Perception of Intonation on Neutral Tone in Mandarin

In Mandarin, lexical tone has been found to interact with intonational influence intonation perception, the falling T4 facilitating perception of statement/question contrast most, and rising T2 least. However, in addition four citation tones T1-T4, Mandarin “neutral tone” which marks weak, non-initial syllables that do not carry a tone. The prevailing view is neutral is, fact, phonologically toneless. It unknown whether can also affect perception. it reasonable hypothesize if indeed toneless, cannot same way as do. We investigated this novel hypothesis experiment 22 speakers had determine disyllabic words were question or statement. Results show identification contours more accurate for than T2, similarly T4, regardless intrinsic derived. Furthermore, both are realized reduced pitch range at higher level questions, unlike characterized by slightly expanded level. possible facilitated changes phonetic shapes brought rather phonological interaction between intonation. importance was further tested second participants stimuli manipulated range. indicate use cues shows tone-specific differences, namely, important signaling question/statement utterances ending tone, while only perceptual cue interrogativity T2.