18 research outputs found
UNIVERSELLE OG SPROGSPECIFIKKE TRĂK I SPĂDBĂRNS PERCEPTION AF SPROGLYDE
Børn er født med en lang rÌkke perceptuelle evner, som sÌtter dem i stand til at tilegne sig de sprog, som tales i deres omgivelser. Nyfødte børn kan skelne mellem nÌsten alle konsonanter, der bliver brugt i verdens sprog til at signalere betydningsforskelle, uanset om konsonanterne forekommer i de(t) sprog, børnene hører. Selvom børnenes universelle perceptuelle evner begrÌnses til de sprogspecifikke evner, voksne har, nür de er mellem 7 og 11 müneder gammel, gür de oprindelige evner ikke tabt, men kan genoplives, nür vi senere i livet lÌrer andre sprog. Denne artikels hovedvÌgt ligger pü spÌdbørns vokalperception, som har ikke füet lige sü meget opmÌrksomhed som konsonantperception. I vores forskning med canadiske, danske og tyske spÌdbørn fandt vi universelle perceptuelle asymmetrier, som vi mener, har stor betydning for børnenes vokaludvikling. Derudover viser voksne de samme perceptionsmønstre som spÌdbørn, nür deres evne til at skelne mellem vokaler fra fremmedsprog testes
Native Danish listenersâ evaluation of English accents
This paper examines native Danish listeners' attitudes towards five native English accents and some of the factors which are likely to influence listeners' evaluations. Forty-seven native Danish listeners participated in a verbal guise test in which they rated samples from five English varieties on status/competence (the power dimension), solidarity and voice quality dimensions, and had to guess the speaker's origin: Standard Southern British English (SSBE), General American (GA), Australian English (AUS), Scottish English (SCO), and Southern US English (SUS). Additionally, the listeners stated their accent preference and responded to questions regarding their English media consumption. The standard varieties SSBE and GA were rated highly on the power dimension, but downgraded on solidarity. The varieties AUS, SCO, and SUS were rated more positively on solidarity, but downgraded on power. SUS was correctly identified most frequently, followed by SSBE and GA, while the listeners had problems identifying SCO and AUS correctly. Accent preference and English media consumption were related to some of the individual traits, and the listeners' ability to identify GA correctly was related to their English media consumption. Overall, the present results suggest that future studies should examine the influence of media consumption on attitudes towards accents in greater detail
Commentary: Revisiting vocal perception in non-human animals: a review of vowel discrimination, speaker voice recognition, and speaker normalization
En psykolingvistisk test til kvantificering af progression i indlĂŚringen af italiensk som fremmedsprog: metoder og resultater
This article describes a psycholinguistic protocol designed to elicit individual differences in performance regarding phonological (sound discrimination) and lexical (vocabulary memorization) aspects of learning Italian as a foreign language. An experiment built on that protocol revealed a wide range among participants regarding the number of novel vocabulary items memorized as well as a minor spread regarding the discrimination of a novel Italian consonant contrast. No correlation could be revealed between learning success in vocabulary acquisition and phonological discrimination. We conclude that the two types of tasks can be used as instruments for quantifying aspects of learning Italian as a foreign language
Let us have articles betwixt us: Papers in Historical and Comparative Linguistics in Honour of Johanna L. Wood
Papers in Historical and Comparative Linguistics in Honour of Johanna L. Woo
The Sign of the V: Papers in Honour of Sten Vikner
âThe Sign of the Vâ is a festschrift in honour of Sten Vikner, written by friends, colleagues, and collaborators, present and past, to celebrate both his 60th birthday and his contribution to the field of linguistics. The papers cover a wide range of topics in theoretical and empirical linguistic research, from phonetics and phonology, through morphology, semantics, and syntax, to pragmatics, as well as language acquisition, second-language learning, language processing, language teaching, language contact, historical linguistics, and language variation and change. Many different languages are featured, including the Scandinavian languages (i.e. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish), Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish, West Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Scots, and Yiddish. The scope and depth of the chapters in this anthology is a clear indication of the scope and depth of Sten Viknerâs own comparative research well as his impact on the field of linguistics.âThe Sign of the Vâ is a festschrift in honour of Sten Vikner, written by friends, colleagues, and collaborators, present and past, to celebrate both his 60th birthday and his contribution to the field of linguistics. The papers cover a wide range of topics in theoretical and empirical linguistic research, from phonetics and phonology, through morphology, semantics, and syntax, to pragmatics, as well as language acquisition, second-language learning, language processing, language teaching, language contact, historical linguistics, and language variation and change. Many different languages are featured, including the Scandinavian languages (i.e. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish), Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish, West Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Scots, and Yiddish. The scope and depth of the chapters in this anthology is a clear indication of the scope and depth of Sten Viknerâs own comparative research well as his impact on the field of linguistics
The Sign of the V: Papers in Honour of Sten Vikner
âThe Sign of the Vâ is a festschrift in honour of Sten Vikner, written by friends, colleagues, and collaborators, present and past, to celebrate both his 60th birthday and his contribution to the field of linguistics. The papers cover a wide range of topics in theoretical and empirical linguistic research, from phonetics and phonology, through morphology, semantics, and syntax, to pragmatics, as well as language acquisition, second-language learning, language processing, language teaching, language contact, historical linguistics, and language variation and change. Many different languages are featured, including the Scandinavian languages (i.e. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish), Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish, West Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Scots, and Yiddish. The scope and depth of the chapters in this anthology is a clear indication of the scope and depth of Sten Viknerâs own comparative research well as his impact on the field of linguistics.âThe Sign of the Vâ is a festschrift in honour of Sten Vikner, written by friends, colleagues, and collaborators, present and past, to celebrate both his 60th birthday and his contribution to the field of linguistics. The papers cover a wide range of topics in theoretical and empirical linguistic research, from phonetics and phonology, through morphology, semantics, and syntax, to pragmatics, as well as language acquisition, second-language learning, language processing, language teaching, language contact, historical linguistics, and language variation and change. Many different languages are featured, including the Scandinavian languages (i.e. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish), Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish, West Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Scots, and Yiddish. The scope and depth of the chapters in this anthology is a clear indication of the scope and depth of Sten Viknerâs own comparative research well as his impact on the field of linguistics
Native-language phonetic and phonological influences on perception of American English approximants by Danish and German listeners
Perception of non-native consonant contrasts may be influenced by phonetic, as well as phonological, properties of the listenerâs native language. The impact of both factors on perception of American English /r l w j/ was investigated with native speakers of Danish and German, which have /r l j/ but lack /w/, thus employing /r/-/l/ but lacking /w/-/j/ and /w/-/r/ as phonological contrasts. However, while the three languages realize /j/ identically, Danish/German ââlightââ alveolar [l] differs modestly from English ââdarkââ [ Ĺ] (velarized), Danish pharyngeal and labiodental approximant realizations of/r, v/ are more similar to English /r, w/than are German uvular and labiodentals fricative realizations, and Danish is richer in approximants than English or German. Phonetic similarities perceptually outweighed phonological correspondences: Danish listenersâ performance on /w/-/r/ and /r//l/ approached that of English speakers, and discrimination of /w/-/j/ was remarkably higher than English speakersâ, all largely irrespective of spoken English experience. German listenersâ identification of all contrasts was highly categorical, but discrimination was poorer than English and Danish listenersâ for /w/-/r/ and /r/-/l/ and fell in between those two groups for /w/-/j/. Thus, cross-language phonetic relationships among corresponding (or neighboring) phonemes strongly influence perception. Together with systemic consideration of English, Danish, and German vowel and approximant subsystems, our results indicate that non-native speech perception is affected not only by the phonological contrastiveness and phonetic realizations of the target phonemes in the listenersâ language, but also by broader systemic factors such as phonological subclasses
Testing PAM and SLM : perception of American English approximants by native German listeners
This study examined the impact of phonetic and phonological properties of L1 German (GE) on the perception of the American English (AE) approximant contrasts /r/-/l/, /w/-/r/, and /w/-/j/. GE does not have /w/, it realizes /r/ and /l/ differently from AE, and GE and AE /j/ are realized nearly identically. Thus, German lacks /w/-/j/ and /w/-/r/, but employs /r/-/l/ with a âlightâ [l] (as opposed to AE âdarkâ [ÉŤ]) and a uvular fricative [Ę] (as opposed to AE âretroflexâ [Éť]). Forced-choice identification and AXB discrimination of /CÉk/ syllables revealed both phonological and phonetic influences on the perception of AE approximants. GE listenersâ identification of all contrasts was highly categorical, but discrimination was poorer than AE listenersâ for /w/-/r/ and /r/-/l/ and better than AE listenersâ for /w/-/j/. Phonologically-based predictions were correct only for one contrast, /r/-/l/. Neither Bestâs Perceptual Assimilation Model nor Flegeâs Speech Learning Model were fully successful in predicting how L1 GE listeners perceived AE approximants