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Journal ArticleDOI

Pitch shape modulates the time course of tone vs pitch-accent identification in Mandarin Chinese

31 Mar 2017-Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (Acoustical Society of America)-Vol. 141, Iss: 3, pp 2263-2276
TL;DR: The results indicate that the f0-shape, as defined by pitch dimensions of f0 and pitch range, mediates the timing of tone and pitch-accent identification in meaningful speech supporting highly interactive models of speech perception.
Abstract: In Mandarin Chinese pitch is used to express both lexical meanings via tones and sentence-level meanings via pitch-accents raising the question of which information is processed first. While research with meaningful sentence materials suggested a general processing advantage of tone over pitch-accents, research on pure tones and nonce speech in pre-attentive processing found that the f0-shape led to timing and site processing differences. The current study reconciles these results by exploring whether the tone advantage found in meaningful speech materials is modulated by the f0-shape by establishing via a gating paradigm the relative timing of tone and pitch-accent identification. Target words containing static (T1) and dynamic (T2, T4) tones were embedded into meaningful sentences and were divided into 50 ms gates which were added incrementally either from the left- or right-edge of the target word. Results showed that dynamic targets had either a tone or pitch-accent advantage contingent on the direction of gate processing. In contrast, for static T1 targets, tone and pitch-accent were identified simultaneously regardless of the direction of gate processing. Altogether, these results indicate that the f0-shape, as defined by pitch dimensions of f0 and pitch range, mediates the timing of tone and pitch-accent identification in meaningful speech supporting highly interactive models of speech perception.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The performance of several machine learning techniques is validated for speech emotion recognition application on Berlin EmoDB database and the broad application areas and challenges in machine learning for speech processing are given.
Abstract: Speech processing plays a crucial role in many signal processing applications, while the last decade has bought gigantic evolution based on machine learning prototype. Speech processing has a close relationship with computer linguistics, human–machine interaction, natural language processing, and psycholinguistics. This review article majorly discusses the feature extraction techniques and machine learning classifiers employed in speech processing and recognition activities. The performance of several machine learning techniques is validated for speech emotion recognition application on Berlin EmoDB database. Further, it gives the broad application areas and challenges in machine learning for speech processing.

30 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that the timecourse of tone recognition is influenced by vowel quality for high, low, and rising tones, consistent with the hypothesis that tone-conditioned variation in the articulation of /a/ and /i/ facilitates rapid recognition of tones.
Abstract: Vowel contrasts tend to be perceived independently of pitch modulation, but it is not known whether pitch can be perceived independently of vowel quality. This issue was investigated in the context of a lexical tone language, Mandarin Chinese, using a printed word version of the visual world paradigm. Eye movements to four printed words were tracked while listeners heard target words that differed from competitors only in tone (test condition) or also in onset consonant and vowel (control condition). Results showed that the timecourse of tone recognition is influenced by vowel quality for high, low, and rising tones. For these tones, the time for the eyes to converge on the target word in the test condition (relative to control) depended on the vowel with which the tone was coarticulated with /a/ and /i/ supporting faster recognition of high, low, and rising tones than /u/. These patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that tone-conditioned variation in the articulation of /a/ and /i/ facilitates rapid recognition of tones. The one exception to this general pattern—no effect of vowel quality on falling tone perception—may be due to fortuitous amplification of the harmonics relevant for pitch perception in this context.

8 citations


Cites background from "Pitch shape modulates the time cour..."

  • ...In the case of Mandarin Chinese, pitch shape (i.e., static vs dynamic; Wu and Ortega-Llebaria, 2017), syllable frequency, and tonal probability (Wiener and Ito, 2015, 2016) have an influence on spoken word recognition, and stroke complexity affects visual word recognition (Liversedge et al., 2014)....

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References
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50,607 citations

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11 Jan 1980-Science
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4,226 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing is emphasized and its expanding use to probe semantic memory is highlighted to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world.
Abstract: We review the discovery, characterization, and evolving use of the N400, an event-related brain potential response linked to meaning processing. We describe the elicitation of N400s by an impressive range of stimulus types—including written, spoken, and signed words or pseudowords; drawings, photos, and videos of faces, objects, and actions; sounds; and mathematical symbols—and outline the sensitivity of N400 amplitude (as its latency is remarkably constant) to linguistic and nonlinguistic manipulations. We emphasize the effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing and highlight its expanding use to probe semantic memory and to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world. We conclude with different theories of the N400’s functional significance and offer an N400-inspired reconceptualization of how meaning processing might unfold.

3,164 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The TRACE model, described in detail elsewhere, deals with short segments of real speech, and suggests a mechanism for coping with the fact that the cues to the identity of phonemes vary as a function of context.

2,663 citations