{"id":4079,"date":"2026-03-17T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/?p=4079"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:31:30","slug":"investigating-the-tone-segment-asymmetry-in-phonological-counting-a-learnability-experiment-published-in-the-proceedings-of-the-annual-meetings-on-phonology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/archives\/4079","title":{"rendered":"\u201cInvestigating the Tone\u2013Segment Asymmetry in Phonological Counting: A Learnability Experiment\u201d published in the Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-17-at-15.37.23-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4086\" width=\"553\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-17-at-15.37.23-1.png 553w, https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-17-at-15.37.23-1-300x115.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 553px) 100vw, 553px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We are pleased to announce a new publication by Jian, Hanna, Youngah and Jesse in the <em>Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology<\/em>. The paper, titled <em>\u201cInvestigating the Tone-Segment Asymmetry in Phonological Counting: A Learnability Experiment,\u201d<\/em> examines how learners acquire rules that rely on counting either tones or segments, two fundamental components of spoken language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tone-segment asymmetry has long attracted attention in phonological theory, with many proposals suggesting that tones and segments behave differently in how they pattern across languages. This study provides the first experimental test of whether these typological differences are connected to how easily such patterns can be learned. Using an artificial-language learning paradigm, the authors compared learners\u2019 ability to acquire a tonal counting rule with their ability to learn a structurally parallel segmental rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results reveal that an unattested segmental counting pattern is significantly more difficult for learners than its tonal equivalent. This asymmetry in learnability suggests that cognitive biases may contribute to the distribution of tone\u2011 and segment\u2011based counting patterns observed cross\u2011linguistically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-subtle-background-background-color has-background\"><strong>Cui, J<\/strong>., <strong>Shine, H<\/strong>., <strong>Do, Y<\/strong>., &amp; <strong>Snedeker, J<\/strong>. (2026). Investigating the tone-segment asymmetry in phonological counting: A learnability experiment. <em>Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology, 2<\/em>(1).  <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7275\/amphonology.3699\"><span class=\"material-symbols-outlined\">open_in_new<\/span>DOI<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are pleased to announce a new publication by Jian, Hanna, Youngah and Jesse in the Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology. The paper, titled \u201cInvestigating the Tone-Segment Asymmetry in Phonological Counting: A Learnability Experiment,\u201d examines how learners acquire rules that rely on counting either tones or segments, two fundamental components of spoken language. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,9,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4079"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4124,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4079\/revisions\/4124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguistics.hku.hk\/ldlhku\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}