The preliminary study of influence on tone perception from segments

Although previous studies have demonstrated that fundamental frequency (f0) is a significant cue in tone perception, there are other factors influencing it (e.g., segments). In the present study, we explored Initials and Finals' effect on tone perception. One perception experiment was conducted with six continua (i.e., Tone 2-Tone 3) based on syllables which include three types of Initials (i.e., plosive, affricate, fricative) and two types of Finals (i.e., with/without the medial). Results showed that both Initials and Finals had significant effect on tone perception and there existed significant interaction. For syllables with the medial, syllables with plosive and affricate were more likely to be perceived as tone 3 rather than tone 2 as compared to syllables with fricative. Syllables with plosive whose Finals include the medial were more likely to be perceived as tone 3 in contrast with syllables with plosive whose Finals exclude the medial, the latter were more likely to be perceived as tone 2. However, such effect was totally reversed between syllables with fricative.

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