Online adjustment of phonetic expectation of lexical tones to accommodate speaker variation: a combined behavioural and ERP study
Zhang, C. (2018). Online adjustment of phonetic expectation of lexical tones to accommodate speaker variation: a combined behavioural and ERP study. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(2), 175-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2017.1376752
Abstract
An unresolved question in speech perception is how speech signals with speaker variation are mapped onto their perceptual representations. In this study, this issue was examined using a written-word/spoken-word matching paradigm, where listeners could adjust phonetic expectations of spoken words carrying lexical tones according to speaker-specific F0 cues contained in a preceding speech context, to analyse the tone of the incoming spoken word. Behavioural results showed that Cantonese listeners perceived spoken words differently, in a way compatible with the adjustment of F0 expectations of lexical tones to accommodate between- and within-speaker variation in F0. Electrophysiologically, effects of F0 expectation adjustment were found in the phonological mapping negativity (PMN) time-window (250–310 ms after spoken word onset). These results suggest that phonetic representations of lexical tones are adjustable in a speaker- and context-specific manner, with the adjustment occurring no later than pre-lexical phonemic processing. These findings are consistent with exemplar theory.
Link to publication in Taylor & Francis Online
