El papel de la frecuencia del input en la adquisición de la fonología del español como L1. Estudio basado en corpus

This study presents the phonological system exhibited by children (n=59) aged 3;0 to 6;0 and focuses on the role of input frequency. Using a spontaneous child speech corpus of Spanish (CHIEDE) as a data source, as well as computational processing techniques —including an automatic phonological transcriber—, data relating to the phonological level was retrieved. This resulted in a phonological inventory of Spanish-speaking children, ordered by frequency of use, which may serve as a model for research on typical and atypical child language development. Additionally, a study was carried out on the stability of the participants’ phonological systems by calculating the variability that the different age groups displayed, and outcomes were compared with other similar corpora. Results obtained from the comparison of the phonological inventory of children and adults show that there is a relationship between frequency of use in adult speech and the order of acquisition of phonemesEste estudio presenta el sistema fonológico que muestran 59 participantes de 3;0 a 6;0 años y el papel que juega la frecuencia del input. Usando como fuente un corpus de habla espontánea (CHIEDE) y técnicas de procesamiento computacional —que incluyen un transcriptor fonológico automático— se extrajeron los datos relativos al nivel fonológico, dando como resultado un inventario fonológico de niños hablantes de español. Este in-ventario, ordenado por frecuencia de uso, puede servir de modelo para la investigación en desarrollo infantil típico y atípico. Además, se realizó un estudio sobre la estabilidad del sistema fonológico de los participantes, calculando la variabilidad entre los diferentes grupos etarios y comparando resultados con otros corpus similares. Los resultados obtenidos de la comparación del inventario infantil con el adulto muestran una clara relación entre la frecuencia de uso del habla adulta y el orden de adquisición de los fonema

Quantifying the Functional Consequences of Spanish [s] Lenition: Plural Marking and Derived Homophony in Western Andalusian and Castilian

In this thesis, a new methodology is proposed for investigating Spanish [s] lenition (sound weakening or loss) via morphological analysis instead of phonetics. Word-final [s] is a morphological plural marker in Castilian Spanish, but is rarely produced in Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS). It is often asserted in the literature that the loss of [s] in WAS requires plurality to be expressed via alternative means. The results of this study rule out lexical and morpho-syntactic compensation for [s] lenition in WAS in several previously untested domains, and imply that there is no functional motivation in Modern Spanish driving a need for compensation for word-final [s] lenition on nouns or determiners. This investigation is built on a predictable calculation of the environments in which the loss of [s] may result in derived singular/plural homophony in WAS nouns. This is used to quantify potential semantic ambiguity. A frequency comparison of 27,366 WAS and Castilian nouns, across 60 specific Determiner + Noun phrase environments, finds no significant differences between the dialects in the type or token frequencies of numerically ambiguous nouns, nor in 98.7% of the tested phrase environments. When taken in context with studies excluding phonetic compensation in WAS, the current results suggest that the low semantic relevance of word-final [s] in Modern Spanish is a potentially far-reaching explanation for the variable manifestations of [s] lenition experienced in Spanish dialects across the world

外国語学習における音韻意識--日本人学生のスペイン語の流音の調音精度--

Tohoku University小野尚之課

Quantifying Speech Rhythms: Perception and Production Data in the Case of Spanish, Portuguese, and English

This dissertation addresses the methodology used in classifying speech rhythms in order to resolve a long-standing linguistic conundrum about whether languages differ rhythmically. There is a widespread perception, both among linguists and the general population, that some languages are stress-timed and others are syllable timed. Stress-timed languages are described as having less-regular rhythms, as syllable durations vary according to the placement of stress in the phrase. Meanwhile, syllable-timed languages are described as displaying less variation in rhythm, which syllable durations being more regular. This dissertation quantitatively evaluates these described rhythmic differences in Spanish,Portuguese, and English. The first chapter introduces speech rhythms and reviews past literature on their perception and production. The second chapter evaluates a widely used metric of speech rhythms, the PVI, and determines that it is not effective in distinguishing between two dialects of Spanish. The third chapter compares the speech rhythms of Mexican and Chicano Spanish. This chapter concludes that Chicano Spanish is more restricted in its vowel duration variability, while Mexican Spanish employs both highly variable durations (i.e. stress-timed) and highly uniform durations (i.e. syllable-timed). The fourth chapter describes a perception study used to compare the speech rhythms of Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and shows that these languages' rhythms do not always group according to language. In the fifth chapter, I describe a study of the production of the same utterances initially used in the perception experiment; this allows an analysis of what prompts the perceptual differences in speech rhythm described in Chapter Four. The sixth and final chapter discusses the implications and applications of these findings and gives direction for further investigation. Although both production and perception studies of speech rhythms have been performed in the past, my dissertation expands these methodologies by combining production and perception data is a single analysis. I use perception data to relatively classify the rhythms of utterances through low-pass speech filtering, then analyze the production of these data computationally to provide a more complete perspective of what prompts differences in speech-rhythms and how Spanish, Portuguese, and English data relate rhythmically. Thus, my dissertation is thorough, while still addressing traditional rhythm metrics and employing current computational methodology. It seeks to challenge linguists' methodologies in quantitatively addressing speech rhythms, and to further clarify the position of Spanish, Portuguese, and English on the speech rhythm continuum

Prosodically Conditioned Realization of Voiced Stops and Vowels in Yucatecan Spanish

This dissertation investigates the acoustic nature and distribution of prosodic strengthening in relation to the Prosodic Word domain and prosodic prominence in Yucatecan Spanish. In order to do so, phonologically voiced stops and word-initial vowels were examined in a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews and a read speech task with 16–21 speakers of the variety. The results provide evidence for prosodic strengthening of both voiced stops and word-initial vowels. The acoustic manifestations of prosodic strengthening of voiced stops are (i) longer duration, (ii) greater change in intensity, and, in extreme cases of strengthening, (iii) presence of a release burst. Strengthening of word-initial vowels is manifested through glottalization, which is present in the first portion of the vowel. Prosodic strengthening occurs in PW-initial position and especially under lexical stress, although accentuation may also play a role. Thus, prosodic strengthening is used to indicate (post)lexical prominence and boundaries at the PW level. In terms of speaker-specific variation, Yucatec Maya language dominance does not appear to favor more strengthened realizations either of voiced stops or word-initial vowels, while gender has no effect on the distribution of strengthened realizations. Finally, a proposal is made for the strengthening of voiced stops and glottalization of word-initial vowels being used to mark the left edges of a recursive PW in Yucatecan Spanish

On marked declaratives, exclamatives, and discourse particles in Castilian Spanish

This book provides a new perspective on prosodically marked declaratives, wh-exclamatives, and discourse particles in the Madrid variety of Spanish. It argues that some marked forms differ from unmarked forms in that they encode modal evaluations of the at-issue meaning. Two epistemic evaluations that can be shown to be encoded by intonation in Spanish are linguistically encoded surprise, or mirativity, and obviousness. An empirical investigation via an audio-enhanced production experiment finds that mirativity and obviousness are associated with distinct intonational features under constant focus scope, with stances of (dis)agreement showing an impact on obvious declaratives. Wh-exclamatives are found not to differ significantly in intonational marking from neutral declaratives, showing that they need not be miratives. Moreover, we find that intonational marking on different discourse particles in natural dialogue correlates with their meaning contribution without being fully determined by it. In part, these findings quantitatively confirm previous qualitative findings on the meaning of intonational configurations in Madrid Spanish. But they also add new insights on the role intonation plays in the negotiation of commitments and expectations between interlocutors