Perceptual cues for Mandarin-Taiwanese code-switching
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Abstract
Previous studies on the recognition of code-switches focus primarily on the effect of accent and language-specific syllable structure on the speed of word recognition in the code-switching between typologically distinct languages (Grosjean 1988; Li 1996).
It remains unclear as to what specific phonetic or phonological properties provide bilingual speakers cues for code-switches. This issue becomes particularly important in the speech recognition when the code-switching languages have similar sound systems. This study employed a reaction time (RT) experiment to examine if a language-specific onset, nucleus, coda, or tone can facilitate the recognition of language switches in the code-switching between two typologically-related languages, i.e., Mandarin and Taiwanese. In this experiment, bilingual Mandarin-Taiwanese speakers listened to audio-stimuli that did or did not code-switch at the target position. The first syllable of the embedded code-switched words had a Taiwanese-specific onset, nucleus, coda, or tone, or had no phonological cues. The participants judged whether the word at the target position was spoken in Mandarin or Taiwanese, and the RT and accuracy were analyzed. It was found that when the phonetic or phonological cue appears early in the syllable, i.e., at the onset or nucleus, or when the syllable bears an entering tone, the responses were more accurate and faster than those of the baseline conditions. The results suggest that bilingual listeners are sensitive to the differences in the sound systems of two closely-related languages and can utilize language-specific phonetic and phonological properties to recognize code-switching.
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