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The developmental trajectories of attention distribution and segment-tone integration in Dutch learners of Mandarin tones*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2016

TING ZOU ,
YIYA CHEN  and
JOHANNEKE CASPERS
TING ZOU*
Affiliation:
Leiden University Center for Linguistics
YIYA CHEN
Affiliation:
Leiden University Center for Linguistics Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
JOHANNEKE CASPERS
Affiliation:
Leiden University Center for Linguistics Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
*
Address for correspondence: Ting Zou, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Postbus 9515, NL-2300 RA LeidenNetherlands, t.zou@hum.leidenuniv.nl
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Abstract

This study investigates how beginner and advanced Dutch learners of Mandarin process tonal information. An ABX task was adopted to investigate phonological discrimination of Mandarin tones and segment-tone integration in Dutch learners of Mandarin, with both native Mandarin and Dutch speakers (without tonal learning experience) as control groups. Results showed a developmental path in lexical tone processing. The beginner learners could not process tonal contrast adequately at the phonological level, and they processed segmental and tonal information separately, like native Dutch listeners without Mandarin experience. The advanced learners showed a good phonological discrimination of tonal contrasts. They showed a more native-like pattern in distributing their attention between segmental and tonal information, and they processed the two dimensions in an integrated manner, similar to native Mandarin listeners. This suggests that the acquisition of new tonal categories in L2 involves a redistribution of attention along perceptual dimensions and the development of segment-tone integration.

Keywords

lexical tone learningattention redistributionsegment-tone integrationDutch learners of Mandarin
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , November 2017 , pp. 1017 - 1029
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

1

For some African and Asian languages, tone can be used to signal grammatical information. In this paper, tone language refers to languages in which tones are solely used to convey lexical meaning.

*

We would like to thank the Chinese Scholarship Council for the scholarship to Ting Zou and the European Research Council for the ERC-Starting Grant (206198) to Yiya Chen. Many thanks to Prof. Vincent van Heuven, the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, and all the participants.

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