published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Technological advancements in the recent past have provided new methods for learning to speak English as a second language (ESL). The majority of accent reduction training regimes nowadays involve the use of different media as teaching and learning cues such as video or audio signals. However, few such programs have been proven to actually provide efficient and useful feed back to ESL learners, and few offers evidence proving that such multisensory approach of accent reduction is superior to traditional unisensory (auditory-only) approach. The present study intended to design and assess the effectiveness and efficacy of a multisensory, acoustics-based accent reduction training system that is capable of training foreign speakers to correctly produce English vowels by providing instantaneous auditory and visual feedback to the users. The study also validated the system against traditional accent modification regimes by objectively comparing the efficacy of such system with traditional accent reduction training. Results indicate that multimedia-based training with instantaneous visual and auditory feedback yielded significant improvement in accent reduction. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study proposes that metrical constituents are inherently headless and stress is autosegmental. Chapter 2 argues that, since stress is the only diagnostic for the presence of a metrical head, the latter is redundant and must be eliminated from phonological theory. Further arguments for the inherent headlessness of feet are cited fl:om the theory of prosodic morphology (McCarthy and Prince 1990, Crowhurst 1991b) and from the facts of Yidinʸ stress (Dixon 1977, Crowhurst 1991a, Crowhurst and Hewitt, to appear). Next, stress is shown to exhibit the following auto segmental properties: stability (Bedouin Hijazi Arabic) , morphemic stress (Spanish, Turkish, Tagalog) and the ability to float (Mayo, Tagalog). After comparing the properties of stress with those of autosegments, it is concluded that stress is an autosegment. Assuming that feet can be either disyllabic, bimoraic or iambic (Hayes 1991), the above conclusion predicts the existence of five types of binary stressed feet. These are the left- and right-stressed syllabic foot, instantiated by Warao and Mayo, respectively, the left- and right-stressed moraic foot, instantiated by Cairene Arabic and Turkish, respectively, and the iambic foot, instantiated by Hixkaryana. The asymmetric nature of the iamb is attributed to the Weight-to-Stress Principle (Prince 1990), which allows stress to be assigned directly to heavy syllables. Furthermore, this principle predict6 all and only the attested types of unbounded stress systems. Chapter 5 argues that stressless feet and unfooted stresses are instantiated in Mayo, and the theories of Halle and Vergnaud 1987a, b and Hayes 1987, 1991 are shown to be incapable of accounting for these facts. The autosegmental theory of stress advances phonological theory in three ways. First, it eliminates most of the principles and devices which up to now have been used only to describe stress, leaving only the abstract stress autosegment which is itself subject to the principles of autosegmental theory. Second, this approach attributes many of the apparent differences between stress and tone to differences in their respective domains rather than differences in their formal properties. Third, the autosegmental theory of stress facilitates the formalization of a number of stress systems with heretofore complex analyses, including Yidinʸ, Mayo, Cairene Arabic, Turkish, Khalkha Mongolian and Tagalog.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Akcentologijos veikalų, kuriuose aiškinama bendrinės lietuvių kalbos kirčiavimo sistema, nagrinėjami kirčiavimo normos, dėsningumai, objektas yra bendriniai žodžiai. Šiuose darbuose tikrinių vardų kirčiavimas arba visai neanalizuojamas, arba analizuojamas labai fragmentiškai. Šio darbo pagrindinis tikslas – ištirti dažniausių tikrinių XX a. spaudos žodžių kirčiavimo dėsningumus ir aprašyti juos remiantis morfonologiniais kirčiavimo principais. Taip pat darbo autorei rūpi palyginti bendrinių ir tikrinių daiktavardžių kirčiavimo dėsningumus. Šio darbo objektas - 1000 dažniausių tikrinių žodžių, atrinktų iš elektroninio dažninio žodyno „Tikriniai XX a. spaudos žodžiai“ (2005), kirčiavimas. Darbų, parašytų remiantis šiuo visai neseniai pasirodžiusiu šaltiniu, dar nėra. Visi tirti tikriniai daiktavardžiai aptariami atsižvelgiant į jų kilmę ir darybą. Pirmiausia skiriami savos ir svetimos kilmės žodžiai. Savos kilmės žodžiai toliau skiriami į pirminius, darinius (priesaginius, priešdėlinius, galūninius) ir dūrinius. Taip pat minėtini ir sudėtiniai pavadinimai. Svetimos kilmės žodžiai tradiciškai skiriami į dviskiemenius ir daugiaskiemenius, taip pat nekaitomuosius žodžius. Savos kilmės žodžių kirčiavimas yra daug sudėtingesnis nei svetimos kilmės žodžių (pastarieji dažniausiai kirčiuojami pagal dvi kirčiavimo paradigmas), todėl šiame darbe savos kilmės tikrinių žodžių kirčiavimo aptarimas yra daug išsamesnis. Taip pat nuodugnesnę savos kilmės žodžių analizę lėmė ir įvairesnė jų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In paper works of accenthology, where system of accentuation of appellative Lithuanian speech is explained, accentuation of proper names is either not analyzed or analyzed fragmentary. The main purpose of this paper work is to survey the accentuation regularity of the most popular proper press words of the XX century and to describe them according to the morphonological principles of accentuation. Author of this work also pays attention to the comparison of the accentuation regularity of appellative and proper nouns. The material for this work was collected from electronic iterative vocabulary named “Proper press words of the 20th century” (2005). The subject of this work is accentuation of 1000 most popular proper words. There are no paper works yet based on this vocabulary that was recently released. All proper nouns examined are discussed considering their origin and composition. Firstly, local and borrowed origin words are separated. Local origin words then are separated into primary, derivative (suffixal, preffixal, inflexional) and joined words. Integrated names are also mentioned. Borrowed origin words traditionally are separated into dissyllabic and polysyllabic, also uncountable words. Among the most popular proper press words of the XX century 356 local origin proper nouns were found (it is 35,6% from total words analyzed), 644 borrowed origin proper nouns were found (it is 64,4% of total words analyzed). Accentuation of local origin words is more complex than... [to full text]

Blackfoot (Siksika), an Algonquian language spoken in Southern Alberta and in Northwestern Montana, is claimed to have a pitch-accent system (Frantz 1991). However, no complete analysis of the Blackfoot word accent system is available in the literature. This thesis examines Blackfoot nominal accent by means of metrical analysis (Halle and Vergnaud 1987) in Optimality Theory (OT) (Prince and Smolensky 1993). All of the data in this thesis are elicited from native speakers of Blackfoot. Regardless of noun type, every word contains one and only one pitch peak. Bare nouns (mono-morphemic nouns) and relational nouns (dependent nouns) show that Blackfoot has a mixed predictable and lexical accent system. Accent is quantity-sensitive, i.e. a heavy syllable attracts accent, while in nouns which contain no heavy syllable or more than one heavy syllable, it is lexically specified. An interesting contrast is found in long vowels - they contrast a high-level pitch, a falling pitch, and a rising pitch. Derived nouns (compounds) demonstrate four kinds of accent patterns, depending on the status (free vs. bound) and the accentual property (accented vs. unaccented) of morphemes. The leftmost accent of the compound members is retained, but the accent shifts to the juncture of them if it is word-final. If compound members are unaccented, the accent is assigned to word-final position by default. Speaker variation also occurs. One speaker systematically changes vowel length depending on the type of accented syllable, while the other speaker shows a wide variety of accent patterns. This thesis concludes that all the accent patterns can be accounted for by a single ranking of constraints in an OT analysis, in spite of the fact that the accent system is both lexical and predictable. Addition of constraints is needed specifically for compounds! Speaker variation is accounted for by reranking the same set of constraints. Priority is given to constraints that refer to the predictable accent in the grammar of one speaker. The lexical information is more respected in the other speaker's grammar. In addition to the analysis of general pitch-accent patterns, four types of irregular patterns are examined. The conclusions reached in this thesis demonstrate that the accent system interacts with other phonological properties of Blackfoot.

Šiame bakalauro darbe nagrinėjami terminai, išrinkti iš „Enciklopedinio kompiuterijos žodyno“ (Dagienė, Grigas, Jevsikova, 2008). Kompiuterijos terminai analizuojami pagal dėmenų skaičių, struktūrą, kilmę, darybą. Vienažodžiai terminai suskirstyti pagal kirčiuotes ir išanalizuotas jų kirčiavimas, taip pat jų kilmė ir daryba. Sudėtiniai terminai suskirstyti pagal žodžių skaičių ir išnagrinėti pagal žodžių ryšio reiškimo būdą ir prijungiamojo žodžio ryšio reiškimo būdus, taip pat aptarti jų kirčiavimo ypatumai. Iš viso išanalizuoti 3394 terminai, iš kurių 74,6 proc. yra sudėtiniai, 25,4 proc. yra vienažodžiai kompiuterijos terminai. Tarp vienažodžių terminų daugiausia yra pirmosios (43,6 proc.) ir antrosios (41,2 proc.) kirčiuotės terminų. Kilmės atžvilgiu vienažodžiai terminai suskirstyti į lietuviškus (62,6 proc.), tarptautinius ir hibridinius (37,4 proc.). Didžiąją dalį (94,2 proc.) lietuviškų vienažodžių terminų sudaro dariniai (dažniausiai priesagų vediniai). 93,2 proc. visų sudėtinių terminų sudaro dvižodžiai terminai. 97,9 proc. dvižodžių terminų yra su prepoziciškai prijungtais dėmenimis. Sudėtiniai terminai yra įvairios sandaros, jų kirčiavimas atitinka bendrinės lietuvių kalbos kirčiavimo normas. / The bachelor thesis analyzes the terms which were selected from “Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Informatics“ (“Enciklopedinis kompiuterijos žodynas“) (Dagienė, Grigas, Jevsikova, 2008). Terms of computer are analyzed according to the number, structure, origin and formation of components. One-word terms are divided according to the accentuation classes. Their accentuation, origin and formation have been analyzed. Compound terms are divided according to the number of words and analyzed according to the way the connection of words is expressed as well as to the ways the connection of the subordinate word is expressed. Moreover, peculiarities of their accentuation have been discussed. On the whole, 3394 terms have been analyzed. 74,6% of them are compound terms of computer, while 25,4% are one-word terms. Most latter terms are of the first (43,6%) and the second (41,2%) accentuation classes. In respect of the origin, one-word terms are divided into Lithuanian (62,6%), international and hybrid (37,4%) ones. The vast majority of Lithuanian one-word terms (94,2%) consist of formations (mostly suffix derivatives). 93,2% of all compound terms consist of two-word terms. 97,9% of two-word terms have prepositional components. Compound terms are varied in structure. Their accentuation corresponds to the accentuation norms of the common Lithuanian language.

The overall purpose of this study is to analyze the acquisition of English word-stress by Arabic speakers in light of advancements in Optimality Theory. It has been reported that Arab second language learners of English have difficulty in acquiring the various patterns of English word stress. According to OT, the reason for this difficulty is that although these speakers, like native speakers, have full command of the universal and violable constraints that are operative in determining where stress falls in the word, they fail to capture or induce the exact ordering of these constraints. The basic premise of OT is that each grammar is a unique way of ordering the set of universal and violable constraints that determine the actual output form of a certain linguistic feature, say word-stress in this case. In other words, whereas Arabic word-stress and English word-stress are both subject to the same set of universal and violable constraints, they differ in one respect: the ordering of these constraints. The sole task of the learner then is to capture the correct ordering that determines which syllable in each word carries main stress.This study consists of four chapters. In chapter one, we introduce the problem of the study and the basic background information for an OT analysis, the task we undertake for word stress in subsequent chapters. Chapter two reviews word-stress placement in three competing models: linear approach (Chomsky and Halle 1968), nonlinear approach (Liberman and Prince 1977; McCarthy 1979; Hayes 1980, 1982, 1991), and finally Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993; McCarthy and Prince 1993a, b). In chapter three, we introduce the set of constraints that are relevant for predicting the place of stress, not just in English and Arabic, but in all languages. Hence, these constraints are literally present in all languages, though their ranking is language-specific. Then, we develop a ranking of the set of constraints particular to Arabic and another one particular to English. In chapter four, we set out to compare the two constraint rankings in order to (1) predict stress errors in the interlanguage of native speakers of Arabic when learning English, and (2) demonstrate how, by making use of the notion of constraint demotion, those learners can make their English more native-like with respect to stress placement.This study has diverted from a standard OT analysis in at least two ways. First, we allow for some alignment constraint (namely MAIN-RIGHT) to be interpreted as a nongradient constraint. Second, we allow for constraint parameterization. NONFINAL is parameterized to account for Arabic word stress; and WSP is parameterized to account for English word stress.This study has shown that there are significant differences between Arabic and English as far as the ranking of the universal and violable constraints is concerned. Among the major differences are the following. (1) WSP is irrelevant for stress placement in Arabic. (2) Arabic requires that FOOT-BINARITY be interpreted under a moraic analysis, but English requires it to be interpreted under a syllabic analysis. (3) Arabic requires constructing metrical feet from left to right (i.e. ALL-FEET-LEFT >> ALL-FEET RIGHT), English require that it be the other way around (i.e. ALL-FEETRIGHT >> ALL-FEET-LEFT). (4) In. ploysyllabic words, whereas a final syllable that weighs two or more moras is parsed in English, only a final syllable that weighs three moras is parsed in Arabic. (5) Arabic requires that PARSEσ dominates FOOTBINARITY, but English requires the opposite ranking.

Diss.--Philosophie--Ann Arbor, Mich., 1991. / Comporte des textes en français suivis de la trad. anglaise. Bibliogr. p. 288-303.

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.