Author(s)

Xinyuan Shi^1*, Honglan Li²

¹School of Chinese Language and Literature, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
²School of Foreign Studies, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China.

This study examines how Mandarin question intonation differentially modifies the fundamental frequency (F0) of syllables with inherent rising (T2) and falling (T4) lexical tones. By utilizing carefully designed test materials and conducting a production experiment, we measured time-normalized F0 values, maximum F0 values and minimum F0 values, and compared mean F0 values and excursion sizes across syllable positions. Results demonstrate that first, while both tones showed global F0 raising, T2 exhibited raising at penultimate and final syllables, whereas T4 only exhibited final-syllable raising. Second, T2 displayed range expansion contrasting with T4’s range compression. Third, range expansion of T2 occurs at peripheral positions whereas range compression of T4 concentrated in sentence-final syllable. Consistent sentence-initial syllable prominence across intonation types was identified. These findings reveal tone-specific intonational manipulations, showing global and local F0 modifications on lexical rising versus falling contours in Mandarin questions.

Intonation, F0 Realization, Lexical Tone, Mandarin Chinese

Shi, X. and Li, H. (2025) Intonation-Induced F0 Realizations of Rising and Falling Lexical Tones in Mandarin Questions. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 15, 668-684. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2025.154039.