A weighted-constraint model of F0 movements/

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2010.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-159).This dissertation develops a grammar of phonetic implementation of phonologically significant F0 (pitch) events, which is applicable across languages. Through production studies of various languages, we show that phonetic universals exist which govern phonetic realization of the phonological representations of tones. In the previous literature, there have been two conflicting views concerning tonal timing: tones are aligned with respect to segments (the Segmental Anchoring Hypothesis) or tones occur at a fixed interval from other tones (the Constant Duration Hypothesis). In this dissertation, the two hypotheses are tested in languages with various tonal phonologies: Seoul Korean (phrasal boundary tone), Tokyo Japanese (lexical pitch accent), Mandarin (lexical tone), and English (intonational pitch accent). In all languages, both tendencies to maintain segmental alignment and a target duration for pitch rises are simultaneously observed. We thus adopt a weighted-constraint model (Flemming, 2001) where segmental alignment and target duration are interpreted as weighted constraints. In this model, timing of tones is determined to minimize the summed cost of violation of these conflicting constraints. Mixed-effects models were fitted to the data to obtain the actual weights in each language. Relative weights of the constraints reflect cross-linguistic differences in the alignment of tones. The relative weights of constraints in the phonetic realization grammar are not random but systematic, reflecting the phonological nature of tones in each language. The experimental studies in this dissertation show that tonal alignment patterns depend on phonological status and context of tones. Lexically-contrastive tones (Japanese accented words, Mandarin lexical tone) or prominence-lending tones (English pitch accents) are more strictly aligned with respect to their anchoring points than phrasal boundary tones (Seoul Korean, Japanese unaccented words), if other conditions are equal. Tones show different alignment patterns depending on phonological context: tones are more strictly aligned in word-final context than in word-medial context in Japanese accented words, and in lexical-tone context than in neutral-tone context in Mandarin. In addition, languages show different phonetic realization patterns depending on whether contour tones are contrastive in the language (Mandarin and English) or not (Korean and Japanese). These results point to the fact that details of phonetic realization of tones are determined by language-specific phonetic realization grammar, rather than by default universal rules.by Hyesun Cho.Ph.D

Evidence of diachronic sound change: A comparative acoustic study of Seoul and Kyungsang Korean

The phonetics and phonology of the Kyungsang dialect of Korean is distinct from those of the standard Seoul dialect with regard to segments and lexical pitch. However, whether the distinctive phonetics and phonology of Kyungsang Korean are maintained by younger speakers is questionable due to the increased exposure to Seoul Korean and the prevailing linguistic ideology that has lent Seoul Korean a strong normative bias. The current dissertation investigated diachronic sound change in Kyungsang Korean based on the acoustic data collected from forty female Korean speakers (10 younger and 10 older speakers each for Kyungsang and Seoul). Acoustic evidence for sound change is provided by showing generational differences in the phonetics of Kyungsang Korean, and comparison of the phonetics between Kyungsang and Seoul Korean addressed how a prestigious national standard language affects dialect re–formation. In the acoustic study of vowels (Chapter 2), measures of formant frequencies showed that the merged /ʌ/ and /ɨ/ vowels for older Kyungsang speakers are split among younger speakers, resulting in the same vowel system between younger Kyungsang and Seoul speakers both of which have seven vowels. The study of stop consonants (Chapter 3) showed generational differences for the measures of VOT and F0 in distinguishing the three–way laryngeal contrast among voiceless stops for Kyungsang speakers. Younger Kyungsang speakers rely more on F0, but less on VOT to distinguish the stops than older speakers do. The increased role of F0 to the laryngeal contrast for the younger Kyungsang speakers corresponds with the diachronic change in Seoul Korean where the role of VOT is reduced, but that of F0 is increased for younger Seoul speakers. In the acoustic study of fricative (Chapter 4), measures of fricative duration and center of gravity showed that while the two–way fricative contrast is less distinct for older Kyungsang speakers, younger Kyungsang speakers well distinguish the two fricatives similar to Seoul speakers. As a consequence of the generational change in the segments of Kyungsang Korean, younger Kyungsang speakers do not maintain the vowel and consonant features unique to Kyungsang Korean, but rather approximate to those of Seoul Korean. The current dissertation showed evidence for the diachronic sound change in the lexical pitch accent of Kyungsang Korean for both surface and underlying forms (Chapters 5 and 6). F0 spectral and temporal properties characterizing contrastive lexical accents are less distinct for younger Kyungsang speakers than for older speakers. Notably, F0 peak shifted rightwards for younger Kyungsang speakers across all accent classes, resulting in the final rising accent pattern similar to Seoul Korean. The generational difference in the lexical accents of Kyungsang Korean was also observed for underlying forms (Chapter 6). Elicited accent patterns for monosyllabic and disyllabic nouns under suffixation showed that the accent system of younger Kyungsang speakers is simpler than that of older speakers and similar to that of Seoul speakers, which results from accent merger, loss of suffix tone, and weakened accent contrasts. The direction of the sound change observed in the current dissertation suggested that the phonetics and phonology of Kyungsang Korean is re–formed to approximate Seoul Korean

Prosodic Marking of Narrow Focus in Seoul Korean

This paper explores prosodic marking of narrow (corrective) focus in Seoul Korean. Korean lacks lexical stress and it has a phonologized association between the Accentual Phrase (AP) initial segment and intonation. In the experiment, four speakers read sentences including a two-item list which were designed to elicit either an L or H AP-initial tone. The durational variations, the pitch events at prosodic boundaries, and F$_{0}$span in 32 sentences read neutrally and 64 sentences read with one of the items under focus were analysed. The results show that the focused constituent consistently initiates a new prosodic phrase. I n comparison to the neutrally spoken or defocused counterpart, the focused constituent was more likely to be realised as an Intonational Phrase (IP) in some contexts . Bitonal IP boundary tones were more likely to occur under focus than monotonal tones. In addition, in focused constituents, durational expansion particularly at the phrase-edges, expansion in F$_{0}$span, and raising of the phrase-initial pitch were observed. On the other hand, defocused constituents were not phonetically reduced compared to the neutral counterparts. The results imply that the phonetic cues spreading over the focused constituent complement the exaggerated prosodic boundaries.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Academy of Korean Studies for the present work (grant number AKS-2012-R56)

Tone, pitch accent and intonation of Korean. A synchronic and diachronic view

Intonation of Seoul Korean is noted for the division of utterances into Accentual Phrases (AP). These have a comparable function to stress and accent in languages like English and German. Accentual phrasing (and dephrasing) distinguishes a verb and verb phrase, e.g., [tsal]AP [motʰada]AP ‘cannot do well’, ‘(be) not good at’ and [tsal.mo.tʰa.da]AP ‘to err’. It also creates the contrasts between broad and narrow focus, analogously to accenting and deaccenting. Nonetheless, it has not yet been satisfactorily explained why accentual phrasing has such functions, and issues are left to be dealt with regarding the representation and realisation of AP tones. Clues may well lie in the history of Korean language. There is evidence that Seoul intonation evolved from the sequences of lexical tones in Middle Korean, suggesting that the process of tonal loss should shed some lights on the structure and representation of the present-day Seoul intonation. We follow the process reflected in literary works in Middle Korean, in which tone was transcribed, and the tone (or pitch accent) dialects of Kyungsang, so as to provide a sketch of how Middle Korean lexical tones were reorganised into the tonal events of intonation. We assume that tones are reflected in F0 peaks and valleys, or turning points, in F0 contours. Under this assumption, we identified the tones that minimally constitute an AP. We also investigated the function(s) and structure(s) of the AP tones by examining the scaling and alignment characteristics of F0 turning points and the factors affecting them. Based on the outcome of the investigation, we propose a new analysis of Korean intonation. We define an AP in terms of a LH phrase accent, which is associated with the AP initial syllable with a melodic unit structure. An Intermediate Phrase and Intonation Phrase, respectively, is defined by a boundary tone which demarcates the end of a phrase

Pitch Accent and Morphology in Japanese and Korean Dialects : Toward a Typology

早稲田大学Waseda University日本語と韓国・朝鮮語は共に高低アクセント方言が存在し，その中には類型論的に見てよく似たアクセント体系がある。しかし，両言語の諸方言における形態構造とアクセントの関係の類似点と相違点についてはまだ詳細に解明されていない。本稿では，その解明の第一歩として，日本語の東京方言，京阪方言，韓国・朝鮮語の慶尚道方言，咸鏡道方言を取り上げ，複合語と接辞・助動詞・助詞などの付属形式のアクセント上のふるまいを中心に形態構造とアクセントの関係を比較し，それぞれのアクセント体系に見られる共通点と相違点について考察する。主な相違点として，次の点が挙げられる。まず，韓国・朝鮮語の方言に比べて，日本語の方言においてアクセント・トーンに関わる形態音韻過程の種類が多い。また，これに関連して，韓国・朝鮮語の二方言ではアクセント型の決定において句と語の区別がほとんどされていないのに対し，日本語の二方言では句と語の区別がはっきりとされており，形態構造や接辞の種類等によって様々な過程が見られる。この相違点を説明するにあたり，類型・機能論的観点の議論を進める。Japanese and Korean \u27pitch accent\u27 systems have been shown to have a number of striking similarities, but also some notable differences. The aim of this paper is to zoom in on similarities and differences in the interaction between accent and morphology in four varieties of Japanese and Korean with \u27multi-pattern\u27 accent systems: Tokyo Japanese, Kyoto Japanese, Kyŏngsang Korean, and Hamgyŏng Korean. It will be shown that although the surface pitch patterns that can be observed in the dialects of the two languages are highly similar, there are clear differences in the interaction between pitch and morphology. More concretely, the two Japanese dialects show a considerably wider range of accentual and tonal processes than the two Korean dialects. Related to this, in the Korean dialects general phrasal patterns also apply at the word level, whereas in the Japanese dialects word-level constructions tend to have their own distinctive patterns. A number of possible explanations for these differences are discussed from typological and functional perspectives

Production and perception of Korean and English word-level prominence by Korean speakers

Prominence refers to the relative emphasis that may be given to a syllable in a word (word-level prominence) or to one or more words in a phrase (phrase-level prominence). Korean has been claimed to have both word-level (Ko, 2013) and phrase-level (Jun, 1996) prominence, with the former realized mainly with duration and the latter with F0 height. However, given the claim that younger Korean speakers have lost duration as the main cue expressing word-level prominence (Kim & Han, 1998; Magen & Blumstein, 1993), it is not clear if and how younger Korean speakers produce word-level prominence. Thus, the primary goal of the current dissertation is to examine whether Korean still has word-level prominence. Two experiments investigated this research question in two domains – acoustically (Experiment 1) and perceptually (Experiment 2). Given the findings regarding the status of lexical stress in Korean, we further investigated which acoustic correlates/cues Korean learners of English are able to transfer from their L1 prosodic cues, and whether they can acquire a new cue that does not exist in their L1. Thus, the secondary purpose of this study is to investigate which acoustic correlates/cues Korean L2 learners of English utilize in producing and perceiving English lexical stress. These questions are addressed and examined in Experiments 3 and 4. In the acoustic study of the production of Korean word-level prominence (Experiment 1), measurements of duration, intensity, F0, F1, and F2 on (so-called) Korean stress minimal pairs by older and younger Korean speakers revealed that only at the sentence level, duration and intensity systematically distinguish stress pairs for the older speakers. A perception study on word-level prominence in Korean (Experiment 2) revealed that both older and younger Korean listeners weighted the duration cue most heavily in identifying minimal pairs of Korean word-level prominence when two of the suprasegmental cues were orthogonally manipulated in each syllable. Interestingly, this perceptual weighting was only observed in the first syllable: none of the listeners changed their perception when cues were signaling second-syllable stress. Based on these findings from an acoustic and a perception study, we conclude that Korean does not have word-level prominence, but only has a phonemic vowel length distinction. In the acoustic study on the production of English word-level prominence (Experiment 3), measurements of duration, intensity, F0, F1, and F2 on English stress pairs found that Korean learners were able to use not only all suprasegmental cues to indicate lexical stress in English, but also acquire a new cue (e.g., vowel reduction) that does not exist in their native language, although in a non-native like manner. The results of the perception study on word-level prominence in English (Experiment 4) revealed that when identifying English stress pairs, Korean learners weighted vowel reduction more heavily than any suprasegmental cues. Both intensity and F0 were weighted in Korean learners’ perception; however, duration was not weighted at all, although younger Korean speakers still retain the phonemic vowel length distinction in their L1. Taken together, the current dissertation increases our understanding of the status of lexical stress in Korean, as well as the extent to which L2 learners produce and perceive L2 lexical stress by transferring prosodic features from their native language

The Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones by English, Japanese and Korean Speakers

This dissertation explores the second language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones by speakers of non-tonal languages within the framework of Optimality Theory. The effects of three L1s are analyzed: American English, a stress-accent language; Tokyo Japanese, a lexical pitch accent language; and Seoul Korean, a non-stress and non-pitch accent language. The study tests for three possible sources of L2 tonal errors; namely, 1) universal phonological constraints (i.e. the Tonal Markedness Scale (TMS), the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), and Tone-Position Constraints (TPC)); 2) the transfer of L1 pitch patterns; and 3) a pedagogical problem of Tone 3. The data shows that these three factors jointly shape the properties of interlanguage grammars. This study finds that the TMS, the OCP, and TPC constrain L2 tone acquisition, but do so to varying degrees. Evidence is found that the TMS applies to both word- and sentence-level L2 productions. Some effects of the OCP are found to interact with the TMS and with L1 transfer effects. For example, patterns regarding tone pairs (more T1-T1 productions than T4-T4, and in turn more than T2-T2) can be attributed to either a case of the emergence of the unmarked interacting effects of the TMS and the OCP, or to local conjunction of the TMS. Learners are better at maintaining Rising (T2) at word-initial positions, but Falling (T4) at word-final positions. L2 learners often substitute other tones for target tones and the substitution patterns provide evidence for L1 transfer. For example, English speakers often use high falling tone while Japanese speakers tend to lengthen low tones to express monosyllabic narrow focus in sentences. This study found conflicting error and substitution patterns pertaining to Tone 3, as well as greater accuracy in processing Pre-T3 sandhi than the sandhi occurring elsewhere. This effect is argued to be attributed to the T3 [214]-First teaching method. In light of the three factors affecting L2 tone acquisition, this study proposes a constraint re-ranking model to provide a new way of viewing positive and negative transfer. It is demonstrated that some markedness constraints are promoted while some are demoted in the acquisition of tones.Doctor of Philosoph

The production and perception of domain-initial strengthening in Seoul, Busan, and Ulsan Korean

Korean exhibits one of the most consistent examples of the cross-linguistic phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening (hereafter DIS; T. Cho & Keating, 2001; Keating, Cho, Fougeron, & Hsu, 2004). DIS is defined as temporal and/or spatial enhancement of segmental articulation in the initial position of prosodic domains. Broadly, this dissertation serves as a detailed case study of the production patterns and the perceptual benefits of this phenomenon. The recent findings of denasalisation and devoicing of the initial nasals in Korean (Young Shin Kim, 2011; Yoo, 2015a) suggest that there is a striking parallelism between the lenis stops /p, t, k/ and the nasal consonants /m, n/ in their patterns of DIS. Nevertheless, we currently lack an account that captures this parallelism. In addition, there is disagreement over the categorical nature of lenis stop voicing (S.-A. Jun, 1993; Docherty, 1995) and denasalisation (Yoshida, 2008; Young Shin Kim, 2011). Despite the obvious similarities between the arguably discrete processes of lenis stop voicing and denasalisation, and the kind of gradient effects widely reported for DIS, there has been no explicit investigation of the links among them. Thus, I examined the hypothesis that DIS, operating in the phonetic component, has given rise to the categorical rules of lenis stop voicing and denasalisation in the phrase-level phonology through rule scattering, as predicted by the theory of the life cycle of phonological processes (Bermúdez-Otero & Trousdale, 2012; Turton, 2014). Recordings were collected in Seoul, Busan, and Ulsan, and various auditory and acoustic analyses were conducted to examine the phonetic variation of the relevant stops. The study adopted the three-city design as these varieties were expected to be at different stages in the life cycle, particularly with regard to the stabilisation of denasalisation. In the second part of this dissertation, I conducted a perception experiment to investigate if listeners are able to use DIS patterns as a cue to a prosodic boundary. According to the results, Seoul showed the most advanced patterns in the stabilisation of DIS. As predicted by rule scattering, speakers who showed evidence of categorical lenis stop voicing and/or denasalisation also showed an overlaid effect of a gradient phonetic process. The perception study strongly supported the hypothesis that listeners exploit DIS cues to detect the beginning of a prosodic domain. Based on these findings, this dissertation offers a unified account of lenis stop voicing, denasalisation, and DIS within a single framework, offering insights into the nature of DIS as well as its functional role in prosodic parsing.Cambridge Trust International Scholarshi