• Title/Summary/Keyword: Plain English

Search Result 16, Processing Time 0.022 seconds

Explaining Phonetic Variation of Consonants in Vocalic Context

  • Oh, Eu-Jin
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.8 no.3
    • /
    • pp.31-41
    • /
    • 2001
  • This paper aims to provide preliminary evidence that (at least part of) phonetic phenomena are not simply automatic or arbitrary, but are explained by the functional guidelines, ease of articulation and maintenance of contrasts. The first study shows that languages with more high vowels (e.g., French) allow larger consonantal deviation from its target than languages with less high vowels (e.g., English). This is interpreted as achieving the economy of articulation to a certain extent in order to avoid otherwise extreme articulatory movement to be made in CV syllables due to strict demand on maintaining vocalic contrasts. The second study shows that Russian plain bilabial consonant allows less amount of undershoot due to the neighboring vowels than does English bilabial consonant. This is probably due to the stricter demand on maintaining the consonantal contrasts, plain vs. palatalized, existing only in Russian.

  • PDF

Speaker-specific Implementation of VOT Values in Korean

  • Han, Jeong-Im;Kim, Joo-Yeon
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.15 no.4
    • /
    • pp.7-18
    • /
    • 2008
  • The purpose of the present study is to test whether VOT values of the Korean plain stops in intervocalic position are encoded differently by individual speakers. In Scobbie (2006), the VOT values to the /p/-/b/ voicing contrast in Shetland Isles English were found to demonstrate a high degree of inter-speaker variation. More importantly such variation was not arbitrary: first, there was an inverse relationship between the amount of prevoicing for /b/ and the duration of aspiration for /p/. Second, the inter-speaker variation was shown to be similar between the subjects and their parents. These results suggest that the phonetic targets for VOT are specified in fine detail by speakers. The present study further explores this issue in terms of testing 1) whether the likelihood and the amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean show inter-speaker variation; 2) whether the likelihood and the exact amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean are closely related to the amount of aspiration for the Korean intervocalic aspirated stops. The results of the study suggest that the voicing of intervocalic plain stops in Korean varied according to the individual speakers, but it did not seem to be directly interrelated with the amount of aspiration of the aspirated stop sin the same phonological position.

  • PDF

Teaching English Articles by Learners' Proficiency Levels

  • Lee, Eun-Hee
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
    • /
    • v.13 no.4
    • /
    • pp.109-126
    • /
    • 2007
  • English article has been considered as one of the most difficult areas to learn among ESL/EFL students. The current paper reviews English learners' article error patterns as well as pedagogy in order to teach English articles and to minimize learning difficulties on English articles. Different pedagogy for English articles on the basis of learners' proficiency levels are suggested as each proficiency level student shows a different error tendency; beginning level language learners used the zero article with the most facility while intermediate level language learners used the definite article the most accurately. However, studies about high advanced level learners' error patterns present that these high accuracy rates among beginning level students might be a result of students' plain guessing. Considering these error patterns, pedagogy for advanced level is also suggested.

  • PDF

A Plain Language Policy Institutionalized in the U.S. and Implications for Korea (미국의 쉬운 언어정책의 제도화와 한국에의 시사점)

  • Kim, MyungHee
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
    • /
    • v.15 no.2
    • /
    • pp.242-251
    • /
    • 2015
  • This paper is to analyse statutes and execution system on 'plain language policy' of the U.S. in the process of policy was instituted, and to suggest the meaningful implications for Korean easy public language improvement project based on the conclusions drawn. The summarized conclusion is as follows. First, the continuous interests of Presidents and taking the lead of federal agencies played important roles until the U.S. plain language policy has been established as a system. Second, in executing the U.S. plain language policy, laws legislated by period contributed to elicit mandatory compliances from the federal agencies. Third, a propelling agent of plain language policy, PLAIN, is not an administrative department but a community consisted of federal employees and experts. Fourth, plain language policy was unexpectedly given wholehearted support and assistance by Presidents and their administrations from the reform-minded Democratic party. Fifth, during the 2000s most federal departments and agencies held self-managed websites and programs related to plain language. To conclude the current U.S. plain language policy surely performs a mechanism to improve communication and a role as a ladder of trust between the public and government.

The Place of Articulation of Korean Affricates Observed in LPC Spectra

  • Kim, Hyun-Soon
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.3
    • /
    • pp.93-108
    • /
    • 1998
  • This paper attempts to acoustically examine the place of articulation of Korean affricates. In order to pursue an acoustic analysis of where Korean affricates are articulated, we resort to LPC spectra of the Korean plain affricate /c/ in intervocalic position, based on theoretical assumptions (e.g., Stevens 1993a), and compare the data to that of the Korean alveolar consonants /t, s/ in the same context. Our phonetic results show that in intervocalic position, the Korean plain affricate is alveolar just like the Korean alveolar consonants /t, s/, supporting the articulatory studies of $Skali{\check{c}}kov{\acute{a}}$ (1960) and Kim (1997).

  • PDF

A Phonetic Study of Korean Intervocalic Laryngeal Consonants

  • Oh, Mi-Ra;Johnson, Keith
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.1
    • /
    • pp.83-101
    • /
    • 1997
  • This paper aims at exploring a putative positional neutralization produced at the phonetics/phonology interface. It was designed to determine whether Korean intervocalic laryngeal consonants are phonetically distant from geminates, plain consonants, or laryngeal consonants in consonant clusters. It was found that the contrast between laryngeal singletons and geminates was neutralized intervocalically, and that both of these were patterned with heteroganic consonant sequences rather than with plain singletons.

  • PDF

Target F2 Values of Coronal Stops in Korean, English, and. French (설단 폐쇄음의 목표 F2 값: 한국어, 영어, 불어의 비교)

  • Oh, Eun-Jin
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.10 no.4
    • /
    • pp.81-91
    • /
    • 2003
  • The aim of this study was to estimate the target F2 values of the coronal plain stop in Korean and the degree of deviation from the target in the context of various vowels, and to compare the results of Korean regarding the coronal stop with those of English and French. An acoustic analysis showed that the mean F2 value of the Korean coronal stop produced by 10 male speakers was 1,855 Hz and the deviation from the target was 94 Hz in the context of [i], 204 Hz in the context of [u], and 407 Hz in the context of [o]. The target F2s of the coronal stop were the highest in English (1,929 Hz) and the lowest in French (1,662 Hz), and the deviation from the targets in the context of the high back vowel was the largest in French (257 Hz) and the smallest in English (73 Hz).

  • PDF

Segmental Interpretation of Suprasegmental Properties in Non-native Phoneme Perception

  • Kim, Miran
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.7 no.3
    • /
    • pp.117-128
    • /
    • 2015
  • This paper investigates the acoustic-perceptual relation between Korean dent-alveolar fricatives and the English voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ in varied prosodic contexts (e.g., stress, accent, and word initial position). The denti-alveolar fricatives in Korean show a two-way distinction, which can be referred to as either plain (lenis) /s/ or fortis /$s^*$/. The English alveolar voiceless fricative /s/ that corresponds to the two Korean fricatives would be placed in a one-to-two non-native phoneme mapping situation when Korean listeners hear English /s/. This raises an interesting question of how the single fricative of English perceptually maps into the two-way distinction in Korean. This paper reports the acoustic-perceptual mapping pattern by investigating spectral properties of the English stimuli that are heard as either /s/ or /$s^*$/ by Korean listeners, in order to answer the two questions: first, how prosody influences fricatives acoustically, and second, how the resultant properties drive non-native listeners to interpret them as segmental features instead of as prosodic information. The results indicate that Korean listeners' responses change depending on the prosodic context in which the stimuli are placed. It implies that Korean speakers interpret some of the information provided by prosody as segmental one, and that the listeners take advantage of the information in their judgment of non-native phonemes.

Aviation English and Test in Korea -Based on a Survey for Pilots and ATCs- (한국의 항공영어 시험에 관한 연구 -조종사와 관제사의 설문조사 중심으로-)

  • Choi, Jeongsook
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
    • /
    • v.26 no.1
    • /
    • pp.44-56
    • /
    • 2018
  • 2003년 ICAO가 국제 조종사에 관한 언어능력 기준을 제시한 이래로 국제노선에 취항하는 한국 항공 종사자들은 영어 능력을 증명하기 위한 노력을 해왔다. 1969년 처음으로 항공영어교육이 시작되고 2006년 처음 시험이 도입되면서 한국은 이를 충족하기 위한 알맞은 영어 교육 프로그램을 시행하려 시도해 왔다. 그러나, 항공영어 교육과 시험에 관련된 문제점들이 꾸준히 제기되었고 특히 항공 종사자들의 필요와 요구에 맞지 않는 시험 제도와 내용에 대한 논쟁이 끊이지 않았다. 본 연구는 이러한 측면에서 항공영어와 교육에 대한 이론적 접근과 더불어, 106명의 항공종사자에게 실시한 설문지를 토대로 그들의 항공영어와 일반영어에 관한 의견, 항공영어시험에 관한 의견을 수집 분석하였다. 조사결과, 참여자들은 현재 실시되고 있는 항공영어시험이 실제 업무를 효과적으로 반영하지 않으며, 좀 더 실제적인 내용이 시험에 반영되기를 희망하였다. 즉, 항공영어 시험이 좀 더 업무에 사용되는 영어를 많이 반영하고 난이도를 고려한 새로운 형태의 시험이 개발 되어야 한다는 의견이 많았다. 또한, 설문지를 통하여 나타난 여러 사항들을 바탕으로 향후 항공영어 평가가 나아갈 방향을 항공종사자의 측면과 관련 교육기관과 시험출제자, 관련 당국 등 3 가지 분야로 나누어 논의 하였다.

Intervocalic Stop Voicing Revisited

  • Han, Jeong-Im
    • Speech Sciences
    • /
    • v.7 no.1
    • /
    • pp.203-216
    • /
    • 2000
  • The purpose of this study is to revisit the property of the Korean plain stops in intervocalic position. More specifically, focusing on a word-internal, intervocalic position, this study investigates 1) how often speakers pronounce intervocalic. stops as fully voiced, 2) in what amount each speaker voice the plain stops during the stop closure, 3) whether the preceding or the following vowel influences the voicing of target consonants, and 4) the fundamental frequency pattern at the vowel onset after the target consonant shows any consistent pattern, regardless of whether voicing is present during the closure. The results of this study give strong support for the phonetic account of the voicing distinction in Korean. (Jun 1995, 1996).

  • PDF