LINGUIST List 20.564: Phonetics: Liu: 'Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: ...'

LINGUIST List 20.564

Mon Feb 23 2009

Diss: Phonetics: Liu: 'Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: ...'

Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter <evelynlinguistlist.org>

1. Fang Liu, Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: A functional approach

Message 1: Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: A functional approach
Date: 22-Feb-2009
From: Fang Liu <liufanguchicago.edu>
Subject: Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: A functional approach
E-mail this message to a friend

Institution: University of Chicago Program: Department of Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2009

Author: Fang Liu

Dissertation Title: Intonation Systems of Mandarin and English: A functional approach

Dissertation URL: http://home.uchicago.edu/~liufang/FangLiu_Dissertation3.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics
Subject Language(s): Chinese, Mandarin (cmn) English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Alan C. L. Yu Gina-Anne Levow John A. Goldsmith
Dissertation Abstract:

In the currently dominant autosegmental-metrical (AM) theory ofintonational phonology, intonational forms are derived from observedintonational contours without reference to their associated functions.Consequently, not only the categorical status of the resulting intonationalcomponents needs subsequent proof, but also the meaning of the intonationalcontours requires explanations outside the definition of the components. Inorder to counteract these problems and to better understand speechintonation, this dissertation investigates intonation systems of MandarinChinese and General American English through a functional approach -surface forms being analyzed through underlying linguistic functions.Specifically, the following theoretical issues are explored on theintonation of the two languages: 1) the functional domains of lexicaltone/stress, focus, and sentence type, 2) the role that focus plays indistinguishing sentence types, and 3) the interaction between lexicaltone/stress, focus, and sentence type.

Five experiments were conducted to address these issues. Experiments 1 and2 investigated whether focus and sentence type could be produced andperceived simultaneously in Mandarin, and if yes, how they would interferewith each other. Experiment 3 aimed to identify feature vectors that aremost effective in characterizing statements and yes/no questions inMandarin, where decision trees were implemented in the classification ofintonational contours. Experiments 4 and 5 examined whether focus andsentence type are realized differently through lexical items (tone vs. wordstress) in Mandarin and English, and how the results are explained by theParallel Encoding and Target Approximation (PENTA) model and the AM theoryof English intonation.

The main findings include: (1) statement/question intonation is realized inparallel with focus and lexical items that also use pitch for theirencoding in both languages, and (2) the similarities and differencesbetween Mandarin and English intonation are essentially caused by the waysentence type interacts with focus and lexical tone/stress in the twolanguages. These findings are in support of the functional view ofintonation, according to which components of intonation are defined andorganized by individual communicative functions that are independent ofeach other but are encoded in parallel.