Acoustic correlates of English lexical stress produced by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese have difficulty producing nativelike English stress contrasts. Acoustically, English lexical stress is multidimensional, involving manipulation of fundamental frequency (f0), duration, amplitude, and vowel quality. Errors in any or all of these correlates could result in poor realization of the stress contrast, but it is unknown which cues are most problematic for Mandarin speakers. Here we compared the use of these correlates in the production of lexical stress contrasts by 20 Mandarin and English speakers. Results showed that Mandarin speakers produced significantly less acceptable stress contrasts, although they did use all four acoustic correlates to distinguish stressed from unstressed syllables. Mandarin and English speakers’ use of amplitude and duration were comparable for both stressed and unstressed syllables, but Mandarin speakers signaled stressed syllables with a higher f0 than English speakers. There were also significant differences in formant patterns across groups, suggesting that Mandarin speakers were able to achieve appropriate vowel reduction in certain unstressed syllables, but not in others. Results suggest that Mandarin listeners’ production of lexical stress contrasts in English is influenced in part by native-language experience with Mandarin lexical tones, and in part by similarities and differences between Mandarin and English vowel inventories.