Lexical Tones In Mandarin Sung Words: A Phonetic And Psycholinguistic Investigation

Motivated by the unintelligibility of lyrics in Mandarin musical theatres,this thesis discusses the correspondence between lexical tones and musical melody in Mandarin songs.After an introduction to the theoretical foundations of the Mandarin tonal system,the thesis delves into the structural manifestations of lexical tones in traditional Chinese sung works,and then investigates the perception of Mandarin lexical tones in singing.The thesis uncovers some crucial facts regarding the perception of tones in songs,partly by experiments done with listeners,and proposes several composing strategies to deal with tonal unintelligibility in the theatre.