声调的范畴知觉及其神经机制

Categorical perception of lexical tone and the neural mechanisms

语音范畴知觉是指听者能够区分不同音位范畴的刺激而不能区分同一范畴内的不同刺激。声调知觉的范畴化程度可能与刺激的声学相似度有关,相似度越高则知觉的范畴化程度越低。除了声调本身的特征外,影响声调知觉范畴化的因素还包括母语背景、年龄、刺激所在语境和刺激属性(语言和非语言)。电生理技术的使用加深了声调范畴知觉的研究,并有助于解决一些长期存在争议的理论问题。

Categorical perception （CP） refers to the ability that listeners can distinguish cross-category stimuli, but cannot discriminate different stimuli within the same category. The degree of categorization for lexical tone perception may be influenced by the acoustical similarity of different tones. The perception of two similar tones seems to be less categorical than that of dissimilar tones. In addition to the internal features of tones, the factors influencing the categorical perception of lexical tone include language experience, age, tonal context and stimulus type （speech or nonspeech）. The use of electrophysiological techniques has advanced the study of categorical perception of lexical tone, and is expected to be helpful in solving more theoretical problems.