Papers by Jiayin Gao
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Consonant-intrinsic F0 (CF0) effects are mainly the result of raising F0 following voiceless obst... more Consonant-intrinsic F0 (CF0) effects are mainly the result of raising F0 following voiceless obstruents, rather than of lowering F0 following voiced obstruents. However, there are also documented instances where lowered F0 following voiced obstruents is enhanced. Given that both voicing and F0 are affected by prosodic context, it is possible that CF0 is lowered in some contexts but not others. This possibility is investigated by examining CF0 in French and Italian in isolated citation forms. Results are comparable to carrier-phrase contexts, where no F0 lowering after voiced obstruents is observed. Possible sources of the apparent cross-linguistic differences are discussed.
Acoustical Science and Technology
Language and Speech
In Shanghai Chinese as well as many other Wu dialects, breathy voice is a well-documented accompa... more In Shanghai Chinese as well as many other Wu dialects, breathy voice is a well-documented accompaniment of the low-register tone syllables with obstruent as well as sonorant onsets. But Shanghai Chinese is rapidly changing and the breathy voice associated with low-register tones tends to disappear in young speakers’ productions. In this study, we asked whether breathy voice is nevertheless still perceived and whether it pushes tone identification toward low-register tones. We conducted forced-choice tone identification tests on young native listeners of Shanghai Chinese, using low–high register tone continua—from tone T3 (23) to tone T2 (34)—imposed on base syllables with either modal or breathy voice quality, and beginning with various onset consonants. We used continua constructed from either naturally produced or synthesized syllables. Our results show that breathy voice does bias tone identification responses toward the low-register tone T3. This result held for both synthesized...
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Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology, 2021
In several Korean dialects, domain-initial nasal onsets undergo denasalization as a recent sound ... more In several Korean dialects, domain-initial nasal onsets undergo denasalization as a recent sound change. Nasal stops may be realized as prevoiced or even devoiced stops. This makes it necessary to examine the interplay of phonetic properties of the denasalized and the three oral stop series as a whole, in synchrony and diachrony. What are their concomitant and conflicting properties? Our study provides a bigger picture of the laryngeal contrast in Seoul and Gyeonggi Korean by examining the acoustic distributions related to the laryngeal properties of the four stop series, using acoustic and electroglottographic data. VOT and f0 play important roles in the distinction of the four stop series, in line with previous studies. While the contribution of voice quality is relatively minor, we show that it plays an essential role of disambiguation when the VOT-f 0 space gets crowded: When lenis stops can be confused with other stops, there is an enhancement of breathy voice. Finally, we discuss stop variation according to prosodic contexts. We highlight the basis of both syntagmatic variation and paradigmatic contrast in their phonetic implementations. They illustrate a constant reorganization to reconcile contrast maintenance with constraints from articulatory and perceptual systems, as well as language-specific structures.
Journal of Phonetics, 2019
Winner of the Best Early Career Scholar’s Article of The Year (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/... more Winner of the Best Early Career Scholar’s Article of The Year (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-phonetics/awards/best-early-career-scholars-article-of-the-year).
This study addresses the two-way laryngeal contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese, which is commonly analyzed as a “true voicing” language. We examine how voicing-related properties of the plosive and f0 of the following vowel varied with the position in the word and in the sentence. We compare word-initial with word-medial positions for words in citation (between two pauses) and for two prosodic conditions in a carrier sentence: with vs. without a preceding pause. In word-initial position, unlike in a typical “true-voicing” language such as French, voiced plosives in Tokyo Japanese show a high devoicing rate, while voiceless plosives are moderately aspirated. A combination of VOT and f0 of the following vowel is used to distinguish the two plosive series. In word-medial position, voiced plosives are frequently prevoiced and voiceless plosives are unaspirated, while f0 does not differ after the two plosive series. This positional variation suggests that the onset-induced f0 effect is enhanced in word-initial position, where the VOT cue is not sufficient, but not in word-medial position, where the plosive voicing contrast is robustly marked by presence vs. absence of phonetic voicing. The differential use of cues in different environments in Tokyo Japanese provides another piece of evidence for the complexity of phonetic implementations of the voicing contrast. Finally, we discuss the enhancement of f0 perturbations as a source of a potential tonal development and ask whether such a development would take place in Tokyo Japanese.
Proceedings of the 19th ICPhS, 2019
In production, word-initial voicing contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese is not robustly based ... more In production, word-initial voicing contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese is not robustly based on VOT, since young speakers tend to devoice previously voiced plosives. Meanwhile, speakers rely heavily on f0. The present study aims to examine the role of VOT and f0 cues in perception. We conducted an identification test using resynthesized stimuli along a VOT continuum (-60 to +40 ms) orthogonal to an f0 continuum. Results suggested a categorical perception of VOT, while f0 was especially useful when VOT was around 0 ms. Higher f0 contours affected the response rate more than lower f0 contours , suggesting that the perceptual role of f0 raising was more important than f0 lowering. Hence, plosive devoicing in production is not preceded by listeners' misparsing of low f0 and pre-voicing. Their misattribution of high f0 to voiceless-ness may play a more important role in the shift of VOT-f0 cue weighting in perception and production.
Tonal Aspects of Languages, Berlin, 2018
This study investigates the relation between consonant voicing and F0 in modern Tokyo Japanese, a... more This study investigates the relation between consonant voicing and F0 in modern Tokyo Japanese, as produced by young female speakers. In a tone language, the F0 perturbation related to onset voicing has been reported to be inhibited, so that F0 can be maximally used in tonal contrasts. According to this explanation , the same pattern should be found in Tokyo Japanese, as F0 should be maximally used to signal its "pitch-accent".
Contrary to this prediction, our data show that in Tokyo Japanese, for the initial mora, F0 is remarkably lower after voiced than voiceless stops, and this effect lasts till the final part of the mora. However, the F0 level of the mora endpoint is maintained at H or L so that the pitch-accent pattern is well preserved. We thus argue that the competing role of F0 in a pitch-accent language, or even a tone language does not necessarily impose limitations on the F0 perturbation effect.
We also found that voiced stops are very often phonetically voiceless in utterance-initial position, while being phonetically voiced in utterance-medial position. Therefore, we question whether Tokyo Japanese is undergoing an incipient tonogenesis, given that the VOT cue is giving place to an F0 cue.
Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 2017
This study bears on the relations between tone, voicing, and voice quality in modern Shanghai Chi... more This study bears on the relations between tone, voicing, and voice quality in modern Shanghai Chinese. In low tone syllables, word-initial obstruent onsets are traditionally described as voiceless and breathy, and sonorant onsets as voiced and breathy.
Our study is based on acoustic and electroglottographic data from speakers of two age groups (20-30 vs. 60-80 years). Our results are globally in line with previous studies, but with notable differences. In low tone syllables, while word-initial stops are phonetically voiceless most of the time, fricatives are quite often phonetically voiced. While low tone obstruent onsets are followed by breathier vowels than high tone onsets, this pattern is not clear-cut for nasal onsets. Furthermore, our transversal data show that low tone breathiness is more systematically produced by elderly –especially male– than young speakers, suggesting an on-going change towards the loss of breathiness.
This study focuses on the on--going disappearance of low tone breathiness in Shanghai Chinese. In... more This study focuses on the on--going disappearance of low tone breathiness in Shanghai Chinese. In the change from a voicing contrast to a tone register contrast in Sinitic languages, the ancient voiced series was characterised by a breathy voice quality, which remained as a secondary and redundant cue of low tones in Shanghai Chinese. This study, using transversal production data from 12 young and 10 elderly speakers, shows that low tone breathiness is better preserved by elderly than young speakers, and by male than female speakers. We predict a future loss of this secondary cue, which is speeding up due to the interference with Standard Chinese. We also found that the disappearance is more advanced in female speakers, which might be explained by female speakers' stronger adherence to Standard Chinese as the prestigious form. Indeed, our young female speakers reported more frequent usage of Standard Chinese than Shanghai Chinese and higher competence in Standard Chinese than in Shanghai Chinese, whereas young male speakers were more confident in their usage of Shanghai Chinese.
Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Aug 2015
This study investigates the perceptual aspect of voice quality in Shanghai Chinese. Previous stud... more This study investigates the perceptual aspect of voice quality in Shanghai Chinese. Previous studies show that breathy voice is a redundant feature of low tones, but tends to disappear in young speakers’ productions. Does this mean that voice quality is not playing any role in tone perception? To find this out, we conducted forced-choice identification tests with young listeners, using synthesized and natural, breathy and modal syllables as stimuli. Our results show that breathy voice still is an important cue for the perception of low tone syllables, with the exception of nasal onset syllables.
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Phonetics of the Languages in China, Dec 2013
This study examines breathy voice or “muddy airflow” in
Shanghai Chinese. We compared low tone T... more This study examines breathy voice or “muddy airflow” in
Shanghai Chinese. We compared low tone T3, where it
tends to occur as a redundant feature, to high tone T1 or T2
words, where modal voice is typically found. We recorded
speech and electroglottographic (EGG) signals from old vs.
young male vs. female speakers of Shanghai Chinese. We
measured spectral tilt (H1-H2) from the speech signal and
open quotient (OQ) from the EGG signal. We found crossgender
and cross-age differences, as well as individual
variation. Elderly male speakers use both OQ and H1-H2
differences to distinguish modal and “muddy” voices.
Young male speakers use H1-H2 difference for this
distinction; only those with a small F0 range use also OQ
difference. For female speakers, no OQ or H1-H2
differences were found. The more consistent evidence for
breathy tone T3 productions in elderly than young male
speakers may suggest a loss in progress of the Shanghai
Chinese “muddy airflow”, perhaps under the influence of
Mandarin Chinese, which lacks this phonetic feature.
Proceedings of the 14th Interspeech Conference, Aug 2013
Previous studies have reported phonetic characteristics of the
Shanghai Chinese phonological voi... more Previous studies have reported phonetic characteristics of the
Shanghai Chinese phonological voicing contrast, which cooccurs
with a tonal contrast. In stressed word-initial position,
phonetic voicing is neutralized and replaced with a tonal
register contrast: high ‘yin’ tones for (phonologically)
voiceless and low ‘yang’ tones for voiced obstruents.
Furthermore, breathy vs. modal voice quality, and low vs. high
C/V duration ratio accompany voiced vs. voiceless obstruents.
In two syllable identification experiments, we explored the
impact of these characteristics on the perception of underlying
phonological voicing. In Experiment 1, we manipulated tone
contour (‘yin’ vs. ‘yang’) while maintaining other phonetic
properties, including duration pattern. Syllable identification
was mainly determined by the imposed contour, except for
syllables with a voiced labial fricative onset. However,
response times tended to increase when the imposed contour
differed from the original one. In Experiment 2, we
manipulated duration pattern and created tone contour
continua from a ‘yin’ tone to a ‘yang’ tone. The duration
pattern manipulation influenced identification in that high C/V
duration ratios induced more frequent and faster ‘yin’
identification (phonologically voiceless onset syllable). This
result only held for unchecked syllables. We conclude that
duration pattern contributes to the perception of phonological
voicing in Shanghai Chinese.
Actes des 29èmes Journées d'études sur la parole, Jun 2012
In Shanghainese, phonologically voiced obstruents in word-initial, accented position are phonetic... more In Shanghainese, phonologically voiced obstruents in word-initial, accented position are phonetically voiceless and are distinguished from the others (i.e., voiceless and/or aspirated) mainly by a low tone register. Slightly breathy voice is also reported in the relevant literature as an additional characteristic of these obstruents in accented position. In this study, we used both monosyllabic and disyllabic words to revisit the issue of breathy phonation as characterizing phonologically voiced Shanghainese obstruents not only in accented position but also in non-accented position, where sandhi may affect tone register. We found breathy phonation most clearly when tone register is not affected. We also found that systematic duration patterns robustly characterize phonologically voiced obstruents, whether or not in accented position.
Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Aug 2011
From a representational viewpoint, the “voiced”
series of obstruents in Shanghai dialect can be
... more From a representational viewpoint, the “voiced”
series of obstruents in Shanghai dialect can be
specified in terms of complementary, context-conditioned
tonal and segmental features: either
low tone or glottal pulsing. Yet, some studies have
proposed that, when the “voiced” obstruents can
only be signaled by low tone (stress-initially), they
retain something of segmental voicedness. This
somewhat mysterious “something” has often been
identified to a moderate degree of breathiness after
stop release, or “slack voice.” In this study we
revisit this issue and find that Shanghai obstruents,
as produced today by young Shanghai people,
indeed retain some characteristics of plain voiced
obstruents but breathiness does not appear as the
sole one. We propose that articulatory timing
relationships are the main determinant to the
mysterious voiced quality of Shanghai obstruents.
Doctoral thesis by Jiayin Gao
Thèse dirigée par Pierre Hallé Soutenue le 21 mai 2015 i ii Résumé Cette étude porte sur les corr... more Thèse dirigée par Pierre Hallé Soutenue le 21 mai 2015 i ii Résumé Cette étude porte sur les corrélats phonétiques des registres tonals yin vs. yang du shanghaïen parlé dans la région urbaine de Shanghai. Nos investigations acoustique, articulatoire et perceptive ont montré qu'en dehors du F0, des indices multi-dimensionnels comme le voisement (voisé pour yang et non-voisé pour yin), le pattern de durée (ratio C/V bas pour yang et élevé pour yin), et le type de phonation (soufflé pour yang et modal pour yin) participent tous à la définition du registre tonal. Parmi tous ces indices, nous tâchons de distinguer les traits redondants liés aux effets coarticulatoires des survivances de changements diachroniques. En particulier, la voix soufflée qui accompagne les tons yang est un trait redondant, issu d'une évolution tonale qui est la transphonologisation de distinction de voisement vers la distinction de registre tonal, ou « bipartition tonale ». Nous proposons que la perte d'un trait redondant issu d'un changement diachronique peut être très lente si ce trait ne contrarie pas les effets coarticulatoires et/ou si le trait a une fonction perceptive. En nous basant sur les données synchroniques des locuteurs de deux générations (20-30 ans vs. 60-80 ans), nous constatons une tendance vers la disparition de cette phonation soufflée. Nous constatons également une évolution plus avancée chez les femmes que les hommes de leur âge. Dans notre étude, nous essayons d'expliquer ce changement tant par des causes internes que par des causes externes.
Conference Presentations by Jiayin Gao
LabPhon Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), 2018
It is widely accepted that Japanese has a two-way laryngeal contrast between "voiced" and "voicel... more It is widely accepted that Japanese has a two-way laryngeal contrast between "voiced" and "voiceless" stops. Some describe Japanese as a "true voicing" language in the same way as French or Spanish [1], essentially based on phonological arguments including phonological rules involved in compounding, or Rendaku.
Fourth Workshop on Sound Change (WSC4). Edinburgh. 20-22 April 2017
Following the transphonologization of a contrast in voicing on initial consonants into a tonal co... more Following the transphonologization of a contrast in voicing on initial consonants into a tonal contrast, we examine the conditions under which some traces of the old voicing are retained on a limited number of segments, in specific contexts and words.
Edited Books by Jiayin Gao
[FR] Comment appréhender la diversité du réel sans chercher à la structurer et à formuler des règ... more [FR] Comment appréhender la diversité du réel sans chercher à la structurer et à formuler des règles supposées expliquer ou du moins décrire son fonctionnement ? Comment comprendre un phénomène sans d'abord en concevoir des fonctionnements possibles ? Même si le recours à une réalité idéale ne suffit pas toujours à la compréhension d'un phénomène langagier, d'un fonctionnement psychologique ou encore d'une stratégie cognitive, la construction et l'exploitation de modèles apparaît souvent nécessaire. Tout comme apparaît nécessaire la remise en cause et la révision de ces représentations, afin d'appréhender des réalités plus nuancés. La diversité des disciplines regroupées sous l'intitulé "sciences du langage" encourage à envisager le terme de "modèle" dans des acceptions bien différentes. Par exemple, un psycholinguiste proposant un modèle pour rendre compte de la réalité cognitivo-psychologique du lecteur ne voit pas la notion de modèle de la même manière qu'un sémioticien quand il parle de "lecteur modèle" (Eco, 1985). De même, les modèles syntaxiques n'ont pas la même fonction en traitement automatique des langues qu'en linguistique descriptive. La multiplicité des approches adoptées par les différentes disciplines engage à interroger non seulement la notion de modèle, mais aussi la modélisation des données langagières, que ce soit à des fins descriptives, explicatives ou prédictives. On peut donc s'intéresser aux différentes définitions du modèle, et se pencher sur leur mise en pratique, leur potentiel transdisciplinaire et leurs éventuelles transformations. On peut aussi s'interroger sur la pertinence et les limites de ces modèles, voire de la notion même de modèle. Selon les approches des chercheur-e-s, le modèle peut ainsi être perçu comme une nécessité ou comme un obstacle, comme un indice de rigueur ou comme un biais scientifique. S'agit-il d'un carcan théorique auquel les données empiriques doivent s'ajuster ? Ou s'agit-il d'une construction sans laquelle la dynamique et le fonctionnement d'une réalité seraient impossible à appréhender ?
[EN] How do we grasp the variety of reality without trying to establish a structure and formulate rules supposed to explain or describe the way it works? How do we understand a phenomenon without first trying to conceive its possible operations? Even if the use of an abstract framing is not always enough for comprehending a given linguistic phenomenon, psychological process or cognitive strategy, the construction and utilisation of models often appears necessary - just as it is necessary to question and revise existing models, in order to apprehend ever more finely grained phenomena. Because of the varied disciplines grouped under the heading "language sciences", the very word "model" is to be understood in different senses. For instance, the psycholinguist proposing a model to account for the psycho-cognitive process of the reader does not conceive the model in the same way as the semiotician speaking about the "model reader" (Eco, 1979). In the same way syntactic models have different functions in natural language processing and in descriptive linguistics. The many approaches of the varied disciplines lead to question regarding not only the notion of "model" but also the activity of modeling linguistic data, depending on descriptive, explanatory or predictive purposes. Thus, the various definitions of "model" are of interest, together with their application, their transdisciplinary potentialities and their possible transformations. The questions of the relevance and limits of these models are also of interest, as is the issue of the very notion of "model". According to the different approaches adopted by researchers, the model can be considered as a necessity, or an obstacle, as a sign of rigor or as a scientific bias. Is it a theoretical restraint into the empirical data must fit in with? Or is it an abstract construction required to understand the dynamics and functioning of a any given phenomenon or linguistic fact?
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Papers by Jiayin Gao
This study addresses the two-way laryngeal contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese, which is commonly analyzed as a “true voicing” language. We examine how voicing-related properties of the plosive and f0 of the following vowel varied with the position in the word and in the sentence. We compare word-initial with word-medial positions for words in citation (between two pauses) and for two prosodic conditions in a carrier sentence: with vs. without a preceding pause. In word-initial position, unlike in a typical “true-voicing” language such as French, voiced plosives in Tokyo Japanese show a high devoicing rate, while voiceless plosives are moderately aspirated. A combination of VOT and f0 of the following vowel is used to distinguish the two plosive series. In word-medial position, voiced plosives are frequently prevoiced and voiceless plosives are unaspirated, while f0 does not differ after the two plosive series. This positional variation suggests that the onset-induced f0 effect is enhanced in word-initial position, where the VOT cue is not sufficient, but not in word-medial position, where the plosive voicing contrast is robustly marked by presence vs. absence of phonetic voicing. The differential use of cues in different environments in Tokyo Japanese provides another piece of evidence for the complexity of phonetic implementations of the voicing contrast. Finally, we discuss the enhancement of f0 perturbations as a source of a potential tonal development and ask whether such a development would take place in Tokyo Japanese.
Contrary to this prediction, our data show that in Tokyo Japanese, for the initial mora, F0 is remarkably lower after voiced than voiceless stops, and this effect lasts till the final part of the mora. However, the F0 level of the mora endpoint is maintained at H or L so that the pitch-accent pattern is well preserved. We thus argue that the competing role of F0 in a pitch-accent language, or even a tone language does not necessarily impose limitations on the F0 perturbation effect.
We also found that voiced stops are very often phonetically voiceless in utterance-initial position, while being phonetically voiced in utterance-medial position. Therefore, we question whether Tokyo Japanese is undergoing an incipient tonogenesis, given that the VOT cue is giving place to an F0 cue.
Our study is based on acoustic and electroglottographic data from speakers of two age groups (20-30 vs. 60-80 years). Our results are globally in line with previous studies, but with notable differences. In low tone syllables, while word-initial stops are phonetically voiceless most of the time, fricatives are quite often phonetically voiced. While low tone obstruent onsets are followed by breathier vowels than high tone onsets, this pattern is not clear-cut for nasal onsets. Furthermore, our transversal data show that low tone breathiness is more systematically produced by elderly –especially male– than young speakers, suggesting an on-going change towards the loss of breathiness.
Shanghai Chinese. We compared low tone T3, where it
tends to occur as a redundant feature, to high tone T1 or T2
words, where modal voice is typically found. We recorded
speech and electroglottographic (EGG) signals from old vs.
young male vs. female speakers of Shanghai Chinese. We
measured spectral tilt (H1-H2) from the speech signal and
open quotient (OQ) from the EGG signal. We found crossgender
and cross-age differences, as well as individual
variation. Elderly male speakers use both OQ and H1-H2
differences to distinguish modal and “muddy” voices.
Young male speakers use H1-H2 difference for this
distinction; only those with a small F0 range use also OQ
difference. For female speakers, no OQ or H1-H2
differences were found. The more consistent evidence for
breathy tone T3 productions in elderly than young male
speakers may suggest a loss in progress of the Shanghai
Chinese “muddy airflow”, perhaps under the influence of
Mandarin Chinese, which lacks this phonetic feature.
Shanghai Chinese phonological voicing contrast, which cooccurs
with a tonal contrast. In stressed word-initial position,
phonetic voicing is neutralized and replaced with a tonal
register contrast: high ‘yin’ tones for (phonologically)
voiceless and low ‘yang’ tones for voiced obstruents.
Furthermore, breathy vs. modal voice quality, and low vs. high
C/V duration ratio accompany voiced vs. voiceless obstruents.
In two syllable identification experiments, we explored the
impact of these characteristics on the perception of underlying
phonological voicing. In Experiment 1, we manipulated tone
contour (‘yin’ vs. ‘yang’) while maintaining other phonetic
properties, including duration pattern. Syllable identification
was mainly determined by the imposed contour, except for
syllables with a voiced labial fricative onset. However,
response times tended to increase when the imposed contour
differed from the original one. In Experiment 2, we
manipulated duration pattern and created tone contour
continua from a ‘yin’ tone to a ‘yang’ tone. The duration
pattern manipulation influenced identification in that high C/V
duration ratios induced more frequent and faster ‘yin’
identification (phonologically voiceless onset syllable). This
result only held for unchecked syllables. We conclude that
duration pattern contributes to the perception of phonological
voicing in Shanghai Chinese.
series of obstruents in Shanghai dialect can be
specified in terms of complementary, context-conditioned
tonal and segmental features: either
low tone or glottal pulsing. Yet, some studies have
proposed that, when the “voiced” obstruents can
only be signaled by low tone (stress-initially), they
retain something of segmental voicedness. This
somewhat mysterious “something” has often been
identified to a moderate degree of breathiness after
stop release, or “slack voice.” In this study we
revisit this issue and find that Shanghai obstruents,
as produced today by young Shanghai people,
indeed retain some characteristics of plain voiced
obstruents but breathiness does not appear as the
sole one. We propose that articulatory timing
relationships are the main determinant to the
mysterious voiced quality of Shanghai obstruents.
Doctoral thesis by Jiayin Gao
Conference Presentations by Jiayin Gao
Edited Books by Jiayin Gao
[EN] How do we grasp the variety of reality without trying to establish a structure and formulate rules supposed to explain or describe the way it works? How do we understand a phenomenon without first trying to conceive its possible operations? Even if the use of an abstract framing is not always enough for comprehending a given linguistic phenomenon, psychological process or cognitive strategy, the construction and utilisation of models often appears necessary - just as it is necessary to question and revise existing models, in order to apprehend ever more finely grained phenomena. Because of the varied disciplines grouped under the heading "language sciences", the very word "model" is to be understood in different senses. For instance, the psycholinguist proposing a model to account for the psycho-cognitive process of the reader does not conceive the model in the same way as the semiotician speaking about the "model reader" (Eco, 1979). In the same way syntactic models have different functions in natural language processing and in descriptive linguistics. The many approaches of the varied disciplines lead to question regarding not only the notion of "model" but also the activity of modeling linguistic data, depending on descriptive, explanatory or predictive purposes. Thus, the various definitions of "model" are of interest, together with their application, their transdisciplinary potentialities and their possible transformations. The questions of the relevance and limits of these models are also of interest, as is the issue of the very notion of "model". According to the different approaches adopted by researchers, the model can be considered as a necessity, or an obstacle, as a sign of rigor or as a scientific bias. Is it a theoretical restraint into the empirical data must fit in with? Or is it an abstract construction required to understand the dynamics and functioning of a any given phenomenon or linguistic fact?
This study addresses the two-way laryngeal contrast of plosives in Tokyo Japanese, which is commonly analyzed as a “true voicing” language. We examine how voicing-related properties of the plosive and f0 of the following vowel varied with the position in the word and in the sentence. We compare word-initial with word-medial positions for words in citation (between two pauses) and for two prosodic conditions in a carrier sentence: with vs. without a preceding pause. In word-initial position, unlike in a typical “true-voicing” language such as French, voiced plosives in Tokyo Japanese show a high devoicing rate, while voiceless plosives are moderately aspirated. A combination of VOT and f0 of the following vowel is used to distinguish the two plosive series. In word-medial position, voiced plosives are frequently prevoiced and voiceless plosives are unaspirated, while f0 does not differ after the two plosive series. This positional variation suggests that the onset-induced f0 effect is enhanced in word-initial position, where the VOT cue is not sufficient, but not in word-medial position, where the plosive voicing contrast is robustly marked by presence vs. absence of phonetic voicing. The differential use of cues in different environments in Tokyo Japanese provides another piece of evidence for the complexity of phonetic implementations of the voicing contrast. Finally, we discuss the enhancement of f0 perturbations as a source of a potential tonal development and ask whether such a development would take place in Tokyo Japanese.
Contrary to this prediction, our data show that in Tokyo Japanese, for the initial mora, F0 is remarkably lower after voiced than voiceless stops, and this effect lasts till the final part of the mora. However, the F0 level of the mora endpoint is maintained at H or L so that the pitch-accent pattern is well preserved. We thus argue that the competing role of F0 in a pitch-accent language, or even a tone language does not necessarily impose limitations on the F0 perturbation effect.
We also found that voiced stops are very often phonetically voiceless in utterance-initial position, while being phonetically voiced in utterance-medial position. Therefore, we question whether Tokyo Japanese is undergoing an incipient tonogenesis, given that the VOT cue is giving place to an F0 cue.
Our study is based on acoustic and electroglottographic data from speakers of two age groups (20-30 vs. 60-80 years). Our results are globally in line with previous studies, but with notable differences. In low tone syllables, while word-initial stops are phonetically voiceless most of the time, fricatives are quite often phonetically voiced. While low tone obstruent onsets are followed by breathier vowels than high tone onsets, this pattern is not clear-cut for nasal onsets. Furthermore, our transversal data show that low tone breathiness is more systematically produced by elderly –especially male– than young speakers, suggesting an on-going change towards the loss of breathiness.
Shanghai Chinese. We compared low tone T3, where it
tends to occur as a redundant feature, to high tone T1 or T2
words, where modal voice is typically found. We recorded
speech and electroglottographic (EGG) signals from old vs.
young male vs. female speakers of Shanghai Chinese. We
measured spectral tilt (H1-H2) from the speech signal and
open quotient (OQ) from the EGG signal. We found crossgender
and cross-age differences, as well as individual
variation. Elderly male speakers use both OQ and H1-H2
differences to distinguish modal and “muddy” voices.
Young male speakers use H1-H2 difference for this
distinction; only those with a small F0 range use also OQ
difference. For female speakers, no OQ or H1-H2
differences were found. The more consistent evidence for
breathy tone T3 productions in elderly than young male
speakers may suggest a loss in progress of the Shanghai
Chinese “muddy airflow”, perhaps under the influence of
Mandarin Chinese, which lacks this phonetic feature.
Shanghai Chinese phonological voicing contrast, which cooccurs
with a tonal contrast. In stressed word-initial position,
phonetic voicing is neutralized and replaced with a tonal
register contrast: high ‘yin’ tones for (phonologically)
voiceless and low ‘yang’ tones for voiced obstruents.
Furthermore, breathy vs. modal voice quality, and low vs. high
C/V duration ratio accompany voiced vs. voiceless obstruents.
In two syllable identification experiments, we explored the
impact of these characteristics on the perception of underlying
phonological voicing. In Experiment 1, we manipulated tone
contour (‘yin’ vs. ‘yang’) while maintaining other phonetic
properties, including duration pattern. Syllable identification
was mainly determined by the imposed contour, except for
syllables with a voiced labial fricative onset. However,
response times tended to increase when the imposed contour
differed from the original one. In Experiment 2, we
manipulated duration pattern and created tone contour
continua from a ‘yin’ tone to a ‘yang’ tone. The duration
pattern manipulation influenced identification in that high C/V
duration ratios induced more frequent and faster ‘yin’
identification (phonologically voiceless onset syllable). This
result only held for unchecked syllables. We conclude that
duration pattern contributes to the perception of phonological
voicing in Shanghai Chinese.
series of obstruents in Shanghai dialect can be
specified in terms of complementary, context-conditioned
tonal and segmental features: either
low tone or glottal pulsing. Yet, some studies have
proposed that, when the “voiced” obstruents can
only be signaled by low tone (stress-initially), they
retain something of segmental voicedness. This
somewhat mysterious “something” has often been
identified to a moderate degree of breathiness after
stop release, or “slack voice.” In this study we
revisit this issue and find that Shanghai obstruents,
as produced today by young Shanghai people,
indeed retain some characteristics of plain voiced
obstruents but breathiness does not appear as the
sole one. We propose that articulatory timing
relationships are the main determinant to the
mysterious voiced quality of Shanghai obstruents.
[EN] How do we grasp the variety of reality without trying to establish a structure and formulate rules supposed to explain or describe the way it works? How do we understand a phenomenon without first trying to conceive its possible operations? Even if the use of an abstract framing is not always enough for comprehending a given linguistic phenomenon, psychological process or cognitive strategy, the construction and utilisation of models often appears necessary - just as it is necessary to question and revise existing models, in order to apprehend ever more finely grained phenomena. Because of the varied disciplines grouped under the heading "language sciences", the very word "model" is to be understood in different senses. For instance, the psycholinguist proposing a model to account for the psycho-cognitive process of the reader does not conceive the model in the same way as the semiotician speaking about the "model reader" (Eco, 1979). In the same way syntactic models have different functions in natural language processing and in descriptive linguistics. The many approaches of the varied disciplines lead to question regarding not only the notion of "model" but also the activity of modeling linguistic data, depending on descriptive, explanatory or predictive purposes. Thus, the various definitions of "model" are of interest, together with their application, their transdisciplinary potentialities and their possible transformations. The questions of the relevance and limits of these models are also of interest, as is the issue of the very notion of "model". According to the different approaches adopted by researchers, the model can be considered as a necessity, or an obstacle, as a sign of rigor or as a scientific bias. Is it a theoretical restraint into the empirical data must fit in with? Or is it an abstract construction required to understand the dynamics and functioning of a any given phenomenon or linguistic fact?