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Processing of Pitch Height Information in Mandarin Tone Perception

Abstract

Communicating in tone language involves the use of lexical tone as a cue to determine the meaning of words. Lexical tones are defined both by their pitch height and also by their pitch contours. Given the height component, it has been hypothesized that experience in acquiring a tone language influences the development of a mental template that is used both for speech communication and also to facilitate the acquisition of absolute pitch in music (Deutsch, Henthorn, & Dolson, 2004). Evidence that has been observed in native speakers of tone languages includes consistent pitch height in speech production and high prevalence of absolute pitch in music. My dissertation studies concern genesis of this pitch template and examine the question: what is the role of pitch height in lexical tone perception? The work presented here is the first to use both off-line and on- line measurements to examine how native speakers exploit various pitch height cues for identifying tones. The results suggest that native speakers utilize overall pitch height as a whole to guide immediate tone judgment, as well as keep updating their decisions directed by pitch height information that unfolds throughout the tone. Taken together, the findings demonstrate an instant and incremental association of pitch height with tone label in tone perception and lend support to the mental template for pitch processing across speech and music domains

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