• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.183-195
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• 2005

In the present study, we investigated development of verb inflections or endings in 3- to 5-year old Korean-speaking children using 28 action verbs for both comprehension and production tasks. For each verb, a l0-second long motion picture and a sheet of paper with three random-ordered color pictures representing 'before, in the middle of, at the end of' the action were generated. A past tense inflection' -et ta,' two present progressive verb endings '-enta' & '-ko itta.' a future tense ending '-elyeko hanta' were tested. In the comprehension task, children were asked to point to a picture correctly representing the tense of a presented verb. In the production task, children were asked to produce a verb with correctly marking the tense of a presented picture. The order of the two tasks were counterbalanced across the children, and the motion pictures were only presented in the first task. Across the ages, the performance accuracies on both comprehension and production tasks were the highest for the past tense marking followed by two present progressive and future tense markings. For each verb endings, the changes of accuracies across ages were analyzed in both tasks. The types of errors for production tasks were also reported.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.43
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• pp.459-483
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• 2016

The main objective of this paper is to test the major prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis on interlanguage narratives collected from 171 Ibibio ESL learners in a classroom setting using sets of picture stories. Aspect Hypothesis predicts that lexical aspectual classes of verbs would determine the pattern of acquisition and distribution of tense-aspect morphology at the very early stages of L2 acquisition of tense-aspect verbal morphology. That is, telic verbs would be marked with the past tense-aspect verbal morphology before atelic verbs in the interlanguage of ESL learners irrespective of their L1 background. The results of our data analyses show a significant effect from the lexical aspect on the acquisition and distribution of tense-aspect morphology with chi-square statistics of ($x^2=196.92$,df = 6, n = 1664, p = <.0001). However, the effect of the lexical aspect is shown to be more prominent among Ibibio ESL learners at higher levels of proficiency. This is contrary to the prediction regarding Aspect Hypothesis. The paper concludes that the influence of the lexical aspect on the pattern of acquisition and distribution of tense-aspect morphology may be universal but the actual point along the developmental pathway when such influence is obtainable is yet to be determined. This calls for more research into the pattern of the L2 acquisition of tense-aspect verbal morphology.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.23-36
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• 2004

Many languages show reverse durational variation between preceding vowel and following voiced/voiceless (lax/tense) consonants. This study investigated the likely effects of phoneme type (tense vs. lax) on the timing structure (duration of syllable, word, phrase and sentence) of Korean. Three rates of speech (fast, normal, slow) applied to stimuli with the target word /a-Ca/ where /C/ is one of /p, p', $p^h$/. The type (tense/lax) of /C/ caused marked inverse durational variations in the two syllables /a/ and /Ca/ and highly different durational ratios between them. Words with /p', $p^h$/ were significantly longer than that with /p/, which contrasts with many other languages where such pairs of words have a similar duration. The differentials between words remained up to the phrase and sentence level, but in general the higher linguistic units did not statistically differ within each level. Thus, the phrase is suggested as a compensatory unit of phoneme type effects in Korean. Different rates did not affect the general tendency. Distribution of time variations (from normal to fast and slow) to each syllable (/a/ and /Ca/) was also observed.

• Language and Information
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.93-105
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• 2000

I argue in this paper that the sequence of tense (SOT) phenomenon can be accounted for without positing a SOT rule, focusing on the contrast between the past under-past sentences which lead to ambiguity and those sentences which do not. The different interpreta- tion of past under past sentences depends on whether the stative or then non-stative predicates occur in the complement clauses in the propositional attitude verbs. Based on this, I also argue that the embedded past tense does not contribute to the seman- tics past tense in the complement clause. Instead, it is due to the occurrence of the stative or non-stative predicates in the complement clauses. The stative predicates are associated with the temporal precedence or the overlap relation, whereas the non-stative predicates the precedence relation only. This fact triggers the contrast in past- under- past sentences.(Korea University)

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.19-27
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• 2008

Several studies on the pronunciation of English vowels point out that Korean learners have difficulty distinguishing English tense and lax vowel pairs. The acoustic comparisons of those studies are mostly based on the formant measurement at one time point of a given vowel section. However, the English lax vowels usually show dynamic changes across their syllable peaks and subjects' English levels account for various conflicting results. The purposes of this paper are to compare the temporal duration and dynamic formant tracks of English tense and lax vowel pairs produced by five Korean and five American males. The subjects were graduate students of an American state university. Results showed that both the Korean and American males produced the vowels with comparable durations. The duration of the front tense-lax vowel pair was longer than that of the back vowel pair. From the formant track comparisons, the American males produced the tense and lax pairs much more distinctly than the Korean male speakers. The results suggest that the Korean males should pay attention to the F1 and F2 movements, i.e., the jaw and tongue movements, in order to match those of the American males. Further studies are recommended on the auditorily acceptable ranges of F2 variation for the lax vowels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2020

This study examines the duration of Korean lax and tense stops in the prosodic word-medial position, their interactions with nearby segments, and the phonological implications of these interactions. It first examines the lengthening of consonants at the function of the short lax stop. Experiment 1 shows that the sonorant C1 is significantly longer before a short lax stop C2 than before a long tense stop. Experiment 2 shows that the short lax stop C1 cancels the contrast between the lax and tense obstruent at C2, making them appear as long tense obstruents (Post-Stop Tensing Rule). We suggest that such lengthening phenomena occur in Korean to robustly preserve the contrastive length difference between C and CC. Second, this study examines the vowel shortening, known as Closed-Syllable Vowel Shortening, before a long tense stop or before the consonant sequence. Experiment 3 suggests that it be interpreted as temporal adjustment to make the interval from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel of near-equal length. Conclusively, we suggest that Korean speech be planned and controlled with two specific intervals. One is the duration of contrastive consonant intervals between vowels, and the other is the duration from the onset of a vowel to the onset of the following vowel.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.7-26
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• 1997

An electromyographic device was used to investigate the relationship between a linguistic hypothesis of tense-lax distinction and muscular activity. Muscle action potentials of the orbicularis oris muscle and the depressor anguli oris muscle were obtained from four subjects using CVCVCV and CVCVC words in English and VCV and CVC words in Korean. Findings: The hypothesis that the speaker may select at least one of muscles involved in the articulation of a phoneme so that the selected muscle could be activated for tense-lax distinction, and either a timing variable or an amplitude variablethe and/or both from the selected muscle distinguish(es) /p/ from /b/ in English and /$p^{h},\;p^{l}$/ from /p/ in Korean, with the English /p/ and the Korean /$p^{h},\;p^{l}$/ being tense, and the Korean unaspirated /p/ and the English /b/ lax, has been verified, except for the case with subject 2 in stressed syllables in English. (2) Thus, the linguistic hypothesis of tense-lax distinction was strongly supported by the muscular activities during the Korean bilabial stops, with /$p^{h}\;and\;p^{l}$/ being tense and /p/ lax. (3) Considering the intermuscle compensation and the interspeaker variabilities in the choice of a muscle or muscles, in English the usability of the feature 'tensity' appeared to be positive rather than negative although further investigations with more subjects remain to take on the muscles associated with the onset/offset of the labial closure, including the respiratory muscles related with the aspiration. The phoneme-sensitive EMG manifestations of stress and possible reasons for the interspeaker variabilities are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.373-380
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean EFL university students acquire an understanding of English tenses. To research this, we proposed two research questions of study as below. Firstly, what difference is there in English tense acquisition between an experimental group and a control group? Secondly, what difference is there in the English tense acquisition according to English proficiency? The subject of a sample survey was a 39 student experimental group and a 38 student control group, total 77 students, who take English courses as a required subject at 'C' university in Gwangju. The data needed for this study was obtained by the questionnaires with 40 questions about the English tense. The data analyzing method was t-test through the statistics program SPSS 12.0. There was a significant difference between the experimental group's tense acquisition ability and the control group's, even though low group showed no significant improvement in their tense acquisition ability. Studying English tense through reading led the students to be present in classes with interests, so the experimental group showed more academic accomplishments than the control group.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.113-130
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• 2002

Measurements were made of pressure rise time (PoRT), voice cessation time, flattened peak intraoral air pressure (Po), pressure static time (PoST), pressure-fall time and the duration of oral closure as four English speakers uttered isolated nonsense $V_{1}CV_{2}$ words containing /b/ and /p/ ($V_{1}=V_{2}$ and the V was /$\alpha$/), with stress on either $V_{1}orV_{2}$ alternately. The hypothesis tested was: The tense stop consonant. will be characterized either by a higher Po or a longer PoST, and/or by both against lax. Findings: (1) PoRT was significantly greater in /b/ than /p/, (2) the voiceless stop /p/ produced generally greater mean Po, averaged across five tokens, than its voiced counterpart /b/, but statistically insignificant, and (3) altogether, across stress, tokens and subjects, the difference in the calculated pressure static time (PoSTc), i.e., PoST + PoRT, between /p/ and /b/ was highly significant (p $\leq$ 0.003). Although further investigations remain to be taken, the results strongly supported the linguistic hypothesis of tense-lax distinction, with /b/ being lax and /p/ tense. Airflow resistance at the glottis and supraglottal air volume are assumed to be responsible for much of difference in PoRT between /p/ and /b/. The PoSTc reflecting, although indirectly, the respiratory efforts during the oral closure of a stop, was a convincing phonetic parameter of the consonantal tenseness based on respiratory efforts. The effects of stress on Po and PoSTc were inconsistent, and the shorter PoRT than consonantal constriction interval was always accompanied by Po and PoST.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2024

This study examines the perceptual motivation behind dissimilation. Consistent with previous arguments suggesting that dissimilation originates from perception rather than production (Coetzee, 2005; Kiparsky, 2003; Scheer, 2013), we hypothesized that an oral stop with short of voice onset time (VOT) would be recognized as non-aspirated more often when it is followed by an aspirated stop with a long VOT. This hypothesis was tested through a perception experiment in which 32 Korean listeners made judgments on the first consonant of C₁VC₂V words manipulated with C₁ VOT and C₂ types. The results revealed that aspirated-based C₁ was recognized as aspirated or tense depending on the duration of VOT, while lenis-based C₁ was consistently recognized as lenis. The dissimilatory effect of aspirated C₂ was confirmed as anticipated, and furthermore, tense C₂ increased the ratio of tense responses more than aspirated C₂. These results provide evidence of a perceptual bias against recurrent aspirated stops, which may play a role in activating a dissimilatory rule or constraint in a language. The assimilatory effect of tense C₂ is in consistent with findings indicating that word-initial tensification is facilitated by the following tense stop in Korean (Kang & Oh, 2016; H. Kim, 2016).