Lam 2018 Heritage Cantonese
Perception of lexical tones by homeland and heritage speakers of Cantonese by Wai Man Lam B. A., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004 M. Phil., The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Linguistics) The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) November 2018 c Wai Man Lam, 2018 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Perception of lexical tones by homeland and heritage speakers of Cantonese submitted by Wai Man Lam in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics. Examining Committee: Kathleen Currie Hall, Department of Linguistics Co-supervisor Douglas Pulleyblank, Department of Linguistics Co-supervisor Molly Babel, Department of Linguistics Supervisory Committee Member Valter Ciocca, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences University Examiner Marton´ Soskuthy,´ Department of Linguistics University Examiner ii Abstract This dissertation compares the lexical tone perception abilities of two populations with different bilingual configurations: Cantonese-dominant adults who grew up in Hong Kong (referred to as homeland speakers), and English-dominant adults who grew up in a Cantonese-speaking household in Canada (heritage speakers). From infancy both were exposed to Cantonese as a first language in terms of chronological order; however, after the onset of schooling, each became dominant in the majority language of their respective society. Given this background, this study investigates whether heritage speakers’ perception of lexical tones of a non-dominant first language (Cantonese) exhibits cross-language effects from a dominant second language (English) that does not have a contrastive dimension of tone.
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