Wenxi Fei

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | PolyU · Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies

The human voice conveys more than just words; acoustic-vocal cues like pitch range and formant dispersion can shape perceptions of a speaker's personality. While research has explored this in various contexts, the impact of vocal cues on perceptions of teachers' traits remains unclear, particularly considering the educational level of listeners. Th...

Second-language (L2) acquisition is influenced by the differences and similarities between a learner’s first language (L1) and their target language. Because prior research has shown that Cantonese and Mandarin speakers employ different acoustic strategies to express focus in speech, this study examines how Hong Kong Cantonese (HKC) speakers, who a...

This study aimed to investigate the impacts of synchronization of face-voice information on the recognition of speakers’ identity, and the perceptual patterns of non-native speakers when matching faces and voices of unfamiliar speakers. Previous research has shown that native English speakers can match faces and voice of unfamiliar speakers at abou...

Suzhou Wu is one of the major Chinese varieties and represents the Wu culture. Many researchers have anecdotally noted ongoing sound change of its phonemic and tonal systems. However, the latest investigation remains Ye and Sheng's description (1996). Thus, this study conducted an acoustic analysis on how young (M = 21.63, SD = 0.92) and middle-age...

Many languages have been classified in terms of whether post-focus compression of f0 range (PFC) is used to mark narrow focus or not. While the previous findings may seem to suggest that bilinguals’ language dominance could override the contact effect, it is still unclear how language dominance alone affects PFC. Thus, this study tested Suzhou Wu-M...