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Ranking the acoustic cues of contrastive focus in Taiwan Mandarin: Evidence from number words 台湾普通话对比焦点的声线索排序：来自数词的证据

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-12-09 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104073

Ting Wang , Yong-cheol Lee

This study investigated the interaction between tone and corrective focus in Taiwan Mandarin using phone number strings formatted as (NNN)-(NNN)-(NNNN). Both production and perception experiments were conducted to examine the contrastive focus prosody of each lexical tone using number words. The study hypothesized that contrastive focus prosody in Taiwan Mandarin would be weaker and less distinct than in Beijing Mandarin. Results from the production experiment revealed unique patterns in the realization of contrastive focus across different tones. Random forest analysis showed that each focused tone exhibited distinct acoustic characteristics when marking contrastive focus. These findings suggest that the prosodic marking of contrastive focus is tone-dependent. However, regardless of tone type, Taiwan Mandarin speakers consistently prioritized duration cues in producing contrastive focus, indicating that duration played a primary role among other acoustic parameters. Despite these tone-specific distinctions, the overall magnitude of contrastive focus prosody in Taiwan Mandarin was notably weak and less distinct. This weakness made it challenging for listeners to identify the positions of contrastive focus, resulting in low identification rates in the perception experiment. The results of this study suggest that the prosodic realization of contrastive focus is shaped by language-specific phonetic and phonological implementation, and that focus effects can vary even between different varieties of the same language.

本研究使用(NNN)-(NNN)-(NNNN)格式的电话号码串来研究台湾普通话声调与纠错焦点之间的相互作用。通过产生实验和感知实验，研究了数词对每个词汇语调的对比焦点韵律。本研究假设台湾普通话的对比焦点韵律较北京普通话弱且不明显。生产实验的结果揭示了在不同音调之间实现对比焦点的独特模式。随机森林分析表明，在标记对比焦点时，每个聚焦音调都表现出不同的声学特征。这些发现表明，对比焦点的韵律标记依赖于声调。然而，无论声调类型如何，台湾普通话使用者在产生对比焦点时始终优先考虑持续时间线索，这表明持续时间在其他声学参数中发挥了主要作用。尽管存在这些声调上的差异，但台湾普通话对比焦点韵律的整体幅度明显较弱且不明显。这一弱点使得听者很难识别出对比焦点的位置，从而导致感知实验的识别率较低。本研究结果表明，对比焦点的韵律实现是由特定语言的语音和语音实现形成的，即使在同一语言的不同变体之间，焦点效应也会有所不同。

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引用次数: 0

Perceiving emotion in human and AI voices: sensitivity to acoustic cues in Korean speech 人类和人工智能语音的情感感知：对韩国语语音线索的敏感性

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-12-05 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104083

Dayeon Yoon, Grace Eunhae Oh, Riley Kent

Emotional expressions in speech are often recognized rapidly, highlighting the central role of prosodic cues. However, less is known about how accurately listeners perceive emotion in AI-generated voices, particularly in relatively low-resource languages such as Korean. This study examined recognition of four emotions – Happy, Sad, Angry, and Anxious – in human- and AI-generated Korean speech. Thirty-six Korean listeners judged both the voice type (human vs. AI) and the emotional content of 64 utterances (32 human, 32 AI-generated), with lexical content controlled and stimuli matched by speaker. Human voices yielded higher recognition accuracy and faster response times than the AI voices. Among the emotions, Happy was recognized most accurately and Anxious least accurately, with the difficulty for Anxious especially pronounced in AI speech. Random forest analyses further revealed differences in cue reliance: recognition of human Anxious speech drew on a combination of pitch and intensity cues, whereas recognition of the AI Anxious speech was driven primarily by intensity variability, reflecting reliance on more salient and exaggerated acoustic features. These findings suggest that distinctions between human and AI-generated speech become most evident with complex emotions, as listeners are more sensitive to the subtle prosodic cues provided by human voices but often missing from synthetic ones.

言语中的情绪表达通常被迅速识别，这突出了韵律线索的核心作用。然而，人们对听者在人工智能生成的声音中感知情感的准确性知之甚少，尤其是在韩语等资源相对较少的语言中。这项研究考察了人类和人工智能生成的韩语语音对快乐、悲伤、愤怒和焦虑四种情绪的识别。36名韩国听众在词汇内容控制和刺激物匹配的情况下，对64个话语（人类32个，人工智能32个）的声音类型（人类vs人工智能）和情感内容进行了判断。与人工智能的声音相比，人类声音的识别精度更高，响应时间也更快。在这些情绪中，“快乐”的识别准确率最高，“焦虑”的识别准确率最低，在人工智能语音中，“焦虑”的识别难度尤其明显。随机森林分析进一步揭示了线索依赖的差异：对人类焦虑语音的识别利用了音调和强度线索的组合，而对人工智能焦虑语音的识别主要由强度变化驱动，反映了对更显著和夸张的声学特征的依赖。这些发现表明，人类和人工智能生成的语音之间的区别在复杂的情绪中表现得最为明显，因为听众对人类声音提供的微妙韵律线索更为敏感，而人工声音往往会忽略这些线索。

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引用次数: 0

How can GIVE be counterfactual? Polygrammaticalization of pa21te33 把得 in Huarong Sinitic GIVE怎么可能是反事实的呢？华容语pa21te33的多语法化

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-22 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104072

Penghui Xiang

This study investigates the polygrammaticalization of the compound GIVE verb pa²¹te³³ 把得 in Huarong Sinitic. Derived from the lexicalization of the verb BA 把 ‘take-hold’ and directional verb DE 得 ‘to get/obtain’, it retains a distinctive [+manner] feature (cf. Zhang, 2011). The grammaticalization process operates at both the morpho-syntactic and the semantic-pragmatic levels. Beyond its core lexical meaning ‘to give’ requiring definite objects, pa²¹te³³ 把得 has grammaticalized via three pathways into five functional markers: causative, passive, benefactive applicative, restrictive focus, and counterfactual conditional. Both its pathway to a passive marker (via a permissive causative stage) and its applicative development show parallels in cross-linguistic data. Notably, its evolution into a counterfactual conditional marker represents a novel, understudied pathway. Initially, its frequent co-occurrence with definite objects prompted reanalysis of the lexical GIVE verb as a restrictive focus marker, adopting a delimitative reading with maximality effect via metonymy. The inherent topicality of pa²¹te³³ 把得-constituent enables its fronting as a frame-setting topic, thus driving its reanalysis as a conditional marker. Subsequently, the counterfactual usage analogized from this focus usage with its restrictive meaning shifting metonymically to contrastive meaning through pragmatic inference, finally yielding to a concessive conditional reading. The conditional pa²¹te³³ 把得 also shows emerging discourse-marker functions implying speaker’s negative stance, illustrating (inter)subjectification. These findings significantly advance the typological understanding of GIVE verb extensions in Sinitic languages, particularly identifying a new source for counterfactual conditional use.

本文研究了华容语中复合GIVE动词pa21te33的多语法化现象。它源于动词BA （take-hold）和方向动词DE （to - get/obtain）的词汇化，保留了鲜明的[+方式]特征（cf. Zhang, 2011）。语法化过程在形态句法和语义语用两个层面上起作用。除了它的核心词汇意义“给予”（to give）需要明确的宾语外，它还通过三种途径被语法化为五种功能标记：使役、被动、有益应用、限制焦点和反事实条件。它到被动标记的途径（通过允许使役阶段）和它的应用发展在跨语言数据中都显示出相似之处。值得注意的是，它向反事实条件标记的演变代表了一种新的、尚未得到充分研究的途径。起初，它与定宾物的频繁共现促使人们重新分析词汇GIVE动词作为限制性焦点标记物，通过转喻的方式采用具有最大效果的定界阅读。pa21te33的固有话题性使其能够作为框架设置主题出现，从而推动其作为条件标记进行重新分析。随后，通过语用推理，将这种限制意义转喻为对比意义的焦点用法类推为反事实用法，最终形成让步条件阅读。条件句也表现出暗示说话人否定立场的话语标记功能，说明了（相互）主体化。这些发现极大地促进了对汉语给予动词扩展的类型学理解，特别是确定了反事实条件用法的新来源。

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引用次数: 0

Input-induced inter-speaker variation: evidence from Thai, Chinese and Japanese quantifier-negation sentences 输入诱发的说话人间差异：来自泰语、汉语和日语量词否定句的证据

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104071

Yunchuan Chen

This study investigates inter-speaker variation in the interpretation of Quantifier–Negation (Q-Neg) sentences in Thai, with comparative evidence from Japanese and Chinese. Challenging the view that such variation stems from a lack of cues in the input, this research proposes an input-based account: variation arises from differences in the frequency of relevant cues available to individual speakers. A truth-value judgment experiment with 35 native Thai speakers revealed two distinct groups: one that accepts the inverse scope reading in Q-Neg sentences and one that rejects it. Cross-linguistic comparison shows that Japanese readily allows inverse scope readings, Chinese strictly prohibits them, and Thai falls in between, exhibiting speaker-dependent variation. A follow-up corpus study demonstrated that while Thai Q-Neg sentences are not rare, instances supporting the inverse scope reading are extremely limited. These findings support an input-based explanation: the inter-speaker variation observed among native Thai speakers arises from differences in input rather than from an absence of cues.

本研究以日语和汉语为对照，探讨了泰语中量词否定句的口译差异。该研究挑战了这种差异源于输入中缺乏线索的观点，提出了一种基于输入的解释：差异源于个体说话者可用的相关线索的频率差异。一项针对35名泰语母语者的真值判断实验揭示了两组截然不同的人：一组接受q - negative句子中的反向范围阅读，另一组拒绝。跨语言比较表明，日语很容易允许反向范围读数，汉语严格禁止，泰语介于两者之间，表现出与说话者相关的差异。后续的语料库研究表明，虽然泰国q - negative句子并不罕见，但支持反向范围阅读的实例非常有限。这些发现支持了一种基于输入的解释：在泰国语母语者中观察到的说话者之间的差异源于输入的差异，而不是缺乏线索。

引用次数: 0

The verbal group system and structure in Brazilian Portuguese 巴西葡萄牙语的语群系统和结构

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104070

Giacomo Figueredo, Gabriel Freitas

This paper describes the verbal group in Brazilian Portuguese within the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework. The verbal group is an intricate grammatical unit found in many languages. To adequately describe it, comprehensive approaches that consider its structural complexity are needed. While focusing on a relatively small grammatical unit, higher levels of language, such as clauses and discourse semantics, must be taken into account. Following Systemic Functional Linguistics descriptive methodology, this paper adopts a text-based, axially reasoned, trinocular approach. “From above”, the verbal group functions as part of clause structure, construing processes and negotiating meanings through pre-selections of functions such as Predicator, Finite, and Modality. “From below”, the verbal group pre-selects word classes through systems of verbal mood and aspectuality. “From roundabout”, the structure of the verbal group can be observed through its logical, interpersonal, and experiential relations. Logically, the verbal group establishes relations between the time when an event takes place and the “here and now” of the speech event through the system of tense. Interpersonally, modality meanings are also realised in the verbal group by the system of modal type. Experientially, resources of the system of event type realise meanings related to how experience is represented in the verbal group. In addition, Brazilian Portuguese form verb complexes, realising several meanings including aspect, modality, evidentiality, and voice.

本文在系统功能语言学的框架下描述了巴西葡萄牙语的语群。动词群是在许多语言中发现的一个复杂的语法单位。为了充分描述它，需要考虑其结构复杂性的综合方法。在关注相对较小的语法单元的同时，必须考虑到更高层次的语言，如从句和话语语义。本文遵循系统功能语言学的描述方法，采用基于文本、轴向推理、三位一体的方法。“从上面看”，语群作为子句结构的一部分，通过预先选择谓语、限定语和情态等功能来构建过程和协商意义。“从下而上”，语群通过语态和语态系统预先选择词类。“从迂回的角度”，可以通过语言群的逻辑关系、人际关系和经验关系来观察语言群的结构。在逻辑上，言语群通过时态系统建立起事件发生的时间与言语事件的“此时此地”之间的关系。在人际关系上，情态意义也是通过情态类型系统在言语群中实现的。在经验上，事件类型系统的资源实现了与经验如何在言语组中表示有关的意义。此外，巴西葡萄牙语形成动词复合体，实现几种含义，包括方面，情态，证据和声音。

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引用次数: 0

Verbal groups in Australian and Papuan languages: A comparative study 澳大利亚语和巴布亚语的语言群：比较研究

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104067

David Rose

This paper reports a comparative study of features realised in the verbal groups of Australian and Papuan languages. It draws on analyses of whole texts published in forty descriptions of languages distributed across the region, using tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which are explained throughout. Methods were designed for cross-linguistic description, using these tools. The texts were analysed for patterns of ideational, interpersonal and textual functions, at the levels of discourse semantics, clauses, word groups and words. For this paper, characteristic variations in verbal groups were identified, and representative texts selected, to display these variations. Findings include complexing of verbs, verbal groups and clauses to realise various ideational functions, that are characteristic of the entire region, often labelled as ‘serial verbs’. Textual functions include realisations of participant identities as pronominal verb affixes and clitics, or as ‘switch reference’ markers distinguishing participant roles in adjacent clauses. Interpersonal functions include realisations of mood, polarity and modal assessments in verbal groups.

本文对澳大利亚语和巴布亚语的语群特征进行了比较研究。它利用系统功能语言学（SFL）的工具，分析了整个地区分布的四十种语言描述的全文。使用这些工具设计了跨语言描述方法。在语篇语义、分句、词组和词的层次上分析文本的概念、人际和语篇功能模式。本文通过识别语言群体的特征变化，并选择具有代表性的文本来展示这些变化。研究结果包括动词、动词组和从句的复杂化，以实现各种概念功能，这是整个地区的特征，通常被称为“连续动词”。语篇功能包括作为代词动词词缀和限定词的参与者身份的实现，或作为区分相邻子句中参与者角色的“转换指称”标记。人际功能包括言语群体中情绪、极性和模态评估的实现。

引用次数: 0

The architecture of absence: How nominal and clausal grounding illuminate profiling verb-noun compounds 缺席的结构：名义和小句的基础如何阐明概述动词-名词复合词

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104069

Di Wang , Ruifen Guo

This study investigates the cognitive and constructional mechanisms underlying exocentric verb-noun compounds in English and Mandarin, addressing gaps in prior research that predominantly focused on structural properties whilst neglecting cross-linguistic cognitive processes. Integrating Langacker’s grounding theory with Construction Grammar, the study employs a paraphrasing test with 120 participants (including native English and Mandarin speakers, and Chinese L2 learners of English) to analyse how semantic properties (including cognitive strategies, semantic roles, transparency and frequency) map onto grounding strategies (nominal, clausal, mixed). The results reveal a fundamental typological divergence. English relies predominantly on mixed and nominal grounding, reflecting its syntactic approach to reference management. In contrast, Mandarin exhibits a preference for mixed and clausal grounding, with a marked dispreference for nominal strategies. This indicates that English employs grammatical means to promote nominalisation, whereas Mandarin preserves dynamic, relationally rich representations even in highly conventionalised compounds. Furthermore, the influence of cognitive strategies, semantic roles, transparency and frequency is systematically modulated by language-specific constraints. Our findings also uncover an asymmetric cross-linguistic influence in bilingual processing. These results indicate that whilst underlying cognitive mechanisms are universal, their linguistic representations are constrained by the typological characteristics of each language. This study provides a unified Cognitive-Constructional Model for the description of profiling verb-noun compounds.

本研究探讨了英语和汉语外心动词-名词复合词的认知和结构机制，弥补了以往研究中主要关注结构特征而忽视跨语言认知过程的不足。本研究将Langacker的基础理论与结构语法相结合，对120名参与者（包括母语为英语和普通话的人，以及中国的第二语言英语学习者）进行了意译测试，以分析语义属性（包括认知策略、语义角色、透明度和频率）如何映射到基础策略（名义、小句、混合）上。研究结果揭示了一种基本的类型学差异。英语主要依靠混合和名义基础，这反映了它对指称管理的句法方法。相比之下，普通话表现出对混合和小句基础的偏好，对名义策略的明显不偏好。这表明英语使用语法手段来促进名词化，而汉语即使在高度约定俗成的复合词中也保留了动态的、相对丰富的表征。此外，认知策略、语义角色、透明度和频率的影响受到语言特定约束的系统调节。我们的发现还揭示了双语加工中的非对称跨语言影响。这些结果表明，虽然潜在的认知机制是普遍的，但它们的语言表征受到每种语言类型特征的限制。本研究提供了一个统一的认知结构模型来描述动词名词复合词。

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引用次数: 0

Canonical and non-canonical roots: The diversity of roots in Mandarin Chinese 规范词根与非规范词根：普通话词根的多样性

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-11-03 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104068

Yang Qin

This paper examines the notion of “root” within the framework of canonical approach. Although this notion has been widely discussed, many controversies exist, especially regarding its linguistic properties. These controversies are motivated by a fact that in natural languages, the notion of “root” is instantiated differently across languages, or even within the same language. To analyze the diversity of roots systematically and uniformly, a theoretical space of roots is constructed under the canonical approach. The specific position of each instance within the theoretical space against the canonical roots can be determined by its behavior on four criteria, namely, boundness, positional flexibility, phonological richness and meaning lexicality. In practice, I make a thorough examination of 122 Chinese morphemes whose morphological status has remained ambiguous. These morphemes are ultimately divided into five groups, gradually deviating from the canonical roots, showing that even in a typical isolating language Mandarin, roots are not uniform – neither in their structures nor in their meaning. More importantly, the distinctions among individual roots in terms of their linguistic properties are clearly explained. Also, the theoretical space of roots enables cross-linguistic comparisons of roots, making it highly significant for both intra-linguistic and cross-linguistic studies of root variation.

本文在规范方法的框架内考察了“根”的概念。尽管这一概念已被广泛讨论，但仍存在许多争议，特别是关于其语言性质。这些争议源于这样一个事实，即在自然语言中，“根”的概念在不同语言中，甚至在同一语言中，都有不同的实例化。为了系统、统一地分析根的多样性，在规范方法下构造了根的理论空间。每个实例相对于规范根在理论空间中的具体位置可以通过其在四个标准上的行为来确定，即有限性、位置灵活性、语音丰富性和意义词性。在实践中，我对122个形态地位尚不明确的汉语语素进行了全面的考察。这些语素最终被分为五组，逐渐偏离规范词根，表明即使在典型的孤立语言普通话中，词根也不是统一的-无论是在结构上还是在意义上。更重要的是，个别词根在其语言特性方面的区别得到了清楚的解释。此外，词根的理论空间使词根的跨语言比较成为可能，这对于词根变异的语言内和跨语言研究都具有重要意义。

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引用次数: 0

Revisiting Chinese modality types: A collostructional approach to post-modal verbs 重访汉语情态类型：对后情态动词的结构分析

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-10-31 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104059

Zhuo Zhang , Jinmeng Dou

This paper revisits Chinese modality types through a corpus-based analysis of [Modal + Verb] patterns involving seven common two-character modals. Using Multiple Distinctive Collexeme Analysis, the study identifies the most strongly attracted collexemes for each modal pattern and groups them into seven semantic domains. This categorization yields three modality groups—epistemic, dynamic, and deontic, highlighting functional and cognitive (dis)similarities among the modals. Simple Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components are subsequently employed to quantitatively validate these results. The findings confirm the traditional tripartite classification of modality as a more decisive factor in modal use and reveal that a possibility–necessity continuum captures variations in modal strength within each type. Methodologically, this research represents the first quantitative corpus-based study of Chinese to systematically compare seven modals across modality types, proposing a replicable framework that integrates quantitative distributional evidence with usage-based functional–cognitive interpretation. This approach enhances our understanding of modality through usage distributions and strengthens the empirical foundation for modality research in Chinese. Pedagogically, it offers insights into modal usage in authentic contexts, supporting more effective instruction. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how distributional corpus methods can uncover semantic variation and contribute to broader cognitive and typological discussions on modality.

本文通过语料库分析[情态+动词]模式，包括七种常见的双字情态，重新审视了汉语情态类型。该研究使用多重特征连体分析方法，确定了每个模态模式中最具吸引力的连体，并将它们分为七个语义域。这种分类产生了三个情态组——认知、动态和道义，突出了情态之间的功能和认知（非）相似性。随后采用简单对应分析和主成分层次聚类来定量验证这些结果。研究结果证实了传统的情态三要素分类是情态使用的决定性因素，并揭示了可能性-必要性连续体捕获了每种类型中情态强度的变化。在方法上，本研究首次以定量语料库为基础，系统地比较了七种不同情态类型的汉语情态，提出了一个可复制的框架，将定量分布证据与基于使用的功能认知解释相结合。这一方法增强了我们对汉语情态使用分布的认识，加强了汉语情态研究的实证基础。在教学上，它提供了对真实语境中情态用法的见解，支持更有效的教学。最后，本研究展示了分布式语料库方法如何揭示语义变化，并有助于对情态进行更广泛的认知和类型讨论。

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引用次数: 0

Exploring Mandarin tone production: A Global Chinese perspective 探索普通话声调制作：全球汉语视角

IF 1.3 3区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Lingua

Pub Date : 2025-10-27 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104060

Xin Ren , Huihui Wang

Currently, Mandarin plays a prominent role in global communication, and the Global Chinese framework has accordingly gained increasing attention. The Three Concentric Circles of Mandarin users model represents a key concept within the Global Chinese framework as it captures the sociolinguistic profile of Mandarin users from the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles ((IC), (OC), and (EC), respectively). However, no previous studies have considered Mandarin users in this integrated model. This study investigates the lexical tone production of Mandarin users in the three circles, the factors influencing tonal variations, and the assumption of this model in explaining tone production. The speakers in this study were from mainland China (Inner), Macau (Outer), and Africa (Expanding). Considerable variability was observed in the OC and EC. However, the impact of the first language alone cannot explain these variations; factors such as tonal similarities in Mandarin also contribute to this variation. Furthermore, contrary to the assumption of the Three Circles model, the findings revealed that the OC variety was closer to the IC variety than the EC variety. The smaller typological distance between the Chinese language used in the IC and OC may contribute to this pattern, which can help modify and supplement the model.

目前，普通话在全球交流中发挥着突出的作用，全球汉语框架也因此受到越来越多的关注。普通话用户的三个同心圆模型代表了全球汉语框架中的一个关键概念，因为它从内部、外部和扩展圈（分别为（IC）、（OC）和（EC））捕获了普通话用户的社会语言学概况。然而，之前没有研究将普通话用户纳入这个综合模型。本研究考察了三圈汉语使用者词汇声调的产生、影响声调变化的因素，以及该模型解释声调产生的假设。本研究的讲者来自中国大陆（内）、澳门（外）和非洲（扩展）。在OC和EC中观察到相当大的变异性。然而，仅凭第一语言的影响并不能解释这些差异；普通话声调相似等因素也会导致这种差异。此外，与三圈模型的假设相反，研究结果表明OC品种比EC品种更接近IC品种。中国语与汉语的类型学距离较小，这可能有助于修正和补充该模型。

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引用次数: 0