TONE LANGUAGE SPEAKERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH INTONATION
Name: Jiang, Yu
1. Introduction
While the English pronunciation of second language (henceforth L2) learners is a
major area of research interest, the acquisition of English intonation has not been considered
to a great extent. The previous studies in this area tended to focus on intonation language
speakers acquiring other intonation languages or only on production. Those studies mainly
found obvious influence from the learner’s first language (henceforth L1). There are
surprisingly few studies concerning tone language speakers’ acquisition of English intonation.
Therefore, this study will aim to present tone language speakers’ competence in English
intonation, based on data from Mandarin English speakers’ and Cantonese English speakers’
perception and comprehension of English intonation.
Every language has its own intonation system; certain correlations exist between
intonation patterns with special meanings. Research tells us that the difficulties in the learning
of L2 intonation patterns are often due to the non-equivalence of the intonation structure of
the learners’ L1 and the L2 structure (e.g. Cruz-Ferreira, 1983). Mandarin and Cantonese are
tone languages and English is an intonation language, and different use is made of the
acoustic components of tone and intonation in these three languages. This paper is organized
as follows. Section 2 will provide the theoretical background regarding tone and intonation
in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Section 3 will present hypotheses, the methodology of
this study and results of the tests. Section 4 extends the discussion including the data analysis
of the four non-native English groups so as to examine the hypotheses. Section 5 concludes
with a summary of the major findings of this study and limitations of this research.
2. Theoretical Background
Tone refers to the pitch on the individual syllable and intonation refers to the height of
pitch on the sentence level. Trask (1999) and Yip (2002) have suggested explanations for tone
and intonation and they agree that tone and intonation are two parts of the same phonetic
structure where the different distribution of pitch is the determining factor in distinguishing
the two. However, tone only exists in tone languages and intonation exists at the sentence
level in all languages. This section will start with an overview of Mandarin tones, particles
and intonation and the relationship between tone and intonation. Section 2.2 will introduce the
tones and intonation of Cantonese. Section 2.3 will briefly present the intonation system of
English.
2.1. Mandarin tones and intonation
Mandarin has five tones, including four contour tones and a neutral tone (Chao, 1957).
As the different pitch on the word changes its core meaning, the tones are usually called
lexical tones. The four contrastive tones in Mandarin are high level ‘→’, high rising ‘↗ ’,
low-dipping ‘∨ ’ and high-falling ‘↘ ’ which will be represented as T1, T2, T3 and T4, and
toneless syllables (Chao, 1968). In linguistics, lexical tones are usually symbolized as well as
numbered, which indicates the height of pitch of each tone. Chao (1957; 1968) put forward
this numerical system and these measures have been used for decades. The pitch range of a
normal speaking voice was divided into five levels, with 1 as the lowest and 5 as the highest.
Zero refers to toneless. Most syllables are given two digits, one for the starting pitch and one
for the ending pitch. For example:
(1)
mā T1:55
‘mother’;
má T2:35
‘linen’
mǎ T3:214 ‘horse’;
mà T4:51
‘curse’
ma 0 (toneless, one of the neutral tones) ‘particle for question’
The toneless syllables are another major aspect in the consideration of intonation.
Although there is not a large number of toneless syllables in Mandarin, they are used
frequently. In studying colloquial speech, it has been found that there is one toneless syllable
in each five or seven syllables (Guo, 1993). These are mainly particles and suffixes. In
Mandarin particles and suffixes play an important grammatical function as well as an
expressive function. Yip (2002) suggested that the sentence-final particles are used to avoid
conflicts between the lexical tone of the last syllable and intonation. In other words, the
particle takes its pitch partly for realizing the intonation of the sentence. Take two particles of
simple questions for example,
(2) a. Mary shì xué shēng ma?
Mary is student (particle)?
Is Mary a student?
b. Mary shì xué shēng ba?
Mary is
student (particle) ?
(I think that) Mary is a student, isn’t she?
The particles in the above sentences indicate that they will lead to yes/no answers.
However, in sentence (a), the particle implies that the speaker slightly doubts about the
affirmative answer and the probabilities will be around 50% or less; in sentence (b), it implies
that the speaker supposes that Mary is a student and will get an affirmative answer as he/she
expected. Comparing the intonation of the two particles, ‘ma’ usually realizes a bit higher
pitch in sentence (a) than ‘ba’ does in sentence (b), although both of them make the sentence
a rising ending.
Regarding the classification of intonation patterns in Mandarin, linguists have not
reached a common standpoint. The traditional classification suggested that there are three
patterns: falling for statements, imperatives, interjectional expressions and wh-questions;
rising for interrogative expressions, incomplete sentences, questions with particles and
sentences with implications; the mixture of rising and falling to express exaggeration, satire,
humor and surprise (Li, 1956; Shi, 1980). Besides these three, there is an extra intonation –
level - which is used for utterances of thought, recitation and hesitation (Huang, 1956; Jiang
and Yin, 1957). On the point of attitudinal function, Guo (1993) analyzed five intonation
patterns. Based on all ideas, there are at least three intonation patterns in Mandarin which
have been agreed: falling, rising and mixture of falling and rising. Falling and rising are the
most common patterns, which mostly occur at the end of sentences. A mixture of falling and
rising usually occurs in long sentences or in a sentence with implications.
However there are some controversial statements concerning the relationship between
lexical tone and intonation. Chao (1968) suggested that tone and intonation have an impact on
expressions at the same time. Hu (1987) hypothesized that intonation is an independent
phonetic phenomenon beyond the lexical tone， which was shown by the falling intonation at
the end of the utterance in Beijing dialects. Xu (1980) suggested that intonation is based on
lexical tone unless the pitch appears on the level of extra high. This was investigated through
the shouting of statement/question sentences, with the final syllable’s tone changing into
T1:55. It is also suggested that in tone languages, specific tones and overall contour tones are
modified to define certain intonation messages and the intonation phenomenon is reported as
being superimposed on the lexical tone (Ladd, 1998; Cruttenden, 1997). For instance，the
average pitch of each lexical tone in questions is generally discovered to be higher than that of
the tones in statement(Chao, 1986; Shen, 1985; Shen, 1989).
2.2. Cantonese tones and intonation
Cantonese is one of the Chinese Yue dialects. As Hong Kong Cantonese proceeds from
the Cantonese of Canton, its accent is similar to Canton’s (Zhang, 1972). Cantonese has 6
basic tones: high-level/falling, middle-rising, middle-level, low-falling, low-rising and
low-level (Zeng, 1988). Yet, sometimes high-level/falling is regarded as two tones: high-level
and high-falling, in which case Cantonese has 7 basic tones (Yip, 2002; Guo, 1993). In
addition to the basic tones, there are another three tones, which have same pitch range of
high-level, middle-level and low-level, but end with /p/, /t/ and /k/ (Zeng, 1988). One can
conclude that there are 10 tones at most in Cantonese. Taking one syllable ‘si’ for an example,
it refers to different meaning when it receives ten tones respectively. In the example, the
number notions used for pitch range follow Mandarin’s, 1 for the lowest pitch and 5 for the
highest. For example:
(3)
T1: si: 55 ‘poem’
T2: si: 44 ‘to try, taste’
T3: si: 33 ‘affair, undertaking’
T4: si: 22/21 ‘time’
T5: si: 35 ‘to cause, make’
T6: si: 24
T7: si: 53
T8: sik: 5
T9: sip: 4
T10: sik: 3
‘market, city’
‘silk’
‘style, type’
‘to wedge’
‘to eat’
(Yip, 2002)
When words come together as compounds or in sentences, most syllables will keep
their tones unchanged. Importantly, as one of the Yue dialects, Cantonese has the last tonal
phenomenon of interest, which is called changed tone. Yip (2002) suggested that the last
syllable usually starts at the starting point of the base tone and ends high. For instance,
Cantonese often attaches a prefix ‘a’ to a surname，turning it into a nickname. For example:
(4)
tsan: T4:22 ‘surname’
a: T3: 33 (prefix) + tsan: T4: 22 (surname) → a: T3: 33 tsan:T4: 25
In this example, the basic tone of ‘tsan’ is T4:22. When it is combined with the prefix
‘a’, its tone is changed into T4: 25.
Intonation in Cantonese mainly refers to the intonation at the end of sentences where
there are three patterns: rising, falling and level (or non-intonation) (Mai, 1989). All three
patterns will be realized on the last syllable of the sentence. Rising is usually used in
questions, resulting in the pitch of the last syllable rising to a very high level; falling is usually
used in confirmation, command, or to express unhappiness and praise. Level will not bring
any change to the original tones of syllables, and is used in narration and statement.
Regarding the final intonation of declaratives, interrogatives, yes/no questions and echo
question, Flynn (2001) found that the falling trend appears in declaratives as well as
interrogatives which contain a question word, such as ‘wh-’ word in English. On the other
hand, rising tail is used to express query, doubt or suspicion. Besides echo questions, this can
also signal declaratives with attitudes of ironic, confirmative, or impatience.
As in Mandarin, particles play a very important role in Cantonese expressions.
Cantonese has 35 to 40 particles and almost every Cantonese utterance ends with a particle
(Yip, 2002). As Cantonese bears around 10 lexical tones, the toneless carriers for intonation
are obviously functional. If the sentence does not need a particle semantically, a speaker tends
to place /a/ at the end---- if /a/ is high, the utterance ‘invites the hearer to agree to the action
proposed’; if /a/ is low, the utterance has an air of impatience and boredom (Yip, 2002). Flynn
(2001) also hypothesized that the particle is often attached to a grammatical unit to coincide
with the end of the intonation pattern. The flexible point is that “a slightly different
pronunciation could be more often aligned to another meaning”, which makes Cantonese
speech prosodicly unique and complicated.
2.3. English
Compared to Mandarin and Cantonese, English makes more use of intonation patterns
and the usages of the intonation are more flexible and variable. Halliday (1967) proposed five
primary tones for intonation: 1. falling; 2. high rising; 3. low rising; 4. falling-rising;
5.rising-falling and analyzed each intonation with descriptive meaning, such as rising-falling
typically for assertions, high rising for seeking information or challenging a statement. Crystal
(2003) displayed 9 ways of saying ‘yes’ and suggested the 9 types of intonation, including
level, falling, high-falling, low-falling, rising, high-rising, low-rising, falling-rising and
rising-falling. However, to display the diversity of intonation and the wide range of meaning
which the intonation can convey, O’Connor and Arnold (1973) illustrated ten patterns of
intonation with contrastive examples for each pattern. Each pattern is discussed in terms of
the attitudinal functions based on grammatical classification. The following examples only
cover the different ranges of meanings in statements which two of ten patterns can convey
respectively.
(5)
(6)
Low drop with ending of low falling, which conveys the meaning of “weighty,
judicial, considered.” For example,
A: Have you any news of Malcolm?
B: He’s passed his ﹑exam.
High drop with ending of high falling, which indicates “a sense of involvement, light,
airy”. For example,
A: Where on earth are my slippers?
B: I can’t think ˋwhat’s happened to them.
3. The Study
3.1 Hypotheses
The present study tested three hypotheses concerning the expected results of speakers
of Mandarin and Cantonese learning English:
1. Although there are far fewer intonation patterns in Mandarin and Cantonese, listeners will
be able to perceive English intonation.
2. Both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers’ comprehension of the meanings English intonation
patterns represent will depend on the similarities of the intonation patterns between their L1
and English.
3. Participants who have had more exposure to native English input will be more competence
than their counterparts in English intonation.
3.2. Methodology
There were a total of 59 adults taking part in this study, 5 of which were in the control
group and 54 were in 4 non-native speaker groups. The non-native speakers’ English level
was measured by their scores of an international English test which they took before they
came to Britain as students. Thirty were from areas of mainland China and all of them are
mandarin speakers. They were separated into two groups depending on their exposure to
native English: Current Students and New Students. Current Students were postgraduate
students and had been in the UK around 11 months when they took part in the tests. New
Students were students on a pre-sessional English course who expected to start an MA after
finishing the language course. The remaining 24 were from Hong Kong (henceforth HK) and
they were studying BA degree in Education in HK. When they took the tests, they were taking
summer courses and had been in UK for one month. They were also divided into two groups
depending on their exposures to English in HK. Most participants in the HK Group A went to
English school or attended English classes after school time while participants of HK Group
B went to Chinese school and had no English exposures expect the English class time.
Generally, the HK speakers had more exposure to native speakers than those in mainland
China.
Table 1. Participants by Groups
Native Speakers
Numbers
Current Students
New Students
HK Group A
HK Group B
Total
15
15
12
12
59
10-year school
10-year
English in
No English
N/A
+ 1year in UK
school
daily life
after class
5
English
N/A
Exposure
The participants were asked to take a 40-minute listening test, which consisted of 30
pairs of sentences. The sentences in each pair used same expression but adopted different
intonation.1 When they listened to the tape, they were requested to answer two questions for
each pair, the first is whether the two sentences (Sentence A and Sentence B) have same
meaning and the second question is to match the sentence meaning (X or Y) from the
prepared choice sheets to Sentence A and B, writing the answer on the answer sheets. For
example:
(7) Pair 4. Listening parts:
A. ″Are you sure you’ve brought ˏ with you.
B. ″Are you sure you’ve brought ˋwith you.
The prepared choice sheets:
X. The speaker is asking a question and is not sure of the answer, which
could be either Yes or No.
Y. The speaker is asking a question and expects the answer No.
1
The test was designed by Cruz-Ferreira (1983) and was especially used for the research into non-native English speakers’
comprehension of English intonation patterns. But several changes were made in answer sheets. The original answer sheets
are as following:
Pair No. xx
1. The sentences have the same meaning. (
)
The sentences have different meanings. (
)
2. The sentences have the same meaning. The meaning of both sentences is:
[meaning X]
(
)
[meaning Y]
(
)
3. The sentences have different meanings. The meaning of each sentence is:
[meaning X]
(
)
[meaning Y]
(
)
Three parts for one question seem complicated and redundant, which could affect listeners answering question. Thus three
parts were reduced to two parts in the present study.
Additionally, in the part of matching meaning, writing down Sentence A and B to match Meaning X and Y is not an
appropriated format to ask listeners giving answers. Sentence A and B will be played from recorder and the choices X and Y
will be in paraphrase sheets. When listeners were doing tests, it requests them to do several things at the same time, listening,
reading, recalling what they heard, making decision and do matching. As listening is a kind of temporary resource to the
listeners, they would be possible to mix the order of the Sentence A and B or can’t remember the difference between A and B
after they read the choices sheets. Therefore, listeners can do the same tasks much easier if they are requested to match
Sentence A and B to choices X and Y.
The answer sheets:
(1) The sentences have the same meaning. (
The sentences have different meanings. (
(2) Sentence A meaning (
)
Sentence B meaning (
)
)
)
The answer of (1) will display whether listeners are able to perceive the different
intonation patterns, and the answer of (2) will display whether listeners are able to
comprehend the meanings expressed.
3.3. Results
As the answers for each question include two parts --- perception (Per) answers and
comprehension (Com) answers, Table 2 provides the general results for the two parts
respectively among the five groups.
Table 2. Test results:
Groups
Answers
Per
answers
Rate
Com
answers
Rate
Native Speakers
5 participants
135 sentences
Current Students
15 participants
405 sentences
New Students
15 participants
405 sentences
HK Group A
12participants
324 sentences
HK Group B
12participants
324 sentences
120
353
302
264
227
89%
87%
75%
81%
70%
117
244
170
197
141
87%
60%
42%
61%
44%
Native Speakers obtained 89% for Per answers and 87% for Com answers.2 In Per
answers, Current Students reached 87%, which was only 2% less than Native Speakers. HK
group A was much better than New Students, 81% to75%. HK group B obtained the lowest
rate, only 70%. Current Students was 12% higher than New Students and HK group A was
11% higher than HK group B. Thus, Mandarin speakers were better than HK Cantonese
speakers in Per answers. The situation changed in the comparisons of Com answers among
the five groups. Native Speakers obtained 26% higher than the best group of the non-native
speaker groups, 61% of HK group A which was 1% higher than Current Students. HK group
B was also 2% higher than New Students. Thus, the HK groups were 3% better than the
Mandarin groups in comprehension section. On the other hand, HK Group A obtained 17%
higher rate than HK Group B and the similar tendency appeared between Current Students
2
There could be many reasons for that native speakers failed in obtaining 100% in the test. One of the possible reasons could
be the different English background of 5 participants: three of them growing up in southern England, one in the north and the
other one in the east. Besides this, further investigation will be needed. Anyway, in the latter discussion of the study, the rate
of Control group will be regarded as the measure for the non-native speakers’ groups. In other words, all discussions will be
based on Control group’s rate.
and New Students, 18% differences.
Fig. 1 Bar chart of the general results:
Fig. 1
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Native
Speakers
Current
Students
New
Students
Per answers
HK Group A
HK Group B
Com answers
Fig. 1 clearly displays the differences between the results of Per answers and Com
answers in each non-native speakers’ groups. There was only 2% in Native Speakers while
there was a 20% difference in HK group A, which was the best among the 4 non-native
speaker groups. HK group B and Current students had similar rates, 26% and 27%
respectively. The worst one was New Students, 33%, which was nearly half rate of the Per
answer tally. This suggests that perception and comprehension are two phases in the process
of the acquisition of intonation. Compared with Native Speakers, perception of English
intonation might not raise many difficulties either for Cantonese speakers or for Mandarin
speakers. This particularly shows, based on the results of Current Students, that one-year
exposure in native English environment can enhance Mandarin learners’ capability in
distinguishing intonation to the level of native speakers’. On the other hand, meaning
comprehension appeared to be difficult for both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. Although
HK group A and Current Students appeared more advanced than their counterpart groups,
they have nearly 30% less than Native speakers. However，this suggests that comprehension
will improve through long-term English exposure.
4. Discussion
This section provides a detailed discussion of non-native English groups’ perception
and comprehension of English intonation based on the test results. The discussion will be
presented in order of the three hypotheses to consider whether the results support or
undermine the hypotheses. In the discussion of perception and comprehension, New Students
and HK Group B will be used as the major samples because all of participants in these two
groups only learned English in class. Current Students and HK Group A are not appropriate to
compare for discussion because the participants’ exposure in native English are different.
However, the data from Current Students and HK Group A will be discussed separately in
Section 4.3 for the third hypothesis.
4.1. Perception of intonation
The results supported the first hypothesis that listeners will be able to perceive English
intonation, even though there are far fewer intonation patterns in Mandarin and in Cantonese.
The discussion will be generally divided into three parts, according to the contrasting patterns
of the test pairs: contrasts of rising patterns, including full-rising, high-rising and low-rising,
contrasts of falling patterns, including full-falling, high-falling and low-falling, and contrasts
of mixtures of rising and falling, involving rising-falling, falling-rising, risings and fallings,
which contrast with each other.
4.1.1. Mandarin speakers: New Students
Mandarin speakers perceived the different rising intonation and falling intonation in
English. This can be shown by the results of the contrast, in which low rising contrasts with
high-rising referring to questions or statements, and the contrast, in which low-falling
contrasts with high-falling referring to different types of questions.
The mixture of rising and falling intonation in other contrasts will be presented as
follows:
1. Contrasts of low-rising and high-falling
Most listeners could perceive these two patterns, which applied to verbs or copulas and
were used in sentences of exclamation, questions, or indicating a positive or negative
presupposition. However, a failure occurred in a contrast where intonation acted on an
adverb, combining with a pause In Mandarin, changing the intonation of an adverb
cannot change the sentence’s meaning. Additionally, the pause could interfere with the
listener’s perception. In Mandarin, if the adverb is treated separately, it is usually in a
falling intonation in a short sentence.
2. Contrasts of low-rising and low-falling
Listeners perceived these, where two patterns were used to indicate an object or the
subject of the sentence, open listing or close listing and a question or a statement.
3. Contrasts of rising-falling
Most listeners perceived this pattern when it was used for impressive statements,
contrasting with falling-rising or high-falling.
4. Contrasts of falling-rising
Most listeners distinguished this when it contrasted with high-falling, full falling,
low-rising, or combines with a pause, used for selective statement or reserved statement.
4.1.2 HK Cantonese speakers: HK Group B
Listeners perceived rising intonation when it was used for different kinds of questions
or statements. Listeners also perceived the different falling intonation when the contrasts were
used for different statements. However, listeners were not sensitive to the movement of falling
patterns.
The contrasts of mixture of rising and falling will also be discussed in four ways:
1. Contrasts of low-rising and high-falling
Listeners differentiated them when the patterns were used for exclamation and question
or different types of tag question. However, listeners were unsuccessful in distinguishing
the patterns when they worked on the adverb to express possibility, possibly because of
the emptiness of such usages in Cantonese.
2. Contrasts of low-rising and low-falling
When they were used for a statement with a contrasting pattern for questions, listeners
successfully distinguished them. However, when low-rising combined with a pause to
indicate the subject or to express a close listing, listeners failed. The possible reason
could again be that the appearance of a pause interfered with the listener’s perception
because a sentence with a pause usually involves falling intonation in Cantonese.
3. Contrasts of rising-falling
Listeners perceived this when it was used to express an impressed statement.
4. Contrasts of falling-rising
When this contrasted with falling or low-rising, listeners perceived it. However, listeners
failed when it received high-falling as the contrasting pattern to represent selective statement
or transferred negation. A possible reason is that all these contrasting sentences only receive a
level intonation in Cantonese.
In summary, Mandarin listeners were found to be superior to Cantonese listeners in
perceiving English intonation. Lado (1957) suggested that students who speak a tone
language with two gliding tones---a rise and a fall--- will not hear the difference between the
lower pitch phonemes or the higher pitches of an intonation language with four pitch
phonemes---low, mid, high and extra high. Therefore, Mandarin speakers can distinguish the
difference between rising intonation from low to high or the difference between falling
intonation from low to high because Mandarin has 4 tones, in which T2:35 and T3: 214
involve the changes among the medium pitch heights. The 7 basic tones of Cantonese, T4:
22/21, T5: 35, T6: 24 and T7: 53 involve pitch changes among medium pitch heights, thus,
Cantonese speakers are able to perceive rising and falling intonation. However, as the patterns
of falling-rising or rising-falling are a mixture of rising and falling, Mandarin speakers were
better than Cantonese perhaps because T3: 214 in Mandarin is a mixture of falling and rising,
but in Cantonese, there is not a similar mixture in tones, except for rising tones, T5: 35 and T6:
24, and falling tones, T4: 22/21 and T7: 53. Thus, Cantonese speakers’ perception of
falling-rising and rising-falling patterns was not as accurate as their perception of rising or
falling intonation.
4.2. Comprehension of intonation
As the results disclosed that the non-native speakers’ capabilities in comprehension
only reached half the level of Native speakers, the comments in this section refer to the
corresponding capabilities within the group, New Students or HK Groups B.
4.2.1. Mandarin speakers: New students
Lado (1957) suggested that learner would transfer their L1 knowledge without
difficulty if L1 pitch phonemes resemble those in the L2. The results disclosed that a majority
of the listeners were able to comprehend those contrasts which involved a pattern of neutral
statement, such as rising-falling for an impressed statement contrasting to high-falling for a
neutral statement, low-rising contrasting to falling-rising for a neutral statement and a
selective statement, high-rising for tag questions contrasting to low-rising for a statement,
low-rising contrasting to high-rising for a statement and a question and falling-rising
contrasting to high-falling for a reserved statement and a neutral statement. The most
plausible reason for their success is that listeners perceived the different intonation of the two
sentences in each pair and confirmed that the correspondingly low intonation was for the
neutral statement. On the other hand, listeners almost always failed in other contrasts, such as
high-rising contrasting to low-rising for a yes/no question and an echo question, neutral
question and unfriendly question in falling, low-falling for close listing and low-rising for
open listing contrast and high-falling and low-rising for exclamation and question. The reason
could be that in Mandarin, the corresponding contrasting meanings usually adopt the same
intonation, but are attached to specific particles. The reason for the other failures in
high-falling and falling-rising for commanding and warning, high-falling and falling-rising
for changing the range of quantifier and the movement of falling-rising for the transferred
negation could be that in Mandarin, the contrasting meanings in these pairs are usually
realized through using different words and changes in the meaning of a sentence do not
depend on the intonation.
4.2.2. HK Cantonese speakers: HK Group B
The same tendencies found for the Mandarin speakers appeared among the Cantonese
speakers. The comprehended contrasts were those which involved a neutral statement, such as
neutral statement contrasting to reserved statement , neutral statement contrasting to selective
statement, and the contrasts of statement and question, such as statement contrasting to tag
question and statement contrasting to yes/no question. This result cannot suggest that they had
acquired the mixture intonation because they failed in the contrast of selective statement and
impressed statement and other contrasts of mixture intonation patterns. The most plausible
explanation here is that listeners’ comprehension greatly depends on their L1’s common
notion that the corresponding high pitch is for a question and the relevant low pitch is for a
statement. Learners distinguished the relevant low pitch for neutral statement, so they were
able to deal with the whole pair in the test. Besides the above, listeners occasionally
comprehended the contrasts of high-falling and low-rising for tag questions. In Cantonese, tag
questions usually receive rising intonation, on the particle. However, the pitch of the particle
for conductive tag question is usually higher than the particle for non-conductive tag question.
Thus, listeners may have worked out that the low-rising is for conductive tag question and
high-falling is for non-conductive tag question. Other similar success occurred with the
contrast of low-rising and falling-rising for possibility and duty. The corresponding
expressions in Cantonese mainly use different words to distinguish possibility and duty, but
duty expression always receives falling intonation. It is reasonable for listeners to reduce that
falling-rising pattern for duty rather than low-rising, because there was at least a falling tone
in a falling-rising pattern. As to the failures in other contrasts, the possible reason is that in
Cantonese, different particles are used frequently to indicate different meaning when the
sentences receive the same intonation. For example, in the contrast of low-falling and
low-rising for close listing and open listing, the corresponding sentences in Cantonese always
end with falling intonation or level intonation. Although rising always appears in the open
listing, it only works on the last item of the listing, not the sentence level.
Taking all tendencies of Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers into consideration,
the common characteristic is that learners are able to comprehend the contrasts which in
English use similar patterns to their L1, as suggested by Lado nearly 50 years ago.
4.3. Exposure to Native English environment
The third hypothesis was that learners being involved in a native English environment
will be more advanced than their counterpart groups----HK Group A vs. HK Group B, Current
Students vs. New Students and Mandarin speakers vs. Cantonese speakers.
4.3.1. Current Students vs. New Students and HK Group A vs. HK Group B
Comparing Current Students with New Students, the perceptions of Current Students
were nearly native-like. 100% perception occurred on 9 contrasts where New Students did not
achieve complete agreement. Current Students were superior to New Students on a total of 23
contrasts. With regard to the comprehension, Current Students were better than New Students
in 22 contrasts. More than 80% success in comprehension existed for 7 contrasts for Current
Students while there was only one contrast which was successful for New Students. However,
looking through the results, where learners displayed contrasts either in perception or in
comprehension were those which involved a pattern of statement or a pattern of question. This
would suggest that one year of additional English exposure in the target language country
helped Mandarin speakers with more accurately perceiving and comprehending the contrasts
which have similar features to their native language. Additionally, the improvement of the
Current Students suggested a general process of L2 intonation acquisition, and a different
pace through stages involving perception and then comprehension.
As to HK Group A and HK Group B, HK Group A seemed to be more at ease than HK
Group B in the perception test and they did better in 18 contrasts. There were 17 contrasts in
which HK Group A obtained more than 80% overall while there were 9 contrasts in HK
Group B. Concerning the comprehension, HK Group A was better than HK Group B in 22
contrasts. There were 11 pairs which HK Group A reached 70% overall while there were 4
pairs in HK Group B. Their tendency is same as Mandarin speakers’. The correct answers
occurred on the contrasts of statements or questions.
The results of Current Student and HK Group A support the idea that longer exposure
in a native English environment can improve intonation proficiency. Two groups’ tendencies
showed that the process of improvement in intonation acquisition starts with the patterns
which resemble their L1’s.
4.3.2 Mandarin speakers vs. HK Cantonese speakers
According to the results, Mandarin speakers were better than Cantonese speakers
overall in perception of intonation. There were more than 10 contrasts, which Mandarin
speakers obtained higher rate for than Cantonese speakers. Three contrasts were regarded as
typical contrasts which reflect the difference in perception between Mandarin and Cantonese
speakers. The first one was falling-rising contrasting to high-falling, which appears in 5
contrasts. Cantonese speakers obtained a similar rate of perception to Mandarin speakers in
two contrasts of neutral statement and reserved statement. They obtained at least 15% less
than Mandarin speakers in other contrasts. The second one is high-falling contrasting to
low-rising, which appeared in 4 contrasts. Cantonese speakers obtained perfect answers in one
contrast of tag questions. However, they obtained 25% to 40% less than Mandarin speakers in
other contrasts. The last pattern was the movement of falling intonation. Cantonese speakers
obtained 35% less than Mandarin speakers did in the contrasts of movement of low-falling
and high-falling. Comparing the comprehension results of Mandarin speakers and HK
Cantonese speakers, HK Cantonese speakers were better than Mandarin speakers, but only
3% higher in total. Looking through the results, there was not a typical or consistent tendency.
Thus, nothing demonstrates that Cantonese speakers were superior to Mandarin speakers in
their competence in English intonation, although the English environment in HK is more
extensive than in mainland China. This finding suggests that non-native English input is not
helpful in the acquisition of intonation.
5. Conclusion
This study examined Mandarin speakers and HK Cantonese speakers’ perception and
comprehension of English intonation and the test results supported the three hypotheses and
also demonstrated that the Mandarin speakers’ competence as shown by their perception is as
good as the native speakers after one year of exposure to native English. However, comparing
Mandarin speakers with Cantonese speakers, it suggested that the non-native English
environment is not as helpful as native English for developing this aspect of L2 competence.
The results further suggested that listeners felt more at ease with the contrasts which had
similar intonation patterns to their L1, such as statement contrasting question. Additionally,
listeners’ perception and comprehension of English intonation were occasionally influenced
by their L1’s grammatical structure and the special methods for conveying the corresponding
meanings, such as the frequent usages of particles in Mandarin and Cantonese.
However, there are several limitations in this study. Firstly, as there are only 5
participants for the control group, each participant will account for 20%. Thus one
participant’s mistake would decrease the correct rate by 20%, leading to an imbalanced rate
when compared with non-native speakers’ results. Secondly, Mandarin speakers’ one year of
native English exposure appeared not to be long enough to fully examine intonation
comprehension. For example, the results of the same contrasting patterns occasionally failed
to give a consistent tendency. Thirdly, the influence of universals on the learners’
interlanguage was not considered in this study and fourthly, syntactic competence of
individual participants was beyond this study’s scope. Generally, this study only aimed at
investigating the specific phenomenon of the acquisition of English intonation by tone
language speakers. In an extension to the study, owing to the appearance of the difference
between perception and comprehension, it would be appropriate to study the different stages
of intonation acquisition, both phonetically and phonologically, and in a longitudinal study.
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