• MALSORI
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• v.55
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• pp.33-43
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• 2005

This paper investigates the word accent pattern of Cheju dialects in Korean and determines whether it varies according to the age as well as the word itself and where the speakers come from. On the basis on the theory of pitch accent, which was suggested by Koo(1993) and Jung(1965) for the Korean standard accent, the fundamental frequency of each syllable is measured. The syllable that has the highest frequency is labelled for 2, while the rests for 1. The results of the experiment are that the two syllabic words have 21 accent pattern, while the three syllabic words 121 pattern and the four syllabic words 1211. In addition to this characteristic of accent pattern in Cheju dialects, it is interesting that the older the speakers, the less accent pattern the utterance has as suggested above.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.59-73
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• 2012

This study attempts to investigate the contribution of prosody to the foreign accent in Chinese speakers' English production by examining the synthesized speech of crossing native and non-native talkers' prosody and segments. For the stimuli of the foreign accent ratings, we transplanted gender-matched native speakers' prosody onto non-native talkers' segments and vice versa, utilizing the TD-PSOLA algorithm. Eight English native listeners participated in judging foreign accent and comprehensibility of the transplanted stimuli. Results showed that the synthesized stimuli were perceived as stronger foreign accent regardless of speakers' proficiency when English speakers' prosody was crossed with Chinese speakers' segments. This suggests that segments contribute more than prosody to native listeners' evaluation of foreign accent. When transplanted with English speakers' segments, Chinese speakers' prosody showed a difference in duration rather than pitch between high and low proficiency such that stronger foreign accent was detected when low proficient Chinese speakers' duration was crossed with English speakers' segments. This indicated that prosody, more specifically duration, plays a role though the prosodic role is not overall as significant as segments. According to the post acoustic analysis, the temporal features contributing to making the duration parameter prominent as opposed to pitch were found out to be speaking rate, pause duration and pause frequency. Finally, foreign accent and comprehensibility showed no significant correlation such that native listeners had no difficulty listening to highly foreign accented speech.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 2008

Language transfer means that the speaker's first language or previously acquired language influences on the production of the target language. This study aims at examining if there is native language influence on the production of English intonation by Korean speakers. The pitch accent patterns and the values of duration, F0, and intensity of the stressed vowel of the word with emphatic accent in the sentence produced by Korean speakers are compared to those of American English speakers. The results show that when the word receives emphatic accent in the sentence, American English speakers put H* accent on the stressed syllable of the word, but Korean speakers mostly assign high pitch on the last syllable of the word and have LH tonal pattern despite the fact that primary stress does not come on the last syllable within a word. In addition, comparison of the values of duration, F0, and intensity of the stressed vowel of the word with emphatic accent to those of the word with unmarked neutral accent shows that Korean speakers do not realize the intonation of the accented word appropriately because the values decrease even though the word has emphatic accent. This study finds out that there are differences in the production of English intonation of the word with emphatic accent between native speakers of English and Korean speakers, and that there is negative transfer of Korean intonation pattern to the production of English intonation by Korean speakers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.187-201
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• 2000

This study was done to investigate the English vowels in relation to the foreign accent. In this study, I also tried to find out the foreign accent of the English diphthong /o/ and front low vowel /${\ae}$/ when Koreans speak English. The reason why I chose these vowels is that these vowels, /o/ and /${\ae}$/, are difficult for Koreans to discern and pronounce. Koreans show a foreign accent in their pronunciation. In order to find out the reason for a Korean foreign accent, experiments were carried out with the help of acoustic instruments. According to the results of the experiment, Koreans showed a foreign accent in their English pronunciation of vowels in relation to their utterance positions. Americans showed a final lengthening effect but Koreans showed a final shortening effect. This means that Koreans showed a foreign accent in the final stressed syllable of a sentence. In addition to this, the duration of two English vowels, /o/ and /${\ae}$/, showed considerably different features between Koreans and Americans. In fact, in the pronunciation of the diphthong /o/, the tongue moves from one position to another. The two articulations of a diphthong can be described as the nucleus plus a glide. However, most Koreans have no idea of this phenomenon and pronounce the diphthongs like two separate monophthongs. This causes a great difference in the lengths of English diphthong /o/ between Koreans and Americans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2000

Background and Objectives : Accent method is one of holistic approaches for behavior readjustment of voice therapy The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the accent method of voice therapy for the patients who have no improvement after LMS. Materials and Methods : Of the patients who had been undergone LMS during the period from Jan. 1999 to Dec. 1999, medical records of 38 patients who had not been improved were studied retrospectively. 19 patients(treatment group) were applied accent method and the other 19 patients(control group) refused voice therapy. The voice of all the patients of both group were analysed with CSL and Aerophone II programs in pre- and post operative period. The voice of treatment group were analysed with Visi-Pitch II program before the application of accent method and after the completion of accent method. Then, the results were compared using paired t-test. Results : The results of voice analysis were not different statistically between pre- and postoperative examination in both group. After application of accent method in the treatment group, fundamental frequency(F$_{0}$) of male, relative average pertubation, and shimmer were revealed significant differences(p＜0.01), and decrease in grade(G) scale and roughness(R) scale were statistically Important in perceptual analysis using GRBAS criteria(p＜0.01). But $F_0$ of female, maximal phonation time and S to Z ratio were not revealed significant differences. Conclusions : Accent method of voice therapy may be as a supplement- ary therapy in the patients who were not improved after surgery.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2002

Linguistically, 'Focus' is the element which includes new or unpresupposed information. It is usually signalled by prosodic prominence called the 'pitch accent'. The purpose of this study is to observe the realization of the focal accent in VP-ellipsis, especially, to affect the meaning recovery of elided VP. Asher (1999) gave evidence that focal stress should be on the higher verb and the AUX in order to recover the elided VP to the lower one. In this paper, the systematic patterning of focal accent to decide the elided meaning in VP-ellipsis is to be observed. The realization of focal accent by English native speakers is set as the criteria for the meaning recovery of the elided VP and is compared to Koreans'. Moreover, the focal accents of Koreans are observed and compared with respect to their English proficiency levels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2018

Categorical production in language processing helps speakers to produce phonemic contrasts. This categorization and production is utilized for the production-based and imitation-based approach in the present study. Contrastive signals in speakers' speech reflect the shapes of boundaries with categorical characteristics. Signals that provide information about lexical pitch accent contrasts can introduce categorical distinctions for productive and cognitive selection. This experiment was conducted with nine North Kyungsang speakers for a production task and nine North Kyungsang speakers for an imitation task. The first finding of the present study is the rigidity of categorical production, which controls the boundaries of lexical pitch accent contrasts. The categorization of North Kyungsang speakers' production allows them to classify minimal pitch accent contrasts. The categorical production in imitation appeared in two clusters, representing two meaningful contrasts. The second finding of the present study is that there are individual differences in speakers' production and imitation responses. The distinctive performances of individual speakers showed a variety of curves. For the HL-LH patterns, the categorical production tended to be highly distinctive as compared to the other pitch accent patterns (HH-HL and HH-LH), showing that there are more continuous curves than categorical curves. Finally, the present study shows that, for North Kyungsang speakers, imitative production is the core type of categorical production for determining the existence of the lexical pitch accent system. However, several questions remain for defining that categorical production, which leads to ideas for future research.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.119-128
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• 2009

Many researchers have argued about the relationship between information structure and intonation. Their results can be summarized in three main points: the intonation of topic and focus in English information structures is implemented as i) a pitch accent, ii) a tune (a pitch accent + (an) edge tone(s)), or iii) a boundary tone. The purpose of this paper is to study various intonational patterns of topic and focus in English information structures, using natural conversations. In this paper, the types of topics and foci are divided, based on contrastiveness. The topics are classified as five non-contrastive and four contrastive topics. The foci are classified as neutral focus, informational focus, and contrastive focus. The results show that the intonation of the topic in English information structures is mainly implemented as a pitch accent, except for the type of the pronoun topic (Lp) which is not implemented as a pitch accent or a tune. However, the intonation of the focus is implemented as a tune in the neutral focus (Fn) and as a pitch accent or a tune in the informational focus (Fi) and the contrastive focus (Fe). In our discussion and conclusion, we suggest that it is not always true that for the meaning of contrast, the topic or the focus is represented as a $L+H^{\ast}$ pitch accent, which has been the main contrastive intonation from earlier studies.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.87-105
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• 2006

Many researchers have studied the relationship between the information structure and intonation. Arguments about the relations between the information structure and intonation researched so far can be summarized as follows: the intonation of topic and focus in English information structure is represented as i) a pitch accent, ii) a tune (a pitch accent + an edge tone), or iii) a boundary tone. The purpose of this paper is to study various informational patterns of the topic in English information structure, using real TV discussion data. In this paper, the topic is classified as contrastive topics and non-contrastive topics, based on contrastiveness. The results show that the intonation of the topic in English information structure is implemented as a pitch accent, neither a tune nor a boundary tone. Of the non-contrastive topics, while anaphoric determinative NP topics (Lnc, Lncd) are mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the pronoun topic(Lp) does not have a pitch accent. Of contrastive topics, while the semantically focused topic(Lci) is mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the contrastively focused topic(Lcc) is represented as both H* and L+H* pitch accents. It shows that it is not always true that the topic or focus to have the meaning of contrast is represented as a L+H* pitch accent as argued in the previous researches.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.41-55
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• 2003

This paper investigates the tonal patterns of English information structure composed of topic and focus. It has been argued in previous theories that there is a significant relationship between English topic-focus structure and intonation. The English topic is marked with L+H* pitch accent and focus is marked with H* pitch accent. These theories, however, are oversimplified ones since they do not consider the contextual differences of topic and focus. To examine more concrete tonal patterns of English topic and focus, we classified topic into two subcategories of reminding topic and old-information topic. Focus was categorized into three: information focus, contrastive focus, and reference focus. The overall results show that native English speakers are inclined to use both the L+H* and H* pitch accent for the topic and focus of an utterance. We also observe a tendency to deaccentuate the topics given as old information and to mark the topics given as noun phrase with H* pitch accent. As for the intonation of focus, H* pitch accent is the most frequent type of accent, but L+H* also shows a high percentage of implementation especially in the context of correction or contrast.