• Title/Summary/Keyword: Phonetics

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The Use of Phonetics in the Analysis of the Acquisition of Second Language Syntax

  • Fellbaum, Marie
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 1996.10a
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    • pp.430-431
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    • 1996
  • Among the scholars of second language (L2) acquisition who have used prosodic considerations in syntactic analyses, pausing and intonation contours have been used to define utterances in the speech of second language learners (e.g., Sato, 1990). In recent research on conversational analysis, it has been found that lexically marked causal clause combining in the discourse of native speakers can be distinguished as "intonational subordination" and "intonational coordination(Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, forthcoming.)". This study uses Pienemann's Processability Theory (1995) for an analysis of the speech of native speakers of Japanese (L1) learning English. In order to accurately assess the psycholinguistic stages of syntactic development, it is shown that pitch, loudness, and timing must all be considered together with the syntactic analysis of interlanguage speech production. Twelve Japanese subjects participated in eight fifteen minute interviews, ninety-six dyads. The speech analyzed in this report is limited to the twelve subjects interacting with two different non-native speaker interviews for a total of twenty-four dyads. Within each of the interviews, four different tasks are analyzed to determine the stage of acquisition of English for each subject. Initially the speech is segmented according to intonation contour arid pauses. It is then classified accoding to specific syntactic units and further analysed for pitch, loudness and timing. Results indicate that the speech must be first claasified prosodic ally and lexically, prior to beginning syntactic analysis. This analysis stinguishes three interlanguage lexical categories: discourse markers, coordinator $s_ordinators, and transfer from Japanese. After these lexical categories have been determined, the psycholinguistic stages of syntactic development can be more accurately assessed.d.

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What can be learned from borrowed words\ulcorner -The case of Japanese language borrowing words ending with a closed syllables-

  • Claude Roberge;Norico Hoki
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 1996.10a
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    • pp.245-245
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    • 1996
  • When language A borrows words, it borrows them according to its own phonetic rules. In other words, language B, where borrowed words coming from, has to comply with the phonetic requirements of language A. It may be added that language A only borrows the elements, the types of syllables and accentuation that already exist in its own phonetic struture and rejects all the rest that are not compatible. It operates exactly like a sieve. That is why borrowed words offer an excellent observation post to notice how react in phonetic contexts. The Japanese language has borrowed and is borrowing extensively from other languages and cultures, mainly from the English ones in the fields of sports, medicine, industry, commerce, and natural sciences. Relatively very few new words are created using the ancient Chinese or native backgrounds. This presentation will look for the rules of borrowing and try to show that this way of borrowing represents an organized system of its own. Three levels would be particularly studied : - the phonemic level - the syllable level and - the accentual level. This last point would be specially targeted with the question of syllable tension-relaxation. Such a study of languages in phonetics contacts could shed some new light on the phonetic charaCteristics of Japanese language and will confirm or weaken some conclusion already demonstated otherwise. We will be aming specially at the endings of the borrowed words where, it seems, Japanese language manifests itself very strongly.

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Human Voice, This Mystery

  • Horiuchi, Terumichi
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 1996.10a
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    • pp.378-378
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    • 1996
  • Human beings and chimpanzees are very much alike. and scientists say there is only 1% difference between them. Contrary to our expectations, the difference lies not in brains but in tracheas ( windpipes ). Those of human beings are bigger and longer than those of chimpanzees. Thu means more air is inspired and expired as breath. About breath there are interesting descriptions in the Bible. In the Genesis it says God made a man out of soil and breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live. In other part it says life exists between incoming breath and outgoing breath. Thus breath plays key role is our life. In Hebrew and Greek, breath and spirit are the same words. In Hebrew it is ‘Luahf’ and in Greek, ‘Pneuma’ With breath and mouth organs human beings produced voice, and with haritage and through leaning we train our voice to reach the level of language which convey our culture. My contention is to realize the gift of voice and train it so that it can perform proper function as a tool of conveying our thought and culture. This is a kind of practice of speech and it may be called speechology. It includes the following practical methods: 1. Try to read aloud. 2. Encourage recitation, 3. Make public speaking as possible. 4. Learn theories of phonetics; such as about pronunciation, accent, intonation, prominence, assimilation and so on.

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The Effects of Korean Coda-neutralization Process on Word Recognition in English (한국어의 종성중화 작용이 영어 단어 인지에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Sun-Mi;Nam, Ki-Chun
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.59-68
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    • 2010
  • This study addresses the issue of whether Korean(L1)-English(L2) non-proficient bilinguals are affected by the native coda-neutralization process when recognizing words in English continuous speech. Korean phonological rules require that if liaison occurs between 'words', then coda-neutralization process must come before the liaison process, which results in liaison-consonants being coda-neutralized ones such as /b/, /d/, or /g/, rather than non-neutralized ones like /p/, /t/, /k/, /$t{\int}$/, /$d_{\Im}$/, or /s/. Consequently, if Korean listeners apply their native coda-neutralization rules to English speech input, word detection will be easier when coda-neutralized consonants precede target words than when non-neutralized ones do. Word-spotting and word-monitoring tasks were used in Experiment 1 and 2, respectively. In both experiments, listeners detected words faster and more accurately when vowel-initial target words were preceded by coda-neutralized consonants than when preceded by coda non-neutralized ones. The results show that Korean listeners exploit their native phonological process when processing English, irrespective of whether the native process is appropriate or not.

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Acoustic Variation Conditioned by Prosody in English Motherese

  • Choi, Han-Sook
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.41-50
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    • 2010
  • The current study exploresacoustic variation induced by prosodic contexts in different speech styles,with a focus on motherese or child-directed speech (CDS). The patterns of variation in the acoustic expression of voicing contrast in English stops, and the role of prosodic factors in governing such variation are investigated in CDS. Prosody-induced acoustic strengthening reported from adult-directed speech (ADS)is examined in the speech data directed to infants at the one-word stage. The target consonants are collected from Utterance-initial and -medial positions, with or without focal accent. Overall, CDS shows that the prosodic prominence of constituents under focal accent conditions variesin the acoustic correlates of the stop laryngeal contrasts. The initial position is not found with enhanced acoustic values in the current study, which is similar to the finding from ADS (Choi, 2006 Cole et al, 2007). Individualized statistical results, however, indicate that the effect of accent on acoustic measures is not very robust, compared to the effect of accent in ADS. Enhanced distinctiveness under focal accent is observed from the limited subjects' acoustic measures in CDS. The results indicate dissimilar strategies to mark prosodic structures in different speech styles as well as the consistent prosodic effect across speech styles. The stylistic variation is discussed in relation to the listener under linguistic development in CDS.

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A Study of the Prosodic Characteristics of Homographs with Context Cues by Subjects with Right and Left Hemisphere Damage (문맥 내에서 좌우반구 손상자의 동음어에 대한 운율 산출 비교)

  • Lee, Myoung-Soon
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.13-21
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the prosody characteristics of sentence-level utterances which contain homographs with context cues in patients with neurogenic communication disorders. Homographs which may be affected by prosody, especially tonic length features, were used to investigate this matter. The characteristics of tone, duration, pitch, and pitch peak were analyzed to examine the characteristics of prosody in patients with lesions in the left or right hemisphere and normal controls. The whole process was recorded using Praat 4.3.14 and for statistical analyses, three-way ANOVA and multiple comparative analyses, Chi-Square tests, and a one-way ANOVA were carried out using SPSS 12.0 for Windows. The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, the length of syllables and vowels in homographs in Korean was different depending on the meaning and was not significant between groups. Second, it was found that patients with lesions in the right hemisphere had significant difference on pitch. Third, it was found that frequency of pitch peak and tone in 'short' tone syllables were different between groups. The conclusion of this study found that the prosody of homographs between groups absolutely was not differentiated. Accordingly, more detailed studies of acoustic parameters and other parameters which the prosody characteristic between groups could be found are needed in the future.

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Vocal Development of Typically Developing Infants (일반 영유아의 초기 발성 발달 연구)

  • Ha, Seunghee;Seol, Ahyoung;Pae, Soyeong
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.161-169
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    • 2014
  • This study investigated changes in the prelinguistic vocal production of typically developing infants aged 5-20 months based on Stark Assessment of Early Vocal Development-Revised (SAEVD-R). Fifty-eight typically developing infants participated in the study, and they were divided into four age groups, 5-8 months, 9-12 months, 13-16 months, and 17-20 months of age. Vocalization samples were collected from infants' play activities and were classified into 5 levels and 23 types using SAEVD-R. The results revealed that the four age groups showed significant differences in production proportion of vocalization levels. Level 1, 2, 4, and 5 vocalizations exhibited significantly different across the four age groups. Level 3 was predominantly produced across every age group. Therefore, the vocalization level was not significantly different across the four age groups. Especially, vowels in Level 3 vocalization predominantly produced across all ages during a long period. Also, significant increases in the proportion of Levels 4 and 5 occurred after 9 months, which suggested that the production of cannonical syllables is a key indicator of advancement in prelinguistic vocal development. The results have clinical implication in early identification and speech-language intervention for young children with speech delays or at risk.

Intervention Effect on Reading Fluency for Children from Low-Income Families (저소득층 가정 아동의 읽기 유창성 중재 효과)

  • Yoon, Hyojin;Shin, Gayoung;Pae, Soyeong
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.151-159
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    • 2014
  • The study investigated the effects of reading intervention to enhance reading fluency for children from low-income families. The participants were 20 children from low-income families who are in grades 1 to 3. To qualify for participation in this study, all children had to score below 30 % ile on the Receptive vocabulary Test of the Expressive and Receptive Vocabulary Test or the Word reading fluency of the Korean Language-Based Reading Assessment. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=10) or control (n=10) group. The intervention group participated in the individualized intervention program using the guided repeated reading and the corrective feedback strategies. The results showed that participants in the intervention group performed better on reading fluency than those in the control group after participating in the intervention program. Specifically, guided repeated reading with corrective feedback strategies produced significant improvement on generalization to unpracticed passages as well as practiced passages. The results of this study suggest that guided repeated reading with corrective feedback is effective for enhancing reading fluency for children in Korea. Further study is needed in order to develop language-specific reading intervention.

A Comparison Study of Breath Groups during Reading Paragraph Tasks in Normal Adults and Adult Patients with Voice Disorders: A Preliminary Study (정상 성인 화자와 음성장애 성인 화자의 문단낭독 시 호흡단락에 대한 비교 연구: 예비연구)

  • Pyo, Hwayoung;Kim, Soyeon;Baek, Seungkuk
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.181-187
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    • 2014
  • The present study was performed to investigate the characteristics of breath groups while reading paragraph in normal adults and adult patients with voice disorders. 10 normal females(avr. 20.6 yrs.), 10 young voice disorder females(avr. 33.5 yrs., P1 group), and 10 old voice disorder females(avr. 56.3 yrs., P2 group) read a paragraph of 210 syllables. By using the 'Running Speech' program of the Phonatory Aerodynamic System(PAS), total duration, numbers of breath groups, duration per breath group, and numbers of syllables per breath group were measured, and their correlations with aerodynamic measurement results of reading were analyzed. As a result, in total duration, numbers of breath groups, normals scored highest and P2 group speakers, lowest. Normals showed the longest duration per breath group which was not significant. P2 group speakers showed the highest numbers of syllables per breath group. Correlation analysis showed significantly high correlation scores of total duration and expiratory airflow; numbers of breath groups and inspiratory volume.

An Android Application for Speech Communication of People with Speech Disorders (언어장애인을 위한 안드로이드 기반 의사소통보조 어플리케이션)

  • Choi, Yoonjung;Hong, Ki-Hyung
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.141-148
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    • 2014
  • Voice is the most common means for communication, but some people have difficulties in generating voice due to their congenital or acquired disorders. Individuals with speech disorders might lose their speaking ability due to hearing impairment, encephalopathy or cerebral palsy accompanied by motor skill impairments, or autism caused by mental problems. However, they have needs for communication, so some of them use various types of AAC (Augmentative & Alternative Communication) devices in order to meet their communication needs. In this paper, a mobile application for literate people having speech disorder was designed and implemented by developing accurate and fast sentence-completion functions for efficient user interaction. From a user study and the previous study on Korean text-based communication for adults having difficulty in speech communication, we identified functionality and usability requirements. Specifically, the user interface with scanning features was designed by considering the users' motor skills in using the touch-screen of a mobile device. Finally, we conducted the usability test for the application. The results of the usability test show that the application is easy to learn and efficient to use in communication with people with speech disorders.