{"675081":{"#nid":"675081","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Mandarin Remix: Georgia Tech Researcher Finds Chinese Rap is Defying Linguistic Tradition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/liu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EJin Liu,\u003C\/a\u003E an associate professor of Chinese in the School of Modern Languages, created an algorithm to analyze tone use in Chinese rap songs. She also worked with students in the College of Computing to integrate linguistics and cultural studies with computer science and statistics.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhy it matters\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Technology provides empirical and quantitative evidence or data to verify human intuitive perceptions of art,\u0022 Liu explained. \u0022This is an interdisciplinary project that extends beyond the range of any single researcher\u0027s knowledge and expertise,\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer co-authors on the paper included Amanda She (CS 2023), Haosong Ma (MS CS 2022), Jiahong Yuan, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and Hongyuan Dong, an associate professor of Chinese language and linguistics at George Washington University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022My field is linguistics and cultural studies, and we needed to collaborate with people in computer science to develop an algorithm and write a program to compute the Tonal Congruence Index,\u0022 Liu said. \u0022People in computer science need our expertise in linguistics and computational phonetics to develop different rules and criteria to distinguish the tones and learn the related pitch software.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EMore About the Study\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnlike English, Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, meaning using the same word with different pitches can change the meaning of the words.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn Liu\u0027s study, she found that while Chinese rappers used standard tones in the earlier rap styles, artists following more recent trends \u2014 such as trap music and mumble rap \u2014 are more likely to change or ignore Chinese tones to better fit the hip hop style in their work.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELiu and her co-authors also report that Chinese rappers now use more English words in their work to achieve musical flow.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022As hip-hop music continues to diversify, the correlation between tone and rap gradually decreases,\u0022 Liu said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhat\u0027s Next\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researcher\u0027s next step is to develop an open-source tool to further automate the audio-processing pipeline.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELiu\u0027s work also has educational applications. For example, she recently presented \u0022AI and Tones in Chinese Songs\u0022 at a symposium on education in the age of artificial intelligence.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Language instructors should teach songs with a high score on the Tonal Congruence Index because tonal shapes and contrasts are better accommodated in them,\u0022 she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis research is partially supported by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Small Grants for Research funding at Georgia Tech. \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/09298215.2024.2329075\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0022Linguistic Tone in Chinese Rap: An Interdisciplinary Approach\u0022\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E was published in the \u003C\/em\u003EJournal of New Music\u003Cem\u003E in March 2024. It is available at: \u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/09298215.2024.2329075\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003Ehttps:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/09298215.2024.2329075\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EChinese rap is straying further from standard Mandarin and using more English, according to Associate Professor Jin Liu in the School of Modern Languages. She worked with students in the College of Computing to create computational tools to uncover the trends.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Chinese rap is straying further from standard Mandarin and using more English, according to Associate Professor Jin Liu in the School of Modern Languages. She worked with students in the College of Computing to create tools to uncover the trends."}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2024-06-11 16:32:39","changed_gmt":"2024-06-14 13:56:01","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-06-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-06-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"674169":{"id":"674169","type":"image","title":"ChineseRap.png","body":null,"created":"1718123707","gmt_created":"2024-06-11 16:35:07","changed":"1718123707","gmt_changed":"2024-06-11 16:35:07","alt":"Image of a performer from behind, singing on stage in front of a crowd.","file":{"fid":"257648","name":"1600 x 900.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/11\/1600%20x%20900.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/11\/1600%20x%20900.png","mime":"image\/png","size":2170425,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/06\/11\/1600%20x%20900.png?itok=5prVdCpS"}}},"media_ids":["674169"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1284","name":"School of Modern Languages"}],"categories":[{"id":"148","name":"Music and Music Technology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dminardi3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}