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METHODS article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Volume 9 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1439014
This article is part of the Research Topic Tonal Language Processing and Acquisition in Native and Non-native Speakers View all 5 articles
Tone Superimposition Technique in Speech Sciences: A Tutorial
Provisionally accepted- 1 Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- 2 The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
In the literature, we encounter papers reporting manipulating pitch contours in speech tokens for a specific problem to be addressed in experiments (e.g., learning pitch patterns superimposed onto a pseudo-syllable), usually in the field of Speech Perception and Spoken Word Recognition. This type of research often tests listeners' perceptual and processing skills in tonal languages (e.g., Mandarin, Thai, etc.), and requires superimposing a pitch contour onto a spoken syllable. However, very few studies reported in detail how this critical manipulation was done to meet specific experimental needs. In addition, there was neither specific guideline or description of the techniques being used, nor how 'natural' these manipulated tokens sounded in a particular language upon speech synthesis. Because this technique is crucial in establishing the conclusions in various studies, here, we will demonstrate our method of establishing this technique of tone superimposition (i.e., lexical tones in Mandarin) onto English syllables. In line with the open science model, we will also show our stimuli and procedures via OSF for readers to evaluate the validity of this technique. Manipulating the pitch contour in a spoken syllable can be complicated and change the perception of the spoken syllable in a significant way. Thus, we will also show the important factors to be considered in this process for doing research in Speech Sciences.
Keywords: lexical tone, Tone Superimposition, Interlingual (Near) Homophones, Mandarin Chinese, bilingualism, Multilingualism
Received: 27 May 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 WANG, Jheng and McMurray. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
XIN WANG, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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