• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.142-143
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• 1997

The purpose of this paper is to assess the psychological status of the phoneme, syllable, and various postulated subsyllabic units in Korean by applying the Sound Similarity Judgment (SSJ) task, to compare the results with those in English, and to discuss the advantage and disadvantage of the SSJ task as a tool for linguistic research. In Experiment 1, 30 subjects listened to pairs of 56 eve words which were systematically varied from 'totally different' (e.g., pan-met) to 'identical' (e.g., pan-pan). Subjects were then asked to rate sound similarity of each pair on a 10-point scale. Not very surprisingly, there was a strong correlation between the number of phonemic segments matched and the similarity score provided by the subjects. This result was in accord with the previous results from English (e.g., Vitz & Winkler, 1973; Derwing & Nearey, 1986) and supported the assumption that the phoneme is the basic phonological unit in Korean and English. However, there were sharply contrasting results between the two languages. When the pairs shared two phonemes (e.g., pan-pat; pan-pen; pan-man), the pairs sharing the fIrst two phonemes were judged significantly more similar than the other two types of pairs. Quite to the contrary, in the comparable English experiments, the pairs sharing the last two phonemes were judged significantly more similar than the other two types of pairs. Experiment 2 was designed to conflrm the results of Experiment 1 by controlling the 'degree' of similarity between phonemes. For example, the pair pan-pam can be judged more similar than the pair pan-nan, although both pairs share the same number of phonemes. This could be interpreted either as confirming the result of Experiment 1 or as the fact that /n/ is more similar to /m/ than /p/ is to /n/ in terms of shared number of distinctive features. The results of Experiment 2 supported the former interpretation. Thus, the results of both experiments clearly showed that, although the 'number' of matched phonemes is the important predictor in judging sound similarity of monosyllabic pairs of both languages, the 'position' of the matched phonemes exerts a different influence in judging sound similarity in the two languages. This contrasting set of results may provide interesting implications for the internal structure of the syllable in the two languages.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.378-390
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• 2020

English stress plays such a critical role in understanding spoken English words that its misplacement can lead to a breakdown of communication. Korean learners of English, whose native language is known to lack this feature, are expected to have some difficulty acquiring this English prosodic system. This study explored how Korean is different from English in manifesting prominence at the word level and how the interlanguage of Korean learners of English is dissimilar to both languages in that regard. Four polysyllabic English loanwords in Korean and their English source words were used as stimuli. Ten native English speakers read the English source words while ten Korean learners of English read the English loan words first and then the English source words. The analysis of 120 speech samples revealed that Korean words did not have any salient syllable realized by all stress features: duration, amplitude, and F0. On the contrary, English words had syllables with relative prominence, which was consistently manifested by all the features. Interestingly, in realizing English stress, the interlanguage of the Korean English learners bore more resemblance to that of English than that of their native language.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.55-68
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• 2004

The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the relationship between English pronunciation and listening comprehension of English diphthongs and low vowels of Korean college students from the Chungnam and Gyungnam provinces. Of 22 test sentences for listening comprehension, 15 sentences were recorded by native speakers and seven sentences were edited from Springboard by Oxford University Press. For the listening comprehension test, 90 subjects from two groups, Chungnam dialect speakers and Gyungnam dialect speakers, were selected. They listened to 22 sentences produced by audio cassette tape and completed a cloze exercise. By the results of this experiment, we observed that Korean collegians of Gyungnam province showed a better listening comprehension of words including front low vowels when they preceded voiced sounds than those of Chungnam province. When the back low vowel came in an open syllable, we also recognized the same result; Gyungnam province collegians showed better listening comprehension of words including back low vowels than those of Chungnam province. As the results of Hee-Suk Park & Jung-Soak Kim(2003) showed that Gyungnam province collegians pronounced the English low vowels longer than Chungnam province collegians, we discovered that there was a positive relation between English pronunciation and listening comprehension, especially in Gyungnam province collegians. However regarding words including English diphthongs we discovered almost no relation between English pronunciation and listening comprehension.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.199-206
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• 2004

This paper attempts to provide a substantial explanation of different prosodic implementations on segments in English and Spanish, arguing that the phonetic modification invoked by prosody may effectively reflect phonological structure. In English, a high front vowel in accented syllables is acoustically realized as higher F1 and F2 frequencies than in unaccented syllables, due to its more peripheral and sonorous articulation (Harrington et al. 1999). In this paper, an acoustic experiment was conducted to see if such a manner of segmental modification invoked by prosody in English extends to other languages such as Spanish. Results show that relatively more prominent syllables entail higher F1 values as a result of their more sonorous articulation in Spanish, but either front or back vowel does not show a higher F2 or a lower F2 frequency. This is interpreted as an indication that a prosodically prominent syllable entails its vocalic enhancement in both horizontal and vertical dimensions of articulation in English. In Spanish, however, only the vertical dimensional articulation is maximized, resulting in a higher F1. I suggest that this difference may be attributed to the different phonological structures of vowels in English and Spanish, and that sonority expansion alone would be sufficient in the articulation of prosodic prominence as long as the phonological distinction of vowels is well retained.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.25-31
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• 2013

This study examined cross-generational changes in the vowel system of Seoul Korean. Acoustic analyses of the vowel formants of /o/ and /u/, and their Euclidean distances in the vowel space were undertaken to explore an on-going merger of these two vowels as proposed in previous acoustic studies and a phonological analysis by Chae (1999). A robust cross-generational change of /o/ and /u/ was found, more evident for female speakers than for male speakers. For female speakers, with each successive generation, /o/ became increasingly approximated with /u/, regardless of the syllable positions that the target vowels were posited, whereas the cross-generational differences in the Euclidean distances were only shown in the second syllable position for the male speakers. These results demonstrate that 1) women are more advanced than men in the on-going approximation of /o/ and /u/; 2) the approximation of /o/ and /u/ is common in the non-initial position. Taken together, the merger of /o/ and /u/ appears to be in progress in Seoul Korean.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.19-27
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• 2008

Several studies on the pronunciation of English vowels point out that Korean learners have difficulty distinguishing English tense and lax vowel pairs. The acoustic comparisons of those studies are mostly based on the formant measurement at one time point of a given vowel section. However, the English lax vowels usually show dynamic changes across their syllable peaks and subjects' English levels account for various conflicting results. The purposes of this paper are to compare the temporal duration and dynamic formant tracks of English tense and lax vowel pairs produced by five Korean and five American males. The subjects were graduate students of an American state university. Results showed that both the Korean and American males produced the vowels with comparable durations. The duration of the front tense-lax vowel pair was longer than that of the back vowel pair. From the formant track comparisons, the American males produced the tense and lax pairs much more distinctly than the Korean male speakers. The results suggest that the Korean males should pay attention to the F1 and F2 movements, i.e., the jaw and tongue movements, in order to match those of the American males. Further studies are recommended on the auditorily acceptable ranges of F2 variation for the lax vowels.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.51-67
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• 2006

This study examined the acoustic properties of initial stops in Korean, produced by Korean native speakers and English Korean learners. The productions of Korean native speakers were compared with those of beginners and advanced learners of Korean. Fundamental frequency(F0) and Voice Onset Time(VOT) were measured in condition of one or two syllable words, containing word-initial lenis, fortis, and aspirated stops. English Korean Learners showed that they produced stops with relatively shorter VOT and lower F0, compared with those of Korean native speakers. In case of the manner of articulation, English Korean learners have production difficulties in order of lenis stops, aspirated stops, and fortis stops. In regard to the place of articulation, English Korean learners showed production troubles in order of labial stops, velar stops, and alveolar stops. In the experiment of perception, it is hard for English Korean learners to distinguish stops of lenis and aspirated. Therefore, the results of production experiment were almost consistent with those of the perception experiment. Finally, according to both groups of proficiency, the results demonstrated that the advanced learners produce or perceive Korean stops easier than the beginners.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.19-25
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• 2021

It has been widely recognized that there are two varieties of lateral liquid /l/, which are light /l/ (a non-velarized allophone) and dark /l/ (a velarized allophone). However, this categorical view has been challenged in recent studies, both on articulatory and acoustic aspects. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether to consider /l/ velarization as a continuum in American English and provide supporting data. A spontaneous American English speech database called the Buckeye Speech Corpus was used for the material. The formant frequencies of /l/ in each syllable position were measured and analyzed statistically. The formant frequencies of /l/ in each syllable position, especially F2 values, were significantly different from each other. The results showed that there were other significantly different varieties of /l/ in American English, which support the continuum view on /l/ velarization. Regarding the effect of the adjacent vowel, the backness of the adjacent vowels was shown to affect the degree of /l/ velarization, regardless of the syllable position of the lateral liquid. This result will help provide a solid ground for the continuum view.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.343-362
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• 2020

English is a stress-timed language that has a phonetic system in which the speech is restructured by stress changes. On the other hand, Korean is a syllable-timed language in which each syllable is pronounced at almost the same length and intensity, and Korean and English have distinctly different metrical systems in general speech. However, as the language of the lyrics in K-Pop music is mixed in both languages, Korean and English, the Korean lyrics in K-Pop music have a metrical system by stress changes as in English. The writer's view is that the change in the metrical structure of Korean lyrics is inevitable in order to sustain the new Korean Wave. Therefore, in this study, dance music - a major genre of K-Pop music that focuses on rhythm expression - is classified into 1998, 2003, and 2009 according to the changes in the Korean Wave, and the metrical structure of each period is compared and analyzed. Based on this, the current K-Pop metrical structure features are derived and the K-Pop Korean writing method is proposed that deviates from the existing limited writing method which allocates one syllable per note. The author hopes this research will be used as a methodology for writing lyrics in Korean songs in K-Pop, as well as a way to encourage the use of Korean lyrics.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.64-69
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• 2002

This study concerns the constraints of English Poetic Meter. In English poems, the metrical pattern doesn't always match the linguistic stress on the lines. These mismatches are found differently among the poets. For the lexical stress mismatched with the weak metrical position, $*W{\Rightarrow}{\;}Strength$ is established by the concept of the strong syllable. The peaks of monosyllabic words mismatched with the weak metrical position are divided according to which side of the boundary of a phonological domain they are adjacent to. Adjacency Constraint I is suggested for the mismatched peak which is adjacent to the left boundary of a phonological domain; *Peak] and Adjacency ConstraintII for the mismatched peak which are adjacent to the right boundary of a phonological domain. These constraints are various according to the poets(Pope, Milton and Shakespeare) : *[Peak [-stress], $W{\Rightarrow}{\;}*Strength$ and *Peak] in Pope; *[+stress][Peak [-stress] and *Peak] in Milton ; *[+stress][Peak [-stress], $W{\;}{\Rightarrow}{\;}*Strength$ and ACII in Shakespeare.