The phonology of tone and intonation in Guanzhong Mandarin

Thesis

In English, a rising intonation can turn a word into a question. Offering someone a coffee, for instance, involves simply saying “coffee?” with a rising pitch. Such intonational tunes carry both phonological properties (e.g. an LH rising contour) and semantic functions (e.g. offering). In tonal languages, however, where pitch already serves a lexical function, it remains unclear how intonational tunes are planned and represented, and how they interact with lexical tones.

This thesis investigates the status of intonational tunes in Guanzhong Mandarin (GuanM), a northern Chinese dialect with four lexical tones, and their interaction with lexical tone through two production studies, a perception study, and a psycholinguistic study.

The production studies, which used disyllabic words both in isolation and within longer utterances under focus, establish that syntactically unmarked yes-no questions in GuanM are characterised by a global high pitch register and a high boundary tone aligned with the right edge of the intonational phrase. This boundary tone is phonologically rising but results in different phonetic realisations of the phrase-final syllable: it enhances rising contours, converts level tones into rising contours, and prevents falling tones from completing their downward trajectories. Crucially, lexical tonal categories remain intact under question intonation even after lexical tonal alternation, indicating that intonation does not override lexical tone but is instead superimposed on the tonal system, affecting the phonetic realisation of tones without compromising their underlying phonological identity. Statements, by contrast, display a global low pitch register with declination. Focus is primarily marked by greater intensity and a faster speech rate, rather than by pitch.

This superimposition also has consequences for perception. Using the AX discrimination paradigm, the perception experiment shows increased perceptual difficulty and reduced discrimination sensitivity when lexical tone and intonational tune share similar pitch trajectories, particularly when both exhibit rising contours.

Finally, the psycholinguistic experiment returns to how tunes are planned and represented. Using the picture-word interference paradigm, it suggests that intonational tunes are accessed during early conceptual planning, setting up prosodic expectations that shape subsequent lexical retrieval. Different lexical tones interact differently with the interrogative tune, with retrieval facilitated when a tone’s contour aligns naturally with the intonational structure.

Together, these findings establish the intonational system of GuanM and show that, in tonal languages, intonational tunes function as abstract prosodic templates: activated early in speech planning and interacting with lexical tones throughout production.

Authors: Zhang, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nzgzv8q8q
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Guanzhong Mandarin; phonology and phonetics; perception and production; Chinese dialects; tone and intonation
• Subjects: Phonology; Tone (Phonetics); Phonetics; Mandarin dialects; Intonation