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Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Quam, Carolyn, Creel, Sarah C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28076400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169001
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author Quam, Carolyn
Creel, Sarah C.
author_facet Quam, Carolyn
Creel, Sarah C.
author_sort Quam, Carolyn
collection PubMed
description Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.
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spelling pubmed-52268042017-01-31 Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context Quam, Carolyn Creel, Sarah C. PLoS One Research Article Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context. Public Library of Science 2017-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5226804/ /pubmed/28076400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169001 Text en © 2017 Quam, Creel http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Quam, Carolyn
Creel, Sarah C.
Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title_full Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title_fullStr Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title_full_unstemmed Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title_short Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context
title_sort mandarin-english bilinguals process lexical tones in newly learned words in accordance with the language context
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28076400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169001
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