scholarly journals Voicing and devoicing English alveolar fricatives: an investigation of Brazilian learners’ production

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
Mayara Tsuchida Zanfra ◽  
Rosane Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Final Position

This study examined the occurrence of voicing change in English alveolar fricatives produced by Brazilian-Portuguese (BP) speakers in different phonological contexts. The participants were 23 native speakers of BP and 4 native speakers of American English, and all of them recorded 54 English sentences containing the target sounds. The results showed that the phonological context that triggered higher rates for devoicing with /z/ were a pause and a voiceless consonant, and the phonological context that triggered higher rates of voicing with /s/ were a voiced consonant and a vowel. In addition, the presence of the <e> grapheme in word-final position influenced the production of voicing change.

The role of cross-linguistic stress pattern frequency and word similarity on the acquisition of English stress pattern by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Post Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
American English ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Target Language ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Word Similarity ◽  
L1 Transfer

This is a preliminary study in which we investigate the acquisition of English as second language (L2[1]) word stress by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP, L1[2]). In this paper, we show results of a multiple choice forced choice perception test in which native speakers of American English and native speakers of Dutch judged the production of English words bearing pre-final stress that were both cognates and non-cognates with BP words. The tokens were produced by native speakers of American English and by Brazilians that speak English as a second language. The results have shown that American and Dutch listeners were consistent in their judgments on native and non-native stress productions and both speakers' groups produced variation in stress in relation to the canonical pattern. However, the variability found in American English points to the prosodic patterns of English and the variability found in Brazilian English points to the stress patterns of Portuguese. It occurs especially in words whose forms activate neighboring similar words in the L1. Transfer from the L1 appears both at segmental and prosodic levels in BP English. [1] L2 stands for second language, foreign language, target language. [2] L1 stands for first language, mother tongue, source language.

scholarly journals Similarities and differences in categorization behavior by Brazilian Portuguese and American English native speakers

1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-481
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Pelosi Silva de MACÊDO
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Describing Functions ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Feature Overlap ◽  
The Way

The present paper presents a brief account of the nature and formation of categories. It also reports on some of the findings obtained by investigating the way native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and American English organize their semantic categories. Eleven semantic categories taken from the Battig and Montague (1969) category response norms were used in the study. The way the Brazilians and the Americans behave, in ranking the various category members is statistically analyzed by assessing levels of agreement within and between groups. The results of the analysis indicate that, although, there exists some correspondence in the way the two groups behave in ranking and in describing functions and attributes associated with category members, culturally specific constraints also exist and these will influence ranking decisions. Additionally, subjects’ performance suggests that categorization behaviors appear to be motivated by two broad approaches to category structure: a prototypical approach based on feature overlap and a schema-directed approach based on instantiations prompted by the individual’s world knowledge.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of the Logical Connector ‘Thus’ in the Academic Writing of Turkish EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Serpil Ucar ◽  
Ceyhun Yukselir
Keyword(s):  
Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Log Likelihood ◽  
Log Likelihood Ratio ◽  
Effect Relation ◽  
Academic Genre

This research was conducted to investigate how frequently Turkish advanced learners of English use the logical connector ‘thus’ in their academic prose and to investigate whether it was overused, underused or misused semantically in comparison to English native speakers. The data were collected from three corpora; Corpus of Contemporary American English and 20 scientific articles of native speakers as control corpora, and 20 scientific articles of Turkish advanced EFL learners. The raw frequencies, frequencies per million words, frequencies per text and log-likelihood ratio were measured so as to compare varieties across the three corpora. The findings revealed that Turkish learners of English showed underuse in the use of the connector ‘thus’ in their academic prose compared to native speakers. Additionally, they did not demonstrate misuse in the use of the connector ‘thus’. Nevertheless, non-native learners of English tended to use this connector in a resultative role (cause-effect relation) more frequently whereas native speakers used it in appositional and summative roles more as well as its resultative role. Furthermore, the most frequent occurrences of ‘thus’ have been in academic genre.

Underlying representation of [w]-final words in Brazilian Portuguese: Evidence from morphological derivation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Carlos Schwindt
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Underlying Representation

AbstractThis paper deals with the underlying representation of [w]-final words in Brazilian Portuguese, usually spelled with <l> and pronounced as [w] and occasionally as [ɫ] (e.g., papel / [paˈpɛw] ~ [paˈpɛɫ] ‘paper’). It focuses on non-verbs derived by a vowel-initial suffix preceded by [l] (e.g., papel+eiro ‘paper+suffix’ / [papeˈlejɾʊ] ‘papermaker’; cliente+ismo ‘client+suffix’ / [kliẽnteˈlizmʊ] ‘patronage’). The results from a pseudoword task answered by 219 participants contrasted to lexicon data from Corpus Brasileiro show that native speakers associate such derived forms with bases already containing [l] in the last syllable, either in the onset or the coda position. This observation is interpreted in a constraint-based approach, with the assumption that a demand for alignment between vowel-initial suffixes and roots closed by /l/, along with the requirement for phonological correspondence between base and derivative, is highly ranked in a grammar that accounts for learning morphophonological representations in the language.

scholarly journals English and Portuguese consonant clusters: contrasts and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Madureira
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Vowel Epenthesis ◽  
Speech Learning Model ◽  
Speech Learning

ABSTRACT Consonant clusters occur both in Portuguese and English. However, clusters are more productive in English than in Portuguese and there are sequences which are only found in English.This study focuses on the contrasts between American English and Brazilian Portuguese consonant clusters and on three strategies Brazilian learners tend to apply when producing them: adding the high front vowel (epenthesis) between the consonants in the clusters, discarding consonants, or introducing phonetic changes. The relevance of introducing English clusters to Brazilian learners of English is pointed out and discussed under the framework of the Speech Learning Model (SLM).

scholarly journals The acoustic characteristics of non-native American English vowels

Linguistica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Biljana Čubrović
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Language Background ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Native Speech

This study aims at discussing the phonetic property of vowel quality in English, as exercised by both native speakers of General American English (AE) and non-native speakers of General American English of Serbian language background, all residents of the United States. Ten Serbian male speakers and four native male speakers of AE are recorded in separate experiments and their speech analyzed acoustically for any significant phonetic differences, looking into a set of monosyllabic English words representing nine vowels of AE. The general aim of the experiments is to evaluate the phonetic characteristics of AE vowels, with particular attention to F1 and F2 values, investigate which vowels differ most in the two groups of participants, and provide some explanations for these variations. A single most important observation that is the result of this vowel study is an evident merger of three pairs of vowels in the non-native speech: /i ɪ/, /u ʊ/, and /ɛ æ/.

scholarly journals CREATIVITY AND TRANSLATOR TRAINING: INVESTIGATING WORDPLAYS IN AMERICAN SITCOM 2 BROKE GIRLS SUBTITLED INTO BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adauri Brezolin ◽  
Tatiane de Paula Bóvis Spinetti
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Linguistic Awareness ◽  
Translator Training ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects

Translating wordplays has been considered a challenging task and an appropriate exercise for building (meta)linguistic awareness in translation students. By comparing wordplays from American sitcom 2 Broke Girls translated from American English into Brazilian Portuguese, we discuss, in this article, the main mechanisms used to generate and translate wordplays. For solutions considered ineffective in the target language, suggestions are offered emphasizing the creative and pragmatic aspects surrounding this linguistic event. Our results show that it is possible to encourage creativity among translation students if suitable techniques, such as free association, are adopted in the classroom. Our discussion can be a useful didactic tool for reflecting on theoretical and practical aspects related to wordplays, (meta)linguistic awareness and creativity. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0847/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Language Experience and Subjective Word Familiarity on the Multimodal Perception of Non-Native Speakers’ Vowels

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092199872
Author(s):  
Solène Inceoglu
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
American English ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Word Familiarity ◽  
Multimodal Perception

The present study investigated native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers’ perception of the French vowels /ɔ̃, ɑ̃, ɛ̃, o/. Thirty-four American-English learners of French and 33 native speakers of Parisian French were asked to identify 60 monosyllabic words produced by a native speaker in three modalities of presentation: auditory-only (A-only); audiovisual (AV); and visual-only (V-only). The L2 participants also completed a vocabulary knowledge test of the words presented in the perception experiment that aimed to explore whether subjective word familiarity affected speech perception. Results showed that overall performance was better in the AV and A-only conditions for the two groups with the pattern of confusion differing across modalities. The lack of audiovisual benefit was not due to the vowel contrasts being not visually salient enough, as shown by the native group’s performance in the V-only modality, but to the L2 group’s weaker sensitivity to visual information. Additionally, a significant relationship was found between subjective word familiarity and AV and A-only (but not V-only) perception of non-native contrasts.

scholarly journals Retrieving L2 word stress from orthography: Evidence from word naming and cross-modal priming

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 409-442
Author(s):  
Amanda Post da Silveira
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Mixed List ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Moderate Frequency ◽  
Lexical Perception ◽  
Target Words

In this paper we investigated how L1 word stress affects L2 word naming for cognates and non-cognates in two lexical stress languages, Brazilian Portuguese (BP, L1) and American English (AE, L2). In Experiment 1,  BP-AE bilinguals named a mixed list of disyllabic moderate frequency words in L1 (Portuguese) and L2 (English). In Experiment 2, Portuguese-English bilinguals named English (L2) disyllabic target words presented simultaneously with auditory Portuguese (L1) disyllabic primes. It is concluded that word stress has a task-dependent role to play in bilingual word naming and must be incorporated in bilingual models of lexical production and lexical perception and reading aloud models.

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