LingLunch: Zifeng Liu (LLF)

Abstract: Zifeng Liu (LLF): Exploring Mandarin tone errors in speech planning: a perceptuomotor compatibility study

Tone speech errors are relatively understudied, especially in relation to tone planning. This study examines Mandarin tone planning using a cue-distractor paradigm

to investigate why tone errors are reported less often than segmental errors. Participants were asked to produce target syllables with different tones, while hearing a distractor syllable with a different tone or a different vowel. We found that participants responded later when the target and distractor differed in tones, revealing an effect of tone perception on tone production (i.e., perceptuomotor effect). This effect is comparable to that observed for vowels. In addition, responses were slower as the acoustic similarity between tone targets and distractors decreased. Our findings suggest that tones and vowels are planned in a similar way. The rarity of tone errors therefore does not stem from fundamental differences in planning tones vs. segments. However, the relatively smaller perceptuomotor effect we found for tones implies that tones are more resistant to distractors in planning. Thus, both tone and segment errors happen in planning, but tones are less vulnerable to errors.