Browsing by Author "Lu, Yu-An"

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Mandarin fricatives redux: the psychological reality of phonological representations
(2014-02-01)
Lu, Yu-An
;
交大名義發表
;
National Chiao Tung University
This study contributes to the long-standing debate on the phonological representation of Mandarin palatals. The controversy results from the fact that the palatals [tE center dot, tE center dot(h), E center dot] are restricted to specific contexts and do not occur in the same contexts as three other sets of Mandarin consonants: the velars [k, k(h), x], the dentals [ts, ts(h), s], and the retroflexes [tE,, tE,(h), E,]. The debate has focused on the question of whether, in pursuit of an economical phoneme inventory, palatals should be derived from some other set of underlying sounds and, if so, with which series the palatal sounds should be identified. This paper reports on the results of experimental investigation of the perception and processing of the Mandarin fricatives [E center dot] and [s]. These two sounds are in complementary distribution in Mandarin and have been considered by various researchers to be allophonic variants of the same phoneme category. The results of two tasks, similarity ratings and discrimination of sounds on a continuum, suggest that even though the distribution of [s] and [E center dot] is predictable in Mandarin, Mandarin speakers do not necessarily treat the two sounds as variants of the same phoneme category.
Testing the Roles of Distribution and Alternation in Phonological Relationships
(2016-07)
Lu, Yu-An
;
交大名義發表
;
外國語文學系
;
National Chiao Tung University
;
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
This study investigates how two factors, distribution and morphological alternation, affect speakers\' ability to group sounds into the same phoneme category. Previous findings indicate that allophonic variants of a single phoneme are rated as more similar than sounds belonging to separate phonemes. The present study builds on these findings by conducting a similarity rating task to investigate the processing of anterior and posterior coronal sibilants [s] and [cent/integral] in three languages in which the two sounds participate in different types of relationships: (i) English, in which [s] and [integral] occur in the same environment (e.g. see versus she); (ii) Korean, in which [s] and [cent] are in complementary distribution and participate in regular and productive morphological alternations; and (iii) Mandarin, in which [s] and [cent] are in complementary distribution but do not participate in morphological alternations due to its phonotactic restrictions. The results showed that both English and Mandarin speakers rated the anterior versus posterior coronal sibilants as more different than Korean speakers did, suggesting that the Mandarin speakers, who have access only to distributional evidence, are less likely to treat the two sounds as members of a single category than the Korean speakers, who are exposed to evidence from both distribution and morphological alternation.
The effect of dialectal variation on word recognition A case from Taiwan Southern Min
(2019-01-01)
Lu, Yu-An
;
外國語文學系
;
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Previous studies on Chinese dialect variation have mostly focused on the description of dialects, the regions where these dialects are spoken, attitudes towards dialects, and acoustic differences across dialects. The present study draws on experimental evidence concerning a vowel difference in two Taiwan Southern Min (TSM) dialects to provide more understanding on how non-contrastive, dialectal variations may affect speakers' processing of speech. The variation of interest is a phonemic difference, [e] and [c], in the vowel inventory in two TSM dialects, in which the difference signals a lexical contrast in one dialect (e.g. [e-a] 'oyster' vs. [c-a] 'taro') but not in the other ([c-a] 'oyster, taro'). A long-term repetition-priming experiment investigating the word recognition involving the two vowels revealed a dialect effect on TSM speakers' word recognition in accordance with prior exposure, native-ness and variant frequency. Implications of the findings are provided.