The Influence of Tonal and Atonal Bilingualism on Children's Lexical and Non-Lexical Tone Perception.
Lang Speech
; 63(2): 221-241, 2020 Jun.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30859898
ABSTRACT
This study examined how bilingualism in an atonal language, in addition to a tonal language, influences lexical and non-lexical tone perception and word learning during childhood. Forty children aged 5;3-7;2, bilingual either in English and Mandarin or English and another atonal language, were tested on Mandarin lexical tone discrimination, level-pitch sine-wave tone discrimination, and learning of novel words differing minimally in Mandarin lexical tone. Mandarin-English bilingual children discriminated between and learned novel words differing minimally in Mandarin lexical tone more accurately than their atonal-English bilingual peers. However, Mandarin-English and atonal-English bilingual children discriminated between level-pitch sine-wave tones with similar accuracy. Moreover, atonal-English bilingual children showed a tendency to perceive differing Mandarin lexical and level-pitch sine-wave tones as identical, whereas their Mandarin-English peers showed no such tendency. These results indicate that bilingualism in a tonal language in addition to an atonal language-but not bilingualism in two atonal languages-allows for continued sensitivity to lexical tone beyond infancy. Moreover, they suggest that although tonal-atonal bilingualism does not enhance sensitivity to differences in pitch between sine-wave tones beyond infancy any more effectively than atonal-atonal bilingualism, it protects against the development of biases to perceive differing lexical and non-lexical tones as identical. Together, the results indicate that, beyond infancy, tonal-atonal bilinguals process lexical tones using different cognitive mechanisms than atonal-atonal bilinguals, but that both groups process level-pitch non-lexical tone using the same cognitive mechanisms.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Percepção da Altura Sonora
/
Percepção da Fala
/
Linguagem Infantil
/
Multilinguismo
/
Percepção do Timbre
Limite:
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Lang Speech
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos
País de publicação:
ENGLAND
/
ESCOCIA
/
GB
/
GREAT BRITAIN
/
INGLATERRA
/
REINO UNIDO
/
SCOTLAND
/
UK
/
UNITED KINGDOM