Cross-language categorization of monosyllabic foreign tones: effects of phonological and phonetic properties of native language *

Abstract

This studyexaminedhow native language affected thecategorizationofforeign tonesinterms of thecatego-ries of theirp rosodicsystems.T hree typologically different languages(Fox2000; Yip2002)-H ongKong Cantonese (a syllable-timed tone language), Japanese (a mora-timed pitch-accented language), andEnglish (a stress timed language)-were selected as thet estedl anguages,a nd Mandarinw as thet argetl anguage. Native speakers of thethree languageswerenaïve to Mandarin at thetimeofthe study. Theircategorization patternsofthe four Mandarin toneswerecollected foranalysis. Theresults indicatedthatlisteners from the threed ifferent language backgrounds were able to categorize Mandarin tonesi nt erms of theirp rosodic categories, andt hatb othp honologicala nd phoneticp ropertieso fn ativel anguages affected thep erceptual categorizations of Mandarin tones. Thef indings supportt he newassumptionofPAM fors uprasegmentals (So&Best 2008, 2010b)t hatn on-native prosodicc ategories(e.g.,lexical tones) will be assimilatedt ot he categoriesoflisteners'nativeprosodicsystem(e.g.,tone, pitchaccent, andintonation).