The acquisition of segments and tones in Mandarin: An observational and experimental study

This is a study of early word learning and phonological development in children learning Mandarin Chinese in Singapore. Previous work has analysed mostly children’s perception and acquisition of segments and tones in the language. The objective of this thesis is to study children’s production and examine whether the asymmetry in segmental and tonal information found in perception tasks may also be apparent in tasks requiring production. Mandarin-learning children’s speech forms are systematically investigated here by integrating two strands of research: a naturalistic observational study (N = 4) of the influences of long(er)-term knowledge on phonological development in Mandarin is complemented by an experimental study (N = 20) of short-term retrieval and production of nonword repetition. The thesis is based on the whole-word approach to the study of children’s lexical development and how it may apply to Mandarin, identifying the use of phonological templates and how they may be manifested in Mandarin.

Results from both production tasks reveal independence in the developmental trajectory of segment and tone production. It was not possible to conclusively identify any segmental templates. However, there was evidence of use of two T1-x tone templates, which suggest ways in which the whole-word approach might apply here: a salient and well-practiced tone (T1) since the babbling period provides a ‘tone envelope’ for segments to fill in. The well-practiced T1-x motoric routines involve lesser cognitive load, allowing attention to be directed to the (mostly variegated) segmental sequences, so that children may still achieve relatively good matches to the variegated word structures of Mandarin. Thus, there is an interchange between segments and tones and perception and production: tone perception and production begin early but tone production is mastered late, segment perception and production occur later but segment production is mastered before tone is.