International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processing

Special Issue on Processing Lexical Tones in Natural Speech

This special issue aims to address questions about how lexical tones are processed by humans and machines in the context of natural, continuous speech. Lexical tones in tone languages have been widely investigated in the fields of linguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and language acquisition by applying a wide range of theoretical, empirical, and experimental approaches. As the phonetic representation of lexical tones which are produced in connected speech can differ considerably from that of lexical tones which are produced in isolation, research interests constantly grow in how lexical tones are produced, perceived, and processed in realistic speech data. This special issue aims to bring together methodologies from different research disciplines to extend our understanding of lexical tones used in real speaking situations. We welcome submissions addressing the following issues.

• Modeling lexical tones: Can lexical tones which are produced in natural speech be more accurately described and modeled by quantitative/gradient measures or by categorical systems? Is a hybrid approach possible? In what way can lexical tones be represented and analyzed by utilizing spoken corpora?

• Human language processing: What role do lexical tones play in the mental lexicon? How are lexical tones produced and perceived by native and non-native language users?

• Language acquisition: How are lexical tones acquired by typical developing children, hearing-impaired children, and second language learners? Are the phonological development patterns different from each other?

• Speech technology: What kind of information about lexical tones can be integrated into ASR and synthesis systems to improve system performances?

• Other research results related to lexical tones in natural speech are also welcome to contribute to this special issue.

Paper submission deadline: January 2, 2013 February 28, 2013

Notification of acceptance: May 31, 2013

Final paper due: August 31, 2013

Tentative publication date: December, 2013

All submitted papers should present original research work, which has not been published elsewhere. Submitted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. For detailed submission guidelines, please visit the website of the International Journal of Computational Linguistics and Chinese Language Processingat http://www.aclclp.org.tw/journal/submit.php. Please also feel free to contact the Guest Editor of this special issue, Dr. Shu-Chuan Tseng, at tsengsc@gate.sinica.edu.tw, if you need any additional information.