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Effects of acoustic and linguistic experience on Japanese pitch accent processing*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

XIANGHUA WU ,
SAYA KAWASE  and
YUE WANG
XIANGHUA WU*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
SAYA KAWASE
Affiliation:
University of Western Sydney, Australia
YUE WANG
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, Canada
*
Address for correspondence: Xianghua Wu, Department of East Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley, 3110 Dwinelle Hall, Berkeley, California 94720, U.S.A.xhwu@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

This study investigated the effects of L2 learning experience in relation to L1 background on hemispheric processing of Japanese pitch accent. Native Mandarin Chinese (tonal L1) and English (non-tonal L1) learners of Japanese were tested using dichotic listening. These listener groups were compared with those recruited in Wu, Tu & Wang (2012), including native Mandarin and English listeners without Japanese experience and native Japanese listeners. Results revealed an overall right-hemisphere preference across groups, suggesting acoustically oriented processing. Individual pitch accent patterns also revealed pattern-specific laterality differences, further reflecting acoustic-level processing. However, listener group differences indicated L1 effects, with the Chinese but not English listeners approximating the Japanese patterns. Furthermore, English learners but not naïve listeners exhibited a shift towards the native direction, revealing effects of L2 learning. These findings imply integrated effects of acoustic and linguistic aspects on Japanese pitch accent processing as a function of L1 and L2 experience.

Keywords

Japanese pitch accenthemispheric processinglinguistic and acoustic experience
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , November 2017 , pp. 931 - 946
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

Xianghua Wu and Yue Wang have made equal contributions to this paper. This research was conducted in the Language and Brain Lab at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and was funded by research grants to Yue Wang from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [NSERC Discovery Grants 312457-2006, 2011]. We thank Sam Gamble, Alison Kumpula, Chris Lightfoot, and Natalia Stratul from the SFU Language and Brain Lab for their assistance in stimuli development, data collection and analysis, and Jung-yueh Tu for her contributions to the first stage of this study. We also thank Drs. Alexander Francis, Kenneth de Jong, Allard Jongman, Joan Sereno, and Yuwen Lai for their valuable input at various stages of this project. Portions of this research were presented at the 164th Acoustical Society of America Meeting in Kansas City. Data from the naïve English and Chinese listeners as well as the native Japanese listeners have previously been reported in Wu, Tu, and Wang (2012).

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