| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北護理健康大學 === 聽語障礙科學研究所 === 101 === Purpose: To investigate the production of lexical tones and intonation in adolescent native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) or Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and compare to the typical adolescents. The main goals of the current study were (1) to describe the production of the four lexical tones in syllables and in sentences through acoustic parameters; and (2) to plot the pitch contours of lexical tones in different utterance types, i.e. word in isolation, statement and question.
Method: Ten adolescents with HFA or AS and ten typical adolescents participated in 3 tasks that examined the productions of four lexical tones in syllable, statements, and questions. In the tasks involving statements and questions, the tone variations were introduced either in the 3rd or in the 5th syllable. Productions were analyzed with acoustic parameters – mean pitch, intensity, duration, pitch range, pitcht10-pitcht1 and pitch slope. The time-normalised pitch of each syllable was used to plot pitch contour for different lexical tones, utterance types (state-ment vs. questions) and syllable position in utterance (3rd vs. 5th syllable).
Results: No group differences were found in any of the investigated acoustic parameters. When considering pitch contours, although both groups had similarities in the shape, the pitch contour lines for different lexical tones in different utterance types and in different syllable position in utterance were more ‘packed together’ for adolescents with HFA or AS.
Conclusion: Adolescents with HFA or AS were as capable as their typical peers in producing lexical tones in different contexts, i.e., either in different utterance types or in different sylla-ble positions in utterance.
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