapter 6.2.2 --- 聲母研究 --- p.109
Chapter 6.2.3 --- 韻母研究 --- p.110
Chapter 6.2.4 --- 評分者因素 --- p.111
Chapter 6.2.5 --- 組卷啟示 --- p.111
Chapter 6.2.6 --- 考試設計探索 --- p.112
Chapter 6.3 --- 研究的不足 --- p.113
Chapter 6.3.1 --- 被試的同質性 --- p.113
Chapter 6.3.2 --- 題目側面的細化 --- p.114
Chapter 6.3.3 --- 選題拼卷的聲韻覆蓋 --- p.114
Chapter 6.4 --- 主要建議 --- p.115
Chapter 6.4.1 --- 分項評分 --- p.115
Chapter 6.4.2 --- 測試設計 --- p.116
Chapter 6.4.3 --- 評分者人數與題目數量之間的關係 --- p.116
Chapter 6.4.4 --- 音節教學和評分者培訓 --- p.117
Chapter 6.4.5 --- 擴大研究對象 --- p.117
Chapter 6.4.6 --- 擴大題目側面 --- p.118
Chapter 6.4.7 --- 借助計算機程序 --- p.118
參考文獻 --- p.119
Chapter 附錄 1 --- 音節與漢字對照表 --- p.128
Chapter 附錄 2 --- 1218 個音節 --- p.136
Chapter 附錄 3 --- 按聲母排列的音節難度表 --- p.144
Chapter 附錄 4 --- 以聲母分類隨機選取的 100 音節試卷 --- p.156
Chapter 附錄 5 --- 音節研究 mGENOVA程序 --- p.158

Young infants can discriminate a great variety of speech sounds both native and nonnative in their language environment. The focus of the perceptual reorganisation research to date has been on infants’ discrimination of nonnative segments, in particular, consonants and vowels. In tone languages (eg. Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai) phonemic distinctions are signalled not only by consonants and vowels, but also by lexical tone – consisting of variations in fundamental frequency (pitch) and related features. Although such languages are spoken by over half the world’s population, the development of lexical tone perception has been relatively neglected. This thesis addresses whether perceptual reorganisation occurs for tone in infancy. Overall, the results of experiments conducted support the hypotheses and the existence of perceptual reorganisation for tone in infancy, similar to that for consonants and vowels. Implications of the results for speech perception development theories, “tone space”, tone acquisition, and early word learning are discussed, and future studies relating to these issues suggested.

人类如何在颜色、视觉对象和听觉对象存在很大差异的情况下实现感知恒定，这是认知神经科学的一个根本问题。大脑处理差异的一个重要办法是依靠背景环境，为感知颜色、视觉对象和听觉对象提供参照。在语音感知中，在言语信号中存在话者间以及话者内差异的情况下实现语音恒定也是很关键的。根据语境归一化机制，听者可以通过语境（即目标语音周围的其他语音）适应话者的语音空间。在本论文中，我以声调为例考察了语音恒定的问题。
第一，在一个跨语言研究中，我发现不同语音系统的结构会影响听者听辨多个话者所发的声调。普通话听者可以不靠语境准确地听辨多个话者所发的声调，而广东话听者则被多个话者间的音高差异误导。这一不同可以归根于广东话声调系统中存在多个调型相同的平调。这一发现有助理解不同语音系统的结构对于话者差异的影响的抵抗力。
第二，我发现而广东话听者需要语境以估计某一话者的单调范围来帮助判断平调。带有相同基频信息的言语语境和非言语语境的作用不同。非言语语境的作用很小，而言语语境，无论是否有语义，都有作用，不过有语义的言语语境作用更大。
关于语境归一化的神经基础，我最早在N400 时间窗（250-500 毫秒）发现了归一化效应。这说明言语语境提供话者的音高参照以准确地分析词的语音特征，帮助词义提取。当归一化以一种自上而下的方式实施时，归一化的发生不晚于音素加工阶段（PMN，220-350 毫秒）。这些探索性的EEG 研究是最早考察语境归一化的神经基础的研究。
第三，我提出了一个关于语音在大脑中表征的混合模型，以整合两种对立的观点。这个模型中，低层表征是实际听到的不同话者所说的语音的例子，高层表征则是反映不同话者间语音相似性的更为抽象的表征。我找到了一些初步的支持证据，比如语音辨认的准确性与话者的音高在群体分布中的典型性有显著相关。这说明高层的表征形式是由一个语言社区中话者音高的总体分布所决定的。这一模型需要被进一步检验，比如通过语言习得研究，考察习得新语音范畴时低层和高层表征的动态发展。
总之，本论文对于理解语音系统的结构有帮助，并且阐明了语境归一化的机制和神经基础以及语音的多层表征形式。但是还有很多未解决的问题有待进一步考察。
How humans achieve constancy in the perception of color, visual object and auditory object despite the tremendous variation is a fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience. An important way that the brain tackles variation is through reliance on the context, which provides a reference for the perception of an object. In speech perception, it is critical to achieve phonetic constancy above the inter- and intra-talker variation in speech signals. According to the context-dependent normalization mechanism, listeners adapt to a talker’s phonetic space via the context (i.e., neighboring sounds of a speech sound to be recognized). This contextually built phonetic space serves as a reference for compensating for talker variation. In this thesis, I have examined the question of phonetic constancy using lexical tones as a case study.
Firstly, in a cross-linguistic study, I found that the structure of phonological inventories influences categorization of multi-talker tone stimuli. Mandarin listeners correctly categorized multi-talker stimuli without contexts, whereas Cantonese listeners were misguided by acoustic variation between talkers, a difference attributable to the existence of multiple level tones with a similar F0 contour in Cantonese. This finding has implications for understanding the structure of phonological inventories in terms of resistance to talker variability.
Secondly, I found that Cantonese listeners could resolve the ambiguity of level tones by adapting to talker-specific pitch references via a context. Speech and nonspeech contexts contribute unequally to talker adaptation. Nonspeech contexts have a minimal effect, whereas speech contexts, no matter meaningful or not, facilitate adaptation, but congruent semantic content further enlarges the facilitatory effect.
As for the neural locus of context-dependent normalization, I found normalization effects in the N400 time-window (250-500 ms). It indicates that speech contexts facilitate retrieval of semantic memory, by providing talker-specific references to accurately assess the phonetic property of a word. When implemented in a top-down manner, context-dependent normalization occurs no later than the phonemic level of processing (Phonological Mapping Negativity, 220-350 ms). These EEG studies, though exploratory, are among the first to examine the neural processes of context-dependent normalization.
Thirdly, I proposed a hybrid model of mental representations to reconcile two opposite views. In this model, at a lower level are encountered exemplars of speech sounds from different talkers, and at a higher level are abstract representations that reflect the general similarity of speech sounds across talkers. I found initial evidence for this model, such as a significant correlation between the identification accuracy and the typicality of a talker’s pitch range in the population distribution, which suggests that higher-level representations are shaped by the global distribution of talkers’ vocal characteristics in a community. This model needs to be further tested in studies on language learning to examine dynamic development of talker-specific and abstract representations for new phonological categories.
In conclusion, this thesis has implications for understanding the structure of phonological inventories in the world’s languages; it also sheds light on mechanisms and neural processes of context-dependent normalization and the hybrid nature of mental representations. Many unresolved questions remain to be examined in future studies.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Zhang, Caicai.
Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-194).
Abstracts also in Chinese.
Zhang, Caicai.

施仲謀.
據手稿本複印.
Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院敎育學部.
Ju shou gao ben fu yin.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 344-355).
Shi Zhongmou.
Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan jiao yu xue bu.
Chapter 第一章 --- 導論
Chapter （一） --- 引言 --- p.1-2
Chapter （二） --- 目的 --- p.2-3
Chapter （三） --- 對象 --- p.3
Chapter 第二章 --- 問題說明
Chapter （一） --- 名詞的解釋 --- p.4
Chapter （二） --- 研究對應關係的理由 --- p.5-7
Chapter （三） --- 兩語之間的語音對應關係 --- p.7-8
Chapter （四） --- 從廣州話出發探討其與普通話語音的對應關係 --- p.8-12
Chapter 第三章 --- 三種音系的概述及比較
Chapter （一） --- 廣州話的語音結構及特點 --- p.13-19
Chapter （二） --- 普通話的語音結構及特點 --- p.20-24
Chapter （三） --- 中古音的語音結構及特點 --- p.24-31
Chapter （四） --- 廣州話與中古音的音系比較 --- p.32-42
Chapter （五） --- 普通話與中古音的音系比較 --- p.43-55
Chapter 第四章 --- 研究設計
Chapter （一） --- 工具 --- p.56-57
Chapter （二） --- 方法 --- p.57-63
Chapter （三） --- 程序 --- p.63-64
Chapter （四） --- 限制 --- p.65
Chapter 第五章 --- 廣州話普通話聲母的對應關係
Chapter （一） --- 對應關係表 --- p.66-123
Chapter （二） --- 結果分析及討論 --- p.124-153
Chapter 第六章 --- 廣州話普通話韻母的對應關系
Chapter （一） --- 對應關係表 --- p.154-232
Chapter （二） --- 結果分析及討論 --- p.233-276
Chapter 第七章 --- 廣州話普通話聲調的對應關係
Chapter （一） --- 對應關係表 --- p.277-289
Chapter （二） --- 結果分析及討論 --- p.290-293
Chapter 第八章 --- 研究成果的應用
Chapter （一） --- 廣東人學習普通話的困難 --- p.294-302
Chapter （二） --- 兩種語音系統的同異 --- p.302-310
Chapter （三） --- 如何利用本研究資料 --- p.311-339
注釋 --- p.340-343
參考書目 --- p.344-355
附錄
Chapter （一） --- 廣州話聲韻母表 --- p.1-4
Chapter （二） --- 普通話聲韻母表 --- p.1-2
Chapter （三） --- 中古音聲韻母表 --- p.1-2
Chapter （四） --- 廣州話普通話字音對照表 --- p.1-112

林文芳.
"2008年8月".
"2008 nian 8 yue".
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-167).
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Lin Wenfang.
Chapter 第一章 --- 引言 --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- 福清方言語音系統及變調的硏究現狀 --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- 硏究的材料和方法 --- p.3
Chapter 1.3 --- 硏究的目的和意義 --- p.4
Chapter 第二章 --- 福清（海口）方言聲韻調系統 --- p.5
Chapter 2.1 --- 福清（海口）方言聲韻調 --- p.5
Chapter 2.2 --- 福清（海口）方言聲韻調配合關係 --- p.9
Chapter 2.3 --- 福清（海口）方言同音字表 --- p.18
Chapter 第三章 --- 福清（海口）方言兩字組連讀變調 --- p.50
Chapter 3.1 --- 福清（海口）方言非疊式兩字組連讀變調 --- p.50
Chapter 3.2 --- 福清（海口）方言重疊式兩字組連讀變調 --- p.78
Chapter 3.3 --- 小結 --- p.91
Chapter 第四章 --- 福清（海口）方言三字組連讀變調 --- p.91
Chapter 4.1 --- 福清（海口）方言三字組的連讀調値 --- p.91
Chapter 4.2 --- 福清（海口）方言三字組連讀變調中的語音制約因素 --- p.124
Chapter 4.3 --- 福清（海口）方言三字組連讀變調中的語法制約因素 --- p.150
Chapter 4.4 --- 小結 --- p.152
Chapter 第五章 --- 結語 --- p.153
Chapter 5.1 --- 總結 --- p.153
Chapter 5.2 --- 硏究展望 --- p.153
Chapter 5.3 --- 本硏究的局限 --- p.154
參考文獻 --- p.155
附錄福清融城鎭和海口鎭方言變調的差異

Lam Wai Yung.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-133).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
Acknowledgement --- p.iv
Table of contents --- p.v
Chapter Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1
Chapter 1 .1 --- Background --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Purposes of The Study --- p.7
Chapter Chapter 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.8
Chapter 2.1 --- Phonological Awareness and Reading --- p.8
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Word recognition and reading --- p.8
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Relationship between phonological awareness and reading performance --- p.9
Chapter 2.2 --- Two Views About Levels of Phonological Awareness --- p.12
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Linear view of levels of phonological awareness --- p.13
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Hierarchical view of levels of phonological awareness --- p.14
Chapter 2.3 --- Measurement of Phonological Awareness --- p.16
Chapter 2.3.1 --- Various task types --- p.17
Chapter 2.3.2 --- Various levels of difficulty of phonological tasks --- p.22
Chapter 2.3.3 --- Task analysis studies --- p.23
Chapter 2.4 --- Development of Levels of Phonological Awareness --- p.26
Chapter 2.4.1 --- Developmental sequence of phonological awareness --- p.26
Chapter 2.4.2 --- Underlying reasons for the sequential development --- p.29
Chapter 2.5 --- Levels of Phonological Awareness and Reading --- p.30
Chapter 2.5.1 --- Syllable awareness and English reading --- p.31
Chapter 2.5.2 --- Phoneme awareness and English reading --- p.32
Chapter 2.5.3 --- Onset-rime awareness and English reading --- p.34
Chapter 2.6 --- Chinese Reading English as A Second Language --- p.39
Chapter 2.6.1 --- Orthographic and phonological differences between Chinese and English --- p.39
Chapter 2.6.2 --- Influence of learning Chinese on phonological awareness - --- p.41
Chapter 2.6.3 --- Phonological awareness development in Chinese children - --- p.44
Chapter 2.6.4 --- Effects of first language learning on reading English --- p.49
Chapter Chapter 3 --- METHOD --- p.54
Chapter 3.1 --- Subjects --- p.54
Chapter 3.2 --- Tasks --- p.55
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Syllable level tasks --- p.57
Chapter 3.2.1.1 --- Syllable detection --- p.57
Chapter 3.2.1.2 --- Syllable deletion --- p.58
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Onset-rime level tasks --- p.58
Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Onset-rime detection --- p.58
Chapter 3.2.2.2 --- Onset-rime deletion - --- p.59
Chapter 3.2.3 --- Phoneme level tasks --- p.60
Chapter 3.2.3.1 --- Phoneme detection --- p.60
Chapter 3.2.3.2 --- Phoneme deletion - --- p.61
Chapter 3.2.4 --- Word recognition test --- p.62
Chapter 3.2.5 --- The Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices --- p.62
Chapter 3.3 --- Procedure --- p.63
Chapter Chapter 4 --- RESULTS --- p.64
Chapter 4.1 --- Descriptive Data --- p.64
Chapter 4.2 --- Patterns of Phonological Awareness --- p.66
Chapter 4.2.1 --- The performance of three graders in the tasks of three levels of phonological awareness --- p.66
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Patterns of phonological development --- p.76
Chapter 4.3 --- Measuring Phonological Awareness: Detection Vs. Deletion --- p.82
Chapter 4.4 --- Predicting English Word Reading Performance --- p.92
Chapter 4.5 --- Summary of Results --- p.95
Chapter Chapter 5 --- DISCUSSION --- p.98
Chapter 5.1 --- Patterns of Phonological Awareness --- p.98
Chapter 5.1.1 --- Progressive development in phonological awareness over grade --- p.98
Chapter 5.1.2 --- The characteristics of phonological development in Hong Kong children --- p.103
Chapter 5.1.3 --- Developmental progression from large via medium to small units --- p.107
Chapter 5.2 --- Measurement of Phonological Awareness --- p.110
Chapter 5.3 --- Phonological Awareness and Word Reading --- p.114
Chapter Chapter 6 --- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.120
Chapter 6.1 --- Major Findings --- p.120
Chapter 6.1.1 --- Patterns of phonological awareness --- p.120
Chapter 6.1.2 --- Measurement of phonological awareness --- p.120
Chapter 6.1.3 --- Phonological awareness in predicting English reading --- p.121
Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations --- p.122
Chapter 6.3 --- Implications and Recommendations --- p.123
Chapter 5.6.1 --- Pedagogical implications --- p.123
Chapter 5.6.2 --- Future research recommendations --- p.124
References --- p.126
Appendixes --- p.134

本文主要探讨苏州话的连续变调，研究范围限定为音译词和复合词这两类多音节词。通过对苏州话语料的详细考察，本文总结出苏州话多音节词连读变调存在三层变调行为：（i）首音节尽量保留原调;（ii）第二个音节的变调与首音节的单字调有关;（iii）其余音节负载一个低平调.
本文针对舒声调为首音节的多音节词的变调规律，回答了如下问题：（i）苏州话连续变调为何存在三层变调行为，而非两层或者四层？（ii）首音节保持原调的变调行为及它较高的负载声调的能力是由什么决定的？（iii）其余音节所负载的变调是如何决定的？
经过分析，我们将苏州话的变调域确认为韵律词，其内部结构如下：每个韵律词的头两个音节构成一个左重双拍音步，剩余的音节不构成音步因而直接被韵律词所管辖。由此苏州话的三层变调行为可以通过这三类音节在韵律词中的不同地位来解释，即：（i）首音节是左重双拍步中的强音节; （ii）第二个音节是左重双拍步中的弱音节; （iii）其余音节因不属于音步而被韵律词直接管辖。
基于对苏州话韵律结构的分析，本文以优选论为框架从理论上统一解释苏州话的连续变调。首先忠实性制约条件“禁止删除强音节单字调和“禁止强音节单字调变化 解释了首音节尽量保留原调的变调行为。其次，“禁止复杂仄调“，“禁止升调“和“禁止弱音节负载仄调这些简约性制约条件解释了现今苏州话连读变调模式中不允许出现复杂仄调，升调和非首音节仄调的现象。再次，“尾音节连接低调解释了连读变调后韵律词尾音节所负载的低平调。
本文通过对音译词和复合词的分类考察，补充了前人对苏州话连读变调现象的描述。而且在以往理论研究的基础上，本文论证了苏州话的连读变调是由它的韵律结构所决定的，由此补足了苏州话变调现象的理论解释。最后，本文对苏州话的分析也进一步印证了韵律结构的层级关系和韵律单位是人类语言所共有的，但韵律单位的构建在不同语言中则各有不同。
This thesis presents an optimality-theoretic account of Suzhou tone sandhi from a prosodic perspective. By investigating transliterations and compounds, we find a three-way distinction of tone sandhi behavior within a tone sandhi domain: (i) the initial syllable has the ability to retain its citation tone; (ii) the second syllable carries a sandhi level tone related to the citation tone in the initial syllable; and (iii) the remaining syllables carry a low level tone.
Focusing on the tone sandhi patterns with initial long tones, we answer the following research questions: (i) what determines the existence of a three-way distinction of tone sandhi behavior, rather than a two-way or four-way one? (ii) what determines the tone stability and the greater tone-bearing ability of the initial syllable? and (iii) how are the sandhi tones in the non-initial syllables determined?
The tone sandhi domain in Suzhou Chinese is identified as the prosodic word, which contains a single left-headed binary foot and unfooted syllables. The three-way distinction is then captured by the three prosodic states in a prosodic word: (i) the strong syllable in the left-headed binary foot within the prosodic word, (ii) the weak syllable in this foot, and (iii) the syllables which are unfooted and immediately dominated by the prosodic word.
Based on the analysis of Suzhou prosodic structure, our account of Suzhou tone sandhi is formulated within the framework of Optimality Theory. First, ranking the positional faithfulness constraints with reference to strong syllables higher than the context-free faithfulness constraints guarantees the tone stability of the initial syllables. Second, the undominated markedness constraints which require no complex contour tone and no rising tone trigger contour tone reduction and tone redistribution. Another undominated markedness constraint which requires no contour tone in weak syllables ensures no contour tones in a weak syllable, i.e. a non-initial syllable in Suzhou Chinese. Third, the final low level tone in the sandhi patterns is determined by the markedness constraint which requires low tone assignment in the rightmost syllable of a prosodic word.
This thesis complements the descriptive studies on Suzhou tone sandhi, by adding the data of transliterations and investigating compounds according to the morphological relations. It also confirms the idea in previous theoretical studies on Chinese languages that prosodic structure governs tone sandhi, including the tone stability in strong syllables and the greater tone-bearing ability of strong syllables. This thesis further corroborates the idea in Prosodic Phonology that the prosodic hierarchy and its constituent are universal, though the precise shape of the constituent are language-specific.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Shi, Xinyuan.
"November 2012."
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstracts also in Chinese.
ABSTRACT --- p.I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.I
Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- OVERVIEW --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- PRELIMINARY: PHONETIC INVENTORIES OF SUZHOU CHINESE --- p.2
Chapter 1.3 --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: OPTIMALITY THEORY --- p.6
Chapter 1.3.1 --- Basic principles --- p.6
Chapter 1.3.2 --- Conflicts between markedness and faithfulness --- p.9
Chapter 1.3.3 --- Alignment constraints --- p.9
Chapter 1.4 --- ORGANIZATION --- p.10
Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- INVESTIGATION OF TONE SANDHI PATTERNS IN SUZHOU CHINESE --- p.11
Chapter 2.1 --- DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES ON TONAL PHONOLOGY OF SUZHOU CHINESE --- p.11
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Citation tones --- p.11
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Tone sandhi --- p.15
Chapter 2.1.3 --- Interim summary --- p.21
Chapter 2.2 --- TONE SANDHI PATTERNS IN SUZHOU CHINESE: THE CURRENT INVESTIGATION . --- p.22
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Tone sandhi patterns in transliterations --- p.22
Chapter 2.2.1.1 --- Tone sandhi patterns beginning with long tones --- p.23
Chapter 2.2.1.2 --- Tone sandhi patterns beginning with short tones --- p.28
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Tone sandhi patterns in compounds --- p.32
Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Tone sandhi patterns in compounds I: modification --- p.34
Chapter 2.2.2.2 --- Tone sandhi patterns in compounds II: coordination --- p.38
Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- Tone sandhi patterns in compounds III: other morphological relations --- p.40
Chapter 2.2.2.4 --- Intra-variations in disyllabic compounds: [HL.L]~[HL.H] --- p.42
Chapter 2.2.2.5 --- Inter-speaker variations in compounds: [LL.H]~[LH.H] --- p.44
Chapter 2.2.2.6 --- Tone sandhi in a group of frequently used compounds --- p.46
Chapter 2.2.3 --- Tone sandhi in fast tempo --- p.50
Chapter 2.3 --- SUMMARY --- p.53
Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- PREVIOUS STUDIES OF TONE SANDHI IN CHINESE LANGUAGES --- p.57
Chapter 3.1 --- STUDIES OF THE REPRESENTATION OF TONE WITHIN THE SPE FRAMEWORK --- p.57
Chapter 3.1.1 --- Wang’s (1967) ground-breaking proposal of tone features --- p.58
Chapter 3.1.2 --- Woo’s (1969) proposal of decomposing contour tones --- p.59
Chapter 3.1.3 --- Yip’s (1980) proposal of two pitch heights in each register --- p.61
Chapter 3.1.4 --- Interim summary --- p.63
Chapter 3.2 --- STUDIES OF TONE SANDHI IN NORTHERN WU WITHIN THE METRICAL-AUTOSEGMENTAL FRAMEWORK --- p.64
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Duanmu’s (1990) moraic analysis of tone re-association in New Shanghai --- p.65
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Ao’s (1993) identification of tone sandhi domain in Nantong Chinese --- p.66
Chapter 3.2.3 --- Interim summary --- p.69
Chapter 3.3 --- STUDIES OF TONAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN OT FRAMEWORK --- p.71
Chapter 3.3.1 --- Jiang-King’s (1996) tone-syllable weight correlation in Northern Min --- p.71
Chapter 3.3.2 --- Zhang’s (2001) tone-duration correlation in typological survey --- p.73
Chapter 3.3.3 --- Interim summary --- p.74
Chapter 3.4 --- SUMMARY --- p.76
Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- AN OPTIMALITY THEORETICAL ACCOUNT OF TONE SANDHI IN SUZHOU CHINESE --- p.77
Chapter 4.1 --- IDENTIFYING THE TONE SANDHI DOMAIN --- p.78
Chapter 4.1.1 --- Identifying prosodic word as the tone sandhi domain --- p.78
Chapter 4.1.1.1 --- Brief introduction of the prosodic hierarchy --- p.78
Chapter 4.1.1.2 --- Prosodic categories relevant to Suzhou tone sandhi --- p.80
Chapter 4.1.1.3 --- Construction of prosodic word in Suzhou Chinese --- p.82
Chapter 4.1.2 --- Identifying morpho-syntactic unit as the tone sandhi domain --- p.86
Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- Inadequacy of identifying morphological unit as the tone sandhi domain --- p.89
Chapter 4.1.2.2 --- The relation between tone sandhi domains and morphological units --- p.91
Chapter 4.1.2.3 --- Mismatch between tone sandhi domain and syntactic unit --- p.93
Chapter 4.1.3 --- Interim summary --- p.95
Chapter 4.2 --- CONSTRAINTS ON SUZHOU TONE SANDHI PATTERNS --- p.96
Chapter 4.2.1 --- Constraints on the structure of the prosodic word --- p.96
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Constraints on tone retention --- p.99
Chapter 4.2.3 --- Constraints on contour tone prohibition --- p.101
Chapter 4.2.4 --- Constraint on tonal assignment --- p.102
Chapter 4.3 --- PREDICTING TONE SANDHI PATTERNS BY CONSTRAINT RANKING --- p.104
Chapter 4.3.1 --- Predicting tone sandhi patterns in transliterations --- p.104
Chapter 4.3.2 --- Predicting tone sandhi patterns in compounds --- p.110
Chapter 4.3.2.1 --- Intra-speaker variations in compounds: [HL.L]~[HL.H] --- p.110
Chapter 4.3.2.3 --- Inter-speaker variations in compounds: [LL.H]~[LH.L] --- p.113
Chapter 4.3.2.4 --- Tone sandhi in fast speech tempo --- p.117
Chapter 4.4 --- SUMMARY --- p.119
Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- CONCLUSION --- p.120
LIST OF REFERENCES --- p.125

This thesis describes tone and tone sandhi in the Lishui {u4E3D}{u6C34} variety of Wu Chinese from the Chuqu {u5904}{u8862} subgroup in southern Zhejiang, using data from three speakers. The description is both auditory and (normalised-) acoustic, and includes also a derivational account of the tonology, and a description of Lishui segmental phonology and common lexicon. Descriptions are given for citation tones and disyllabic lexical tone sandhi. The results show that, according to Chao's (1928) synchronic typology of Wu, Lishui does not have a typically Wu phonology. Segmentally, Lishui lacks the diagnostic three-way distinction between syllable-initial stops and affricates, distinguishing only +/-aspirated obstruents (with the -aspirated obstruents showing free variation in voicing). Like the Northern Min dialects to its south, its tone sandhi is right-focussed: word-final tones are realised mostly the same as in isolation (although there are some changes), but non-word-final tones have different realisations determined by their input tone and the following tone. Lishui has seven citation tones: mid dipping [324], high and low falling-level [433], [211], high falling [52], low convex [342], and high [5] and low [23] stopped tones. The normalised tonal acoustics show that citation realisations are consistent between speakers. Although the realisation of tones on non-word-final syllables is also shown by normalisation to be mostly consistent between speakers, considerable between-speaker variation is demonstrated in the incidence of these realisations. One of the interesting findings is that the number of realisations on non-word-final syllables, although representing neutralisation of citation contrasts, is often greater than found in citation tones. Moreover, there are very few instances of phonetically motivated sandhi changes, and the changes are usually better expressed in terms of abstract categories which relate to Middle Chinese tonal categories. It is shown that, as a result, a derivational account of the non-word-final tonal realisations is messy. The between-speaker variation in tone sandhi suggests that Lishui tone sandhi is changing quickly.

The thesis investigates how native language phonological and phonetic factors affect non-native lexical tone perception and imitation, and how cognitive factors, such as memory load and stimulus variability (talker and vowel context variability), bias listeners to a phonological versus phonetic mode of perception/imitation. Two perceptual experiments and one imitation experiment were conducted with Thai tones as the stimuli and with Mandarin and Vietnamese listeners, who had no experience with Thai (i.e., naive listeners/imitators). The results of the perceptual experiments (Chapters 5 and 6) showed phonological effects as reflected in assimilation types (Categorised vs. UnCategorised assimilation) and phonetic effects indicated by percent choice and goodness ratings in tone assimilation, largely in line with predictions based on the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM: Best, 1995). In addition, phonological assimilation types and phonological overlap of the contrasts affected their discrimination in line with predictions based on PAM. The thesis research has revealed the influence of cognitive factors on native language influences in perception and imitation of non-native lexical tones, which contribute differently to different tasks. The findings carry implications for current non-native speech perception theories. The fact that non-native tone imitation deviations can be traced back to native phonological and phonetic influences on perception supports and provides new insights about perception-production links in processing non-native tones. The findings uphold the extrapolation of PAM and ASP principles to non-native tone perception and imitation, indicating that both native language phonological and phonetic influences and their modulation by cognitive factors hold implications for non-native speech perception/learning theories, as well as for second language instruction.

Language learning becomes increasingly difficult when novel linguistic features are introduced. Studies have shown that learners from various language backgrounds can be trained to perceive lexical tone, which assigns meaning to words using variations in pitch. In this thesis, we investigated whether native speakers of tonal Mandarin Chinese and tonal Vietnamese outperformed native speakers of nontonal English when learning Hakka Chinese tones following five sessions of tone training, and whether the complexity (i.e., density) of a listener’s native tone inventory facilitated nonnative tone learning. All groups improved in tone identification and tone word learning following training, with improvements persisting three weeks following the cessation of training. Although both tonal groups outperformed the English group in most tasks, the Mandarin group showed the most consistent advantages over the English group across tasks. Findings suggest that tone experience bolsters tone learning, but density of the tone inventory does not provide an advantage. Confusion patterns offer detailed insight of the interaction between nonnative tones and native tonal and intonational categories.

Hearing aids increase the amount of speech perceived by the listener by amplifying the speech signal using a prescription that takes into account the type of hearing loss, and the frequency importance function (FIF) for the listeners’ language. An FIF describes how each frequency band contributes to speech intelligibility and is a reflection of the structure of the input language. Therefore, for Mandarin, the FIF may be affected not just by its phonemic structure, but also by the inclusion of low-frequency lexical tone. To date, most FIFs have been developed for English language background listeners. This project aims to fill a knowledge gap by providing a systematic evaluation of how the language features of Mandarin Chinese contribute to FIF for hearing aid prescription. Hence, this project uses series of speech recognition scores to develop Mandarin FIFs to examine weightings for lexical tone, phonetic content in words, and sentences, together with other functions to determine how the language factor (Mandarin Chinese) affects the estimation of speech intelligibility index (SII). Speech stimuli were recorded by a male broadcaster using monosyllabic words from Mandarin Speech Test Materials (MSTMs) and ten-word sentences from the Chinese Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (CHINT). The speech was passed through a broadband digital filter to separate the speech signal into high- and low-pass conditions for discrete frequency bands (141, 224, 355, 562, 891, 1413, 2239, 3548, 5623, and 8913 Hz) and speech noise added to create 9 conditions for words and 7 conditions for sentences signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs: 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, 0, -3,-6,-9 dB). In the speech recognition test, normal hearing Mandarin speaking participants were asked to orally repeat words and sentences; and in the word session, to indicate the tone used on the screen. These data are used to determine performance intensity functions, the FIFs of tones, segments, words, and sentences. Lastly, the derived FIFs were incorporated with the published Long Term Average Speech Spectrum (LTASS) to evaluate SII transfer functions. Results of this project suggest that language specific inventories of phonemes and tones, in addition to context and redundancy effects, influence performance intensity functions, CFs, FIFs and TF slopes in Mandarin. The Mandarin CFs for the four speech types are remarkably similar for words (1807 Hz) and segments (1813 Hz), but lower for sentences (1570 Hz) and tones (743 Hz). FIF data showed a primary peak centered at ~1800 Hz and secondary peak at ~112 Hz for word and sentence materials. The Mandarin TFs indicate that tones, with high redundancy had the steepest slope, followed by sentences, then by words and segments, which both having similar shallow slopes. This study is the first tonal language study to separate the effects of words, segments and tones on performance intensity functions, FIFs, and TFs. The reported findings provide important new directions for developing hearing aid prescriptions for tonal language speakers, but specifically for Mandarin Chinese.

古止攝元音[i]演變為舌尖前高元音[]是中古以來漢語語音一項重大演變，學界一般稱之為「舌尖化」現象。迄今為止，對其演變過程，尤其是對[i]音變後音值的考察尚少見到。
本文據實地調查觀察發現：惠陽淡水客家話止攝開口三等[i]元音正處於演變的過程中：老派基本不變，中派開始發生變化，新派完成部分音變；[i]音變的條件為與音、零聲母相拼；音變的過程先從音開始，再擴至零聲母。通過實驗語音學的分析，本文發現惠陽淡水客家話[i]音變後的音值不是一般漢語方言記錄中的[]，而是[]；[i]不是「前化」、「高化」或「舌尖化」，而是「央化」；[i]與零聲母相拼發生音變，更會衍生濁擦音[z]。這種音變以「詞匯擴散」的方式傳播，並與年齡、性別這兩項社會因素有密切關係。
在上述淡水客家話[i]音變後之音值性質分析基礎上，再根據《普通話水平測試實施綱要》内之音檔，考察普通話中「」的音值。經過實驗分析後，本文認爲普通話的「」其實就是[]。漢語看似無[]，但[]只是被「」這層假象覆蓋住。
希望本文上述的觀察研究能為漢語方言中古止攝元音[i]的歷史演變研究提供一種全新的思考和假設。
The sound change of vowel [i] to [] of Zhi-Group 止攝 has been an important issue in Chinese phonetics since medieval times, which is commonly called "apicalization" by the academia. Up to now, there are very few studies on the process of the sound change of [i], especially the exact phonetic value of [i] after sound change, can be found.
According to the results of our field work, [i] of Division III 三等, Open Mouth of Zhi-Group 止攝開口 is undergoing sound change in the Hakka Dialect in Danshui, Huiyang. The phonetic value of [i] basically does not change among the members of the old generation, but changing among the members of the middle generation and has changed among the members of the new generation. The phonetic valueof [i] changes when it combines with sibilants and silent initial. The process of sound change starts from sibilants and followed by silent initial. With the analysis of Experimental Phonetics, we find that the exact phonetic value of [i] after sound changeis not []. Even [] is found in many Chinese dialect records, the exact phonetic value should be []. The nature of the sound change of [i] is not "fronting", "raising" nor "apicalized", it should be "centralized". Under the influence of sound change, when [i] is syllabic, voiced alveolar fricative [z] will be produced. The sound change of [i] is spreading by the process of "lexical diffusion" and is closely related to the social factors of age and gender.
We will also examine the exact phonetic value of "" in Putonghua according to Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi Shishi Gangyao 《普通話水平測試綱要》. After experimental analysis, we find that "" should be [] instead. Actually [] exists in Chinese, but it is "covered" by "".
Hope our findings can provide the stuides on the historial change of [i] of Zhi-Group in Chinese dialects with a different thinking angle and a whole new htpothesis.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
黃韻瑜.
Thesis (M.Phil.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-100).
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Huang Yunyu.

by Yam Pui Suen, Josephine.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-102).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Acknowledgement --- p.iii
Abstract --- p.iv
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Second language phonological acquisition --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- The application of Optimality Theory --- p.3
Chapter 1.3 --- Objectives --- p.5
Chapter 1.4 --- Research issues --- p.7
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Second Language Acquisition --- p.9
Chapter 2.1 --- Interlanguage --- p.9
Chapter 2.2 --- Studies in second language acquisition: language transfer and developmental factors --- p.10
Chapter 2.3 --- Studies on the effects of language transfer on second language phonology --- p.12
Chapter 2.4 --- Studies on the effects of developmental factors on second language phonology --- p.14
Chapter 2.4.1 --- Markedness Differential Hypothesis --- p.15
Chapter 2.4.2 --- Marked Cluster Constraints --- p.15
Chapter 2.4.3 --- Interlanguage Structure Conformity Hypothesis --- p.17
Chapter 2.5 --- The Critical Period Hypothesis --- p.19
Chapter 2.6 --- The age factor in first language acquisition --- p.21
Chapter 2.7 --- The age factor in second language acquisition --- p.22
Chapter 2.7.1 --- Supporting evidence in phonological research --- p.23
Chapter 2.7.2 --- Counter evidence in phonological research --- p.24
Chapter 2.7.3 --- Summary --- p.26
Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Theoretical Framework of Optimality Theory --- p.28
Chapter 3.1 --- Transformational Grammar and Optimality Theory --- p.28
Chapter 3.2 --- Optimality Theory --- p.30
Chapter 3.3 --- Constraints under Optimality Theory --- p.34
Chapter 3.4 --- Optimality Theory and second language acquisition studies --- p.36
Chapter Chapter 4 --- "The syllable structure of English, Mandarin and Cantonese" --- p.41
Chapter 4.1 --- The syllable structure of English --- p.42
Chapter 4.2 --- The syllable structure of Mandarin --- p.44
Chapter 4.3 --- The syllable structure of Cantonese --- p.45
Chapter 4.4 --- "Constraints in coda position of English, Mandarin and Cantonese" --- p.49
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Methodology and Findings --- p.51
Chapter 5.1 --- Methodology --- p.51
Chapter 5.1.1 --- The subjects --- p.51
Chapter 5.1.2 --- Material for data collection --- p.54
Chapter 5.1.3 --- Procedures --- p.56
Chapter 5.2 --- Findings --- p.57
Chapter 5.2.1 --- Young Mandarin and Cantonese learners --- p.58
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Adult Mandarin and Cantonese learners --- p.66
Chapter 5.2.3 --- Summary of the Mandarin and Cantonese learners' production --- p.72
Chapter Chapter 6 --- Discussion and Conclusion --- p.75
Chapter 6.1 --- Constraint ranking --- p.76
Chapter 6.2 --- Epenthesis and unreleased plosive: words with singleton coda --- p.79
Chapter 6.3 --- Epenthesis and unreleased plosive: words with biliteral coda --- p.81
Chapter 6.3.1 --- Nasal-Plosive' coda --- p.81
Chapter 6.3.2 --- Plosive-plosive' coda --- p.83
Chapter 6.4 --- Standard pronunciation --- p.89
Chapter 6.5 --- The age factor --- p.91
Chapter 6.6 --- Conclusion --- p.93
Chapter 6.7 --- Future research --- p.95
References --- p.96
Appendix

by Lau Chi Ching, Donny.
Thesis (M.Sc.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves [71]).
Chapter 1. --- Introduction
Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Comparison of Phonetic and Written Character Input --- p.2
Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of Phonetic Input --- p.4
Chapter 1.4 --- Drawbacks of Current Phonetic Input Methods --- p.4
Chapter 2. --- Objectives of the Research
Chapter 2.1 --- Main Objectives --- p.6
Chapter 2.2 --- User Background Pre-requisite --- p.8
Chapter 2.3 --- Roman-Spelling (Recommended Phonetic Scheme) --- p.9
Chapter 2.4 --- User Input and the Output Scenario --- p.10
Chapter 2.5 --- Outline of Free-Style Phonetic Input Processing --- p.15
Chapter 3. --- Lexical Analyser
Chapter 3.1 --- Overview of Lexical Analyser --- p.17
Chapter 3.2 --- Identification of Character Boundary --- p.19
Chapter 3.3 --- Lexical Tree --- p.20
Chapter 4. --- Selection Module
Chapter 4.1 --- Overview of Selection Module --- p.23
Chapter 4.2 --- Fault-tolerance Capability --- p.24
Chapter 4.3 --- Group Table (Groups of Similar Sounds) --- p.26
Chapter 4.4 --- Distance Calculation Algorithm --- p.30
Chapter 4.4.1 --- Character Dictionary --- p.31
Chapter 4.4.2 --- Phrase Dictionary --- p.33
Chapter 4.4.3 --- Hashing Key of the Dictionaries --- p.35
Chapter 4.4.4 --- Maintenance of Dictionaries --- p.36
Chapter 4.4.5 --- Distance Calculation of Character Input --- p.37
Chapter 4.4.5.1 --- Examples of Character Output --- p.39
Chapter 4.4.6 --- Distance Calculation of Phrase Input --- p.40
Chapter 4.4.6.1 --- Examples of Phrase Output --- p.44
Chapter 4.4.7 --- Explanation of Algorithm --- p.45
Chapter 5. --- Syntax Analyser
Chapter 5.1 --- Overview of Syntax Analyser --- p.46
Chapter 5.2 --- Overview of a Chinese Simple Sentence --- p.47
Chapter 5.3 --- Testing Simple Sentence Rules --- p.48
Chapter 5.3.1 --- NDFA for Chinese Grammar Rules --- p.49
Chapter 5.4 --- Syntax Analysis Algorithm --- p.51
Chapter 5.4.1 --- Explanation of Algorithm --- p.52
Chapter 5.4.2 --- Justification of Algorithm --- p.54
Chapter 5.4.3 --- Examples of Syntax Analysis --- p.55
Chapter 5.5 --- Parse Tree for Semantic Analysis --- p.59
Chapter 6. --- Division of Technical Work --- p.61
Chapter 7. --- Applied Areas of the Research
Chapter 7.1 --- Chinese User Interface with Operating System --- p.63
Chapter 7.2 --- Bilingual Programming Language Editor --- p.64
Chapter 7.3 --- Development of a Chinese Programming Language --- p.66
Chapter 7.4 --- Putonghua Training --- p.67
Chapter 8. --- Conclusions and Future Improvements
Chapter 8.1 --- Conclusions --- p.68
Chapter 8.2 --- Future Improvements --- p.69
References
Appendix A

碩士
國立新竹教育大學
幼兒教育學系碩士班
102
The purpose of this study is to investigate how a kindergarten teacher improved her Chinese phonetic symbol teaching through action research, in which she tried to integrate the whole language philosophy into classroom practices with continuous reflection, implementation and revision of her instructional strategies. Two research questions were raised: 1. What whole language strategies and activities did the teacher adopt in Chinese phonetic symbol teaching? 2. What difficulties or challenges did the teacher encounter during the implementation of the whole language strategies and activities? How did she cope with the difficulties? This study was conducted at a kindergarten classroom in a public elementary school located in northern Taiwan. There were 28 children with two teachers and a caregiver in the class. Based on literature review and her prior teaching experiences, the researcher developed a set of Chinese phonetic symbol teaching strategies, which she gradually revised and improved as the research proceeded. While implementing the strategies, the researcher collected data through observations, interviews, and documentations to explore the effects of those activities on young children. Nine major instructional strategies were identified: (1) to integrate curriculum through thematic teaching; (2) to enhance learning functions of the materials in the language arts center; (3) to strengthen classroom routines with written texts; (4) to provide abundant environmental prints in the classroom; (5) to facilitate children’s Phonological awareness with nursery rhymes, poems, and phonemic games; (6) to enrich children’s experience with text with picture books; (7) to utilize the information technology as teaching aids; (8) to adopt the phonetic alphabet games as major part of the pedagogy; (9) to implement authentic assessment. The study also found that not a single strategy that can have an impact on children's learning, but a variety of strategies applied and intertwined to achieve positive learning effects. The impact on children's learning generated as follows: (1) children apply writing skills in diverse contexts; (2) children’s sensitivity of phonetic symbols are enhanced; (3) children demonstrate strong motivation to learn phonetic symbols; (4) children’s phonological awareness is promoted; (5) the disadvantaged children show observable improvement in learning; (6) there are apparent cases of transferring in children's learning. The difficulties or challenges the teacher encountered include: (1) the teacher’s understanding of the whole language philosophy; (2) the children’s insensitivity to environmental prints; (3) the huge individual differences among children.; (4) the uncertainty of learning assessment; (5) the difficulties in maintenance of information software and digital equipment.; (6) the discrepancy between the teaching partners.