Vowels in English speakers\u27 dialogs and oral readings

　This study is an attempt to investigate the acoustical characteristics of spontaneous dialogs and oral readings to clarify factors that differentiates speaking styles. Unscripted English dialogs uttered spontaneously by native English speakers and scripted read versions were recorded. F1 and F2 frequencies, and vowel durations were measured and analyzed. Results indicated that there was a more powerful tendency toward lengthening and hyper-articulation for vowels produced in the scripted oral readings than for those in the spontaneous dialogs. The unique formant values in each type of dialog, oral and read, is potentially caused by different communicative situations.

ソッキョウ タイワ ニ ミラレル オンセイ ノ トクチョウ

This research examines the phonetic features in dialogues between native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. The essential features needed to promote good skills of pronouncing English vowels and intonations are selected. These features in dialogues and oral readings of word lists are analyzed. Results show a clear difference in vowel space between native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. The pitch range of intonational phrases by Japanese learners shows a similarity to those by English speakers. Finally the importance of focusing on analyzing English vowel and pitch is described in detail. Key words : dialogue, formant, intonation, learner, vowe

オンドク ノ リズム

言語はリズムの型により分類され、強勢間の長さ、音節やモーラの長さがその基礎となると言われている。強弱や高さの違いにより形作られるリズムの等時性については議論が分かれるが、発話において等時性が観察されない場合でも、知覚においてそれが感知されるという説明もある。等時性を保つため、強勢リズム言語では第一ストレスの位置が移動し、もともと第二ストレスが置かれていた位置に収まるという現象がある。これは、リズムの衝突を避けるためのリズム規則と呼ばれている。実際の発話では、リズムの衝突を避け、リズム規則が必ず適応されると言うわけではない。発話リズムを観察するため、句リスト音読と自然な発話におけるストレス移動の詳細な音声分析を行い、リズム規則が頻繁に適応できるわけではないことを提示する。また、ストレス部分の音声特徴のうち、ストレスが置かれる音節の母音の強さと高さが測定に用いられてきたが、これらに長さと母音特質を加えることで、ストレス移動が起きていないと思われる例においても、長さと母音特質が変化し、リズムを保つために、より長く、また母音空間のより周縁で発話が行われていることを例を用いて示した

タンゴ ノ シヨウ ヒンド レベル ニ モトズク ボイン ノ オンキョウ トクチョウ ブンセキ

This Study analyzes English oral readings with the purpose of examining the degree to which the word frquency values influence a speaker\u27s articulation. Results obtained from analyzing the readings indicate that there is an effect of the lexical category of high values of word frquency versus low values of word frequency on formant values produced by the speaker. Among the eight types of vowels measurd, four of those show a tendency toward more hyperarticulation with low frequency words than with high frequency ones. A vowel space formed by four corner vowels selected from low frequency word also shows a larger space than that formed by those selected from high frequency words.　Keywords: frequency, formant, hyperarticulation, hypoarticulation, vowel,　はっきりとした調音とあいまいな調音を区別する方法として、母音の特定周波数成分集合の値を比較する音響音声分析の使用がある。調音の様態を決定する要因は環境、文脈、語彙によるものが考えられるが、本稿では、語彙の頻度を要因としてとりあげ、使用頻度の違いが語彙中母音の調音に影響を与えることを示唆した。小説の音読を題材にし、節の最後に位置する内容語を集め、第１強勢が置かれた母音の第１フォルマントと第２フォルマントの値を音声分析により得た。対象語彙を使用頻度の高低により２つのセットに分け、それぞれのフォルマント値を比較した。その結果、フォルマントにより示される母音の調音様態は、使用頻度の低い語彙の母音では中心から離れた調音となり、使用頻度の高い語彙の母音では中心に近い調音となっていることが明らかとなった。

オンインロンテキ デ オンセイガクテキナ ヘンカ ニツイテ

Studies of language changes and their approaches are surveyed in this study. Among the changes, vowel shifts and consonant shifts observed in the history of language and modern English, and stress shifts in present-day English are introduced and discussed. Phonological studies of these sound changes, generally, present rules or restrictions. On this basis, it is proposed that consonant changes, vowel changes or stress shifts are better observed in several types of language or social contexts. It is especially emphasized that the phenomena of language changes in a real situation are to be found by observing words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs spoken in quiet or hurried situations

タンゴ ノ ブンミャクナイ シンミツ ニ モトズク ボイン ノ オンキョウ トクチョウ ブンセキ

Abstract : This study is conducted to provide support for the prediction that familiarity of words in contexts affects the degree of hyper/hypo-articulation of vowels in these words. Results from the present analysis show that the repetition of words in a story causes hypoarticulation of vowels in these words. Among the eight types of vowels whose F1 and F2 values are measured, two types of vowels in words that come for the second time in a context show hypoarticulation to a much higher degree than those in words that come for the first time. One type of vowel in the words that come for the second time shows more partial hypoarticulation than that in the words that come for the first time. Three types of vowels show almost the same F1 and F2 values in both cases. A vowel space with four corner vowels in the words that come for the second time is smaller than that in words that come for the first time, which also indicates a tendency toward hypoarticulation for vowels in words repeated after their first introduction.　　Keywords: formant, hypoarticulation, repetition, space, vowe

ボゴ ワシャ ト ヒボゴ ワシャ ノ ヘントウ ニ モチイラレル イントネーション

Abstract：This paper focuses on intonational patterns produced by native English speakers and Japanese learners of English in affirmative or negative interactions. Two kinds of research have been conducted. In research I, intonations by a native English speaker and a Japanese learner of English are collected and analyzed. Results show that a fall-rise pattern is used by the native English speaker while a fall pattern is used by the Japanese learner of English for the same utterance. In research II, intonations by fifteen Japanese learners of English are collected and analyzed. Results show that the variation of pitch ranges used in four responses by the Japanese learners of English is smaller than the ones by the native English speaker

A Corpus for Spoken EFL Lexicon:learner-based definition vs. dictionary-based definition

Reading a target language dictionary definition in a printed dictionary is one common way of learning a new word in foreign language. Digital dictionaries enable a learner not only to read the definition of a word but also to listen to its pronunciation, although digital dictionaries provide no definitions recorded in spoken sounds as yet. The definitions of words in dictionaries, however, may be too difficult for many learners to understand in speech. To modify the definitions so that the learners could understand them with ease in a listening context, the authors conducted word association research, obtaining associated words from EFL learners that could be cues for other EFL learners to accurately approximate the meaning of a new word. We will explore the effect of these cues on the learners\u27 listening comprehension. Word-association cues vs. dictionary-based cues were presented to subjects in both listening and reading comprehension tests. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of dictionary-based definitions and learner-based definitions in the reading test and that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of dictionary-based definitions and learner-based definitions in the listening test. It was concluded that word-association explanations described with words of cues obtained from student-based word association tasks resulted in better comprehension than dictionary-based definitions for EFL learners in listening tasks.

Word associations by Japanese Iearners of EngIish: analyses of response type distribution

This research conducted a word association for the purpose of examining the typical word associations of Japanese English learners. An experiment was conducted by means of word association tasks with concrete noun target words. We found that language learners associate certain words more frequently than others and that the types of these associations were different from those of native speakers. The coefficient correlation between the difficulty levels of the associated words and their frequency of occurrence was relatively low, and some of the associations were based on the learners\u27 cultural or daily life experiences. The phenomena observed in this study must be examined further both by co1lecting data for a larger rumber of target words and by using learners of differing backgrounds. The subject of this study were Japanese university freshmen majoring in technology, and it is possible that the subjects\u27learning stage and social and cultural backgrounds affect the results of association task. Word association research with a limited number of key words may, however, be useful in finding some portions of language learners\u27 associations, some of which could suggest cue words for other learners\u27 improved comprehension. Some of the frequent associations by learners who know the meaning of words could become effective cues for learners who do not know the meaning of the target word.