• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.53-64
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• 2007

This paper attempts to verify the theoretical claims in Syntax ($Bo{\check{s}}kovi{\acute{c}}$ & Lasnik, 2003; Kim, 1999, 2004) about the phrasing in English that-clauses, presenting an acoustic experiment conducted to observe the patterns of edge tones at the boundaries of that. In the experiment, two different that clauses, complement and relative clauses, were varied in forms (that-retention, that-deletion, adverb insertion before that) and length. Results showed that edge tones, if occurred, mostly showed up before the complement clauses in that-deletion sentences (67%), and that their positions polarized in adverb insertion sentences (56% before toot and 44% after toot). In the relative clauses, phrasing mostly occurred before toot as opposed to after toot in that-retention (73%) and adverb insertion sentences (87%). Additionally, phrasing tends to occur more frequently as the sentences get longer. The results suggest that the previous claims based on syntax are not consistent with the results of the current phonetic experiment. This may be interpreted as stating that syntactic boundaries do not always indicate phonetic phrasing, and that there may be some other factors to determine phrasing patterns, for example, rhythmic phrasing operating at the surface level of speech.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.107-119
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• 2005

The current study considers that the distinctive acoustic properties and variations in the closed plateau are realized by four different pitch accents(/Hi*_ H*/ or /Hi*_$h*_f$ for an emphatic phrase and /hi*_ H*/ for a neutral phrase) in an intermediate phrase in the French intonational structure. Thus, an attempt is made to define the acoustic property of the CP in the ip according to the duration time and pitch range, while different combinations of the four pitch accents of the CP are used to explain the way a speaker will highlight. The duration time of the CP was measured at about 0.67 sec. for males and 0.75 sec. for females. The duration properties of the plateau in the CP were found to control the pitch range based on two different prominent pitch accents, which appeared in more than two APs. Therefore, the ip was identified as having a hierarchical level in the French intonational structure, along with the AP and IP. In addition, the CP in the ip was used as a specific location to explain the pragmatic meaning of the rhythm using the two acoustic factors and different combinations of the four pitch accents.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2016

In this study, we examined whether Chinese learners of Korean can correctly produce the phonological process on the lexical and post-lexical level. For this purpose 4 Korean native speakers and 10 advanced and 10 intermediate Chinese learners of Korean participated in the production test. The materials analyzed constituted 10 Korean sentences in which nasalization can be applied on the syllable boundary, word boundary(w-boundary) as well as accentual phrase boundary(AP-boundary). The results show that for Korean speakers, nasalization was applied 100% at all level whereas for Chinese speakers, the rate of application of nasalization is different according to prosodic constituents and Korean proficiency. Nasalization was more frequently applied at the lexical level than the post-lexical level, and it is more frequent in the w-boundary conditions than in the AP-boundary conditions. However, the rate of nasalization in the w-boundary is close to the lexical level. The pronunciation errors were committed either as non application of nasalization or coda obstruent ommission. In the case of non application of nasalization, Chinese learners of Korean produced the target syllables as underling forms, which were not transformed as surface forms. In addition, we can observe the ommission of coda obstruents in 'lenis obstruents+nasal sound' sequences. As a result, nasalization is blocked by this omission.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.185-200
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• 2002

The current study confirmed the existence of an ip prosodic level in French intonation structure, as previously proposed by Sun-Ah Jun & $C\acute{e}cile$cile Fougeron (2000). However, in contrast to the previous suggestion of the plateau realized in an ip in several syntactic structures, the current study supposed that the plateau doesn't come from the different type of syntactic structures but arise from the unspecified syllables without any PA in an ip. Because if we limited ip phrasal tone to the syntactic structure, it would be difficult to find the more general reasons of ip level. Besides /Hi/ and /$H^*$/ we also used /$Hi^*$/ for the focused syllable in the current study. In emphasized sentences, in general, /$Hi^*$/ appeared in the first or second syllable of a leftward AP in an ip and /$H^*$/ in the final syllable of a rightmost AP of an ip, In contrast to these PAs, /$Hi^*$/ might appear in any syllable in an ip, but not to far from /$H^*$/ because the duration time and length t of plateau realized between /$Hi^*$/ and /$H^*$/ or /Hi/ and /$H^*$/ would make an essential harmonious rhythmic unit, Therefore, the current study determined the duration time and the number of syllables realized in each plateau in an ip level composed of more than one AP. As a phrase constituent structure, there is a practical need for intermediate prosodic units to allow for generalization over the many possible combinations of prosodic patterns that can occur. Further evidence is still needed to analyze and relate the different pitch ranges of the plateau of an ip according to the syntactic structure, to identify the considerable character in the French prosodic hierarchy.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.9-17
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to examine whether Chinese Korean learners (CKL) can correctly produce the aspiration in 'a lenis obstruents /k/, /t/, /p/, /ʧ/+/h/ sound' sequence at the lexical and post-lexical level. For this purpose 4 Korean native speakers (KNS), 10 advanced and 10 intermediate CKL participated in a production test. The material analyzed consisted of 10 Korean sentences in which aspiration can be applied at different prosodic boundaries (syllable, word, accentual phrase). The results showed that for KNS and CKL, the rate of application of aspiration was different according to prosodic boundaries. Aspiration was more frequently applied at the lexical level than at the post-lexical level and it was more frequent at the word boundary than at the accentual phrase boundary. For CKL, pronunciation errors were either non-application of aspiration or coda obstruent omission. In the case of non-application of aspiration, CKL produced the target syllable as an underling form and they did not transform it as a surface form. In the case of coda obstruent ommision, most of the errors were caused by the inherent complexity of phonological process.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-59
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• 2009

The present study investigated Korean learners' knowledge on the range of possible interpretations of English locative PPs with manner of motion verbs, and considers whether learners can arrive at a superset L2 grammar on the basis of positive L2 input. Unlike Korean, some English locative PPs occurring with manner of motion verbs (such as in John jumped on the bed) are ambiguous as they can be interpreted as either directional or locational. Thirty Korean learners of English in three distinct groups (Advanced EFL-only group; Intermediate-EFL-only group; and ESL-experienced group) participated in an experimental study, along with a control group of nine native speakers of English. The results of the study showed that I) Korean learners, overall, tended to interpret English locative PPs as only locational, failing to recognize the ambiguity between the directional and locational readings in the target structure; 2) For the learners who experienced only the EFL context, even highly proficient learners, as well as intermediate level learners, failed to acknowledge the ambiguity; 3) The learners who experienced the ESL context for an extended period of time could identify the target reading to some extent, although they still could not reach the native-like competence. From these results, it is argued that robustness of positive evidence, not simply its availability, is critical in the acquisition of the superset L2 targets like the present one.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• spring
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• pp.321-324
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• 2000

한국어는 어두에서 유성파열음이 나타나지 않고 약한 기식이 있는 연자음으로 실현되므로 영어의 유성파열음을 발음하기 어렵다. 한국인이 어두 유성파열음을 습득할 때 후속하는 모음의 높이가 영향을 미치리라 가정하고 /이, 에, 어, 우/ 4개의 모음을 선택하여 어두유성파열음 의 VOT에 영향을 미치는가를 단독단어와 문장에서 살펴보았다. native, 숙련자, 미숙련자의 세 그룹으로 나누어 실시한 결과 native의 경우 후속하는 모음이 어두파열음의 VOT에 영향을 끼치지 않았으며, 이러한 경향은 숙련자 그룹에서도 지켜짐을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 미숙련자 그룹인 경우 고모음이 저모음에서보다 VOT가 현저하게 길었고 통계검사 결과 유의미한 차이를 보여, 고모음에서 유성발음을 잘 못함을 알 수 있었다. native와 숙련자 그룹은 intermediate phrase(이하 iP) initial인 단어나 iP medial인 문장에서 VOT가 거의 유사한데 비해 미숙련자 그룹에서는 문장 내에서 VOT가 조금씩 짧아졌고 이 경향은 고모음에서 두드러져 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보였다.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.17-28
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• 2005

This paper argues that news speech entails a distinct intonational pattern from natural speech, effectively reflecting that it primarily focuses on providing new information. We conducted a phonetic experiment to compare the tonal contours between news speech and natural speech, examining the distributions of pitch accents and the overall pitch ranges. We utilized 70 American Press (AP) radio news utterances and 70 natural utterances extracted from TV dramas. Results show that news speech involves 3.38 H*'s (including L+H* and !H*) within an intonational phrase (IP) or intermediate phrase (ip) whereas natural speech, 1.8 in average. The number of IP/ip's per sentence is 3 in news speech, which is shown in the highest rate of 32.07% of the news speech, but it is merely 1, taking up the highest 41.42% in natural speech. Next, declination tends to be prevented in news speech, and the pitch range is much greater in news speech than in natural speech. Finally, a secondary stress syllable is comparatively frequently given a pitch accent in news speech, explicitly distinct from natural speech. These results can be interpreted as stating that news has the particular purpose of providing new information; every content word tends to be given a H* or its related pitch accent like L+H* or !H* because news speech assumes that every word conveys new information. This definitely brings about more IP/ip's per sentence due to a human physiological constraint; that is, more H*'s will cause more respiratory breaks. Also, greater pitch ranges and pitch accents imposed on secondary stress may be attributed to exaggerating new information.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.77-100
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• 2012

This study investigates issues in relation to text segmenting, in particular, line breaks in Korean language textbooks. Research on L1 and L2 reading has shown that readers process texts by chunking (grouping words into phrases or meaningful syntactic units) and, therefore, phrase-cued texts are helpful for readers whose syntactic knowledge has not yet been fully developed. In other words, it would be important for language textbooks to avoid awkward syntactic divisions at the end of a line, in particular, those textbooks for beginners and intermediate level learners. According to our analysis of a number of major Korean language textbooks for beginner-level learners, however, many textbooks were found to display line-breaks of awkward syntactic division. Moreover, some textbooks displayed frequent instances where a single word (or eojeol in the case of Korean) is split between different lines. This can hamper not only learners' learning of the rules of spaces between eojeols in Korean, but also learners' development in automatic word recognition, which is an essential part of reading processes. Based on the findings of our textbook analysis and of existing research on reading, this study suggests ways to overcome awkward line-breaks in Korean language textbooks.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.33-40
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• 2020

The purpose of this research was to find out the relation between Korean learners' English proficiency and the ratio of the length of the stressed vowel in a monosyllabic noun to that of the unstressed vowel in an article of the noun phrases (e.g., "a cup", "the bus", etcs.). Generally, the vowels in monosyllabic content words are phonetically more prominent than the ones in monosyllabic function words as the former have phrasal stress, making the vowels in content words longer in length, higher in pitch, and louder in amplitude. This study, based on the speech samples from Korean-Spoken English Corpus (K-SEC) and Rated Korean-Spoken English Corpus (Rated K-SEC), examined 879 English noun phrases, which are composed of an article and a monosyllabic noun, from sentences which are rated on 4 levels of proficiency. The lengths of the vowels in these 879 target NPs were measured and the ratio of the vowel lengths in nouns to those in articles was calculated. It turned out that the higher the proficiency level, the greater the mean ratio of the vowels in nouns to the vowels in articles, confirming the research's hypothesis. This research thus concluded that for the Korean English learners, the higher the English proficiency level, the better they could produce the stressed and unstressed vowels with more conspicuous length differences between them.