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Ongoing Development of Online Tone and Intonation Recognition in Mandarin During Late Childhood
Xiaohe Xie1,2, Shiting Yang1, Yi-Chen Zhang1
1State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, China.
Purpose:
In tonal languages such as Chinese, the processing of lexical tone and speech intonation inevitably interact due to their shared reliance on fundamental frequency (F0). However, the developmental trajectory of this interaction remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the development and maturation of online tone-intonation recognition during late childhood in native Mandarin-speaking children.
Method:
We conducted a longitudinal study tracking a group of Mandarin-speaking children (n = 66) from ages 9 to 11 years, and cross-sectionally compared their performance to that of adults (n = 21) on intonation (question vs. statement) and lexical tone (rising Tone 2 vs. falling Tone 4) identification, using the same set of sentences.
Results:
Children showed improvement over the 2-year period, particularly for stimuli with conflicting tone-intonation F0 contours (Tone 4 with question intonation and Tone 2 with statement intonation). Nonetheless, even at age 11 years, children still lagged behind adults in all conditions.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest that online recognition of tone and intonation in Mandarin continues to develop throughout late childhood.
