Production of Mandarin Chinese interrogative monosyllabic utterances by Czech learners

Abstract

This study investigates how Czech lower-intermediate learners produce monosyllabic questions in Mandarin. It explores the interaction between tones and intonation, as well as the influence of learners’ native language (Czech) on the production of both. First, native Mandarin listeners conducted perceptual judgments to assess learners’ tone production accuracy. Next, the fundamental frequency (F0) contours were analyzed. The authors obtained the following findings: 1) Learners had difficulty expressing interrogative intonation through tone contour modulation while maintaining correct tone production. 2) The effect of the interrogative intonation on tones varied across tone types; Tone 2 (rising) benefited from congruency with the interrogative pitch contour, whereas the remaining tones suffered from competing prosodic demands. 3) When adding interrogative intonation, learners often misproduced Tones 1, 3, and 4 as Tone 2. 4) Preliminary evidence indicates that learners’ L1 influenced both tonal and intonational aspects in interrogative utterances. The paper also discusses the implications of these findings for teaching Mandarin.