Doctoral dissertation research: Factors influencing generalization and maintenance of cross-category imitation of Mandarin regional variants

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

People change their own language production when hearing others' speech that differs from their own, a process known as phonetic imitation. Imitation of others' speech has been observed between speakers who speak the same dialect and also between speakers who speak different dialects. Previous studies have found that adult speakers who move to a new speech community can partially acquire the accent of the new community. What is less understood, however, is the mechanisms that facilitate or constrain long-term imitation of second-dialect properties. The goal of the current project is to explore the linguistic, situational, and cognitive factors that influence the degree to which imitation of linguistic properties of another dialect is maintained beyond exposure and generalizes to novel words. This project will focus on the imitation of dialect-specific properties across two Mandarin regional varieties spoken in Jianshi and Laifeng counties, China. The first experiment will investigate how imitation generalizes to novel monosyllabic words, to reveal the mental representations underlying word processing in Mandarin, i.e., syllables, tones, consonants, vowels, or subsegmental features. The second experiment will examine how the number of token repetitions and lexical contexts containing the variant affect the degree of imitation maintenance and generalization, to reveal the relative contributions of exposure amount and variability to long-term phonetic imitation. The third experiment will use different instructions during post-exposure reading as a way of influencing participants' conscious effort, to investigate the role of automaticity in mediating imitation maintenance and generalization. The results of this project will reveal the mechanisms underlying cross-dialect imitation that enable or constrain speakers to maintain and generalize imitation after various exposure environments and in response to different requirements. The results will also provide new insights into the automatic and controlled aspects of imitation, and the representational units connecting speech perception and production. This project has broader implications for the role of phonetic imitation in long-term sound change, and for methods to facilitate second dialect acquisition by improving individuals' ability to imitate, maintain, and generalize new dialect features.