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SPEECH PROCESSING of HAI-LU HAKKA FALLING TONES and TONE SANDHI by Chia-Hsin Yeh a DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State Univ

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SPEECH PROCESSING of HAI-LU HAKKA FALLING TONES and TONE SANDHI by Chia-Hsin Yeh a DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State Univ SPEECH PROCESSING OF HAI-LU HAKKA FALLING TONES AND TONE SANDHI By Chia-Hsin Yeh A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Linguistics - Doctor of Philosophy 2015 ABSTRACT SPEECH PROCESSING OF HAI-LU HAKKA FALLING TONES AND TONE SANDHI By Chia-Hsin Yeh This dissertation investigates speech processing of Hai-lu Hakka falling tones (high, low) and tone sandhi (low-rising, high-checked) by focusing on how variations influence the perception of the contrast of falling tones and the application of tone sandhi. Some recent studies (Bent 2005; Huang 2004; Wang 1995; Zhang & Lai 2010; Zhang et al 2011) indicated that tonal contrasts may not be as distinctive as assumed previously and that tone sandhi may not be fully productive, since earlier studies tended to neglect the role variations play in tonal processing. In addition, the target language Hai-lu Hakka has been understudied, and was found to undergo language attrition in recent decades (Yeh 2011; Yeh & Lu 2013; Yeh & Lin 2015). The dissertation hopes to clarify how tonal variations affect tonal contrasts and tone sandhi application by explicating Hai-lu Hakka’ tonal processing. The first experiment examines 30 Hai-lu Hakka speakers’ contrast of falling tones by tonal identification and lexical recognition tasks. These tasks require participants to identify monosyllabic stimuli’s tonal categories (either high-falling or low-falling) and to recognize their lexical meanings (either a high-falling word [ti53] ‘to know’ or a low-falling word [ti31] ‘emperor’). The second experiment examines 31 Hai-lu Hakka speakers’ processing of two sandhi rules by tonal discrimination, tonal identification, lexical recognition, and production tasks. These tasks require participants to discriminate underlying and sandhi tones, to identify their tonal categories, to recognize their corresponding meanings, and to produce tone sandhi in disyllabic compounds. The results show that (i) various lexical and phonetic/phonological factors play a role in the tonal contrast and the sandhi processes, (ii) lexical and phonetic/phonological effects can be more or less significant in different tasks, and (iii) lexical factors exhibit a more consistent pattern across different tasks than phonetic/phonological factors. These findings indicate three general implications as follows. First, the lexical and phonetic/phonological effects indicate that the contrast of two falling tones varies with both lexical and phonetic/phonological factors, so does the application of two sandhi rules. These factors may result in tonal confusion between two falling tones and lower application rates of two sandhi rules. Second, the lexical and phonetic/phonological effects indicate that variations occur frequently and extensively across different tasks in the two experiments, which calls into question those derivational theoretical models that assume a transition from variations to invariance during speech processing. Third, the results indicate that lexical effects exhibit a more consistent pattern than phonetic/phonological effects, since phonetic/phonological effects exhibit an asymmetry between perception and production patterns. These findings suggest a more crucial role of lexical influences in tonal processing, which hence favors a lexically-based model for speech processing in general. To sum up, this dissertation has three general contributions. First, relating phonetic modifications/processes to variations and phonological modifications/processes to invariance is called into questions. Second, the findings uncover specific issues such as tonal confusion and a perception-production asymmetry in Hai-lu Hakka’s tonal phonetics and phonology, supporting the crucial need to carefully examine a less-studied language like Hai-lu Hakka. Third, the findings indicate a more crucial role of lexical influences in tonal processing, suggesting that an exemplar-based processing model that argues for a non-derivational and lexically-driven account is a more reasonable approach to speech processing. Copyright by CHIA-HSIN YEH 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I kept questioning myself what this dissertation means to me over the past three years when I had a hard time finishing it up. I have never thought about giving up, but felt like losing something meaningful to pursue the PhD degree. I used to believe it means everything. Whatever I want could come true with the doctorate in hand. In fact I can do all I like right away even without it. The real question is what it means whatever I want and all I like. I did not realize the meaning until my advisor Dr. Yen-Hwei Lin and I decided to focus on my mother tongue. The recent revision reminds me of the teenage years when I reacquired Hai-lu Hakka from my parents. I did not really want to relearn my native language, but was left with no choices by my parents. As long as I spoke Mandarin, my father never responded. As long as I mispronounced Hakka, he made mean remarks. No matter how hard I tried, I could hardly meet his expectations. I could not really understand why he was so harsh. After working on Hai-lu Hakka for so many years, I begin to realize what he meant to do. I should be grateful to be still able to speak my parents’ tongue, and to have the chance to study it. Finishing up the dissertation on Hai-lu Hakka definitely means something to me. I would like to express the deepest gratitude for my committee chair Dr. Yen-Hwei Lin. Dr. Lin not only advises me academically, but also guides me in many other respects. She has been constantly encouraging me to learn more, to work harder, and to stay focused. Moreover, she leads me to participate in many academic activities, e.g. to present my studies, to write conference papers, and to find out research interests. I do learn even more from our co-authored works than in class. More importantly, she teaches me how to handle difficulties with poise and patience. She is the most intelligent and understanding mentor I have ever known. I highly appreciate her valuable comments and endless time spent on me over the years. This dissertation would not have been accomplished without her help. v I am also deeply indebted to my other committee members, Dr. Cristina Schmitt, Dr. Anne Violin-Wigent, and Dr. Alan Munn. I truly thank Dr. Violin-Wigent for her detailed feedbacks. Although she always humbly says that she knows nothing about Chinese tones, she does help me make my research works more comprehensible. I thank Dr. Munn for his insights from other viewpoints. I should thank Dr. Schmitt in particular for providing me with many skills and methods of doing experiments. Although I haven’t done any studies on child language acquisition yet, I do learn a lot from working for her in many different projects. I really appreciate her supervision of my research assistantship. In addition, I am also indebted to three friends/family members who made this dissertation possible. More importantly, I deeply thank my sister Yen-Ling Yeh for helping me recruit a huge amount of Hakka participants from Chiung-Lin Elementary School in Hsinchu County. She also helped with the experiment setup in many different ways. Then I should thank my best friend Cheng-Hsi Huang for helping me recruit participants, helping me with many technical issues, and encouraging me during difficult times. He is so considerate that he constantly considers my needs as the first priority. Last but not the least, I am also indebted to the professional statistician Dr. Yu-Chung Wei for providing me with many analytic/statistical advices. I cannot express how much I appreciate each of those who have helped me in different ways over the years. I hope to appropriately and adequately show my gratitude for each one as possible as I could. First of all, I truly thank Dr. Cynthia Clopper and Dr. Elizabeth Hume for their valuable courses on L2 phonetics and phonology, Dr. Jose Benki for his knowledge on acoustic phonetics, Dr. John Hale for his introduction to R programs, Dr. Karthik Durvasula for his valuable comments and suggestion, and Dr. Mary Beckman for encouraging me to focus on Hakka. Moreover, I should thank each of my friends for their love and support in many different forms. I truly thank Chia-Ling Liu for supporting me all the time, Dr. Chiung-Yao Wang for constantly praying for me and encouraging me, Chi-Jui vi Lu for sharing Hakka information and knowledge with me, and Dr. Jung-Yueh Tu for providing me with many academic information. I should also thank Yvette Wang, Yuhan Hung, Ying-Hsu Lai, Chia-Ling Hung, Mei-Shu Chang, Ho-Hsin Huang, Hsin-Yun Wan, and my uncle’s family for their uplifting encouragement. This dissertation is dedicated to my beloved parents Kui-Tian Yeh (葉桂添) and Lan-Ying Fan (范蘭英), especially my father in nirvana. I will always remember how their love means to me. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES………………...………………………………………………………......... xiii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………..…xvii KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………….……………………..… xx CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….……... 1 1.0 The dissertation’s key terms……...………………………………………………………… 2 1.1 The dissertation’s research purposes and interests……………………………………...….. 5 1.1.1 The role of variations.…...………………………………………………………….... 5 1.1.1.1 The distinctiveness issue.…...……………………………………..………….... 5 1.1.1.2 The productivity issue.…...……………………………………..…………….... 7 1.1.2 The endangered and less-studied language: Hai-lu Hakka.…...... ...……………….... 8 1.1.2.1 The attrition issue.…...…………….………………………………………….... 9 1.1.2.2 The simplification issue.…...…………………………...……………………..... 10 1.1.3 The lexical and phonetic/phonological effects on tonal processing…….…………..... 12 1.2 The dissertation’s research questions………………………..…...………………………… 13 1.3 The current methods……………………………..…………..…...………………………… 16 1.4 The dissertation’s three general claims….…………………..…...………………………… 16 1.5 The dissertation’s organization……………………………...……….……………………... 19 CHAPTER TWO HAI-LU HAKKA’S TONAL PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY……...…………...………..
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