• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.121-135
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Korean speakers realize English stress and rhythm at the sentence level, and investigate what different acoustic characteristics of English sentence stress and rhythm Korean speakers have, compared with those of American English speakers. Stressed words in the sentence were analyzed in terms of duration, fundamental frequency, and intensity of the stressed vowel in the word with neutral stress and with emphatic stress, respectively. According to the results, when the words had emphatic stress, both Koreans' and Americans' F0 and intensity of the stressed vowel were higher than those with neutral stress. Korean speakers of English realized the sentence stress with shorter vowel duration and higher F0 than American English speakers when the words had emphatic stress. The analysis of the timing of the sentence with increased unstressed syllables showed that both Americans and Koreans produced the sentence with longer duration as the number of unstressed syllables increased. However, the duration of unstressed syllables between stressed syllables by Koreans was longer than that by Americans. Americans seemed to produce unstressed syllables between stressed syllables faster than Koreans for regular intervals of stressed syllables. This analysis implies that if there are more unstressed syllables between stressed syllables, Koreans might produce unstressed syllables and the whole sentence with longer duration.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.89-105
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• 2006

This study examines the phonetic realizations of English word stress to identify the influence of experiment method on experiment results. Stimuli uttered by native and Korean ESL beginners in authentic conversations are extracted to be shuffled according to their positions in utterances and information structure. Results indicate that the acoustic characteristics of English word stress are realized depending on its position in utterances. The native speakers correlate the stressed syllables in shorter duration with higher pitch and stronger intensity at sentence-final positions unlike the previous experiments and the traditional definition that stressed syllables are uttered in longer duration with higher pitch and stronger intensity; at sentence-medial positions, the native speakers correlate the stressed syllables in longer duration with higher pitch and no regularity in intensity or in shorter duration with lower pitch and intensity depending on their conversational intention. Korean ESL beginners correlate the stressed syllables in shorter duration regardless of positions in sentences with no regularity in pitch and intensity. This study, thus, shows that a different experiment method may result in different results on the phonetic realizations of English word stress.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.77-88
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• 2002

Acoustical correlates of stress can be classified as duration, intensity and fundamental frequency. This study examined the acoustical differences in the first two syllables of stressed English words produced by ten American and Korean speakers. The Korean subjects scored very high on the TOEFL. They read at a normal speed a fable from which the acoustical parameters of eight words were analyzed. In order to make the data comparison meaningful, each parameter was collected at 100 dynamic time points proportional to the total duration of the two syllables. Then the ratio of the parameter sum of the first rime to that of the second rime was calculated to determine the relative prominence of the syllables. Results showed that the durations of the first two syllables were almost comparable between the Americans and Koreans. However, statistically significant differences showed up in the diphthong pronunciations and in the words with the second syllable stressed. Also, remarkably high r-squared values were found between pairs of the three acoustical parameters, which suggests that either one or a combination of two or more parameters may account for the prominence of a syllable within a word.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.95-112
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• 2005

We investigate Korean learners' speech-timing of English before and after instruction in comparison with native speech, in an attempt to resolve disagreements in the literature as to whether speech-timing is measurable (Lehiste, 1977; Roach, 1982; Dauer, 1983 vs. Low et al., 2000; Yun 2002; Jian, 2004). We measured the pair-wise variability between the adjacent stressed and unstressed syllables within a foot as well as that among adjacent feet in approximately 555 English sentences, which were read by 29 native speakers and 41 Korean learners in the intermediate proficiency level. The results show that in comparison with native American English, Korean learner speech is before instruction significantly (p<.001) smaller for the pair-wise variability between the adjacent stressed and unstressed syllables within a foot; and significantly (p=.01) bigger for the variability among adjacent feet within the utterance. The learner speech after instruction showed significant (p=.01) improvement in the pair-wise variability of syllable sequence toward native speech values. The variability among adjacent feet was progressively smaller for learner speech before and after instruction and for native speech (p=.03). We thus conclude that the speech timing difference between Korean English and American English is measurable in terms of the duration. of stressed and unstressed syllables and that the latter is stress-timed and the former is syllable-timing interfered.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.554-559
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• 1996

An utterance is normally divided into two or more intonation groups. Bach intonation group has its intonation pattern. Pitch movement of Spanish utterance is basically determined by a combination of two factors: position of the stressed syllables and the intonation pattern. The pitch of a syllable can be affected by that of preceding syllables. This is rather a physiological effect than a phonological one.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2005

In this study, realization of strong and weak syllables in English by Korean leaners with low English proficiency was examined through experiment. The aspects of three acoustic characteristics-duration, pitch, amplitude-were measured and compared with native speakers of English. It was assumed that production of duration, pitch and amplitude of strong and weak syllable by Korean learners would be different from that of English native speakers. According to the production experiments, English native speakers produced strong syllable longer, higher and louder than weak syllable. However, Korean leaners produced strong syllable higher and louder than weak syllable, but not longer enough. Specifically, weak syllable by Korean leaners was longer and strong syllable shorter than native speakers. Furthermore, the difference in duration of syllables between Korean leaners and English native speakers is more significant than pitch and amplitude. As a result, the duration was more important cue for the realization of stress than pitch and amplitude. However, Korean leaners did not produce duration of stressed syllables as English native speakers did, even though they produce the pitch and amplitude of stressed syllable in a similar way to native speakers. The reasons for those were considered, too.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2011

It has been posited that in English, native listeners use the Metrical Segmentation Strategy (MSS) for the segmentation of continuous speech. Strong syllables tend to be perceived as potential word onsets for English native speakers, which is due to the high proportion of strong syllables word-initially in the English vocabulary. This study investigates whether Koreans employ the same strategy when segmenting speech input in English. Word-spotting experiments were conducted using vowel-initial and consonant-initial bisyllabic targets embedded in nonsense trisyllables in Experiment 1 and 2, respectively. The effect of strong syllable was significant in the RT (reaction times) analysis but not in the error analysis. In both experiments, Korean listeners detected words more slowly when the word-initial syllable is strong (stressed) than when it is weak (unstressed). However, the error analysis showed that there was no effect of initial stress in Experiment 1 and in the item (F2) analysis in Experiment 2. Only the subject (F1) analysis in Experiment 2 showed that the participants made more errors when the word starts with a strong syllable. These findings suggest that Koran listeners do not use the Metrical Segmentation Strategy for segmenting English speech. They do not treat strong syllables as word beginnings, but rather have difficulties recognizing words when the word starts with a strong syllable. These results are discussed in terms of intonational properties of Korean prosodic phrases which are found to serve as lexical segmentation cues in the Korean language.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.189-198
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• 2000

/$t{\partial}n$/, /$d{\partial}n$/, /$t{\partial}l$/ and /d{\partial}l$/, on the one hand, are the typical phonemes of syllabic consonants. On the other hand, /${\int}{\partial}n$/ most plausibly gives rise to the syllabic consonants. /$t{\partial}r$/ and /$d{\partial}r/ can he syllabic. However, because lip-rounded consonants strengthen the character of consonantal phonemes, they are not so appropriate. Apart from phonemes, some familiar words also could be almost always syllabic. From the historical perspective, we can say that the position of syllabic consonants is typically the second syllables of two-syllabic words and 1.hat the underlying schwa does not always exist. In terms of the syllable structure, the syllables which include syllabic consonants are totally different from both stressed syllables and the other unstressed syllables.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.02a
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• pp.179-182
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• 1996

This thesis compares the duration aspect of Daegu tongue with that of standard Korean. In the former study on the rhythm of standard Korean, one of the purposes of the study was to compare it with dialects. This thesis is the first attempt In do that. For this purpose, this thesis proceeds as follows. After Introduction, Chapter 2 surveys the former study, Chapter 3 deals with the materials, method and results of the experiment. Chapter 4 analyzes and interprets the results of the experiment. In Conclusion, the most prominent fact is that the results of the experiment fall short of Daegu tongue speakers' expectations. Daegu tongue is generally considered as ' tone language. ' And as Daegu tongue speakers sensitively recognize pitch, they think that they quitckly say the syllables between the pitch stressed syllables, whereas standard Korean speakers say those syllables relatively slowly. But in this experiment, which deals with only duration ignoring pitch, their assumption is proved to be false.

• MALSORI
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• no.27_28
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• pp.89-109
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• 1994

This thesis compares the duration aspect of the Daegu tongue with that of standard Korean. In the former study on the rhythm of standard Korean, one of the purposes of the study was to compare it with dialects. This thesis is the first attempt to do that. For this purpose, this thesis proceeds as follows. After Introduction, Chapter 2 surveys the former study. Chapter 3 deals with the materials, method and results of the experiment. Chapter 4 analyzes and interprets the results of the experiment, In Conclusion, the most Prominent fact is that the results of the experiment fall short of Daegu tongue speakers' expectations. The Daegu tongue is generally considered as a 'tone language.' And as Daegu tongue speakers sensitively recognize pitch, they think that they quickly say the syllables between the Pitch stressed syllables, whereas standard Korean speakers say those syllables relatively slowly, But in this experiment, which deals with only duration ignoring Pitch, their assumption is proved to be false.