Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones: Beyond First-Language Transfer

165 Pages·2018·2.481 MB·

by  Hang Zhang

Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones
Utrecht Studies in Language
and Communication
Series Editor
Paul van den Hoven
Jan ten Thije
VOLUME 33
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/uslc
Second Language
Acquisition of Mandarin
Chinese Tones
Beyond First-Language Transfer
By
Hang Zhang
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zhang, Hang, author.
Title: Second language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones : beyond
 first-language transfer / by Hang Zhang.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill Rodopi, 2018. | Series: Utrecht studies
 in language and communication ; volume 33 | Includes bibliographical
 references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018003775 (print) | LCCN 2018012366 (ebook) | ISBN
 9789004364790 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004305977 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. |
 Chinese language—Tone. | Mandarin dialects—Phonology. | Second language
 acquisition.
Classification: LCC PL1065 (ebook) | LCC PL1065 .Z465 2018 (print) | DDC
 495.181/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003775
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0927-7706
isbn 978-90-04-30597-7 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-36479-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xii
List of Selected Abbreviations xiii
Mandarin Tones xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Phonetics and Phonology of Mandarin Chinese Tones 2
1.1.1 Phonetics of Tones 2
1.1.2 Phonological Representations of Mandarin Chinese Tones 3
1.2 Chinese Tone Variations 8
1.2.1 Tone Coarticulation 8
1.2.2 Tone Sandhi in Chinese 9
1.2.2.1 The Variants of T3 9
1.2.2.2 Other Tone Sandhi Processes 12
1.3 Intonation in Chinese 13
1.4 The Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones 15
1.4.1 Musical Ability and the Acquisition of Tones 15
1.4.2 The First Language Acquisition of Chinese Tones 17
1.4.3 Tone Perception by Adult Learners 18
1.4.4 The Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Tones:
A Historical Perspective 19
1.5 Organization of this Book 23
2 Three Puzzles in Mandarin L2 Tone Acquisition 26
2.1 Prosodic Structures of English, Japanese, and Korean 26
2.1.1 English Prosodic Structure 27
2.1.2 Japanese Prosodic Structure 28
2.1.3 Korean Prosodic Structure 29
2.2 Puzzles Surrounding the L2 Acquisition of Tones 30
2.2.1 Puzzle 1: Positional Effects of Contour Tones 30
2.2.2 Puzzle 2: Two Issues in L2 Studies on the Acquisition Order of
Chinese Tones 31
2.2.3 Puzzle 3: T3 34
vi Contents
3 Methodology: Data Collection and Analysis 36
3.1 Test Materials 36
3.2 Participants and Recording Procedure 38
3.3 Assessment of L2 Tones 39
3.3.1 Correctness Judgments 39
3.3.2 Pitch Values 41
3.4 Data Analysis 42
4 Coarticulation Effects in L2 Chinese Tones 43
4.1 The Nature of Anticipatory Tone Coarticulation 44
4.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses 47
4.3 Results 49
4.3.1 Research Question 1: Accuracy Rates of Contour Tones 50
4.3.2 Research Question 2: Maximum F0 Values of T2 and T4 53
4.3.3 Research Question 3: Error Types of Contour Tones 55
4.4 Discussion 57
4.5 Conclusion 59
5 Phonological Universals and the Acquisition Order of Mandarin
Tones 60
5.1 Phonological Background 61
5.1.1 Basic Concepts in Optimality Theory and the Tonal Markedness
Scale 62
5.1.2 OT in Language Acquisition Studies: Grammar
Restructuring 64
5.1.3 OCP Effects in Mandarin Chinese: An OT Account of T3
Sandhi 65
5.1.4 Present Study: Hypotheses Regarding the TMS and the OCP in
L2 Tones 68
5.2 Results 70
5.2.1 Results of OCP Test 1: The Change Rate of ITC and NITC 71
5.2.2 OCP Test 2: The Acquisition Order of Tone Pairs and Effects of
the TMS 73
5.2.3 The Acquisition of Tone 3 Sandhi 75
5.3 Discussion: An OT Account for the Acquisition of Identical Tone
Sequences 76
5.3.1 OCP(WholeTone) or OCP(ConstTone) 76
5.3.2 Stages in L2 Tone Phonology Development 77
5.3.3 An Alternative Account for the Effect of the OCP Interacting
with the TMS 80
5.4 Conclusion 81
Contents vii
6 Acquisition of the Third Tone 83
6.1 The Allophones and Sandhi Rules of Tone 3 84
6.2 The Second Language Acquisition of T3 85
6.2.1 The ‘Full-T3 First’ Method 85
6.2.2 The Present Study 87
6.3 Methodology 87
6.3.1 The Main Experiment (Experiment 1) 88
6.3.2 The Supplemental Experiment (Experiment 2) 90
6.3.2.1 Stimuli 90
6.3.2.2 Subjects and Recording Procedures 92
6.3.2.3 Analysis 92
6.4 Results 93
6.4.1 Perception of T3 Variants (Half-T3 and Full-T3) 93
6.4.2 Production of Half-T3 and Raised-T3 95
6.4.2.1 The Error Patterns of Half-T3 and Raised-T3 95
6.4.2.2 Substitutions Used for Half-T3 and Raised-T3 98
6.4.3 Production of Utterance-Final T3 102
6.5 Discussion 104
6.5.1 The Overproduction of Full-T3 104
6.5.2 Implications 106
6.5.2.1 Theoretical Implications: The Underlying Form
of T3 107
6.5.2.2 The ‘Half-T3 First’ Method 108
6.6 Conclusion 110
7 Teaching Mandarin Chinese Tones 112
7.1 Pedagogical Implications 112
7.1.1 Pedagogical Implications of Chapters 4–6 112
7.1.2 From the Establishment of the Mental Representation of Tones
to Motor Skills 114
7.2 Current Prevailing Teaching Materials 116
7.2.1 Tone Inventory Descriptions 118
7.2.2 Methods of Study 119
7.2.3 Exercises Aimed at Tone Training 122
7.3 Sample Exercises 123
References 133
Index 147

Preface
This book examines non-native Mandarin Chinese tone productions made by
speakers of English, Japanese, and Korean. Its goal is to show that there are
factors influencing second-language acquisition that extend beyond trans-
fer of structures from the learner’s first language and beyond characteristics
extracted from the learner’s target language. The first two chapters provide
background on the phonetics and phonology of Mandarin Chinese tones,
and survey major findings from the past several decades on the first- and
second-language acquisition of Chinese tones. The third chapter describes
the procedure of one main experiment designed to answer several questions
about second-language tone acquisition. The book’s three core chapters,
Chapters 4–6, present research investigating the presence of influences that
extend beyond learners’ first languages. The book concludes with a discussion
in Chapter 7 of pedagogical implications and a review of current teaching ma-
terials for Chinese tones. Practical suggestions and ten sets of sample teaching
materials are provided to improve Chinese tonal pedagogy.
This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the
fields of second-language acquisition and Chinese linguistics. Although pri-
marily a research monograph, the book contains intensive reviews of previous
studies on tone acquisition, presents new perspectives on tone pedagogy, and
offers practical solutions. Thus it (especially Chapters 1, 2, 6, and 7) will also be
of interest to educators and learners of the Chinese language.