Cover not available

Article In: Asia-Pacific Language Variation: Online-First Articles

Subject pronominal expression in Mandarin

Production patterns and the perception-production relationship

ORCiD logo with link | City University of Hong Kong
 | University of California, Davis
 | Michigan State University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This study investigates production patterns of Mandarin subject pronoun expression (SPE) and the understudied relationship between evaluative judgments and actual usage of this feature. Building on established perception patterns among 185 native Mandarin speakers, these participants completed narrative production tasks in two distinct discourse contexts: a frog story task and a map task. Mixed-effects analyses revealed that linguistic constraints like referent continuity and clause type significantly conditioned SPE production, whereas social factors did not. Furthermore, task type interacted with grammatical number, reflecting dynamic discourse effects due to interactions of linguistic forms and communicative demands. Crucially, a significant perception-production correlation emerged exclusively for low-rate SPE stimuli (the native norm). No alignment appeared for mid or high rates, which speakers rated as less appropriate. These findings suggest that (1) linguistic constraints outweigh social constraints for Mandarin SPE production, and (2) perception or evaluation and production are linked through the alignment between production rate and targeted perceptual dimensions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Perception, evaluation, and production in language variation
      • 2.1.1The connections between language perception and production
      • 2.1.2Perception versus evaluation
    • 2.2Target feature: Mandarin subject pronoun expression
      • 2.2.1Mandarin SPE: Internal linguistic constraints
      • 2.2.2Mandarin SPE: External social constraints
  • 3.The current study
    • 3.1Methods
      • 3.1.1Materials
      • 3.1.2Participants
      • 3.1.3Procedure
        • Perceiving given narratives
        • Storytelling: The frog story
        • The map task
  • 4.Coding and analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1On overall production of SPE across the two tasks
    • 5.2On perception and production relationships
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Internal constraints outweigh external factors in SPE production
    • 6.2The role of discourse and context
    • 6.3Evaluation/perception-production relationships
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (106)
References
Adli, Aria (2011). Gradient acceptability and frequency effects in information structure: A quantitative study on Spanish, Catalan, and Persian. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universitat Freiburg.
Altmann, Christian F., Uesaki, Masato, Ono, Kenji, Matsuhashi, Masao, Mima, Tatsuya, and Fukuyama, Hidenao (2014). Categorical speech perception during active discrimination of consonants and vowels. Neuropsychologia, 64,13–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ariel, Mira (1991). The function of accessibility in a theory of grammar. Journal of Pragmatics, 16(5), 443–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Referring expressions and the+/-coreference distinction. In J. Gundel & N. Hedberg (Eds.), Reference and referent accessibility (pp. 13–36). John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barbosa, Pilar, Duarte, Maria E. L., & Kato, Mary A. (2005). Null subjects in European and Brazilian Portuguese. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 4(2), 11–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas (2014). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.5823.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayley, Robert, & Pease-Alvarez, Lucinda (1996). Null and expressed pronoun variation in Mexican-descent children’s Spanish. In J. Arnold et al. (Eds.), Sociolinguistic variation: Data, theory, and analysis (pp. 85–99). CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaman, Karen V. (2024). Language change in real-and apparent-time: Coherence in the individual and the Community. Taylor & Francis. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beddor, Patrice S. (2009). A coarticulatory path to sound change. Language, 85(4), 785–821. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bell, Allan (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society, 13(2), 145–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buchstaller, Isabella K. (2004). The sociolinguistic constraints on the quotative system: British English and US English compared. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Edinburgh.
Bybee, Joan (2010). Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cacoullos, Rena T. & Travis, Catherine E. (2018). Bilingualism in the community: Code-switching and grammars in contact. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cai, Zhengguang G., Sun, Zheng, and Zhao, Ning (2021). Interlocutor modelling in lexical alignment: The role of linguistic competence. Journal of Memory and Language, 121, 104278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, Richard (1993). Ambiguous agreement, functional compensation, and nonspecific tú in the Spanish of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Madrid, Spain. Language Variation and Change, 5(3), 305–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, Richard, & Flores-Ferrán, Nydia (2004). Perseveration of subject expression across regional’ dialects of Spanish. Spanish in Context, 1(1),41–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2009). The nature of sociolinguistic perception. Language Variation and Change, 21(1), 135–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Sociolinguistics and perception. Language and Linguistics Compass, 4(6), 377–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Intersecting variables and perceived sexual orientation in men. American Speech, 86(1), 52–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cargile, Aaron C. & Giles, Howard (1997). Understanding language attitudes: Exploring listener affect and identity. Language & Communication, 17(3),195–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casserly, Elizabeth D., and Pisoni, David B. (2010). Speech perception and production. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1(5), 629–647. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Ping (1983). A discourse analysis of third person zero anaphora in Chinese. Unpublished master’s thesis. University of California, Los Angeles.
Chomsky, Noam (1965). Persistent topics in linguistic theory. Diogenes, 13(51),13–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clopper, Cynthia G., and Pisoni, David B. (2004). Homebodies and army brats: Some effects of early linguistic experience and residential history on dialect categorization. Language Variation and Change, 16(1), 31–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Onofrio, Annette (2018). Controlled and automatic perceptions of a sociolinguistic marker. Language Variation and Change, 30(2), 261–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drager, Katie (2010). Sociophonetic variation in speech perception. Language and Linguistics Compass, 4(7), 473–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drager, Katie, & Kirtley, Mary J. (2016). Awareness, salience, and stereotypes in exemplar-based models of speech production and perception. In A. Babel (Ed.), Awareness and control in sociolinguistic research (pp. 1–24). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. (2013). On the six-way word order typology, again. Studies in Language, 37(2), 267–301. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erker, Daniel, Guy, Gregory R., Beaman, Karen V., Bayley, Robert, Adli, Aria, Orozco, Rafael, & Zhang, Xinye (forthcoming). Subject pronoun expression: A cross-linguistic variationist sociolinguistic study. Cambridge University Press.
Evans, Jonathan St. B. T. & Stanovich, Keith E. (2013). Dual-process theories of higher cognition: Advancing the debate. Perspectives on psychological science, 8(3), 223–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flores-Ferrán, Nydia (2002). Subject personal pronouns in Spanish narratives of Puerto Ricans in New York City: A sociolinguistic perspective. Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry A. (1983). The modularity of mind. MIT press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fowler, Carol A. (1986). An event approach to the study of speech perception from a direct-realist perspective. Journal of Phonetics, 14(1), 3–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fridland, Valerie & Kendall, Tyler (2012). Exploring the relationship between production and perception in the mid front vowels of US English. Lingua, 122(7), 779–793. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardner, Matthew H., Uffing, Eline, Van Vaeck, Niels, & Szmrecsanyi, B. (2021). Variation isn’t that hard: Morphosyntactic choice does not predict production difficulty. PLoS One, 16(6), e0252602. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldinger, Stephen D. (1998). Echoes of echoes? An episodic theory of lexical access. Psychological review, 105(2), 251–279. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hay, Jennifer, & Drager, Katie (2010). Stuffed toys and speech perception. Linguistics, 48(4), 865–892. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry, Alison (1995). Belfast English and Standard English: Dialect variation and parameter setting. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaeggli, Osvaldo, & Safir, Ken J. (1989). The null subject parameter and parametric theory. In O. Jaeggli & K. J. Safir (Eds.), The null subject parameter (pp. 1–44). Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janson, Tore (1983). Sound change in perception and production. Language, 59(1), 18–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jia, Lan, & Bayley, Robert (2002). Null pronoun variation in Mandarin Chinese. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 8(3), 103–116.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith et al. (1997). Speech perception without speaker normalization: An exemplar model. In K. Johnson & J. Mullenix (Eds.), Talker variability in speech processing (pp.145–165) Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kato, Mary A. and Duarte, Maria E. L. (2021). Parametric variation: The case of Brazilian Portuguese null subjects. Syntactic architecture and its consequences III: Inside syntax (pp. 357–378). Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William (1966). Hypercorrection by the lower middle class as a factor in linguistic change. In W. Bright (Ed.), Sociolinguistics: Proceedings of the UCLA Sociolinguistics Conference (pp. 84–113). Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change, 2(2), 205–254. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994). Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 1: Internal Factors. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2000). Principles of Linguistic Change: Social factors. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon., Ravindranath, Maya, Weldon, Tracey, Baranowski, Maciej, & Nagy, Naomi (2011). Properties of the sociolinguistic monitor. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15(4), 431–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Hodgson, Richard C., Gardner, Robert C., & Fillenbaum, Samuel (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60(1), 44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. (2008). Cognitive grammar as a basis for language instruction. In P. Robinson & N. C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition (pp. 76–98). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Aini. and Lai, Wei (2025). Gender effects in Mandarin creaky voice evaluation: A matched-guise study. Linguistics Vanguard. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., & Thompson, Sandra A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Xiaoshi (2014). Variation in subject pronominal expression in L2 Chinese. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36(1), 39–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Xiaoshi. and Bayley, Robert (2018). Lexical frequency and syntactic variation: Subject pronoun use in Mandarin Chinese. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 4(2), 135–160. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Xiaoshi, Chen, Xiaoqing, and Chen, Wen-Hsin (2012). Variation of subject pronominal expression in Mandarin Chinese. Sociolinguistic studies, 6(1), 91–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liberman, Alvin M., & Mattingly, Ignatius G. (1985). A specialization for speech perception revised. Cognition, 21(1), 1–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacDonald, Maryellen C. (2013). How language production shapes language form and comprehension. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mielke, Jeff, Magloughlin, Laura, & Wilbanks, Eric (2019). Speech production and perception: Linking the two via individual differences. Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, 311–331.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina (2008). Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morin, Cameron, & Larsson, Martin M. (2025). Large corpora and large language models: a replicable method for automating grammatical annotation. Linguistics Vanguard. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munro, Murray J., & Derwing, Tracey M. (1995). Processing time, accent, and comprehensibility in the perception of native and foreign-accented speech. Language and speech, 38(3), 289–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nagy, Naomi (2024). Heritage Languages: Extending Variationist Approaches. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy (1999). The effect of social information on the perception of speech events. In D. R. Preston & N. Niedzielski (Eds.), Folk Linguistics (pp. 87–103). De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy A., & Preston, Dennis R. (2000). Folk linguistics. Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. (1981). The listener as a source of sound change. In C. S. Masek, R. A. Hendrick, & M. F. Miller (Eds.), Papers from the Parasession on Language and Behavior (pp. 178–203). Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Otheguy, Ricardo, Zentella, Ana C., & Livert, David (2007). Language and dialect contact in Spanish in New York: Toward the formation of a speech community. Language, 83(4), 770–802. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pantos, Andrew J. and Perkins, Andrew W. (2013). Measuring implicit and explicit attitudes toward foreign accented speech. Journal of language and social psychology, 32(1), 3–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pflaeging, Jessika, Mackay, Bridget, & Schleef, Erik (2025). Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English. Linguistics, 63(3), 607–638. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet B. (2001a). Why phonological constraints are so coarse-grained. Language and cognitive processes, 16(5–6), 691–698. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001b). Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In J. Bybee & P. Hopper (Eds.), Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure (pp. 137–157). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure (pp. 137–158). John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Phonological representation: Beyond abstract versus episodic. Annual review of linguistics, 2(1), 33–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinget, Anne-France, Kager, René, & Van de Velde, Hans (2020). Linking variation in perception and production in sound change: Evidence from Dutch obstruent devoicing. Language and Speech, 63(3), 660–685. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria (2018). Heritage languages and their speakers. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. (2011). Perceptual dialectology: Nonlinguists’ views of areal linguistics (Vol.7). Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Language with an attitude. In J. K. Chambers & N. Schilling (Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (pp. 157–182). Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team (2024). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reber, Rolf, Schwarz, Norbert, and Winkielman, Piotr (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and social psychology review, 8(4), 364–382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi (1986). Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro. Linguistic inquiry, 17(3), 501–557.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie (1998). Investigating “self-conscious” speech: The performance register in Ocracoke English. Language in society, 27(1), 53–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schleef, Erik (2013). Written surveys and questionnaires in sociolinguistics. In J. Holmes & K. Hazen (Eds.), Research methods in sociolinguistics: A practical guide (pp. 42–57). Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, Lauren B. (2015). Not all forms of dialect contact are the same: Effects of regional media, travel, and social contacts on the perception of spanish aspirated-/s/. Borealis — An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 4(1), 99–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sharma, Devyani, & Rampton, Ben (2015). Lectal focusing in interaction: A new methodology for the study of style variation. Journal of English Linguistics, 43(1), 3–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shin, Naomi L. (2012). Variable use of Spanish subject pronouns by monolingual children in Mexico. In K. Geeslin & M. Díaz-Campos (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 14th Hispanic linguistics symposium (pp. 130–141). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & communication, 23(3–4), 193–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sonderegger, Morgan, Bane, Max, & Graff, Peter (2017). The dynamic systems of speech perception and production in conversation. Laboratory Phonology, 8(1).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steele, Anna (2025). Perception is political: The production–perception interface as a contested site of power and legibility. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 29(5), 367–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strand, Elizabeth A. (1999). Uncovering the role of gender stereotypes in speech perception. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18(1), 86–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strange, Winifred (1989). Evolving theories of vowel perception. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85(5), 2081–2087. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sumner, Meghan, & Samuel, Arthur G. (2009). The effect of experience on the perception and representation of dialect variants. Journal of Memory and Language, 60(4), 487–501. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A. (2006). Analysing sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael (2003). The key is social cognition. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 47–57). MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Travis, Catherine E. (2007). Genre effects on subject expression in Spanish: Priming in narrative and conversation. Language Variation and Change, 19(2), 101–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, & Giles, Howard (1976). Sociolinguistics and linguistic value judgments: Correctness, adequacy and aesthetics. LAUT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wade, Lacey, & Tamminga, Meredith (2025). Expectation-driven shifts in perception and production. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 158(4), 3517–3528. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walker, Abby, García, Christina, Cortes, Yajaira, & Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2014). Comparing social meanings across listener and speaker groups: The indexical field of Spanish/s/. Language Variation and Change, 26(2), 169–189. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warren, Paul, Hay, Jennifer, & Thomas, Beth (2007). The loci of sound change effects in recognition and perception. Laboratory phonology, 9, 87–112.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wickham, Hadley (2011). ggplot2. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics, 3(2), 180–185.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt (2011). Fieldwork methods in language variation. In R. Wodak, B. Johnstone, & P. Kerswill (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 296–311). SAGE. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Chin L., Gordon, Peter C., Hendrick, Randall, & Hue, Chi W. (2003). Constraining the comprehension of pronominal expressions in Chinese. Cognition, 86(3), 283–315. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yu, Alan (2013). Socio-cognitive processing and the actuation of sound change. In A. C. L. Yu (Ed.), Origins of sound change: Approaches to phonologisation (pp. 201–227). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Xinye (2021). Language variation in Mandarin as a heritage language: Subject personal pronouns. Heritage Language Journal, 18(1):1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2025). Sociolinguistic competence in Chinese heritage language speakers: Variation in subject personal pronoun expression. Languages, 10(5):106. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Xinye, Li, Aini, and Li, Xiaoshi (2025). Language variation and perception: Subject pronominal expression in native and non-native Mandarin Chinese. Languages, 10(5):104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue