Projects
Here are my recent projects.
Mapping Signals to Functions in Mandarin Prosodic Focus
Research Question
How do native speakers use acoustic cues (F0, duration, and intensity) to interpret communicative intentions in prosodic focus?
Project Summary
This project examines how native speakers use acoustic cues, F0, duration, and intensity, to interpret communicative intentions in prosodic focus. While these prosodic elements are known to signal focus, their specific contributions remain understudied. By studying the mapping of acoustic cues to pragmatic functions, I aim to clarify how native listeners process prosodic focus in Mandarin. In the first study, I used a 2AFC eye-tracking Paradigm, and participants listened to sentences with varied acoustic cues and identified the intended meanings. The findings indicate that F0 plays a dominant role in focus interpretation, more so than intensity or duration. Additionally, the processing of pragmatic information occurs over time, suggesting a complex and dynamic process in interpreting prosodic focus, offering insights into language processing models.
In the second study, I investigated how quickly listeners can update their cue weightings when exposed to new prosodic patterns, a process known as perceptual cue reweighting or speech adaptation. Participants were exposed to sentences with manipulated acoustic cues (I selected F0 as the primary cue and duration as secondary in my study), and their mappings to pragmatic functions were measured before and after exposure. The results showed that listeners can adjust their cue weightings, indicating some flexibility in processing prosodic information. However, adaptation in prosodic focus is cue-specific and structurally constrained, targeting a secondary cue with the constraints of the long-term knowledge of sound-to-meaning mapping. This reflects not uniform plasticity across all processing stages, but a principled division of labor between stable representations and flexible interpretive mechanisms in prosodic processing.
Speech Production of Prosodic Focus in the Mandarin Numeral-Classifier-Noun Phrase
Research Questions
- How do Hong Kong Cantonese speakers adapt their prosodic strategies when realizing focus in Mandarin as a second language?
- How do native Mandarin speakers realize focus within numeral-classifier-noun phrases to reveal interactions between syntax and prosody?
Project Summary
This project studies the speech production of prosodic focus within Mandarin numeral-classifier-noun phrases, examining both Cantonese and Mandarin native speakers. This study explores how Hong Kong Cantonese speakers, as second-language learners, adapt their prosodic strategies when speaking Mandarin, and how native Mandarin speakers naturally express focus in these specific phrases. In our current studies, we observed that Cantonese speakers often blend their native prosodic patterns with Mandarin’s, particularly when dealing with complex tones like Tone 3 and its sandhi variations. At the same time, we are investigating how native Mandarin speakers realize focus within numeral-classifier-noun phrases, providing insights into the interaction between syntax and prosody.
These findings contribute to our understanding of cross-linguistic prosodic transfer and second-language acquisition. We plan to expand this research by examining how individual differences (such as musical aptitude) influence language learning and developing the effective training methods to improve learners’ prosodic production. Our ultimate goal is to enhance language teaching methods and deepen our understanding of how prosodic features are acquired across different languages.
Other Collaborated Projects
- The ManyBabies project “Individual differences in infants’ social evaluations across cultures” (MB4I), investigating cross-cultural differences in infant social cognition.