A Study of the Influences of Emotion on Mandarin Tones

This study is focused on the interaction between emotion and Mandarin tones, which is rarely investigated in previous research. To get qualified data, well-trained voice performers were asked to utter monosyllabic Chinese words with different kinds of emotion. Parameters adopted in this research are pitch, intensity and duration.
According to our data, it is found that Tone 1 and Tone 3 change their pitch direction to reflect speaker’s emotional state while Tone 2 and Tone 4 do not. However, the pitch directions of Tone 1 and Tone 3 are not randomly modified. The pitch variation of Tone 1 and Tone 3 may relate to Lakoff’s (1987) description of general human body experience: up is good, down is bad. Based on our results, positive emotions are usually expressed with rising pitch and negative emotions are usually with falling pitch.
Moreover, our data revealed that Ladd’s (1996) overall tone raising schema is not sufficient to explain the pitch modification of tones in different emotions. According to our analysis, except for Ladd’s ‘overall’ tone raising, there should also be ‘partial’ tone raising.
Then, a few points should be clarified in Bolinger’s (1989) universalist view . First, universalist view should be modified to be applied in different languages. For example, in our research, Tone 2 and Tone 4 do not change their pitch direction to express emotion, which is not compatible with Bolinger’s assumption. In addition, Possible culture differences in the expression of emotion should also be noted.
Finally, differences in vocal performance of emotion are observed between the two genders. Males tend to express anger with rising pitch while females do not. In addition , the general impression of male’s monotonous speech may be a result of sanctions from social factors.