Patrick Chu and Marcus Taft

Regularity and Congruency effect in Cantonese

speakers’ phonological knowledge of Mandarin words

Patrick Chu and Marcus Taft

University of New South Wales

1

Relationships between spoken form of 2 languages

2

‘tail’

尾巴

Cantonese and Mandarin

Onset Rime Tone Onset Rime Tone

Cantonese pronunciation (in pinyin): m ei 5 b aa 4

Mandarin pronunciation (in pinyin): w ei 3 b a 1

Pronunciation relationships between

Cantonese and Mandarin (Zhang & Gao, 2000)

Cantonese onset /m/ (195 words)

3

Regular-onset

Regular-rime

Irregular-onset

Irregular-rime

Mandarin

rime

Number

of words

Percentage Example Cantonese

pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

ai 48 59% 擺 ‘put’ baai2 bai3

ie 17 21% 街 ‘street’ gaai1 jie1

uai 11 13% 怪 ‘strange’ gwaai3 guai4

ia 3 4% 佳 ‘fine’ gaai1 jia1

a 2 2% 大 ‘big’ daai6 da4

ui 1 1% 傀 ‘puppet’ faai3 kui3

Mandarin

onset

Number

of words


pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

m 160 82% 媽 ‘mother’ maa1 ma1

w 33 17% 尾 ‘tail’ mei5 wei3

b 2 1% 剝 ‘to shell’ mok1 bo2, bao2

Cantonese rime /aai/ (82 words)


Cantonese and Mandarin (Zhang & Gao, 2000)

Cantonese

tone

Mandarin

tone Percentage Example

Cantonese /

Mandarin

pronunciation Exception

Cantonese /

Mandarin

pronunciation

1 1 93% 交 ‘hand in’ gaau1 / jiao1 魔 ‘devil’ mo1 / mo2

2 3 89% 反 ‘opposite’ faan2 / fan3 搜 ‘search’ sau2 / sou1

3 4 91% 怪 ‘strange’ gwai3 / gwai4 傘‘umbrella’ saan3 / san3

4 2 93% 牛 ‘cow’ ngau4 / niu2 微 ‘little’ mei4 / wei1

5 3 76% 尾 ‘tail’ mei5 / wei3 市 ‘city’ si5 / shi4

6 4 94% 又 ‘again’ jau6 / you4 捕 ‘catch’ bou6 / bu3

4

Regular-tone Irregular-tone

L2 Mandarin phonological representation

L2 Mandarin word production model (Chu & Taft, 2010)

L1 Cantonese sublexicalrepresentation

‘tail’ = 尾

Lexical representation

L1 Cantonese phonologicalrepresentation

mei5

L2 Mandarin sublexicalrepresentation

5

m ei 5

wei3

im w ei

82% 17% 77% 17%

3 4

76% 22%

48% 11% 10% 2%

mi3 mei3 wi3 wei3 mi4 mei4 wi4 wei4

14% 3% 3% 1%




‘tail’ = 尾



mei5


6

m ei 5

wei3

im w ei

82% 17% 77% 17%

3 4

76% 22%

48% 11% 2%


14% 3% 1%

mi3




‘tail’ = 尾



mei5


7

m ei 5

wei3

im w ei

82% 17% 77% 17%

3 4

76% 22%

48% 11% 2%


14% 3% 1%

mi3

Experiment 1 – Regularity effect

Task: Mandarin pinyin transcription of Chinese characters

Materials:

Expectation (error rate):

◦ Irregular > regular words (particularly for LF words)

8

Expt. Regular words Irregular words

1A: Onset 90% 9%

1B: Rime 70% 7%

1C: Tone 90% 6%

L1-L2 pronunciation correspondence

Experiment 1 – Results (Error rates)

9

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

RegularIrregular

Expt. 1A: Onset regularity

*

*

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

RegularIrregular

Expt. 1B: Rime regularity

*

*

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

RegularIrregular

Expt. 1C: Tone regularity

* *

Expt. Regular words Irregular words

1A: Onset 90% 9%

1B: Rime 70% 7%

1C: Tone 90% 6%


Experiment 1 – Error analysis of irregular words

10

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

Major correspondenceOthers

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word


0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word


Expt. 1A: Onset irregular words Expt. 1B: Rime irregular words Expt. 1C: Tone irregular words

* ** ** *


Cantonese and Mandarin

Cantonese onset /m/

Cantonese rime /aai/

11

Regular-congruent

Irregular-incongruent

Mandarin

rime


pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

ai 59% 擺 ‘put’ baai2 bai3

ie 21% 街 ‘street’ gaai1 jie1

uai 13% 怪 ‘strange’ gwaai3 guai4

ia 4% 佳 ‘fine’ gaai1 jia1

a 2% 大 ‘big’ daai6 da4

ui 1% 傀 ‘puppet’ faai3 kui3

Irregular-incongruent

Mandarin

rime


pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

m 82% 媽 ‘mother’ maa1 ma1

w 17% 尾 ‘tail’ mei5 wei3

b 1% 剝 ‘to shell’ mok1 bo2, bao2

Regular-congruent

Stimulus items used in Experiment 1

12

Cantonese Mandarin

(regular)

Mandarin

(irregular)

b b p

d d t, zh

m m w

p p b

t t d

Cantonese Mandarin

(regular)

Mandarin

(irregular)

aai ai a, ie

aap a i

aau ao ua

ak e ei, o

i i er, e

ik i e, ü

uk u ou

Experiment 1A: Onset Experiment 1B: Rime

The effect of Regularity or Congruency?

Cantonese onset /k/

Cantonese rime /ei/

13

Mandarin

onset


pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

q 50% 強 ‘strong’ koeng4 qiang2

j 18% 及 ‘and’ kap6 ji2

k 15% 靠 ‘rely’ kaau3 kao4

g 9% 鈣 ‘calcium’ koi3 gai4

h 6% 繪 ‘draw’ kui2 hui4

x 2% 吸 ‘suck’ kap1 xi1

Mandarin

rime


pronunciation

Mandarin

pronunciation

i 77% 皮 ‘skin’ pei4 pi2

ei 17% 尾 ‘tail’ mei5 wei3

ui 3% 未 ‘not yet’ mei6 wei4

in 1% 您 ‘you’ nei5 nin2

ü 1% 履 ‘fulfil’ lei5 lü3

er 1% 餌 ‘bait’ lei6 er3

Regular-incongruent

Regular-incongruent

Irregular-congruent

Irregular-congruent

Experiment 2 – Regularity vs. Congruency

Materials:

Expectation (error rate):

◦ Regularity effect: Regular-incongruent < Irregular-congruent

◦ Congruency effect: Regular-incongruent > Irregular-congruent

◦ Regularity and congruency effect: Regular-incongruent = Irregular-congruent

14

Expt. Regular-incongruent words Irregular-congruent words

2A: Onset 56% 31%

2B: Rime 77% 17%


Experiment 2 – Results (error rates)

15

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

Regular-incongruentIrregular-congruent

Expt. 2A: Onset

Regularity = congruency

0

20

40

60

80

100

HF word LF word

Regular-incongruentIrregular-congruent

Expt. 2B: Rime

**

Regularity > congruency

Expt. Regular-incongruent Irregular-congruent

2A: Onset 56% 31%

2B: Rime 77% 17%





‘tail’ = 尾



mei5


16

m ei 5

wei3

im w ei

82% 17% 77% 17%

3 4

76% 22%

48% 11% 2%


14% 3% 1%

Irregular-incongruent Mandarin onset word




‘tail’ = 尾



mei5


17

m ei 5

wei3

im w ei

82% 17% 77% 17%

3 4

76% 22%

48% 11% 2%


14% 3% 1%

Irregular-incongruent Mandarin onset word


L2 Mandarin word production model


‘rely’ = 靠



kaau3


18

k aau 3

kao4

aoq k iao

55% 15% 61% 30%

4 3

91% 4%

15% 8%

qao4 qiao4 kao4 kiao4 qao3 qiao3 kao3 kiao3

7% 4%

Irregular-congruent Mandarin onset word




‘rely’ = 靠



kaau3


19

k aau 3

kao4

aoq k iao

55% 15% 61% 30%

4 3

91% 4%

15% 8%


7% 4%





‘rely’ = 靠



kaau3


20

k aau 3

kao4

aoq k iao

55% > 15% 61% 30%

4 3

91% 4%

15% 8%


7% 4%





‘rely’ = 靠



kaau3


21

k aau 3

kao4

aoq k iao

55% > 15% 61% 30%

4 3

91% 4%

15% > 8% (~15%)


7% > 4%





‘flag’ = 旗



kei4


22

k ei 4

qi2

iq k ei

55% 15% 77% 20%

2 1

93% 4%

39% 9% 11% 2%

qi2 qei2 ki2 kei2 qi1 qei1 ki1 kei1

2% 0% 0% 0%

Regular-incongruent Mandarin onset word




‘flag’ = 旗



kei4


23

k ei 4

qi2

iq k ei

55% >15% 77% 20%

2 1

93% 4%

39% 9% 11% 2%


2% 0% 0% 0%





‘flag’ = 旗



kei4


24

k ei 4

qi2

iq k ei

55% >15% 77% 20%

2 1

93% 4%

39% 9% > 11% > 2%


2% 0% > 0% > 0%





‘flag’ = 旗



kei4


25

k ei 4

qi2

iq k ei

55% >15% 77% 20%

2 1

93% 4%

39% < 9% < 11% > 2%


2% 0% 0% > 0%


The End

26

Why can’t we compare …

27

Cantonese Regularity Congruency Mandarin Regularity Congruency Mandarin

b Regular Congruent b Irregular Incongruent p

k Regular Incongruent q Irregular Congruent k

b Regular Congruent b Regular Incongruent

Irregular Congruent Irregular Incongruent

Regular Congruent Irregular Congruent

Regular Incongruent Irregular Incongruent

Cantonese Percentage Mandarin

b 90% b

8% p

Cantonese Percentage Mandarin

k 50% q

18% j

15% k

Documents

Patrick Chu and Marcus Taft