Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies
In the present study, we examine the interactive effect of vowels on Mandarin fricative sibilants using a passive oddball paradigm to determine whether the HEIGHT features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence preceding consonants with unspecified features. The stimuli are two pairs of M...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.617318/full |
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| author | Yaxuan Meng Sandra Kotzor Sandra Kotzor Chenzi Xu Hilary S. Z. Wynne Aditi Lahiri |
| author_facet | Yaxuan Meng Sandra Kotzor Sandra Kotzor Chenzi Xu Hilary S. Z. Wynne Aditi Lahiri |
| author_sort | Yaxuan Meng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the present study, we examine the interactive effect of vowels on Mandarin fricative sibilants using a passive oddball paradigm to determine whether the HEIGHT features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence preceding consonants with unspecified features. The stimuli are two pairs of Mandarin words ([sa] ∼ [ʂa] and [su] ∼ [ʂu]) contrasting in vowel HEIGHT ([LOW] vs. [HIGH]). Each word in the same pair was presented both as standard and deviant, resulting in four conditions (/standard/[deviant]: /sa/[ʂa] ∼ /ʂa/[sa] and /su/[ʂu] ∼ /ʂu/[su]). In line with the Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (FUL) model, asymmetric patterns of processing were found in the [su] ∼ [ʂu] word pair where both the MMN (mismatch negativity) and LDN (late discriminative negativity) components were more negative in /su/[ʂu] (mismatch) than in /ʂu/[su] (no mismatch), suggesting the spreading of the feature [HIGH] from the vowel [u] to [ʂ] on the surface. In the [sa] ∼ [ʂa] pair, however, symmetric negativities (for both MMN and LDN) were observed as there is no conflict between the surface feature [LOW] from [a] to [ʂ] and the underlying specified feature [LOW] of [s]. These results confirm that not all features are fully specified in the mental lexicon: features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence surrounding unspecified segments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:42:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2043733a87f24dca85ddf807b84db5f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T02:42:17Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-2043733a87f24dca85ddf807b84db5f52022-12-21T19:56:16ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612021-04-011510.3389/fnhum.2021.617318617318Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP StudiesYaxuan Meng0Sandra Kotzor1Sandra Kotzor2Chenzi Xu3Hilary S. Z. Wynne4Aditi Lahiri5Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomFaculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomSchool of Education, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United KingdomFaculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomFaculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomFaculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomIn the present study, we examine the interactive effect of vowels on Mandarin fricative sibilants using a passive oddball paradigm to determine whether the HEIGHT features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence preceding consonants with unspecified features. The stimuli are two pairs of Mandarin words ([sa] ∼ [ʂa] and [su] ∼ [ʂu]) contrasting in vowel HEIGHT ([LOW] vs. [HIGH]). Each word in the same pair was presented both as standard and deviant, resulting in four conditions (/standard/[deviant]: /sa/[ʂa] ∼ /ʂa/[sa] and /su/[ʂu] ∼ /ʂu/[su]). In line with the Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (FUL) model, asymmetric patterns of processing were found in the [su] ∼ [ʂu] word pair where both the MMN (mismatch negativity) and LDN (late discriminative negativity) components were more negative in /su/[ʂu] (mismatch) than in /ʂu/[su] (no mismatch), suggesting the spreading of the feature [HIGH] from the vowel [u] to [ʂ] on the surface. In the [sa] ∼ [ʂa] pair, however, symmetric negativities (for both MMN and LDN) were observed as there is no conflict between the surface feature [LOW] from [a] to [ʂ] and the underlying specified feature [LOW] of [s]. These results confirm that not all features are fully specified in the mental lexicon: features of vowels can spread on the surface and influence surrounding unspecified segments.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.617318/fullLDNMMNtongue heightvowelmandarin sibilant |
| spellingShingle | Yaxuan Meng Sandra Kotzor Sandra Kotzor Chenzi Xu Hilary S. Z. Wynne Aditi Lahiri Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies Frontiers in Human Neuroscience LDN MMN tongue height vowel mandarin sibilant |
| title | Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies |
| title_full | Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies |
| title_fullStr | Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies |
| title_short | Asymmetric Influence of Vocalic Context on Mandarin Sibilants: Evidence From ERP Studies |
| title_sort | asymmetric influence of vocalic context on mandarin sibilants evidence from erp studies |
| topic | LDN MMN tongue height vowel mandarin sibilant |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.617318/full |
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