scholarly journals Phonological variation and prosodic representation: clitics in Portuguese-Veneto contact

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália Brambatti Guzzo ◽  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
The Difference

In a variety of Brazilian Portuguese in contact with Veneto, variable vowel reduction in clitic position can be partially accounted for by the phonotactic profile of clitic structures. We show that, when phonotactic profile is controlled for, vowel reduction is statistically more frequent in non-pronominal than in pronominal clitics, which indicates that these clitic types are represented in separate prosodic domains. We propose that this difference in frequency of reduction between clitic types is only possible due to contact with Veneto, which, unlike standard BP, does not exhibit vowel reduction in clitic position. Contact thus provides speakers with the possibility of producing clitic vowels without reduction, and the resulting variation is used to signal prosodic distinctions between clitic types. We show that the difference in frequency of reduction is larger for older speakers, who are more proficient in Veneto and use the language regularly.

scholarly journals Phonological Variation and Prosodic Representation: Clitics in Portuguese-Veneto Contact

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-427
Author(s):  
Natália Brambatti Guzzo ◽  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
The Difference

Abstract In a variety of Brazilian Portuguese in contact with Veneto, variable vowel reduction in clitic position can be partially accounted for by the phonotactic profile of clitic structures. We show that, when phonotactic profile is controlled for, vowel reduction is statistically more frequent in non-pronominal than in pronominal clitics, which indicates that these clitic types are represented in separate prosodic domains. We propose that this difference in frequency of reduction between clitic types is only possible due to contact with Veneto, which, unlike standard BP, does not exhibit vowel reduction in clitic position. Contact thus provides speakers with the possibility of producing clitic vowels without reduction, and the resulting variation is used to signal prosodic distinctions between clitic types. We show that the difference in frequency of reduction is larger for older speakers, who are more proficient in Veneto and use the language regularly.

Insertion of vowels in English syllabic consonantal clusters pronounced by L1 Polish speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 331-341
Author(s):  
Urszula Chwesiuk
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
English Studies ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
English System ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract The aim of this study was an attempt to verify whether Polish speakers of English insert a vowel in the word-final clusters containing a consonant and a syllabic /l/ or /n/ due to the L1–L2 transfer. L1 Polish speakers are mostly unaware of the existence of syllabic consonants; hence, they use the Polish phonotactics and articulate a vocalic sound before a final sonorant which is deprived of its syllabicity. This phenomenon was examined among L1 Polish speakers, 1-year students of English studies, and the recording sessions were repeated a year later. Since, over that time, they were instructed with regard to phonetics and phonology but also the overall practical language learning, the results demonstrated the occurrence of the phenomenon of vowel insertion on different levels of advanced command of English. If the vowels were inserted, their quality and length were monitored and analysed. With regard to the English system, pronouncing vowel /ə/ before a syllabic consonant is possible, yet not usual. That is why another aim of this study is to examine to what extent the vowels articulated by the subjects differ from the standard pronunciation of non-final /ə/. The quality differences between the vowels articulated in the words ending with /l/ and /n/ were examined as well as the potential influence from the difference between /l/ and /n/ on the occurrence of vowel reduction. Even though Polish phonotactics permit numerous consonantal combinations in all word positions, it proved to be challenging for L1 Polish speakers to pronounce word-final consonantal clusters containing both syllabic sonorants. This result carries practical implications for the teaching methodology of English phonetics.

scholarly journals On syllable structure and phonological variation: The case of i-epenthesis by Brazilian Portuguese learners of English

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul John ◽  
Walcir Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Analysis ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Speech Output ◽  
Dual Representations ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
The Moment

Our study employs nonword-learning tasks to examine i-epenthesis in the speech output of 53 Brazilian Portuguese learners of English. One aim is to investigate conflicting views on the syllabification of consonants in various word-medial and final contexts, where they can be parsed as either codas or onsets of empty nuclei. Another aim is to test a proposal (Authors, 2017) concerning the source of L2 phonological variation: we suggest that L2 variation is lexical rather than derivational, stemming from individual items having dual underlying representations which compete for selection at the moment of speaking. The results of a multivariate statistical analysis indicate: i) a hierarchy of difficulty in the acquisition of the stops /p k/ in different lexical locations; and ii) simultaneous development of dual representations for single lexical items.

scholarly journals Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Brazilian version of the Nonarthritic Hip Score

2013 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
pp. 244-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Nunes Carreras Del Castillo ◽  
Gustavo Leporace ◽  
Themis Moura Cardinot ◽  
Roger Abramino Levy ◽  
Liszt Palmeira de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Internal Consistency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Brazilian Version ◽  
Hip Function ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Brazilian Culture ◽  
Active Patients

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE The Nonarthritic Hip Score (NAHS) is a clinical evaluation questionnaire that was developed in the English language to evaluate hip function in young and physically active patients. The aims of this study were to translate this questionnaire into the Brazilian Portuguese language, to adapt it to Brazilian culture and to validate it. DESIGN AND SETTING Cohort study conducted between 2008 and 2010, at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). METHODS Questions about physical activities and household chores were modified to better fit Brazilian culture. Reproducibility, internal consistency and validity (correlations with the Algofunctional Lequesne Index and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index [WOMAC]) were tested. The NAHS-Brazil, Lequesne and WOMAC questionnaires were applied to 64 young and physically active patients (mean age, 40.9 years; 31 women). RESULTS The intraclass correlation coefficient (which measures reproducibility) was 0.837 (P < 0.001). Bland-Altman plots revealed a mean error in the difference between the two measurements of 0.42. The internal consistency was confirmed through a Cronbach alpha of 0.944. The validity between NAHS-Brazil and Lequesne and between NAHS-Brazil and WOMAC showed high correlations, r = 0.7340 and r = 0.9073, respectively. NAHS-Brazil showed good validity with no floor or ceiling effects. CONCLUSION The NAHS was translated into the Brazilian Portuguese language and was cross-culturally adapted to Brazilian culture. It was shown to be a useful tool in clinical practice for assessing the quality of life of young and physically active patients with hip pain.

scholarly journals Frequency effects of L2 English on the processing of the passive in L1 Brazilian Portuguese / Efeitos de frequência da L2 inglês no processamento da passiva em L2 português brasileiro

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Mara Passos Guimarães
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Task Type ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Written Production ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract: This study investigated the influence of experience with L2 English in the processing of passives in L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) by high-proficiency bilinguals and BP monolinguals. Based on the premise that high L2 proficiency is indicative of widespread representational sharing (BERNOLET; HARTSUIKER; PICKERING, 2013) and on the observation that the passive is significantly more productive in English than in BP (GUIMARÃES; SOUZA, 2016), bilinguals’ processing of the construction is expected to be facilitated by L2 exposure. Subjects performed an acceptability judgment task and two sentence elicitation tasks. Both groups considered the passive as acceptable as the active, with no significant differences between the two groups’ judgments of the passive. Differences were found in the oral production of passives between bilinguals and monolinguals, but not in written production: task type influenced the production of monolinguals in that passive productivity fell significantly from the written to the oral task. The difference in productivity levels of the passive between bilinguals and monolinguals is attributed to bilinguals’ exposure to the construction’s distributional properties in the L2, supporting models of bilingual shared representations (HARTSUIKER; PICKERING; VELTKAMP, 2004).Keywords: bilingualism; frequency effects; L2 proficiency; passive construction; acceptability judgment; written production; oral production.Resumo: Este estudo investigou a influência da experiência com L2 inglês no processamento de passivas em L1 português brasileiro (PB) por bilíngues de alta proficiência e monolíngues do PB. Baseando-se na premissa de que alta proficiência em L2 é indicativa de compartilhamento generalizado de representações (BERNOLET; HARTSUIKER; PICKERING, 2013) e na observação de que a passiva é significativamente mais produtiva em inglês do que no PB (GUIMARÃES; SOUZA, 2016)propomos uma visão construcional da construção, na qual ela é tomada como entidade teórica independente. Apesar de sintaticamente congruente no português brasileiro (PB, espera-se que o processamento da construção por bilíngues seja facilitado pela exposição à L2.  A compreensão da construção foi observada através de uma tarefa de julgamento de aceitabilidade de sentenças, enquanto a produção foi observada a partir de duas tarefas de descrição de imagens (uma escrita e outra oral). Tanto bilíngues quando monolíngues julgaram a passiva tão aceitável quanto a ativa, sem diferença significativa nos julgamentos entre os dois perfis linguísticos. Apesar de as passivas terem sido menos frequentes do que as ativas nas tarefas de produção, o tipo de tarefa influenciou o número de ocorrências de passivas dentre os monolíngues: sua produção foi similar à dos bilíngues na tarefa escrita, mas significativamente menor na tarefa oral. A diferença nos níveis de produtividade de passivas entre bilíngues e monolíngues é atribuída à exposição dos bilíngues às propriedades distribucionais da construção na L2, corroborando modelos de compartilhamento representacional bilíngue (HARTSUIKER; PICKERING; VELTKAMP, 2004).Palavras-chave: bilinguismo; efeitos de frequência; proficiência em L2; construção passiva; julgamento de aceitabilidade; produção escrita; produção oral.

scholarly journals Probing rhythmic patterns in English-L2: a preliminary study on vowel reduction by Brazilian learners at different ages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Jr ◽  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
Formal Instruction ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Categorical Classification ◽  
Preliminary Study

Languages are traditionally classified as mora-timed, syllable-timed or stress-timed in relation to their rhythmic patterns. The distinction between syllable-timed and stress-timed languages, however, lacks solid evidence in the literature. Syllable-timed languages typically have similar duration across unstressed and stressed syllables, whereas stress-timed languages tend to have similar inter-stress intervals, and unstressed syllables are shorter than stressed syllables. According to this categorical classification, English is a stress-timed language, thus having more reduction in unstressed vowels. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, is typically classified as syllable-timed, and thus has little reduction of unstressed vowels. If these categorical rhythmic differences are correct, then acquiring the rhythmic patterns of English should be a challenging task to Brazilian learners, who are not expected to produce unstressed vowels with asmuch reduction as English native speakers. However, recent studies have found that the typology of rhythm is best understood as not categorical, but rather gradient, and that Brazilian Portuguese has a mixed classification, with more stress timing than would be expected from a traditional and categorical perspective. We therefore hypothesize that Brazilian learners of English should not have major difficulties reducing unstressed vowels, even when exposed to the second language later in life. To test this hypothesis, we analyze production data of native speakers of English (control group) and two groups of Brazilian advanced learners of English who differ in their age of initial exposure to formal instruction. The results show that neither group of learners is credibly different from the control group, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the mixed rhythm present in Brazilian Portuguese in fact facilitates the acquisition of the rhythmic patterns of English, a stress-timed language, at least in terms of unstressed vowel reduction.

scholarly journals Zur semantischen Basis der Numerusdistinktion im gesprochenen Portugiesisch Brasiliens

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Huelva Unternbäumen
Keyword(s):  
Real Data ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Plural Reference ◽  
Plural Marking ◽  
The Difference

This paper examines the semantics of the singular/plural distinction in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. Analysis of real data from this variety of Portuguese shows that: 1) both plural marked NPs and plural unmarked NPs may have a plural reference; 2) the difference in plural marking is determined by semantic differences pertaining to the properties of (types of) plural objects denoted, respectively, by one or other construction. KEYWORDS: Semantics; Number; Brazilian Portuguese.

scholarly journals Gradience in prosodic representation: vowel reduction and neoclassical elements in Brazilian Portuguese

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália Brambatti Guzzo ◽  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Reduction Processes

In Brazilian Portuguese, neoclassical elements (NCEs) may combine with both independent lexical words (e.g., psico in psicolinguística ‘psycholinguistics’) and non- lexical words (e.g., psico in psicologia ‘psychology’). This has led to the proposal that they have distinct prosodic representations depending on the type of structure that they form: NCE+Indep(endent lexical word) prosodizes recursively in the PWd, whereas NCE+Dep(endent form) prosodizes as a simple PWd. However, both NCE+Indep and NCE+Dep are subject to vowel reduction processes that yield similar surface forms: the NCE in NCE+Indep is targeted by word-final raising, and the NCE in NCE+Dep is targeted by raising in pretonic position. This similarity in surface forms poses a problem for the proposal of separate prosodic representations, as different forms of prosodization imply different phonological behavior. We analyze native speakers’ judgements and productions with respect to reduction of the NCE-final vowel under the hypothesis that, if these NCE structures are prosodized differently and undergo different processes, the process that is more frequent in the Brazilian Portuguese grammar (word-final raising) should have higher acceptance and production rates. Results confirm our hypothesis. We argue that the gradient application of phonological processes reflects prosodic dis- tinctions that cannot be captured in a framework that only considers the application or non-application of said processes.

Phonological Variation and Change in Brazilian Portuguese

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Battisti
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Regional Dialects ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Break Up

Brazilian Portuguese is the native language of more than 200 million people living in Brazil. Spoken in South America since around the year 1500, Brazilian Portuguese has peculiar phonological traits, many of them variable. The extensive language contact that has taken place in Brazil caused Brazilian Portuguese to break up into regional dialects. Various phonological processes affect Brazilian Portuguese at the segmental and suprasegmental levels. Some of the processes target consonants, such as the regressive palatalization of /t, d/, the fricatization of /r/ in syllabic onset; some processes target vowels, such as the raising and lowering of unstressed /e, o/ vowels; others target the intonation of utterances, such as the rising of the nuclear stress of yes–no questions. The results of several empirical studies on varieties of Brazilian Portuguese show that not all of the processes correspond to change in progress in Brazilian Portuguese; some of them are stable variables. They also show that not every variable is present in all dialects and that some variables are socially salient and stigmatized. Compared to present European Portuguese, the phonology of Brazilian Portuguese seems to be conservative in some aspects, such as in the raising of vowels in unstressed, word-final syllables; innovative in others, such as in the vocalization of /l/ in syllabic coda.

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