Speech-song interface of Chinese speakers

Abstract

Pitch is a psychoacoustic construct crucial in the production and perception of speech and songs. This article is an exploration of the interface of speech and song performance of Chinese speakers. Although parallels might be drawn from the prosodic and sound structures of the linguistic and musical systems, perceiving and producing speech and songs involves higher cortical functioning. A close examination of Chinese vocal genres shows that in some song performance contexts, precise linguistic tones of Chinese speech are often loosely observed, even in the expense of their lexical function. Hence, it provides evidence for modularity in linguistic and music processing.

The author acknowledges with gratitude the generous support of the Hong Kong Research Grant Council for the project (Musical, Acoustical and Ethnographical Inquiry of Chinese Children's Singing Competency) without which the timely production of the current article would not have been feasible.

Notes

1. Chao was not only a professor of linguistics, but also a prolific composer who pioneered composed music in modern China through composing melodies that preserve the unique tones and contour of the Chinese language (Yang, 1985). Refer to Wang (1983) on the accomplishments of Chao.