Abstract
A typological survey across Chinese dialects reveals that, in the [_i] context, the place contrasts of dental vs. palatal affricates (i.e., [tsi—tɕi] and [tshi — tɕhi]) imply the place contrast of fricatives (i.e., [si — ɕi]). Assuming a connection between the implicational relation of phonological contrasts and perceptual distinction, this study examines the relative perceptual distinction of the sound pairs [tsi — tɕi] [tshi — tɕhi] and [si — ɕi] through a speeded-AX discrimination experiment. The results showed that the discrimination accuracy of the [tsi — tɕi] and [tshi — tɕhi] pairs is significantly lower than that of the [si — ɕi] pair, indicating that the former two pairs are perceptually less distinct than the latter pair. The results lend support to the contention that a sound pair in the unmarked category tends to be perceptually more distinct than its counterpart in a marked category.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 105-113 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Chinese Journal of Phonetics |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 30 Jun 2020 |
User-Defined Keywords
- Implication relation
- Perceptual distinction
- Manners of articulation
- Chinese dialects