A corpus study of the prosody of polysyllabic words in Mandarin Chinese

Catherine Lai, Yanyan Sui, Jiahong Yuan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

This paper presents a corpus study of polysyllabic words in Standard Mandarin Chinese. In particular, this study investigates their prosodic features with respect to the notions of prosodic strength and stress. We find a robust strong-weak alternation with respect to F0, but different patterns for duration. In disyllabic words the first syllable tends be slightly longer than the second. However, for three and four syllable words the last syllable is the longest, followed by the first. These patterns suggest that F0 is a reliable phonetic indicator of metrical structure in Mandarin Chinese, rather than duration.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication5th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2010
PublisherInternational Speech Communications Association
ISBN (Electronic)9780000000002
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Event5th International Conference on Speech Prosody: Every Language, Every Style, SP 2010 - Chicago, United States
Duration: 10 May 201014 May 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody
ISSN (Print)2333-2042

Conference

Conference5th International Conference on Speech Prosody: Every Language, Every Style, SP 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago
Period10/05/1014/05/10

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Corpus
  • Duration
  • Mandarin Chinese
  • Prosodic strength
  • Stress
  • Tone

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A corpus study of the prosody of polysyllabic words in Mandarin Chinese'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this