• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2009

Many researchers have argued about the relationship between information structure and intonation. Their results can be summarized in three main points: the intonation of topic and focus in English information structures is implemented as i) a pitch accent, ii) a tune (a pitch accent + (an) edge tone(s)), or iii) a boundary tone. The purpose of this paper is to study various intonational patterns of topic and focus in English information structures, using natural conversations. In this paper, the types of topics and foci are divided, based on contrastiveness. The topics are classified as five non-contrastive and four contrastive topics. The foci are classified as neutral focus, informational focus, and contrastive focus. The results show that the intonation of the topic in English information structures is mainly implemented as a pitch accent, except for the type of the pronoun topic (Lp) which is not implemented as a pitch accent or a tune. However, the intonation of the focus is implemented as a tune in the neutral focus (Fn) and as a pitch accent or a tune in the informational focus (Fi) and the contrastive focus (Fe). In our discussion and conclusion, we suggest that it is not always true that for the meaning of contrast, the topic or the focus is represented as a $L+H^{\ast}$ pitch accent, which has been the main contrastive intonation from earlier studies.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.364-364
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• 2000

It has been widely discussed in phonology that syllable structure of mother tongue influences one's acquisition of foreign language. However, the topic was hardly examined experimentally. So, we investigated effects of Korean syllable structure when Korean speakers pronounce English words, especially focusing on consonant strings that are not allowed in Korean. In the experiment, all the subjects are divided into 3 groups, that is, native, experienced, and inexperienced speakers. Native group consists of 1 male English native speaker. Experienced and inexperienced are each composed of 3 male Korean speakers. These 2 groups are divided by the length of residence in the country using English as a native language. 41 mono-syllable words are prepared considering the position (onset vs. coda), characteristic (stops, affricates, fricatives), and number of consonant. Then, the length of the consonant cluster is measured. To eliminate tempo effect, the measured length is normalized using the length of the word 'say' in the carrier sentence. Measurement of consonant cluster is the relative time period between the initiation of energy (onset I coda) which is acoustically representative of noise (consonant portion) and voicing. bar (vowel portion) in a syllable. Statistical method is used to estimate the differences among 3 groups. For each word, analysis of variance (ANDY A) and Post Hoc tests are carried out.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.95-109
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• 2004

Metrical Phonology has asserted that stress shift does not occur in English compounds because it violates the Continuous Column Constraint. Noun phrases, on the other hand, freely allow for stress shift, whereby the preceding stress moves forward to the preceding heavy syllable. This paper hypothesizes that stress does not shift in compounds as opposed to noun phrases and compares their pitch accentual patterns in a phonetic experiment. More specifically, we examined two-word combinations, noun phrases and compounds, whose boundaries involve stress clash and assured that the preceding words involve a heavy syllable ahead of the stress to guarantee the place for a shifting stress. Depending on where the preceding pitch accent is aligned, stress shift is determined. Results show that stress shift occurs in approximately 47% of the noun phrases and 59% of the compounds; therefore, the hypothesis is not borne out. This suggests that the surface representations derived by phonological rules may not be implemented in real utterance but that phonetic forms may be determined by the phonetic constraints. directly operating on human speech.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2007

This paper attempts to investigate phonetic substances of the stress patterns of English compounds and noun phrases, showing that the theoretically derived stress structures are not consistent with the accentual patterns in real utterances. Even though it has been long claimed that compounds have the stress pattern [1 3] and that noun phrases, [2 1] as in Chomsky & Halle (1968), their difference has not been yet explored empirically or phonetically. I present a phonetic experiment conducted to see if there is any difference along the tonal contours, mostly focusing on their pitch accent distribution. 36 different compounds and 36 different noun phrases included in carrier sentences were examined, and they were varied in position within a sentence. Results showed that various accentual patterns were produced, and among them, [H* X] predominantly occurs in all three positions in both compounds and noun phrases, whereas the patterns [X H*] and [X X] appear relatively more frequently in final position than in initial and medial position. Furthermore, the pattern [Ac + No], in which the preceding element is pitch-accented with no accent on the following one, is the major stress pattern in both compounds and noun phrases and in all three sentence positions. This suggests that there seems to be no difference in accentual patterns between compounds and noun phrases, which is not consistent with the hypothesis. The results are interpreted as saying that the preceding element alone tends to be prominent with no accent following it both in compounds and noun phrases, and that therefore, theoretically speculated phonological claims are not always phonetically supported.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of phonology in lexical access of bilingual processing for Korean-English bilinguals. Four experiments have been conducted in order to adjudicate the nonselective lexical access hypothesis, which argues simultaneous phonological activation of two bilingual languages, and the selective lexical access hypothesis. which argues phonological activation of only one bilingual language. The results showed that the Korean target word processing was significantly affected by the phonological manipulation of the English target word(Exp. 2). Similarly, the English target word processing showed the tendencies that it is affected by the phonological manipulation of the Korean prime word(Exp. 2). This results indicates that the phonological information of another bilingual language is automatically activated when we process one of bilingual languages, and the process of English which is the second language for most Korean, is phonologically activated.

• Annual Conference on Human and Language Technology
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• 2004.10d
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• pp.240-247
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of phonology in lexical access of bilingual processing for Korean-English bilinguals. Four experiments have been conducted in order to adjudicate the nonselective lexical access hypothesis, which argues simultaneous phonological activation of two bilingual languages, and the selective lexical access hypothesis, which argues phonological activation of only one bilingual language. The results showed that the Korean target word processing was significantly affected by the phonological manipulation of the English prime word(Exp. 2). Similarly, the English target word processing showed the tendencies that it is affected by the phonological manipulation of the Korean prime word(Exp. 2). This results indicates that the phonological information of another bilingual language is automatically activated when we process one of bilingual languages, and the process of English, which is the second language for most Korean, is phonologically activated.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2010

This study investigates the effect of pitch range reset in Korean listeners' processing of syntactically ambiguous participle structures. Unlike Japanese and English,in Korean, the downtrend or the reset of pitch range does not consistently differentiate Accentual Phrases (AP), a lower level of phrasing, from Intonational Phrases (IP), a higher level of phrasing. Therefore, we explore Korean listeners' comprehension patterns for syntactically ambiguous speech strings varying in 1) the relative height of F0 peaks across prosodic units, and 2) the types of prosodic phrasing, to see whether pitch range reset informs the recovery of syntactic structure even though it is not reflected in the intonational hierarchy in Korean. The results show that the hierarchical level of prosodic phrasing affects the parsing pattern of syntactic ambiguity. The pitch range reset also cued the location of syntactic boundaries, but this effect was confined to phrases across AP.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.93-111
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• 2001

This study investigates the contribution of vocalic information following the release of an initial stop to the identification of the three-way stop contrast (aspirated, lax, and tense) in Korean. Recent studies showed that there is a strong interaction between consonant types and tone. The findings raise questions concerning Korean listeners' use of tonal (or vocalic F0) variation in differentiation initial tense, lax, and aspirated stops. The above issues are addressed in the present study using a cross-splicing methodology. The overall results show that low vocalic F0 provided the most salient information for lax stops; tense and aspirated stop identification depended on a combination of VOT, F0, and H1-H2 characteristics. The perceptual dominance of F0 over VOT for lax stops is consistent with the size of the F0 difference in utterance-initial position, as well as their prominent role in Korean intonational phonology.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.225-234
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• 2001

The Korean Metaphonological Assessment, adapted from the Metaphonological Abilities Battery (MAB; Hesketh, 2000b) was administered to examine the development of metaphonological skills of 60 normally developing Korean pre-school children aged from 3 to 6. The tasks were specifically designed to evaluate their skills to detect rhymes, onsets, and segments. A gradual improvement of total scores was observed in children from 3 to 5, with evidence for developmental refinements of metaphonological abilities in the ages of 5 and 6. Subjects were found to develop segmenting skills at a relatively early age and gradually progressed toward detecting onsets and then rhymes. The differences in the order of development from the previous studies with English-speaking children were discussed. This preliminary study also aimed to provide foundational information for investigating the link between expressive phonological impairments, metaphonolgocial skills, and literacy in Korean-speaking children.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2010

Korean and three other languages (English, Arabic, and Japanese) were compared with regard to the compensatory movements in a VC (Vowel and Consonant) sequence and word. For this, Korean data were collected from an experiment and the other languages' data from literature. All the test words of the languages had the same syllabic contexture, i.e., /CVCV(r)/, where C was an oral stop and intervocalic consonants were either bilabial or alveolar stops. The present study found that (1) Korean is most striking in the durational variations of segments (vowel and the following hetero-syllabic consonant); (2) unlike the three languages that show a constant sum of VC, Korean yields a three-way distinction in the length of VC according the type (lax unaspirated vs. tense unaspirated vs. tense aspirated) of the following stop consonant; (3) a durational constancy is maintained up to the word level in the three languages, but Korean word duration varies as a function of the feature tenseness of the intervocalic consonants; (4) consonant duration is proven to differentiate Korean the most from the other languages. It is suggested that the durational difference between a lax consonant and its tense cognate(s) and the degree of compensation between V and C are determined by the phonology in each language.