The present study examined the perception of Mandarin disyllabic tones by inexperienced American English speakers. Participants heard two naturally-produced Mandarin disyllables, and indicated if the two were the same or different. A small native Mandarin-speaking control group participated as well. All 21 possible Mandarin contrasts where the initial syllable varied but the final syllable stayed the same were tested. Acoustic analysis was performed on the stimuli under study. Mandarin subjects scored at ceiling on all contrasts. American English subjects performed poorly on contrasts where the difference in mean F0 was small, or where the difference in the offset F0 of the first syllable was small. They also performed poorly when the difference in slope of the final syllable was small. Previous research has proposed that American English listeners attend primarily to the height difference between two tone stimuli, but here they attended to height in the first syllable and contour in the second syllable.
","abstract_html":"<p>The present study examined the perception of Mandarin disyllabic tones by inexperienced American English speakers. Participants heard two naturally-produced Mandarin disyllables, and indicated if the two were the same or different. A small native Mandarin-speaking control group participated as well. All 21 possible Mandarin contrasts where the initial syllable varied but the final syllable stayed the same were tested. Acoustic analysis was performed on the stimuli under study. Mandarin subjects scored at ceiling on all contrasts. American English subjects performed poorly on contrasts where the difference in mean F0 was small, or where the difference in the offset F0 of the first syllable was small. They also performed poorly when the difference in slope of the final syllable was small. Previous research has proposed that American English listeners attend primarily to the height difference between two tone stimuli, but here they attended to height in the first syllable and contour in the second syllable.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Berkowitz, Shari Salzhauer"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Winifred Strange"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Valerie Shafer","Brett Martin"],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:26Z","subjects":["Speech and Hearing Science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1767","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Winifred Strange"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Valerie Shafer","Brett Martin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Berkowitz, Shari Salzhauer"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2016-12-08T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Speech and Hearing Science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1767"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The present study examined the perception of Mandarin disyllabic tones by inexperienced American English speakers. Participants heard two naturally-produced Mandarin disyllables, and indicated if the two were the same or different. A small native Mandarin-speaking control group participated as well. All 21 possible Mandarin contrasts where the initial syllable varied but the final syllable stayed the same were tested. Acoustic analysis was performed on the stimuli under study. Mandarin subjects scored at ceiling on all contrasts. American English subjects performed poorly on contrasts where the difference in mean F0 was small, or where the difference in the offset F0 of the first syllable was small. They also performed poorly when the difference in slope of the final syllable was small. Previous research has proposed that American English listeners attend primarily to the height difference between two tone stimuli, but here they attended to height in the first syllable and contour in the second syllable.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Discrimination of Tone Contrasts in Mandarin Disyllables by Naïve American English Listeners"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Winifred Strange"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Valerie Shafer","Brett Martin"],"dc:creator":["Berkowitz, Shari Salzhauer"],"dc:date.available":["2016-12-08T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The present study examined the perception of Mandarin disyllabic tones by inexperienced American English speakers. Participants heard two naturally-produced Mandarin disyllables, and indicated if the two were the same or different. A small native Mandarin-speaking control group participated as well. All 21 possible Mandarin contrasts where the initial syllable varied but the final syllable stayed the same were tested. Acoustic analysis was performed on the stimuli under study. Mandarin subjects scored at ceiling on all contrasts. American English subjects performed poorly on contrasts where the difference in mean F0 was small, or where the difference in the offset F0 of the first syllable was small. They also performed poorly when the difference in slope of the final syllable was small. Previous research has proposed that American English listeners attend primarily to the height difference between two tone stimuli, but here they attended to height in the first syllable and contour in the second syllable.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1767"],"dc:subject":["Speech and Hearing Science"],"dc:title":["Discrimination of Tone Contrasts in Mandarin Disyllables by Naïve American English Listeners"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:26Z"}