One of the major questions in second language (L2) phonological learning is whether perception precedes (and therefore guides) production. This question is important for knowing what types of training most benefit L2 learners. While most theories assume that perception always precedes production (e.g., Best, 1995; Flege, 1995), several recent studies have found that production may precede perception (e.g., Baker & Trofimovich, 2006; Beach, Brunham, & Kitamura, 2001; Goto, 1971; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Underbakke, 1993), demonstrating that this complex relationship may differ depending on how and when the L2 is learned. The current study seeks to further explore this relationship by examining how perception and production influence each other on the suprasegmental (i.e., primary word stress) level. While many studies have examined whether perceptual training can influence production accuracy of suprasegmentals, little to no research has examined whether the opposite is true. Thus the goal of this study was to examine whether ESL learners who were trained in suprasegmental pronunciation accuracy improved in listening and speaking more than similar students who were trained in perception accuracy. Comparisons of pre- and post-tests suggest that focusing on accurate production improves not only production accuracy, but also listening comprehension more than does training in listening comprehension. These results enlighten our understanding of how perception and production influence each other, and may underscore the importance of providing bottom-up pronunciation skills for improving L2 phonological learning.

La littérature scientifique dédiée à l’accentuation en anglais australien standard contemporain (SAusE) est, contrairement à celle qui concerne la prononciation de ses voyelles, peu étendue. Après un chapitre introductif proposant le contexte historique dans lequel le SAusE est né et a été décrit, sa définition actuelle ainsi que sa description phonologique, notre étude est consacrée à un examen systémique de l’accentuation lexicale en SAusE. Un corpus test a été mis en place spécifiquement, qui comporte la quasi-totalité des verbes dissyllabiques, des préfixés pluricatégoriels et des exceptions aux règles d’accentuation des mots de deux syllabes et plus, ainsi qu’un large échantillon d’emprunts aux langues aborigènes. Ces quelques 3500 items ont été choisis précisément parce qu’ils font partie des mots les plus susceptibles de connaître une variation accentuelle en anglais contemporain. Notre approche se situe dans la lignée de Lionel Guierre et propose un traitement dictionnairique dans lequel les éléments du corpus sont tous étudiés au travers des données de chacune des éditions les plus récentes des Longman Pronouncing Dictionary, Cambridge English Pronunciation Dictionary et Macquarie Dictionary qui constituent les dictionnaires de références dans le domaine de la prononciation de l’anglais. Ces données ont été complétées, lorsque cela était nécessaire, par des données fréquentielles issues du Corpus of Contemporary American English et par des données orales enregistrées spécialement pour cette étude, selon une démarche similaire à la première partie du protocole du projet Phonologie de l’Anglais Contemporain. Notre analyse met en évidence une grande stabilité accentuelle intervariétale entre le SAusE, l’anglais britannique standard et l’anglais américain standard et propose un relevé étayé et détaillé des spécificités accentuelles lexicales du SAusE contenues dans le corpus étudié. / The scientific literature dedicated to word stress in contemporary standard Australian English (SAusE) is not very extensive contrary to the one dealing with the pronunciation of vowels in this variety of English. We will introduce the historical context in which SAusE first emerged and was described, its current definition as well as its phonological description. Our study is then devoted to the systemic study of lexical word stress in SAusE. A corpus was specifically put together for this particular research : it includes most of the dissyllabic verbs, of the prefixed multicategorial words and of the words that are exceptions to the rules of word-stress assignment in English, as well as a large sample of borrowings from Aboriginal languages. These 3500 items were not chosen randomly : they are words which specifically tend to show word-stress variation in contemporary English. Our approach follows Lionel Guierre’s and offers a dictionary treatment in which all the elements of our corpus are studied using the data of each of the most recent editions of the Longman Pronouncing Dictionary, the Cambridge English Pronunciation Dictionary and the Macquarie Dictionary, all reference books on English pronunciation. Frequency data extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and oral data recorded for this study (following a protocol similar to that which is applied in the first part of the project Phonologie de l’Anglais Contemporain) were added to the dictionary data when necessary. Our analysis brings to the fore a great accentual intervarietal stability between SAusE, standard British English and standard American English, and offers a detailed and complete list of the lexical accentual specificities of SAusE ascertained through our study.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a aquisição do acento primário do alemão por falantes do Português Brasileiro (PB). Essa análise baseia-se, no campo da aquisição, no modelo gerativista dos Princípios e Parâmetros (Chomsky 1981), bem como na fonologia lexical (Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982, 1985) e na fonologia prosódica (Nespor e Vogel [2007] (1986), Vogel (2009)) como teorias fonológicas. O arcabouço teórico para a análise do acento primário na língua alemã é fornecido pela teoria de acento de Wiese (1995), que preconiza a existência de regras de acento primário em compostos (AB) e não-compostos, como também padrões marcados com atribuição de acento definido lexicalmente (palavras proparoxítonas e oxítonas, compostos do tipo ABC). Além das regras propostas por Wiese (1995), postulo uma regra para a acentuação de compostos do tipo marcado ABC. Para o PB assumo a teoria de acento de Lee (1995,1997). A comparação da atribuição do acento primário em ambas as línguas permitiu-me estabelecer, com base na teoria paramétrica de Hayes (1995), semelhanças e diferenças paramétricas para o acento primário, as quais serviram de base para a tese defendida neste trabalho. Além disso, acrescento um princípio com valores paramétricos não-binários: o Domínio de aplicação da Restrição da Janela de Três Sílabas, cuja reparametrização apresenta-se como indispensável para a aquisição de regras de acentuação primária do alemão por falantes de PB como L2. Enquanto no PB essa restrição é válida para qualquer palavra fonológica (), em alemão, apenas as palavras não-compostas submetem-se a tal restrição. Ademais, propõem-se aqui 9 níveis hierárquicos, os quais constituem uma sequência para a aquisição das regras de atribuição do acento primário no contexto aqui estudado. Um estudo de caso, baseado no modelo pseudo-longitudinal, fornece subsídios para a presente pesquisa. Seis informantes com níveis de proficiência A2, B2 e C2 (segundo a classificação do Quadro Comum Europeu de Referência para Línguas) foram submetidos a um teste de leitura de cinquenta palavras selecionadas de acordo com seu padrão acentual e a posição da sílaba que contém o acento primário. Resultados apontam para um papel importante da L1 na constituição da interlíngua e para o fato de que a refixação de parâmetros, ainda que primordial na aquisição, não é o único fator operante nesse processo. A análise dos dados sinaliza, ainda, que estágios de aquisição do acento primário do alemão por falantes de PB não refletem necessariamente o nível de proficiência de cada indivíduo na língua-alvo. / This study aims at analysing the acquisition of primary stress in German by speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In terms of acquisition, this analysis is based on the generative model from Principles and Parameters (Chomsky 1981), as well as on the Lexical Phonology (Kiparsky 1982, Monahan 1982, 1985) and Prosodic Phonology (Nespor and Vogel [2007] (1986), Vogel (2009)) as phonological theories. The theoretical framework for the analysis of the primary stress in German is given by Wieses (1995) stress theory which states the existence of primary stress rules in compounds (AB) and non-compounds, as well as marked patterns with stress being lexically defined (words stressed in the third and last syllables, ABC compounds). In addition to the rules proposed by Wiese (1995), I have determined one for the stress of compounds marked as ABC). For BP, I have used the theory of accent by Lee (1995, 1997). The comparison between the attributions of primary stress in both languages has allowed me to establish, according to Hayes (1995) parametric theory, parametric similarities and differences for primary stress, which serve as basis for the thesis I defend in this study. Furthermore, I propose the addition of one principle with non-binary parametric values: the Domain of the Application of the Three-Syllable-Window Restriction, whose reparametrization is essential for speakers of BP acquiring the rules of primary stress of German as L2. Whereas in BP this restriction is valid for any phonological word, in German only the non-compound words are subject to such restriction. Moreover, 9 hierarchical levels are proposed here and they establish a sequence for the acquisition of the primary stress acquisition attribution rules. A case study, based on the pseudo-longitudinal model, provides this research with invaluable aids. Six informants with levels of proficiency A2, B2 and C2 (according to the Common European Framework for Languages) were submitted to a test in which they read fifty words, selected according to their stress patterns and position of the syllable containing the primary stress. Results show that L1 has an important role in the constitution of the interlanguage. They also state that the resetting of parameters is not the only operating factor in this process, even though it is essential in the acquisition. Data analysis indicates that the stages of primary stress acquisition of German by speakers of BP do not necessarily reflect the proficiency level of each individual in the target language.

Text -to-speech systems currently are of great importance in the community. One core technology in this human language technology resource is stress assignment which plays an important role in any text-to-speech system. At present no automatic stress assigner for Afrikaans exists. For these reasons, the two most important aims of this project will be: a) to develop a complete and accurate set of stress rules for Afrikaans that can be implemented in an automatic stress assigner, and b) to develop an effective and highly accurate stress assigner in order to assign Afrikaans stress to words quickly and effectively. A set of stress rules for Afrikaans was developed in order to reach the first goal. It consists of 18 rules that are divided into groups for words that contain a schwa, derivations, and disyllabic, tri-syllabic and polysyllabic simplex words. Next, different approaches that can be used to develop a stress assigner were examined, and the rule-based approach was used to implement the developed stress rules within the stress assigner. The programming language, Perl, was chosen for the implementation of the rules. The chosen algorithm was used to generate a stress assigner for Afrikaans by implementing the stress rules developed. The hyphenator, Calomo and the compound analyser, CKarma was used to hyphenate all the test data and detect word boundaries within compounds. A dataset of 10 000 correctly annotated tokens was developed during the testing process. The evaluation of the stress assigner consists of four phases. During the first phase, the stress assigner was evaluated with the 10 000 tokens and achieved an accuracy of 92.09%. The grapheme - to-phoneme converter was evaluated with the same data and scored 91.9%. The influence of various factors on stress assignment was determined, and it was established that stress assignment is an essential component of rule-based grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. In conclusion, it can be said that the stress assigner achieved satisfactory results, and that the stress assigner can be successfully utilized in future projects to develop training data for further experiments with stress assignment and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion for Afrikaans. Experiments can be conducted in future with data-driven approaches that possibly may lead to better results in Afrikaans stress assignment and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Text -to-speech systems currently are of great importance in the community. One core technology in this human language technology resource is stress assignment which plays an important role in any text-to-speech system. At present no automatic stress assigner for Afrikaans exists. For these reasons, the two most important aims of this project will be: a) to develop a complete and accurate set of stress rules for Afrikaans that can be implemented in an automatic stress assigner, and b) to develop an effective and highly accurate stress assigner in order to assign Afrikaans stress to words quickly and effectively. A set of stress rules for Afrikaans was developed in order to reach the first goal. It consists of 18 rules that are divided into groups for words that contain a schwa, derivations, and disyllabic, tri-syllabic and polysyllabic simplex words. Next, different approaches that can be used to develop a stress assigner were examined, and the rule-based approach was used to implement the developed stress rules within the stress assigner. The programming language, Perl, was chosen for the implementation of the rules. The chosen algorithm was used to generate a stress assigner for Afrikaans by implementing the stress rules developed. The hyphenator, Calomo and the compound analyser, CKarma was used to hyphenate all the test data and detect word boundaries within compounds. A dataset of 10 000 correctly annotated tokens was developed during the testing process. The evaluation of the stress assigner consists of four phases. During the first phase, the stress assigner was evaluated with the 10 000 tokens and achieved an accuracy of 92.09%. The grapheme - to-phoneme converter was evaluated with the same data and scored 91.9%. The influence of various factors on stress assignment was determined, and it was established that stress assignment is an essential component of rule-based grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. In conclusion, it can be said that the stress assigner achieved satisfactory results, and that the stress assigner can be successfully utilized in future projects to develop training data for further experiments with stress assignment and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion for Afrikaans. Experiments can be conducted in future with data-driven approaches that possibly may lead to better results in Afrikaans stress assignment and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a aquisição do acento primário do alemão por falantes do Português Brasileiro (PB). Essa análise baseia-se, no campo da aquisição, no modelo gerativista dos Princípios e Parâmetros (Chomsky 1981), bem como na fonologia lexical (Kiparsky 1982, Mohanan 1982, 1985) e na fonologia prosódica (Nespor e Vogel [2007] (1986), Vogel (2009)) como teorias fonológicas. O arcabouço teórico para a análise do acento primário na língua alemã é fornecido pela teoria de acento de Wiese (1995), que preconiza a existência de regras de acento primário em compostos (AB) e não-compostos, como também padrões marcados com atribuição de acento definido lexicalmente (palavras proparoxítonas e oxítonas, compostos do tipo ABC). Além das regras propostas por Wiese (1995), postulo uma regra para a acentuação de compostos do tipo marcado ABC. Para o PB assumo a teoria de acento de Lee (1995,1997). A comparação da atribuição do acento primário em ambas as línguas permitiu-me estabelecer, com base na teoria paramétrica de Hayes (1995), semelhanças e diferenças paramétricas para o acento primário, as quais serviram de base para a tese defendida neste trabalho. Além disso, acrescento um princípio com valores paramétricos não-binários: o Domínio de aplicação da Restrição da Janela de Três Sílabas, cuja reparametrização apresenta-se como indispensável para a aquisição de regras de acentuação primária do alemão por falantes de PB como L2. Enquanto no PB essa restrição é válida para qualquer palavra fonológica (), em alemão, apenas as palavras não-compostas submetem-se a tal restrição. Ademais, propõem-se aqui 9 níveis hierárquicos, os quais constituem uma sequência para a aquisição das regras de atribuição do acento primário no contexto aqui estudado. Um estudo de caso, baseado no modelo pseudo-longitudinal, fornece subsídios para a presente pesquisa. Seis informantes com níveis de proficiência A2, B2 e C2 (segundo a classificação do Quadro Comum Europeu de Referência para Línguas) foram submetidos a um teste de leitura de cinquenta palavras selecionadas de acordo com seu padrão acentual e a posição da sílaba que contém o acento primário. Resultados apontam para um papel importante da L1 na constituição da interlíngua e para o fato de que a refixação de parâmetros, ainda que primordial na aquisição, não é o único fator operante nesse processo. A análise dos dados sinaliza, ainda, que estágios de aquisição do acento primário do alemão por falantes de PB não refletem necessariamente o nível de proficiência de cada indivíduo na língua-alvo. / This study aims at analysing the acquisition of primary stress in German by speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In terms of acquisition, this analysis is based on the generative model from Principles and Parameters (Chomsky 1981), as well as on the Lexical Phonology (Kiparsky 1982, Monahan 1982, 1985) and Prosodic Phonology (Nespor and Vogel [2007] (1986), Vogel (2009)) as phonological theories. The theoretical framework for the analysis of the primary stress in German is given by Wieses (1995) stress theory which states the existence of primary stress rules in compounds (AB) and non-compounds, as well as marked patterns with stress being lexically defined (words stressed in the third and last syllables, ABC compounds). In addition to the rules proposed by Wiese (1995), I have determined one for the stress of compounds marked as ABC). For BP, I have used the theory of accent by Lee (1995, 1997). The comparison between the attributions of primary stress in both languages has allowed me to establish, according to Hayes (1995) parametric theory, parametric similarities and differences for primary stress, which serve as basis for the thesis I defend in this study. Furthermore, I propose the addition of one principle with non-binary parametric values: the Domain of the Application of the Three-Syllable-Window Restriction, whose reparametrization is essential for speakers of BP acquiring the rules of primary stress of German as L2. Whereas in BP this restriction is valid for any phonological word, in German only the non-compound words are subject to such restriction. Moreover, 9 hierarchical levels are proposed here and they establish a sequence for the acquisition of the primary stress acquisition attribution rules. A case study, based on the pseudo-longitudinal model, provides this research with invaluable aids. Six informants with levels of proficiency A2, B2 and C2 (according to the Common European Framework for Languages) were submitted to a test in which they read fifty words, selected according to their stress patterns and position of the syllable containing the primary stress. Results show that L1 has an important role in the constitution of the interlanguage. They also state that the resetting of parameters is not the only operating factor in this process, even though it is essential in the acquisition. Data analysis indicates that the stages of primary stress acquisition of German by speakers of BP do not necessarily reflect the proficiency level of each individual in the target language.

Esta tesis analiza la producción de palabras inglesas utilizadas en contexto por parte de estudiantes españoles del inglés. Un total de 76 grabaciones de dos textos diferentes se han analizado, transcribiendo en AFI las 125 palabras elegidas para el análisis de los patrones de acentuación. El propósito principal de este trabajo es analizar, describir y clasificar los esquemas de pronunciación más característicos del inglés de los estudiantes españoles, con referencia específica a las alteraciones relacionadas con los diferentes esquemas de acentuación y de reducción vocálica. Para ello, se ahonda en el estudio de los patrones de acentuación utilizados según el número de sílabas, según la acentuación original de las palabras y según la clase léxica. También se examinan las tendencias de uso de reducción vocálica en las sílabas átonas y el uso de la acentuación secundaria.

key words: Czech English, foreign accent, word stress, word accent, stressed syllable, duration, f0, acoustic cues. This study investigates the acoustic properties of word stress in Czech English. The notion of foreign accent is introduced and its drawbacks are presented. Further on the various influences on the perceived degree, or strength, of foreign accent are discussed. Faulty realization of word stress is identified as one of the factors that contribute to unintelligibility of non-native speech (Benrabah, 1997; Hahn, 2004; Cutler, 1984). In Chapter 2 we compare the results of studies that used speakers of a variety of languages and form a basic theory on the acquisition of acoustic cues to word stress. We are mostly interested in f0 and duration. This theory, based on the feature hypothesis (McAllister et al., 2002 in Lee, Guion & Harada, 2006), states that languages that have a similar stress system to that of English (Dutch, Arabic) use their native cues to signal word stress, while non-contrastive languages (Vietnamese, Czech) prefer cue/s that are phonologically active on segmental level in their native language. Speakers of Vietnamese, a tone language, were found to prefer f0 over duration (Nguyen, 2003), so for Czech, a language that uses phonological vowel duration, it is expected that...

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Fragestellung, wie die Wortbetonung in der kanonischen Lallenphase organisiert ist. Diese Entwicklungsphase tritt für gewöhnlich in der zweiten Hälfte des ersten Lebensjahres auf, wenn Kleinkinder erstmalig phonetisch wohlgeformte Silben äußern. Dabei gibt es jedoch noch keine klare Beziehung zwischen Wortbedeutung und bestimmten Sprachlauten. Die Einzelsilben werden allerdings schon zu größeren wortartigen Einheiten zusammengefügt und erscheinen in betonten wie unbetonten Positionen. Es wurden Sprachdaten von sieben deutschlernenden Kindern im Alter zwischen 0;5 und 1;0 gesammelt. Die phonetisch wohlgeformten Lalläußerungen wurden einer Reihe von perzeptiven und akustischen Analysen unterzogen, um der Frage nach einer bereits vorhandenen prosodischen Organisation der Wortbetonung nachzugehen. Die Äußerungen der Probanden werden anschließend mit einem theoretischen Parametermodell verglichen. Hierbei wird untersucht, ob Lalläußerungen eher sprachliche Universalien vorweisen oder doch eher durch ihre sprachliche Umgebung beinflusst sind. Dazu wird eigens eine Reanalyse des Betonungssystems des Deutschen vorgenommen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine leichte Tendenz hin zum trochäischen Betonungsmuster in Zweisilbern zu erkennen ist. Diese Tendenz lässt sich allerdings nur mit zwei der fünf Analysemethoden der vorliegenden Arbeit nachweisen. Bei Mehrsilbern scheint die Lage der hauptbetonten Silbe durch keine Analysemethode vorhersagbar zu sein. Es kann dennoch festgestellt werden, dass Silben vom Typus CVV in signifikanter Weise Betonung auf sich ziehen. Diese Ergebnisse lassen den Schluss zu, dass die Parameter der Betonungszuweisung während des kanonischen Lallens noch nicht zur Gänze gesetzt sind. Nur diejenigen für Fußform und Quantitätssensitivität erscheinen so konfiguriert, dass ein Einfluß der Umgebungssprache, des Deutschen, erkennbar wird. / The current work addresses the question, how word stress is organised during the developmental stage of Canonical Babbling, which usually emerges in the second half of the first year of life. In this period infants begin to utter phonetically well-formed syllables, although there is no clear relationship between meaning and single speech sounds. However, syllables are combined to form larger word-like units containing prominent and less prominent syllables. Data was gathered from seven German-learning infants aged between 0;5 and 1;0. The phonetically well-formed babbling vocalizations were subject to perceptual and acoustical analyses, in order to find out whether there is already a prosodic organization of word stress. The subjects'' utterances are then compared to a theoretical parametric framework. It will be examined, whether babbling vocalizations are more universal or rather influenced by the ambient language. Therefore a reanalysis of the German system of word stress will be undertaken. Results indicate that there is a weak tendency towards the trochaic stress pattern in disyllabic babbles. This tendency is, however, only predictable in two of the five analysis parameters used in this study. In polysyllabic vocalizations, the location of main stress appears not to be predictable by any analysis. It can nevertheless be stated that CVV syllables tend to attract stress significantly. These results point to the fact, that the parameters of word stress assignment are not yet completely set during Canonical Babbling. Instead, only those for foot shape and quantity-sensitivity appear to be set in a fashion reflecting an influence of the subjects'' ambient language, German.

L’influence du suffixe -ous sur le système phonologique de l’anglais est considérable. Son impact se matérialise tant au niveau de l’assignation des accents lexicaux, qu’au niveau de la matérialisation phonétique des voyelles accentuées. L’étude de ce suffixe offre une perspective globale du fonctionnement du système anglais puisque -ous se situe à la croisée des principes fondamentaux qui régissent le système accentuel anglais.Cette étude s’inscrit dans une perspective morphophonologique, cadre théorique privilégiant une interaction entre les domaines de la morphologie et de la phonologie. La prise en considération des frontières morphologiques dans le calcul de l’accent constitue le fondement même de cette théorie. Cependant, l’influence du suffixe -ous sur la structure accentuelle et phonétique des termes a fait l’objet d’une multitude d’approches dont nous présentons les résultats les plus significatifs dans la partie théorique. En contrepartie, les théories phonologiques sont confrontées les unes aux autres afin de déterminer leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients.L'assignation des accents lexicaux ne constitue toutefois pas le seul versant de ce travail. Le placement de l'accent sur la syllabe a une conséquence directe sur la réalisation phonétique de la voyelle appartenant à cette syllabe. Elle est pleinement réalisée, et l'alternance des syllabes accentuées et non accentuées participe à la notion de rythme en anglais. ..... Cette étude se veut avant tout un état des lieux du comportement du suffixe -ous. Elle vise également à confronter les règles précédemment établies à la réalité d'une étude quantitative, dans le but de faire émerger de nouveaux phénomènes imputables au suffixe / The influence of the suffix -ous on the English phonological system is considerable. Its impact is materialized on word-stress assignment, as well as on the phonetic realisation of stressed vowels. The study of this particular suffix generates a global perspective on the functioning of the English system since -ous is a blend of the fundamental principles which rule the English stress system. This analysis falls within the framework of the morphophonological theory, which favours an interaction between the morphological and phonological levels. The concept of morphological boundary is essential to the operation of word-stress assignment and represents a key-notion inside this theoretical framework. However, the impact of the suffix -ous on word-stress assignment and on the pronunciation of stressed vowels has already been investigated through several theoretical approaches. The most significant results of these previous studies are expounded in the theoretical part. The phonological frameworks are then compared in order to determine their assets and their drawbacks. Word-stress assignment only represents the first side of this work. Indeed, the assignment of primary stress on the syllabic structure of a word has a consequence on the phonetic realisation of stressed vowels. They are "fully" realised, and the succession of stressed and unstressed syllabes creates the notion of rythm in English. Resorting to spelling enables to predict the pronunciation of stressed vowels through the application of a hierarchical system of rules. These rules, elaborated on the particularities of English spelling, operate a transfer from spelling to sounds......