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1. Eccentric C-V timing across speakers of diaspora Tibetan with and without lexical tone contrasts

   Geissler, Christopher; Shaw, Jason; Hu, Fang; Tiede, Mark (January 2021, Proceedings of the 12th International Seminar on Speech Production.)

   Tiede, Mark; Whalen, Doug; Gracco, Vincent (Ed.)

   This paper investigates the relative timing of onset consonant and vowel gestures in Tibetan as spoken in the Tibetan diaspora. According to the coupled oscillator model of articulatory timing (Browman & Goldstein 2000, Nam & Saltzman 2003), the most readily-available coupling modes among gestures are in-phase (synchronous) or anti-phase (sequential) timing, with competition among these modes also giving rise to a stable timing pattern. The model predicts that other timing relations, i.e. ”eccentric timing”, are possible but not as readily available. Data gathered using electromagnetic articulography (EMA) shows relative C-V timing consistent with either competitive coupling or eccentric timing. Competitive coupling is a plausible explanation for CV syllables in a tone language (Gao 2008), but acoustic analysis showed that some speakers do not produce a pitch contrast corresponding to tone. In the apparent absence of a tone gesture, we conclude that these speakers exhibit eccentric C-V timing. 

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2. Observing gestures during L2 word learning facilitates differentiation between unfamiliar speech sounds and word meanings

   Morett, Laura M (August 2023, Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society)

   Goldwater, M; Angora, F; Hayes, B; Ong, D (Ed.)

   This study investigated how observing pitch gestures conveying lexical tones and representational gestures conveying word meanings when learning L2 Mandarin words differing in lexical tone affects their subsequent semantic and phonological processing in L1 English speakers using the N400 event-related potential (ERP). Larger N400s for English target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in meaning were observed for words learned with pitch and representational gesture, but not no gesture. Additionally, larger N400s for Mandarin target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in lexical tone were observed for words learned with pitch gesture, but not representational or no gesture. These findings provide the first ERP evidence that observing gestures conveying phonological and semantic information during L2 word learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of learned L2 words. 

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3. Observing gesture at learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of L2 words: An N400 study

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105327  

   Morett, Laura M (November 2023, Brain and Language)

   This study employed the N400 event-related potential (ERP) to investigate how observing different types of gestures at learning affects the subsequent processing of L2 Mandarin words differing in lexical tone by L1 English speakers. The effects of pitch gestures conveying lexical tones (e.g., upwards diagonal movements for rising tone), semantic gestures conveying word meanings (e.g., waving goodbye for to wave), and no gesture were compared. In a lexical tone discrimination task, larger N400s for Mandarin target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in lexical tone were observed for words learned with pitch gesture. In a meaning discrimination task, larger N400s for English target words mismatching vs. matching Mandarin prime words in meaning were observed for words learned with pitch and semantic gesture. These findings provide the first neural evidence that observing gestures during L2 word learning enhances subsequent phonological and semantic processing of learned L2 words. 

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4. GESTURAL ALIGNMENT AND ACCOMMODATION IN SPEAKER-LISTENER HEAD GESTURES

   Garvin, K.; Franich, K. (July 2023, Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences)

   Skarnitzl, R. & (Ed.)

   The timing of both manual co-speech gestures and head gestures is sensitive to prosodic structure of speech. However, head gesters are used not only by speakers, but also by listeners as a backchanneling device. Little research exists on the timing of gestures in back-channeling. To address this gap, we compare timing of listener and speaker head gestures in an interview context. Results reveal the dual role that head gestures play in speech and conversational interaction: while they are coordinated in key ways to one’s own speech, they are also coordinated to the gestures (and hence, the speech) of a conversation partner when one is actively listening to them. We also show that head gesture timing is sensitive to social dynamics between interlocutors. This study provides a novel contribution to literature on head gesture timing and has implications for studies of discourse and accommodation. 

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5. Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.689423  

   Pelzl, Eric; Lau, Ellen; Guo, Taomei; DeKeyser, Robert (June 2021, Frontiers in communication)

   null (Ed.)

   People who grow up speaking a language without lexical tones typically find it difficult to master tonal languages after childhood. Accumulating research suggests that much of the challenge for these second language (L2) speakers has to do not with identification of the tones themselves, but with the bindings between tones and lexical units. The question that remains open is how much of these lexical binding problems are problems of encoding (incomplete knowledge of the tone-to-word relations) vs. retrieval (failure to access those relations in online processing). While recent work using lexical decision tasks suggests that both may play a role, one issue is that failure on a lexical decision task may reflect a lack of learner confidence about what is not a word, rather than non-native representation or processing of known words. Here we provide complementary evidence using a picture- phonology matching paradigm in Mandarin in which participants decide whether or not a spoken target matches a specific image, with concurrent event-related potential (ERP) recording to provide potential insight into differences in L1 and L2 tone processing strategies. As in the lexical decision case, we find that advanced L2 learners show a clear disadvantage in accurately identifying tone mismatched targets relative to vowel mismatched targets. We explore the contribution of incomplete/uncertain lexical knowledge to this performance disadvantage by examining individual data from an explicit tone knowledge post-test. Results suggest that explicit tone word knowledge and confidence explains some but not all of the errors in picture-phonology matching. Analysis of ERPs from correct trials shows some differences in the strength of L1 and L2 responses, but does not provide clear evidence toward differences in processing that could explain the L2 disadvantage for tones. In sum, these results converge with previous evidence from lexical decision tasks in showing that advanced L2 listeners continue to have difficulties with lexical tone recognition, and in suggesting that these difficulties reflect problems both in encoding lexical tone knowledge and in retrieving that knowledge in real time. 

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