• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.574-575
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• 1996

The theme of the current study is to study intonation of Taiwanese(Tw.) by comparing the intonation patterns in native language (Ll), target language (L2), and interlanguage (IL). Studies on interlanguage have dealt primarily with segments. Though there were studies which addressed to the issues of interlanguage intonation, more often than not, they didn't offer evidence for the statement, and the hypotheses were mainly based on impression. Therefore, a formal description of interlanguage intonation is necessary for further development in this field. The basic assumption of this study is that native speakers of one language perceive and produce a second language in ways closely related to the patterns of their first language. Several studies on interlanguage prosody have suggested that prosodic structure and rules are more subject to transfer than certain other phonological phenomena, given their abstract structural nature and generality(Vogel 1991). Broselow(1988) also shows that interlanguage may provide evidence for particular analyses of the native language grammar, which may not be available from the study of the native language alone. Several research questions will be addressed in the current study: A. How does duration vary among native and nominative utterances\ulcorner The results shows that there is a significant difference in duration between the beginning English learners, and the native speakers of American English for all the eleven English sentences. The mean duration shows that the beginning English learners take almost twice as much time (1.70sec.), as Americans (O.97sec.) to produce English sentences. The results also show that American speakers take significant longer time to speak all ten Taiwanese utterances. The mean duration shows that Americans take almost twice as much time (2.24sec.) as adult Taiwanese (1.14sec.) to produce Taiwanese sentences. B. Does proficiency level influence the performance of interlanguage intonation\ulcorner Can native intonation patterns be achieved by a non-native speaker\ulcorner Wenk(1986) considers proficiency level might be a variable which related to the extent of Ll influence. His study showed that beginners do transfer rhythmic features of the Ll and advanced learners can and do succeed in overcoming mother-tongue influence. The current study shows that proficiency level does play a role in the acquisition of English intonation by Taiwanese speakers. The duration and pitch range of the advanced learners are much closer to those of the native American English speakers than the beginners, but even advanced learners still cannot achieve native-like intonation patterns. C. Do Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers\ulcorner Ross et. al.(1986) suggests that the presence of tone in a language significantly inhibits the unrestricted manipulation of three acoustical measures of prosody which are involved in producing local pitch changes in the fundamental frequency contour during affective signaling. Will the presence of tone in a language inhibit the ability of speakers to modulate intonation\ulcorner The results do show that Taiwanese have a narrower pitch range in comparison with American English speakers. Both advanced (84Hz) and beginning learners (58Hz) of English show a significant narrower FO range than that of Americans' (112Hz), and the difference is greater between the beginning learners' group and native American English speakers.

• 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.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.87-105
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• 2006

Many researchers have studied the relationship between the information structure and intonation. Arguments about the relations between the information structure and intonation researched so far can be summarized as follows: the intonation of topic and focus in English information structure is represented as i) a pitch accent, ii) a tune (a pitch accent + an edge tone), or iii) a boundary tone. The purpose of this paper is to study various informational patterns of the topic in English information structure, using real TV discussion data. In this paper, the topic is classified as contrastive topics and non-contrastive topics, based on contrastiveness. The results show that the intonation of the topic in English information structure is implemented as a pitch accent, neither a tune nor a boundary tone. Of the non-contrastive topics, while anaphoric determinative NP topics (Lnc, Lncd) are mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the pronoun topic(Lp) does not have a pitch accent. Of contrastive topics, while the semantically focused topic(Lci) is mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the contrastively focused topic(Lcc) is represented as both H* and L+H* pitch accents. It shows that it is not always true that the topic or focus to have the meaning of contrast is represented as a L+H* pitch accent as argued in the previous researches.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.117-130
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• 2004

This paper investigates the English intonation of Korean speakers of English as a second language and compares it to that of English native speakers. The speech data of ten Korean speakers and three native speaker controls were tape recorded in an oral reading task in which the subjects were asked to read aloud the given text which was used in the study of Wennerstrom (1994). Following Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg (1990) who distinguishes the discrete units of meaning in intonation, pitch accents, phrase accents and boundary tones were measured. It was found that Korean speakers' use of phrase accents and boundary tones were relatively good compared to their use of pitch accents. That is, Korean speakers conform to native speakers' use of phrase or boundary tones for the purpose of marking the relationship between intermediate or intonational phrases. In contrast, the main difference of Korean speakers' use of intonation from that of native speakers was the use of pitch accents. That is, Korean speakers tend to have difficulty in assigning an appropriate pitch accent to signal relationships between new or contrastive information and that which is assumed to be understood or contributes little to the meaning of the utterance.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.39-49
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Chinese speakers realize Korean intonation phrase (IP) boundary tones in the reading of a Korean text. Korean IP boundary tones play various roles in speech communication. They indicate prosodic constituents' boundaries while simultaneously performing pragmatic and grammatical functions. In order to express and understand Korean utterances correctly, it is necessary to understand the Korean IP boundary tone system. To investigate the IP boundary tone produced by Chinese speakers, we have specifically examined the type of boundary tones, the degree of internal pitch modulation of boundary tones, and the pitch difference between penultimate syllables and boundary tones. The results of each analysis were compared to the IP boundary tones produced by Korean native speakers. The results show that IP boundary tones were realized higher than penultimate syllables.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.57-75
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• 1999

The purpose of this paper is to develop an English prosody training system using PC for Korean learners of English. The program is called Intonation Training Tool (ITT). It operates on DOS 5.0. The hardware for this program requires over IBM PC 386 with 4 MBytes main memory, SVGA (1 MByte or more) for graphic, soundblaster 16 and over 14 inch monitor size. The ITT program operates this way: the learners can listen as well as see the English teacher's stress and intonation patterns on the monitor. The learner practices the same patterns with a microphone. This program facilitates the learner's stress and intonation patterns to overlap the teacher's patterns. The learner can find his/her stress and intonation errors and correct these independently. This program is expected to be a highly efficient learning tool for Korean learners of English in their English prosody training in the English class without the aid of a native English speaker in the classroom.

• MALSORI
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• no.21_24
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• pp.90-110
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• 1992

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the intonation features of the last two syllables of rhythmic units, with the exception of the sentence final unit, in the Seoul dialect of Korean. The Model 5500 Sona-graph was used to measure the pitch and duration of the target syllables. There are two classes of materials. One class was designed to determine the intonation of rhythmic units in a natural situation and the other to investigate the intonation of rhythmic units in an artificial situation, in which speakers were asked to read the materials pausing only at the marked boundaries, with a view to identifying the intonation of Seoul dialect more clearly. The findings of this investigation are as follows: (1) Korean averages an 11% rising intonation between the two syllables at the end of a rhythmic unit. (2) The rising rate between the final two syllables' pitch values at the subject rhythmic unit is generally higher than those at other units in a sentence and it seems to be meaningful syntactically. (3) Before a boundary the rhythmic units undergo 'pre-lowering', in which the pitch gradually lowers from the first syllable to the penultimate. (4) Every syllable in each rhythmic unit tends to lengthen when speakers read the materials with a pause between units and the tendency is most salient at the final syllable before a boundary.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.153-166
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• 2005

This paper attempts to examine the accent implementation and perception of noun phrases and compound nouns in English sentences, arguing that primary stress of noun phrase and compound noun is realized in relative prominence in intonation. The production test examines how the stress patterns of the noun phrases and compound nouns are realized in intonation of the English native speakers' utterances. The perception test investigates English and Korean listeners' comprehension of the intonation of the noun phrases and compound nouns. And the results of this experimental study show that speakers and listeners produce and perceive the primary stress as a relatively prominent accent even if in contrast of English listeners, Korean learners have difficulty in using the cue of pitch accent location and figuring out compound nouns and noun phrases.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 1997

As the segmental phonetic output is derived from its underlying form, the phonetic surface of intonation could also be derived from its underlying tone melody. In order to show clearly the phonological processes (in fact, we need more than just phonological processes) involved in the generation of intonational surface, we need to formalize the description of those processes. This paper firstly examines different types of sentence-final intonation contour in Korean, and then attempt to formalize the intonational behavior of those contours. In this attempt, we will investigate what kinds of linguistic information participate in deciding the shapes of the. contours and what kinds of tonological processes the underlying tone melody undergoes before it takes the surface shape. In this analysis of intonation contours, we focus on the linguistic structure rather than the acoustic property, adopting just two tones L and H as phonological tones, with four phonetic pitches.

• MALSORI
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• no.35_36
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• pp.49-61
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• 1998

The study on the intonational characteristics is concentrated on the lowering of the pitch level that is described as declination and downstep. The Taegu dialect, which has phonological accentual system, has these phonetic characteristics in affirmative sentences or Yes-No Question sentences. But there is the opposite phenomenon in WH question sentences in Taegu dialect. When the accent of interrogative word in the sentence intial position is LHL, intonation pattern shows a continuous upward movement, indicating that intonation pattern of Taegu dialect is influenced by not only grammatical system but also accentual system.