The use of tonal coarticulation cues in Cantonese spoken word recognition

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that listeners may use segmental coarticulation cues to facilitate spoken word recognition. Based on existing production studies which showed a pre-low raising effect in Cantonese tonal coarticulation, this study used a word identification task to investigate whether the tonal coarticulatory cue, carried by high-level and rising tones, was used when native listeners recognized pre-low and pre-high disyllabic words. The finding indicated that the listeners may rely on F0 of the rising tone to resolve lexical competition when hearing pre-high words. However, it did not provide evidence supporting the use of pre-low raising cue in spoken word recognition.