scholarly journals Phonetic Reduction of Intervocalic [w] in Contemporary Polish

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Sylwester Jaworski
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Phonetic Reduction

Przedstawione w artykule wyniki analizy akustycznej opisujączęstotliwość, z jakąmiędzywokaliczna głoska [w] jest usuwana ze strumienia mowy. Analizie poddano wypowiedzi 20 rodzimych użytkowników języka polskiego, których poproszono o opowiedzenie fabuły filmu, w którym głównąpostaciąjest kobieta. Wyniki analizy akustycznej wskazują, że w ok. 25% przypadków międzywokaliczne [w] nie jest wymawiane, jeśli stanowi element końcówki fleksyjnej czasownika, np. -ała, -iła, -yła. W takich przypadkach trajektorie formantów, jak równieżich intensywność, nie wskazywały na obecnośćpółsamogłoski [w] pomiędzy samogłoskami lub zmiany te były tak niewielkie, że nie wywoływały akustycznego wrażenia głoski [w]. W badaniu nie stwierdzono przypadków usunięcia [w], jeśli dźwięk ten znajdowałsięw podstawie słowotwórczej, np. w słowach skała, szkoła. ABSTRACT This paper reports the results of an acoustic study concerned with deletion of intervocalic [w] in contemporary Polish. The data for analysis were obtained by asking twenty monolingual native speakers of Polish, ten males and ten females, to tell the story of a film or a book whose protagonist was female. The results revealed that approximately 25% of the sound combinations in question were reduced phonetically to a vowel geminate. In cases of deletion, the formant trajectories of the examined sound sequences either did not show any signs of the glide or the expected drop in formant frequencies throughout the glide section is so slight that it is rather unlikely to produce an auditory impression of a [w] sound. Importantly, in the analysed recordings, w-dropping affects only the glide elements found in various verb forms, while intervocalic [w] appears to be resistant to deletion in the few cases where the glide constitutes an element of the stem, e.g. in the nouns skała ‘rock’and szkoła ‘school’.

scholarly journals ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENT ON VOWEL PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE BY INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Rudha Widagsa ◽  
Ahmad Agung Yuwono Putro
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
British English ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Second Formant

Indonesian is the most widely spoken language in Indonesia. More than 200 million people speak the language as a first language. However, acoustic study on Indonesian learners of English (ILE) production remains untouched. The purpose of this measurement is to examine the influence of first language (L1) on English vowels production as a second language (L2). Based on perceptual magnet hypothesis (PMH), ILE were predicted to produce close sounds to L1 English where the vowels are similar to Indonesian vowels. Acoustic analysis was conducted to measure the formant frequencies. This study involved five males of Indonesian speakers aged between 20-25 years old. The data of British English native speakers were taken from previous study by Hawkins & Midgley (2005). The result illustrates that the first formant frequencies (F1) which correlates to the vowel hight of Indonesian Learners of English were significantly different from the corresponding frequencies of British English vowels. Surprisingly, the significant differences in second formant (F2) of ILE were only in the production of /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/ in which /ɑ/=p 0.002, /ɒ/ =p 0,001, /ɔ/ =p 0,03. The vowel space area of ILE was slightly less spacious than the native speakers. This study is expected to shed light in English language teaching particularly as a foreign language.Keywords: VSA, EFL, Indonesian learners, formant frequencies, acoustic

The case of the conditional and the imperfect in variable mood-choice contexts in second-language and native-speaker Spanish

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarnes Gudmestad
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Range Of Functions ◽  
Mood Choice

The current study builds on research on mood distinction in Spanish, which has focused on the subjunctive mood, by examining the full inventory of verb forms that second-language learners and native speakers (NSs) of Spanish use in mood-choice contexts. Twenty NSs and 130 learners corresponding to five proficiency levels completed three oral-elicitation tasks. The results show that participants use a wide repertoire of tense/mood/aspect forms in mood-choice contexts and that NSs and learners use largely the same forms. An analysis of the conditional and imperfect suggests that learners tend to restructure and strengthen their form-function connections between these verb forms and a range of functions.

Assessing the Use of Multiple Forms in Variable Contexts: The Relationship between Linguistic Factors and Future-Time Reference in Spanish

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarnes Gudmestad ◽  
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Variable Structure ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe current study represents a detailed examination of the linguistic variables that are significantly related to verb-form use in contexts of future-time reference for advanced learners and native speakers of Spanish. The results show that the factors lexical temporal indicator, clause type and temporal distance are related to the verb forms that both groups use to express the function of futurity and that (un)certainty and grammatical person and number are only important for native speakers, thus demonstrating that the learners have not yet reached native-like use of this variable structure. In addition to providing more information on the variable use of futuretime reference for native and non-native speakers, the investigation makes methodological advancements in the study of morphosyntactic variation by defining a token by the function it performs in communication and by examining the full range of verb forms speakers use to fulfill this function.

scholarly journals THE PROSODY OF IMPERATIVE SENTENCES IN EVENKI AND OROCHON: PITCH

2019 ◽  
pp. 100-114
Author(s):  
Olga N. Morozova ◽  
◽  
Svetlana V. Androsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Challenging Issue ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Pitch Pattern ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Pitch Movement

Imperative sentences in Evenki and Orochon are undoubtedly a challenging issue of their grammar and phonetics. The aspects, on which researchers' opinions diverge, include grammar tense, neutral and inverted word order and prosodic arrangement of the sentences. It is the only type of sentences with the verb in sentences-initial position. Among 14 imperative verb forms (they change in 2 tenses with varying names, 3 persons and 2 numbers; some of them have inclusive and exclusive forms), 2nd-person forms in the Present Tense are characterized by the highest frequency of occurrence. This paper reports the results of an acoustic study of pitch movement in Evenki and Orochon imperative sentences depending on the number of words, syllables and the word order. The following results were obtained. In the Evenki material, two- and three-word syntagmas were characterized mostly by rise-fall pitch pattern while one-word syntagmas could have both rise-fall and fall patterns. Four-syllable-one word syntagmas' pattern was pitch declination while two- and three-syllable-one-word syntagmas could have both rise-fall and declination patterns with similar frequency of occurrence...

scholarly journals The acquisition of verb morphology by a group of spanish monolingual children

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Luz Marina Vásquez
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Verb Morphology ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Irregular Verbs

Spanish has a rich verb inflectional system with up to 53 inflectional verb forms distributed between regular and irregular verbs and in which roots are always bound, as verbs must contain markings for person, tense/aspect, and number. The acquisition of verb morphology by native speakers reportedly reflects this complexity in that children produce multiple non-target-like forms wherein tense, person, and number errors are found. This study reports all verb forms identified in the spontaneous speech by a group of 15 native Spanish-speaking children ages 3;6 to 5;6. The analysis of all 233 verb forms analyzed revealed some pronunciation errors, number agreement errors, errors in the use of clitic pronouns, and incorrect use of person and tense agreement.  The majority of non-target-like forms identified consisted of regularization of verb forms wherein regular conjugation morphemes were attached to irregular verbs. A few –ar type verbs additionally showed ir-regularization of regular verbs, as children used conjugations which apply to irregular verbs with regular verbs.  

scholarly journals Construal vs. redundancy: Russian aspect in context

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-497
Author(s):  
Laura A. Janda ◽  
Robert J. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Russian Aspect ◽  
Authentic Data ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe relationship between construal and redundancy has not been previously explored empirically. Russian aspect allows speakers to construe situations as either Perfective or Imperfective, but it is not clear to what extent aspect is determined by context and therefore redundant. We investigate the relationship between redundancy and open construal by surveying 501 native Russian speakers who rated the acceptability of both Perfective and Imperfective verb forms in complete extensive authentic contexts. We find that aspect is largely redundant in 81% of uses, and in 17% of contexts aspect is relatively open to construal. We contend that anchoring in redundant contexts likely facilitates the independence of construal in contexts with less redundancy. However further research is needed to discover what makes contexts redundant since known cues for aspect are absent in the majority of such contexts. Native speakers are fairly consistent in giving the original aspect high ratings, but less consistent in rating the non-original aspect, indicating potential problems in testing the reactions of speakers to non-authentic data.

An acoustic study of the RP English LOT and THOUGHT vowels

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Wikström
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Read Speech

While there is variation among existing impressionistic accounts where the description of the RP English LOT and THOUGHT vowels is concerned (compare Wells 1982 (vol. I), Collins & Mees 2003, Roach 2004, Cruttenden 2008), not much attention has been paid to this issue in acoustic studies of RP (e.g. Wells 1962, Deterding 1990, Hawkins & Midgley 2005). In the present study, seven female native speakers of RP or near-RP born between 1985 and 1993 (i.e. speakers aged between 18 and 25 years at the time of the study) were recorded saying English words containing monophthongal vowels. In addition, data consisting of read speech from 18 male native speakers of RP or near-RP born between 1983 and 1991 (i.e. speakers aged between 18 and 25 years at the time they were recorded) contained in the DyViS database (Nolan et al. 2009) were analysed. The data were analysed acoustically by measuring F1 and F2 and normalising the measurements according to Lobanov's (1971) formula along with the mean F1 and F2 frequencies reported in Wells (1962), Deterding (1990) and Hawkins & Midgley (2005). Statistical analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the F1 formant measurements of the seven female speakers and the 18 male speakers versus Hawkins & Midgley's speakers born between 1946 and 1951; mean F1 was higher for the speakers born between 1946 and 1951. As for the THOUGHT vowel, the F1 measurements overlapped with the means relating to all different age groups in Hawkins & Midgley's (2005) data. It is suggested that RP LOT is undergoing raising whereas there is no strong evidence of any shift of the THOUGHT vowel.

Interpretation of English tense morphophonology by advanced L2 speakers

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 49-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Al-Hamad ◽  
E. Al-Malki ◽  
G. Casillas ◽  
Florencia Franceschina ◽  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Verb Raising

This study tests the assumption in much of the literature on the second language acquisition of English tense and aspect morphophonology (e.g. bare verbs, V-ing, V-ed) that once speakers are beyond intermediate levels of proficiency, both distribution and interpretation of these forms are represented in a target-like way in their mental grammars. Three groups of advanced non-native speakers (whose L1s were Chinese, Japanese and the verb-raising languages Arabic, French, German and Spanish) were compared with native speakers on an acceptability judgement task requiring informants to judge the appropriateness of sentences involving different verb forms to contexts which privileged specific interpretations. The results suggest an effect of the persistent influence of parametric differences between languages such that where parametrised grammatical properties are not activated in the L1, they are not available for the construction of representations in the L2.

The perfective past tense in Greek as a second language

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Clahsen ◽  
Maria Martzoukou ◽  
Stavroula Stavrakaki
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Word Forms

This study reports results from four experiments investigating the perfective past tense of Greek in adult second language (L2) learners. The data come from L2 learners of Greek with intermediate to advanced L2 proficiency and different native language (L1) backgrounds, and L1 speakers of Greek. All participants were tested in both oral and written elicited production and acceptability judgment tasks on both existing and novel verb stimuli. The results showed that the L2 learners did not achieve native-like performance on the perfective past tense in Greek, even at an advanced level of proficiency. The L2 learners often chose verb forms that did not encode the perfective past tense. Differences to native speakers were found particularly for non-sigmatic verb forms, which contain morphological irregularities in the target language. The results of the four experiments will be discussed in the light of previous findings and accounts of inflectional morphology in adult L2 learners. Taken together, the results suggest that L2 learners rely more on stored inflected word forms and on associative generalizations than native speakers.

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