Production and perception of the two dipping tones (Tone 2 and Tone 3) in Taiwan Mandarin

This study examined the two most similar tones in Taiwan Mandarin - Tone 2 (T2) and Tone 3 (T3). Experiment I showed that both tones had dipping contours and occupied about the same mid-low pitch range. The only reliable difference lay in slope. T3 had consistently steeper slopes in both the falling and rising portions than those of T2. In Experiment II, a perception test of extracted portions from T2 and T3 showed that falling contours sounded more T3-Iike whereas rising contours more T2-like, regardless of which source tone an extraction was taken from. In Experiment III, a manipulation of slope and initial pitch showed that a falling slope with steepness between -.30 Hz/ms and -.40 Hz/ms and low initial pitch (190 Hz) fell in the optimal range for T3 but no such range was found for T2, although shallower slopes (-.20 Hz/ms and -.10 Hz/ms) and higher initial pitch (210 Hz) did elicit more T2 responses. Experiment IV, a speeded tonal recognition task, showed that as a result of different placements of critical information of the two tones, T3 was recognized faster than T2.

本研究目的在於檢視台灣地區國語中，兩個非常相似的語調―二聲與三聲。實驗一之結果顯示，此二語調皆呈現抑揚調之調型，並且佔有相似之中低音閾。二者唯一在統計上有效的差異為斜度。三聲無論是在抑或揚的部分，斜度皆比二聲為陡。實驗二中，由二聲與三聲取出部分調型，對於受試者進行聲調聽辨。結果發現，部分調型無論原本由何聲調中取出，抑調較符合聽者對於三聲的認知，而揚調則較符合聽者對於二聲的認知。實驗三中，我們將抑調予以調整，用以檢測斜度與初始音高對於聲調辨識的影響。結果顯示，當下降斜度在 -.30 赫茲/微秒與-.40 赫茲/微秒之間，且初始音高較低（190赫茲）時，頗能引發聽者三聲的反應。但聽者對二聲的認知卻極難在抑調中出現。不過，若抑調斜度較緩（-20 赫茲/微秒及-10 赫茲/微秒），且初始音高較高（210赫茲）時，聽者會有較多二聲之反應。實驗四為一快速聲調聽辨測試，結果顯示，由於二聲與三聲對於重要辨識資訊存放位置有異，三聲辨識速度較二聲為快。 Copyright © 2004 Journal of Chinese Linguistics.