Music Does Not Facilitate Lexical Tone Normalization: A Speech-Specific Perceptual Process.

ABSTRACT: Listeners utilize the immediate contexts to efficiently normalize variable vocal streams into standard phonology units. However, researchers debated whether non-speech contexts can also serve as valid clues for speech normalization. Supporters of the two sides proposed a general-auditory hypothesis and a speech-specific hypothesis to explain the underlying mechanisms. A possible confounding factor of this inconsistency is the listeners' perceptual familiarity of the contexts, as the non-speech contexts were perceptually unfamiliar to listeners. In this study, we examined this confounding factor by recruiting a group of native Cantonese speakers with sufficient musical training experience and a control group with minimal musical training. Participants performed lexical tone judgment tasks i

SUBMITTER: Tao R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8585521 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature