ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024

Interactive Prosodic Encoding of Tone, Focus and Sentence Type in Changli-Town Mandarin

Mengxue Cao, Tianxin Zheng, Hongna Li, Aijun Li

There is increasing evidence that many Chinese dialects, in comparison to Beijing Mandarin, exhibit distinct focus and intonation patterns. This study investigates how tone, focus and sentence-type-related intonation contribute to shaping F0 contours in Changli-Town Mandarin. Acoustic analysis of short sentences, produced by seven native speakers, was conducted, where sentence-final focus and declarative/interrogative intonation were considered as variables. The results reveal that (1) sentence-type-related intonation regulates the F0 curve through compulsory boundary targets, indicating a low target for declarative sentences and a high target for interrogative sentences, where incompatible tonal targets must be adjusted accordingly; (2) sentence-final focus modulates the global shape of the F0 curve by expanding the F0 range of on-focus syllables and oft-elevating the F0 register of all pre-focus syllables, where the pre-focus pitch elevation is argued primarily as a co-effect of focus and pragmatic purposes, enhancing listeners' attention to key information; (3) neutral tone emerges as the most common agent serving to coordinate tonal and intonational targets. Those findings suggest that in Changli-Town Mandarin, tone, focus and intonation interact to encode the F0 curve of a sentence by coordinating respective targets, with the boundary target exerting dominance. Those insights hold implications for prosodic typology.