Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T12:25:34.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Estimation of vocal tract steadiness in speakers of Mandarin-accented English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Yang Chen
Yang Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Duquesne [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Vocal tract steadiness reflected by measurement of fluctuation of the second formant frequency is reported for vowel production of Mandarin-accented English (MAE). Fluctuations of the second formant frequency for the 11 English vowels (/i ɪ e ɛ æ ʌ u ʊ o ɔ ɑ/) were examined in the syllable-level productions of 40 Mandarin speakers compared to 40 American English (AE) speakers. Results of the comparative analysis indicate that the pattern of vocal tract steadiness of MAE speakers is generally different in comparison to AE speakers. The discrepancy of vocal tract steadiness between MAE and AE speakers are interpreted as the probable outcome of brain reorganization in adult L2 learning. In addition, discussions of likely gender dimorphism in brain reorganization in L2 learning are provided in view of the opposite patterns of vocal tract steadiness demonstrated by MAE females and males, in comparison to their AE counterparts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , August 2009 , pp. 189 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bhatnagar, Subhash C. 2002. Neuroscience for the study of communicative disorders, 2nd edn. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Byrd, Dani. 1994. Relation of sex and dialect to reduction. Speech Communication 15, 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callan, Daniel E., Tajima, Keiichi, Callan, Akiko M., Kubo, Rieko, Masaki, Shinobu & Akahane-Yamada, Reiko. 2003. Learning-induced neural plasticity associated with improved identification performance after training of a difficult second-language phonetic contrast. NeuroImage 19, 113–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cannito, Michael P. 1989. Vocal tract steadiness in spasmodic dysphonia. In Yorkston, Kathryn M. & Beukelman, David R. (eds.), Recent advances in clinical dysarthria. Boston, MA: College Hill Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Yang & Robb, Michael. 2005. Quantitative measurement of vowel space in Mandarin accented English. The Canterbury Conference on Communication Disorders, Christchurch, University of Canterbury, 6–9.Google Scholar
Chen, Yang, Robb, Michael, Gilbert, Harvey & Lerman, Jay. 2001a. Vowel production by Mandarin speakers of English. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 13, 1–14.Google Scholar
Chen, Yang, Robb, Michael, Gilbert, Harvey & Lerman, Jay. 2001b. A study of sentence stress production in Mandarin speakers of American English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 109, 1681–1689.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheng, Li-Rong L. 1987. Assessing Asian language performance: Guidelines for evaluating limited-English-proficient students. Rockville, MD: Aspen Publishers.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny. 2002. Sex and gender in variationist research. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, Peter & Chilling-Estes, Natalie (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change, 423–443. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Clark, John & Yallop, Colin. 1995. An introduction to phonetics and phonology, 2nd edn. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Desmond, John E. & Fiez, Julie A.. 1998. Neuroimaging studies of the cerebellum: Language, learning and memory. Trends in Cognitive Science 9, 355–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eady, Stephen J. 1982. Differences in the F0 patterns of speech: Tone language versus stress language. Language and Speech 25, 29–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esling, John H. 2005. There are no back vowels: The laryngeal articulator model. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 50, 13–44.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, Grant. 1940. Voice and articulation drillbook. New York: Harper &Brothers.Google Scholar
Flege, James. 1995. Second language speech learning: Theory, findings and problems. In Strange, Winifred (ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues, 233–277. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Flege, James, Bohn, Ocke-Schwen & Jang, Sunyoung. 1997. Effects of experience on non-native speakers’ production and perception of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics 25, 437–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flege, James & Davidian, Richard. 1984. Transfer and developmental processes in adult foreign language speech production. Applied Psycholinguistics 5, 323–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flege, James, Munro, Murray & MacKay, Ian. 1995. Effects of age of second-language learning on the production of English consonants. Speech Communication 16 (1), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, Susanne & Perrier, Pascal. 2005. On the complex nature of speech kinematics. ZAS Papers in Linguistics 42, 137–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaillard, William, Hertz-Pannier, Lucie, Mott, Stephen H., Barnett, Alan S., LeBihan, Denis & Theodore, William H.. 2000. Functional anatomy of cognitive development: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults. Neurology 54, 180–185.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gao, Man & Esling, John H.. 2003. Articulatory features of tones in whispered Chinese. 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona, 2629–2632.Google Scholar
Gerratt, Bruce. 1983. Formant frequency fluctuation as an index of motor steadiness in the vocal tract. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 26, 297–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gur, Ruben, Turetsky, Bruce, Matsui, Mie, Yan, Michelle, Bilker, Warren, Hughett, Paul & Gur, Raquel. 1999. Sex differences in brain gray and white matter in healthy young adults: Correlations with cognitive performance. Journal of Neuroscience 19 (10), 4065–4072.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hillenbrand, James, Getty, Laura, Clark, Michael & Wheeler, Kimberlee. 1995. Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 97, 3099–3111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Honda, Kiyoshi. 1983. Relationship between pitch control and vowel articulation. In Bless, Diane M. & Abbs, James H. (eds.), Vocal fold physiology: Contemporary issues for Katherine Safford Harris, 215–232. New York: American Institute of Physics.Google Scholar
Howie, John. 1976. Acoustical studies of Mandarin vowels and tones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jacqueline & Newport, Elissa. 1991. Critical period effects on universal properties of language: The status of subsequence in the acquisition of a second language. Cognition 39, 215–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlgren, Bernhard. 1915–1926. Etudes sur la phonologie chinoise. Leyden & Stockholm: E.-J. Brill.Google Scholar
Kent, Raymond & Tjaden, Kris. 1997. Brian functions underlying speech. In Hardcastle, William J. & Lavers, John (eds.), Handbook of the phonetic sciences, 220–255. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kreiman, Jody, Gerratt, Bruce, Kempster, Gail, Erman, Adrew & Berke, Gerald. 1993. Perceptual evaluation of voice quality: Review, tutorial, and a framework for future research. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36, 21–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulynych, Jennifer, Vladar, Katalin, Jones, Douglas & Weinberger, Daniel. 1994. Gender differences in the normal lateralization of the supratemporal cortex: MRI surface-rendering morphometry of Heschl's gyrus and the Planum temporale. Cerebral Cortex 4 (2), 107–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langdon, Henriette. 1999. Foreign accent: Implications for delivery of speech and language services. Topics in Language Disorders 19, 49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Wai-Sum & Zee, Eric. 2003. Illustrations of the IPA: Standard Chinese (Beijing). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1), 109–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenneberg, Eric. 1967. Biological foundations of language. New York: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindblom, Björn. 1962. Accuracy and limitations of sona-graph measurements. 4th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Helsinki, 188–202. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Björn. 1963. Spectrographic study of vowel reduction. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 35, 1773–1781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loveday, Leo. 1981. Pitch, politeness and sexual role: An exploratory investigation into the pitch correlates of English and Japanese politeness formulae. Language and Speech 24, 71–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, Robert. 1997. Perceptual foreign accent: L2 users’ comprehension ability. In Leather, Jonathan & James, Allen (eds.), Second-language speech. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
McAllister, Robert, Flege, James & Piske, Thorsten. 2003. Second language comprehension: A discussion of some influencing factors. In Costamagna, Lidia & Giannini, Stefania (eds.), La fonologia dell'interlingua: Principi e metodi di analisi, 57–70. Milano: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
Minium, Edward. 1978. Statistical reasoning in psychology and education. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Monsen, Randall & Engebretson, A. Maynard. 1983. The accuracy of formant frequency measurements: A comparison of spectrographic analysis and linear prediction. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 26, 89–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Müller, Ulrich, Wächter, Tobias, Barthel, Henryk, Reuter, Mike & von Cramon, Detlev Y.. 2000. Striatal [1231] beta-CIT SPECT and prefrontal cognitive functions in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neural Transmission 107, 303–319.Google ScholarPubMed
Munro, Murray. 1995. Nonsegmental factors in foreign accent. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 17, 17–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öhman, Sven E. G. 1967. Numerical model of coarticulation. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 41, 310–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Okada, Fumihiko, Tolumitsu, Yukiko, Hoshi, Yoko & Tamura, Mamoru. 1993. Gender-related and handedness-related differences of forebrain oxygenation and hemodynamics. Brain Research 601 (1–2), 337–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulesu, Eraldo, Frith, Christopher & Frackowiak, Richard S.. 1993. The neural correlates of the verbal component of working memory. Nature 362, 342–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perani, Daniela, Paulesu, Eraldo, Galles, Nuria S., Dupoux, Emmanuel, Dehaene, Stanisla, Bettinardi, Valentino, Cappa, Stefano F., , Ferruccio Fazio & Mehler, Jacques. 1998. The bilingual brain: Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language. Brain 121, 1841–1852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perkell, Joseph. 1996. Properties of the tongue help to define vowel categories: Hypotheses based on physiologically-oriented modeling. Journal of Phonetics 24, 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkell, Joseph, Matthies, Melanie, Lane, Harlan, Guenther, Frank, Wilhelms-Tricarico, Reiner, Wozniak, Jane & Guiod, Peter. 1997. Speech motor control: Acoustic goals, saturation effects, auditory feedback and internal models. Speech Communication 22, 227–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkell, Joseph, Matthies, Melanie, Lane, Harlan, Svirsky, Mario A. & Jordan, Michael I.. 1995. Goal-based speech motor control: A theoretical framework and some preliminary data. Journal of Phonetics 23, 23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Gordon & Barney, Harold. 1952. Control methods used in a study of the vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 24, 175–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rihs, Frank, Gutbrod, Klemens, Gutbrod, Barbara, Steiger, Hans-Jakob, Sturzenegger, Matthias & Mattle, Heinrich. 1995. Determinatino of cognitive hemispheric dominance by ‘stereo’ transcranial Doppler sonography. Stroke 26, 70–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robb, Michael, Blomgren, Michael & Chen, Yang. (1998). Formant frequency fluctuation in stuttering and nonstuttering adults. Journal of Fluency Disorders 23, 73–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robb, Michael & Chen, Yang. 2008. Vowel space in Mandarin accented English. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing 11 (3), 175–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robb, Michael, Gilbert, Harvey & Lerman, Jay. 2005. Influence of gender and environmental setting on voice onset time. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 57, 125–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanguineti, Vittorio, Laboissière, Rafael & Ostry, David. 1998. A dynamic biomechanical model for neural control of speech production. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 103, 1615–1627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scovel, Tom. 1969. Foreign accents, language acquisition, and cerebral dominance. Language Learning 19 (3–4), 245–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scovel, Tom. 1989. A time to speak: A psycholinguistic inquiry into the critical period for human speech. Cambridge, MA: Newbury.Google Scholar
Simpson, Adrian P. 2001. Dynamic consequences of differences in male and female vocal tract dimensions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 109, 2153–2164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, Edward E. & Jonides, John. 1999. Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science 283, 1657–1661.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SPSS (Version 12). 2003. Chicago, IL: SPSS Inc.Google Scholar
Steinmetz, Helmuth, Staiger, Jochen, Schlaug, Gottfried, Huang, Yanxiong & Jäncke, Lutz. 1995. Corpus callosum and brain volume in women and men. NeuroReport 6, 1002–1004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strange, Winifred. 1995. Second language speech learning: Theory, findings and problems. In Strange, Winifred (ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research, 233–277. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Sydral, Ann & Gopal, H. S.. 1986. A perceptual model of vowel recognition based on the auditory representation of American English vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 79, 1086–1100.Google Scholar
Tan, Li H., Spinks, John A., Feng, Ching-Mei, Siok, Wai Ting, Perfetti, Charles A., Xiong, Jinhu, Fox, Peter T. & Gao, Jia-Hong. 2003. Neural systems of second language reading are shaped by native language. Human Brain Mapping 18, 158–166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tiee, Henry H. 1969. Contrastive analysis of the monosyllable structure of American English and Mandarin Chinese. Language Learning 19 (1–2), 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trépanier, Lisa L., Saint-Cyr, Jean A., Lozano, Andres M. & Lang, Anthony E.. 1998. Neuropsychological consequences of posteroventral pallidotomy for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Neurology 51, 207–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trubetzkoy, Nikolai S. 1969. Grundzüge der phonologie (Travaux du cercle linguistique de Prague 7). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [English translation by Christiane A. Baltaxe]Google Scholar
Whiteside, Sandra P. & Marshall, Jane. 2001. Developmental trends in voice onset time: Some evidence for sex differences. Phonetica 58, 196–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Witelson, Sandra F. 1976. Sex and the single hemisphere: Specialization of the right hemisphere for spatial processing. Science 193 (4251), 425–427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Witelson, Sandra F. 1989. Hand and sex differences in the isthmus and genu of the human corpus callosum: A postmortem morphological study. Brain 112, 799–835.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, Zongji. 1964. Pu tong hua yuan yin he fu yin de pin pu fen xi ji gong zheng feng de ce suan [The spectrographic analysis of the vowels and consonants in standard colloquial Chinese]. Shengxue Xuebao [Journal of Acoustics] 1, 34–40.Google Scholar
Zemlin, Willard R. 1998. Speech and hearing science: Anatomy and physiology, 4th edn. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Zwirner, Petra & Barnes, Gary J.. 1992. Vocal tract steadiness: A measure of phonatory and upper airway motor control during phonation in dysarthria. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 35, 761–768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed