• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

A wh-phrase positioned in an embedded clause can be interpreted as having a matrix scope if the sentence is produced with proper prosodic structures such as the wh-intonation. In a previous experiment, a sentence with a wh-phrase in an embedded clause was given to 40 speakers of Gyeongsang Korean. A script containing the sentence was provided to induce a matrix scope interpretation for the wh-phrase. These 40 utterances were prepared as stimuli for a perception test to verify whether the wh-phrases in the stimuli were perceived as having matrix scopes. Each utterance was played thrice to 24 subjects. The results showed that more than half of the 72 responses indicated a preference for an embedded scope rather than a matrix scope in 20 of the utterances. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that the matrix scope responses were best predicted by the magnitude of the pitch prominence in a prosodic word consisting of an embedded verb and a complementizer. The pitch prominence was calculated by subtracting the fundamental frequency (F0) at the right edge of the prosodic word from the peak F0 in the same prosodic word. The smaller the magnitude, the more matrix responses there were. These results suggest that the categorical perception of wh-scopes is based on the magnitude of pitch prominence.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.149-163
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• 2001

This paper investigates the manner in which various. syntactic structures with a single meaning implement a consistent intonational pattern by examining English conditional clauses. In the phonetic experiment, we explore the edge tones in three different syntactic clauses which are semantically interpreted as a single conditional meaning (an if-clause, a clause with no if. and a clause with no if but followed by and) and compare them with the edge tone realized in a clause which is not interpreted as a conditional meaning. We also investigate the tonal differences resulting from the semantic difference between conditional and non-conditional meanings. That is, the conditional clauses expressed in three different syntactic structures show a consistent intonational pattern in their clausefinal boundaries; a rising contour (H- or H%) is realized at the edge of the intermediate phrases (ip) or intonational phrases (IP) in 89% of the if-clauses, 72% of the clauses with no if, and 79% of the clauses with no if but followed by and. On the other hand, 82% of the non-conditional clauses have a falling contour (L- or L-L%) in their final edge. Statistically, Chi-Square tests show that these percentages are all significantly higher, which suggests that a conditional meaning implements a consistent intonational pattern though it is expressed through different syntactic structures. Therefore, the result supports Bolinger's (1989) claim that intonation makes an important contribution to discourse interpretation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.9-16
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• 1999

Generally, a speaker structures utterances very clearly by grouping words into phrases. This facilitates the listener's recovery of the meaning of the utterance and the speaker's intention. To this purpose, a speaker uses, among other things, prosodic information such as intonation pause, duration, intensity, etc. The research described here is concerned with the relationship between the strength of prosodic boundaries in spoken utterances as perceived by untrained listeners(Perceptual boundary strength, PBS)-In this paper, the preceptual boundary strength is used as the same meaning of the prosodic boundary strength-and prosodic information. We made a rule determinating the prosodic boundaries and verified the usefulness of the prosodic phrase as a recognition unit. Experiments results showed that the performance of speech recognition(SR) is improved in aspect of recognition rate and time compared with that using sentences as recognition unit. In the future we will suggest the methods that estimate more appropriate boundaries and study more various methods of prosody assisted SR.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.21-30
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• 2008

The current study investigated distributional properties of the Korean Accentual Phrase and their implication to word segmentation. The properties examined were the frequency of various AP tonal patterns, the types of tonal patterns that are imposed upon content words, and the average number and temporal location of content words within the AP. A total of 414 sentences from the Read speech corpus and the Radio corpus were used for the data analysis. The results showed that the 84% of the APs contained one content word, and that almost 90% of the content words are located in AP-initial position. When the AP-initial onset was not an aspirated or tense consonant, the most common AP patterns were LH, LHH, and LHLH (78%), and 88% of the multisyllabic content words start with a rising tone in AP-initial position. When the AP-initial onset was an aspirated or tense consonant, the most common AP patterns were HH, HHLH, and HHL (72%), and 74% of the multisyllabic content words start with a level H tone in AP-initial position. The data further showed that 84.1% of APs end with the final H tone. The findings provide valuable information about the prosodic pattern and structure of Korean APs, and account for the results of a previous study which showed that Korean listeners are sensitive to AP-initial rising and AP-final high tones (Kim, 2007). This is in line with other cross-linguistic research which has revealed the correlation between prosodic probability and speech processing strategy.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2024

This study investigates the fixed and random factors affecting response patterns of wh-scope interpretations in Gyeongsang Korean. It employed logistic mixed-effects regression models to analyze responses from 24 participants who listened to 40 pre-recorded stimuli from 40 different speakers. The stimuli consisted of an embedded wh-phrase and an interrogative ending marker, "-nkiko," thereby forming a wh-question, specifically a matrix wh-scope. Participants repeated the test three times. The study found that the prominence level of a prosodic phrase composed of an embedded verb and a complementizer was inversely related to responses with wh-questions, as demonstrated through multiple regression analysis in Yun. The test trial significantly impacted the number of responses with wh-questions, increasing from 50.3% in the first trial to 58.8% and 61.2% in subsequent trials. Examination of random subject effects revealed two main factors influencing responses: morpho-syntactic constraints and prosodic structural integrity. These two factors demonstrated the potential to be inversely weighted. Analysis of random stimulus effects suggested that the prominence level had limited effects on response patterns with each stimulus primarily eliciting one type of responses across trials.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine how a singing program using self-voice monitoring for children with cochlear implants (CI) influences on the intonation and the accuracy of pitch production. To verify and estimate the effectiveness, a program was conducted with participants of 7 prelingual CI users, whose aged between 4 years and 7 years. The program adopted three stages from the self-voice monitoring: Listen, Explore, and Reproduce (LER stage). All participants received 8 singing sessions over 8 weeks, including pre-test, intervention, and post-test. For the pre and post-test, participants' singing of an excerpt of a song "happy birthday" and speaking three assertive sentences and three interrogative sentences were recorded and analyzed in terms of the intonation slopes at the end of the sentences and the melodic contour. From the sentence speeches, we found that the intonation slopes of the interrogative sentences significantly improved as they showed similar patterns with that of the average normal hearing group. Also, in regard to singing, we observed that the melody contour had progressed, as well as the range of pitch production had extended. The positive result from the intervention indicates that the singing program was effective for children with CI to develop the intonation skill and accuracy of pitch production.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-112
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• 2000

This study examines how both English native speakers and Korean speakers realize the intonational tunes of English sentences when a sentence has two different meanings, through comparison of the utterances of the two groups of speakers. The results indicate that the English native speakers realize the difference in the meanings of given sentences in terms of differences in the boundary tones, as predicted in Pierrehumbert(1980) and Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg(l990), according to whom intonation is composed of a series of pitch accents, phrase tones, and boundary tones, and the meaning of a given sentence is delivered by the composition of the individual meanings of each component. The Korean speakers, however, fail to realize the difference in meaning with its boundary tones. Rather, they realize it by the number or positions of pitch accents and paralinguistic cues such as emotions and gestures. The Korean speakers, unlike the Americans, emphasize subject in sentences.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.67-70
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• 2006

Prosody can be used to resolve syntactic ambiguity of a sentence. English relative clause construction with complex NP(the N1, N2, and RC sequence) has syntactic ambiguity and the clause can be interpreted as modyfying N1(high attachment) or N2(low attachment), Speakers and listeners can disambiguate those sentences based on the prosody. In this paper, we investigate the Korean English learners production on the prosodic structure of English relative clause construction. The production experiment shows that the beginner learners use the phrasing frequently and the advanced learners depend on both the phrasing and the accent. One of the characteristic of the Korean English learners' intonation is that the Korean accentual phrase tone pattern LHa is transferred to their production.

• MALSORI
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• no.42
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• pp.57-69
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• 2001

Syntactic ambiguity can be understood by context usually, especially in reading and writing. Because phonological structure including stress, intonation and phonological phenomena can be pronounced differently according to different syntactic structures, syntactic ambiguity can be solved by phonological structure in listening and speaking. The objectives of this study was to survey how Korean English teachers apply phonological structures in order to solve syntactic ambiguity. The results of this study is as follows: First, Korean English leachers applied Compound Stress Rules well, when the second word was not branched. But they did not apply Compound Stress Rules well, when the second word was branched. Second, several Korean English teachers did not apply Nuclear Stress Rules well. They usually put the strongest stress on the first word. Third Korean English teachers did not differentiate appropriate applying situation of palatalization. They applied palatalization at both the single and the separated Phonological Phrase. Fourth, Korean English teachers did not apply stress shifting when stress crash happened. Because they did not apply stress shifting, they put the strongest stress on inappropriate syllable.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.109-129
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• 1999

A study of boundary tones, which are realized at the final syllable of an Intonational Phrase, is important in that sentential meaning is often differentiated solely by the use of different boundary tones in Korean. The purposes of this paper are three-fold: Firstly, it aims at finding out the different characteristics of boundary tones between designed corpus and natural speech. Secondly, it is to show that gender and dialectal differences are crucial factors in determining different realizations of boundary tones. Finally, this study is to provide a basis for better speech synthesis and speech recognition through the analysis of the morphemes where boundary tones are realized. This study has shown that nine different kinds of boundary tones are realized based on the contextual, gender and dialectal differences. In addition to the boundary tones suggested in Jun (1993), three more boundary toes are introduced: L-%,H-%,LHLH%.