The timing of tone group constituents in the advanced polish learner's english pronunciation Uniwersytet śląski

Tytuł The timing of tone group constituents in the advanced Polish learner's English pronunciation Autor Andrzej Porzuczek Język angielski Wydawnictwo Uniwersytet Śląski ISBN 978-83-8012-552-0 kolekcja Prace Naukowe UŚ; Językoznawstwo Neofilologiczne Rok wydania 2012 Katowice Wydanie 1 ilość stron 210 Format pdf Spis treści CONTENTS INTRODUCTION / 9 CHAPTER 1 SPEECH UNITS AND THEIR DURATION / 15 1.1 The structure of utterances for prosodic analysis / 15 1.1.1 Higher-level utterance constituents / 15 1.1.2 Relations between the word (lexical or functional) and the foot / 19 1.1.3 The status of lower level units — syllables and segments / 20 1.1.4 Conclusion / 22 1.2 Segmental length and its determinants / 22 1.2.1 Intrinsic segmental length / 22 1.2.1.1 Universal segmental duration determinants / 23 1.2.1.2 Language-specific intrinsic segmental length / 23 1.2.2 Phonetic context as a segmental duration determinant / 25 1.2.3 The effect of syllable structure / 26 1.3 Temporal relations within and across utterance units / 27 1.3.1 Universal domain-edge processes / 27 1.3.2 Domain-specific processes / 29 1.3.2.1 The foot / 29 1.3.2.2 The word / 30 1.3.2.3 The intonational phrase and the utterance / 31 1.3.3 The pauses / 31 1.4 IP-level duration determinants / 32 1.4.1 Intonation / 32 1.4.2 Speech rate / 32 1.4.3 Speaking style / 33 1.5 Conclusion / 33 CHAPTER 2 PROMINENCE AS THE MAIN SPEECH TIMING FACTOR / 34 2.1 Introduction / 34 2.2 Acoustic correlates of prominence / 35 2.3 Types of prominence. Stress vs. Accent / 38 2.4 Focus and prominence / 38 2.5 Prominence — a phonological category or gradient property of syllables? / 39 2.6 Domain lengthening under accent and stress / 41 2.6.1 The domain and locus of lengthening / 41 2.6.2 The scale of lengthening / 42 2.6.3 Accentual lengthening in Polish and other languages / 43 2.7 Lack of prominence as a duration determinant / 44 2.7.1 The locus of reduction / 44 2.7.2 Reasons for vowel reduction / 45 2.7.3 Vowel reduction in English and Polish / 46 CHAPTER 3 SPEECH TIMING AND THE NOTION OF RHYTHM / 47 3.1 Introduction / 47 3.2 Rhythm Class Hypothesis / 48 3.2.1 Stress-timing and syllable-timing / 48 3.2.2 The criticism of RCH / 48 3.2.3 Alternative approaches to rhythm typology / 49 3.2.4 Recent rhythm/timing measures / 50 3.2.5 Summary / 52 3.3 English and Polish speech timing / 52 3.3.1 The rhythms of English and Polish / 52 3.3.2 Timing differences between English and Polish / 53 3.4 Polish learners’ timing problems / 53 3.4.1 Long and short vowels / 54 3.4.2 Unstressed vowel and syllable reduction / 54 3.4.3 Accentual lengthening / 55 3.4.4 Stress timing / 55 3.5 The relevance of timing problems for EFL communication / 56 3.5.1 Long and short vowels / 56 3.5.2 Vowel reduction / 57 3.5.3 Accentual lengthening / 57 3.5.4 Stress-timing / 58 3.6 Conclusion / 59 CHAPTER 4 THE DIAGNOSTIC STUDY OF POLISH LEARNERS’ ENGLISH SPEECH TIMING / 60 4.1 Introduction / 60 4.2 General assumptions and hypotheses / 61 4.3 Method / 62 4.3.1 The subjects and data collection procedure / 62 4.3.2 Tested units and contexts / 63 4.3.3 Acoustic signal analysis and the structure of tested phrases / 69 4.3.3.1 General domain-related principles / 69 4.3.3.2 Specific boundary-related principles / 70 4.3.3.3 Additional remarks / 71 4.3.4 Statistical analysis / 71 CHAPTER 5 ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE DURATION OF VOCALIC SEGMENTS — RESULTS AND DISCUSSION / 72 5.1 Introduction / 72 5.2 Stressed vowel duration / 73 5.2.1 Intrinsic vowel length / 75 5.2.2 Final lengthening / 76 5.2.3 Accentual lengthening / 76 5.2.4 Foot complexity effect / 78 5.2.5 Pre-fortis clipping / 80 5.2.6 Within-phrase relations / 80 5.2.7 Summary / 82 5.3 Unstressed vowel duration / 84 5.3.1 Unstressed vowels in monosyllabic function words / 84 5.3.2 Unstressed vowels in trochaic content words / 89 5.3.3 Relative schwa duration / 92 5.3.4 Segmental contribution to unstressed function word duration / 94 5.3.5 Summary / 95 5.4 Vowel duration variability in individual native speakers and Polish learners / 96 5.4.1 Stressed vowel duration variability / 96 5.4.2 Vowel duration variability in non-phrase-final syllables / 98 5.4.3 General vowel duration variability / 101 5.4.4 Polish learners’ vowel timing diversity and development / 102 5.5 Conclusion / 109 CHAPTER 6 TIMING RELATIONS WITHIN THE TONE GROUP — RESULTS AND DISCUSSION / 111 6.1 Introduction / 111 6.2 Word/foot-level timing relations / 111 6.2.1 Syllable duration in content words / 111 6.2.2 The duration of unstressed function words / 114 6.2.3 The duration of content words / 116 6.2.4 The effect of nuclear accent and phrase position / 121 6.2.5 Individual learners’ results and progress / 125 6.2.6 Summary / 129 6.3 Tone-group level relations / 129 6.3.1 Preheads / 129 6.3.2 Heads / 131 6.3.3 Prehead:Head relations / 132 6.3.4 Head:Head relations / 134 6.3.5 Head:Nucleus (non-phrase-final) relations / 139 6.3.6 Prehead:Head:Nucleus relations / 139 6.4 Conclusion / 144 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSIONS AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS / 146 7.1 Limitations of the present study / 146 7.2 General conclusions: The Polish learner’s English speech timing characteristics / 147 7.2.1 Hypothesis 1: Stressed vowel duration / 148 7.2.2 Hypothesis 2: Unstressed unit duration / 149 7.2.3 Hypothesis 3: Nuclear accent effect on timing / 152 7.2.4 Hypothesis 4: IP constituent timing / 155 7.2.5 Hypothesis 5: Foot timing / 155 7.2.6 Hypothesis 6: The Polish learner’s development / 162 7.3 Directions for further research / 164 7.4 Pedagogical implications / 165 APPENDIX A / 167 APPENDIX B / 168 APPENDIX C / 169 REFERENCES / 171 INDEX OF NAMES / 193 SUBJECT INDEX / 199 STRESZCZENIE / 203 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG / 205