• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.51-58
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• 2010

This study investigates the perception and production of English front vowels focusing on the distinction in /i/ vs /I/ and /$\varepsilon$/ vs /$\ae$/ by sixty-one Korean speakers. The first portion of this study focused on the perceptional discrimination by the subjects of two sets of English vowel contrasts, /i/ vs /I/ and /$\varepsilon$/ vs /$\ae$/. In the second portion of the study, the production of these vowels by the same subjects who had participated in the perceptional discrimination test was examined acoustically and subsequently compared with that of the control group comprised of native English speakers. The major results indicate that: (1) In perception tests, Korean subjects can discriminate between /i/ and /I/ relatively well, while many of them were not able to discriminate between /$\varepsilon$/ and /$\ae$/; (2) the Korean subjects, however, have difficulty producing a distinct version of these front vowels; and, (3) The relationship between the perception and production is not significant. These results were analyzed with the concept of "under-differentiation" and "reinterpretation of distinction," as well as how phonetic differences influenced the production and discrimination of front vowels by Korean speakers.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.15-20
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• 2021

In line with recent attention to the multimodal expression of politeness, the present study examined the association between polite speech and acoustic features through the analysis of vowels produced in casual and polite speech contexts in Korean. Fourteen adult native speakers of Seoul Korean produced the utterances in two social conditions to elicit polite (professor) and casual (friend) speech. Vowel duration and the first (F1) and second formants (F2) of seven sentence- and phrase-initial monophthongs were measured. The results showed that polite speech shares acoustic similarities with vowel production in clear speech: speakers showed greater vowel space expansion in polite than casual speech in an effort to enhance perceptual intelligibility. Especially, female speakers hyperarticulated (front) vowels for polite speech, independent of speech rate. The implications for the acoustic encoding of social stance in polite speech are further discussed.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제13권9호
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• pp.495-503
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• 2013

21명의 한국인 대학생의 영어모음 발화와 원어민의 발화를 비교하여 두 집단의 음향적 특성을 밝히는 것이 본 연구의 목적이다. 따라서 한국인 영어학습자들의 전반적인 영어 모음의 발화 양상을 알아보기 위하여 11개의 영어모음([i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ʌ, ɔ, oʊ, ʊ, u])을 사료로 하여 발화테스트를 실시하였다. 원어민과 한국인 사이의 포먼트값(F1, F2)과 모음의 길이를 비교한 결과 전체적으로는 원어민에 비해 전설 모음에서 한국인이 더 앞쪽에서 발화하고, 또한 모음들을 길게 발화한 특징이 보였다. 특히 긴장과 이완모음의 경우, 원어민은 이 모음들을 발화시 음향적인 단서(F1, F2)와 발화 길이를 모두 사용하여서 음향적으로도 두 모음을 구별하여 발화하였고, 길이에 있어서도 긴장모음을 이완모음 보다 더 길게 발화하여 구별하였다. 반면에, 한국인은 긴장과 이완모음을 구별할 때 음향적인 차이로 구별하지 않고, 긴장모음을 더 길게 발화함으로써 길이로써 긴장과 이완모음을 구별하는 것으로 나타났다. 끝으로 이러한 모든 결과를 종합하여 교육적인 함축점도 논의되었다.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2023

This study investigated the influences of probabilistic accessibility of the word being produced - as determined by its usage frequency and neighborhood density - on native and high-proficiency L2 speakers' realization of six English monophthong vowels. The native group hyperarticulated the vowels over an expanded acoustic space when the vowel occurred in words with low frequency and high density, supporting the claim that vowel forms are modified in accordance with the probabilistic accessibility of words. However, temporal expansion occurred in words with greater accessibility (i.e., with high frequency and low density) as an effect of low phonotactic probability in low-density words, particularly in attended speech. This suggests that temporal modification in the opposite direction may be part of the phonetic characteristics that are enhanced in communicatively driven focus realization. Conversely, none of these spectral and temporal patterns were found in the L2 group, thereby indicating that even the high-proficiency L2 speakers may not have developed experience-based sensitivity to the modulation of sub-categorical phonetic details indexed with word-level probabilistic information. The results are discussed with respect to how phonological representations are shaped in a word-specific manner for the sake of communicatively driven lexical intelligibility, and what factors may contribute to the lack of native-like sensitivity in L2 speech.

• 한국콘텐츠학회논문지
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.326-336
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• 2022

본 연구는 한국 대학생들의 미국 영어 모음 발화를 자질적으로 분석하여 한국인의 영어 모음 발화의 특성을 알아보는 것을 목적으로 한다. 즉 영어 모음의 분절음 정확도 뿐만 아니라 혀의 전후설성, 혀높이, 원순성, 긴장성과 같은 모음의 자질적 특성들을 분석하여 한국인 학습자가 비교적 쉽게 습득할 수 있는 자질들과 어려워하는 영어모음의 자질들을 밝히고자 했다. 영어 비전공자 대학생들이 11개의 영어 모음 /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ, oʊ, ɔ, ʊ, u, ʌ/가 포함된 1음절 영어 단어를 발화한 음성자료를 통해, 분절음 정확도 뿐만 아니라 이를 4개의 모음 자질로 분석하였다. 자질 분석 결과, 모든 모음을 통해 전후설성이 가장 쉽게 발화한 자질로 확인된 반면 혀높이와 긴장성 자질은 발화에 어려움이 있는 자질로 확인되었다. 전반적으로 후설모음과 중저모음이 전설모음과 고모음 보다 혀높이와 원순성 자질에서 발화의 어려움을 나타냈다. 개별모음을 볼 때 이중모음 /eɪ/가 모든 자질에서 가장 높은 정확도를 보여 쉽게 습득되는 모음으로 확인되었다. 반면 /ɑ, ɔ, ʌ/는 혀높이와 원순성에서 공통적으로 발화의 어려움을 보였고 고모음 /i, ʊ, u/는 긴장성 자질에서 어려움을 보였다. 각 자질들 사이의 상관관계를 분석한 결과에서는 혀높이-원순성, 그리고 혀높이-긴장성 두 자질쌍이 강한 상관성을 나타냈다. 이와 같은 연구 결과를 바탕으로 실제 교실 학습에 적용할 수 있는 교육적인 함축점도 논의되었다.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.53-61
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• 2011

The present work is a follow-up study to that of Han, Choi, Lim and Lee (2011), where an asymmetry in the source segments eliciting the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) was found such that the vowels which did not match any vowel of the Korean language were likely to elicit more ISIB than matched vowels. In order to identify the source of the stronger ISIB in non-matched vowels, acoustic analyses of the stimuli were performed. Two pairs of English front vowels [i] vs. [I], and $[{\varepsilon}]$ vs. $[{\ae}]$ were recorded by English native talkers and two groups of Korean learners according to their English proficiency, and then their vowel duration and the frequencies of the first two formants (F1, F2) were measured. The results demonstrated that the non-matched vowels such as [I], and $[{\ae}]$ produced by Korean talkers seemed to show more deviated acoustic characteristics from those of the natives, with longer duration and with closer formant values to the matched vowels, [i] and $[{\varepsilon}]$, than those of the English natives. Combining the results of acoustic measurements in the present study and those of word identification in Han et al. (2011), we suggest that relatively better performance in word identification by Korean talkers/listeners than the native English talkers/listeners is associated with the shared interlanguage of Korean talkers and listeners.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

The goal of the current study is to investigate how the sound change is reflected in production or in perception, and what the effect of lexical frequency is on the loss of sound contrasts. Specifically, the current study examined whether the vowel length contrasts are retained in Korean speakers' productions, and whether Korean listeners can distinguish vowel length minimal pairs in their perception. Two production experiments and two perception experiments investigated this. For production tests, twelve Korean native speakers in their 20s and 40s completed a read-aloud task as well as a map-task. The results showed that, regardless of their age group, all Korean speakers produced vowel length contrasts with a small but significant differences in the read-aloud test. Interestingly, the difference between long and short vowels has disappeared in the map task, indicating that the speech mode affects producing vowel length contrasts. For perception tests, thirty-three Korean listeners completed a discrimination and a forced-choice identification test. The results showed that Korean listeners still have a perceptual sensitivity to distinguish lexical meaning of the vowel length minimal pair. We also found that the identification accuracy was affected by the word frequency, showing a higher identification accuracy in high- and mid- frequency words than low frequency words. Taken together, the current study demonstrated that the speech mode (read-aloud vs. spontaneous) affects the production of the sound undergoing a language change; and word frequency affects the sound change in speech perception.

• 대한음성학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한음성학회 2006년도 추계학술대회 발표논문집
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• pp.139-141
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• 2006

Korean college students' experience in studying English overseas playes the significant role to their perception, not production. Korean Group which experiences foreign-stay for almost 1 year shows the similar pattern with its counterpart, Korean Non- Experiencing Group, in producing the signal of pre-vowel. On the contrary, Korean Experiencing Group shows the similar perceptual pattern with Native Speakers in word-final non-release stops.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

This study explored how Korean L2 learners of English utilize multiple acoustic cues (VOT and F0) in perceiving and producing the English alveolar stop with a voicing contrast. Thirty-four 18-year-old high-school students participated in the study. Their English proficiency level was classified as either 'high' (HEP) or 'low' (LEP) according to high-school English level standardization. Thirty different synthesized syllables were presented in audio stimuli by combining a 6-step VOTs and a 5-step F0s. The listeners judged how close the audio stimulus was to /t/ or /d/ in L2 using a visual analogue scale. The L2 /d/ and /t/ productions collected from the 22 learners (12 HEP, 10 LEP) were acoustically analyzed by measuring VOT and F0 at the vowel onset. Results showed that LEP listeners attended to the F0 in the stimuli more sensitively than HEP listeners, suggesting that HEP listeners could inhibit less important acoustic dimensions better than LEP listeners in their L2 perception. The L2 production patterns also exhibited a group-difference between HEP and LEP in that HEP speakers utilized their VOT dimension (primary cue in L2) more effectively than LEP speakers. Taken together, the study showed that the relative cue-weighting strategies in L2 perception and production are closely related to the learner's L2 proficiency level in that more proficient learners had a better control of inhibiting and enhancing the relevant acoustic parameters.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.23-27
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to find how English vowels /a, e, i, o, u/ affect the production of English labials /p, b, f, v/ by Korean learners of English. Sixty syllables were composed by five vowels and four labials in the syllable types CV, VC, and VCV. The nonsense syllables were produced three times by nine subjects. The major results show that (1) in inter-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ composed with /a, e, o/ and /u/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /p/ with /i/ and /o/, (2) in post-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ and /f/ with /a, e/, and /o/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /b/ with /e/ and /i/, and (3) in pre-vocalic position, the subjects had higher scores in producing /v/ with /e, o, u/ and /f/ with /u/, while subjects had lower scores in producing /b/ with /e/, /i/ and /u/. The results suggest that on the whole, Korean learners of English have much difficulty in producing /p/ with /i/ in inter-vocalic condition and /b/ with /i, /e/ in pre-vocalic position.