Perception and perceptual learning of Cantonese level tones and rising tones by Mandarin speakers

Abstract

Both Cantonese and Mandarin have level tones and rising tones. In previous studies, the rising tone pair CT2-CT5 and the level tone pair CT3-CT6 in Cantonese have found to be the most difficult pairs for native Mandarin speakers to discriminate. Thus, this study conducted a series of online experiments to explore native Mandarin speakers’ perception of the three level-tones and the two rising tones in Cantonese. In addition, a discrimination training was conducted on native Mandarin speakers to see whether their ability to perceive Cantonese tones improves with training. Three groups of participants were recruited: (1) 10 native Cantonese speakers to conduct a discrimination task; (2) 12 native Mandarin speakers to conduct a categorization task and a discrimination task; (3) 12 native Mandarin speakers to conduct a categorization task, a discrimination training task and a discrimination task. The categorization results partly agreed with previous studies that Mandarin listeners assimilated Cantonese level tones, CT1 and CT3, into the only level tone in Mandarin, MT1; and one Cantonese rising tone, CT2, into the only rising tone in Mandarin, MT2. But the assimilation patterns for the rising tone CT5 and the level tone CT6 were more complicated. It showed the perception of second language (L2) tone is influenced by the first language (L1) tone system, which supported two theoretical models, PAM and SLM. As for discrimination, CT2-CT5 and CT3-CT6 were the most difficult Cantonese tone pairs for native Mandarin speakers. But the results of CT1-CT3 and CT1-CT6 contradicted the predictions by PAM-S according to the assimilation patterns. This study did not find a significant difference in the performance of tone discrimination between native Cantonese speakers and native Mandarin speakers. However, the discrimination training was statistically significant, enabling Mandarin participants to exceed native Cantonese participants in tone discrimination. Further studies can apply tone discrimination training to all Cantonese tones, and explore more non-native speakers’ perception of L2 tone systems with more level or rising tones.