Zugl.: Leipzig, Univ., Magisterarbeit, 2004

This paper argues that the texts surviving from the Old English period do not reflect the spoken language of the bulk of the population under Anglo-Saxon elite domination. While the Old English written documents suggest that the language was kept remarkably unchanged, i.e. was strongly monitored during the long OE period (some 500 years!), the spoken and "real Old English" is likely to have been very different and much more of the type of Middle English than the written texts. "Real Old Engish", i.e. of course only appeared in writing after the Norman Conquest. Middle English is therefore claimed to have begun with the 'late British' speaking shifters to Old English. The shift patterns must have differed in the various part of the island of Britain, as the shifters became exposed to further language contact with the Old Norse adstrate in the Danelaw areas and the Norman superstrate particularly in the South East, the South West having been least exposed to language contact after the original shift from 'Late British' to Old English. This explains why the North was historically the most innovative zone. This also explains the conservatism of the present day dialects in the South West. It is high time that historical linguists acknowledge the arcane character of the Old English written texts.

Students at a certain university often develop their own in-group language which only insiders will understand. This phenomenon is very distinctive in IIT Madras. My MA thesis tries to describe and classify the student slang spoken at IIT Madras. This classification is done according to etymological origin and applied word formation patterns on the one hand and according to context in which the terms are used on the other. The results are based on three questionnaires conducted at IIT Madras and via email correspondence.

Students at a certain university often develop their own in-group language which only insiders will understand. This phenomenon is very distinctive in IIT Madras. My MA thesis tries to describe and classify the student slang spoken at IIT Madras. This classification is done according to etymological origin and applied word formation patterns on the one hand and according to context in which the terms are used on the other. The results are based on three questionnaires conducted at IIT Madras and via email correspondence.

This cumulative dissertation investigates features of sociolinguistic variation in spoken English by non-native humans and agents. It presents a thorough summary and systematization of previous research on Chinese English, a quantitative analysis of the Chinese English vowel spaces of speakers from Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, a quantitative analysis of durational variation of speakers from different inner, outer, and expanding circle varieties of English, and a study of sociophonetic variation by a pedagogical agent. Furthermore, the thesis proposes a linguistically based quality metric for text-to-speech systems.

Word stress is crucial for language perception and production as it enables lexical access and speech segmentation. Phonetically, word stress is cued through higher pitch, duration, and intensity. These cues are weighted differently in production and perception by language learners from different backgrounds. Slavic English learners, especially with a fixed-stress West Slavic language background like Czech but also with a variable-stress South Slavic background like Bulgarian face difficulties in word stress acquisition. Their stress placement errors cannot be fully explained by direct transfer and highlight a more complex relation between the target and the native language. This thesis thus aims to explore the perception and production of English word stress cues by speakers of Slavonic Englishes based on evidence from an EEG study on Slavic and German English word stress cue perception and a phonological and phonetic study on Czech English (CzE) features. These findings are used for the conceptualization of a perception and production training tool. First, the concepts of cue and feature are reviewed in an effort to bridge psycho- and sociolinguistics and create credible language stimuli. Then, the Event-Related Potentials study demonstrates that Slavic and German English speakers successfully process first- and second-syllable stress changes cued through pitch, duration, and intensity. Still, speakers of Slavic languages (with a rather syllable-timed rhythm) perceived first and second syllable stress similarly whereas speakers of German (with a rather stress-timed rhythm) perceived the second syllable deviation as more salient. A study on the role of word stress in the CzE feature inventory shows that syllable-timed rhythm also affects production, as speakers lack vowel reduction and add additional stress to longer words. Compared to Bulgarian English (BgE), CzE shows differences in stress features but an overall lack of consistency in their use to differentiate primary from secondary and unstressed syllables. These findings are integrated in the conceptualization of a High-Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) system featuring segmentals and suprasegmentals. Overall, this thesis finds group differences in foreign language perception and production of word stress and applies them in the development of customized language learning solutions.:List of Figures ix List of Tables xiii List of Abbreviations xv Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Issue: Perception and production of English word stress cues 1 1.2 Language selection 5 1.3 Association 8 1.4 Research questions and outline 10 2 Background 13 2.1 Word stress 13 2.1.1 Assignment 17 2.1.2 Shifting 23 2.1.3 Rhythm 25 2.2 Word stress perception and production 26 2.2.1 Word stress cues and features 27 2.2.2 Sensitivity to word stress 30 2.2.3 Word stress acquisition 31 2.3 Methods for studying word stress perception and production 35 2.3.1 Behavioral methods 35 2.3.2 Psychophysiological methods 36 2.3.3 Phonological and phonetic methods 47 3 From Cues to Features 49 3.1 Introduction 50 3.2 The concepts of cue and feature in Psycho- and Sociolinguistics 51 3.2.1 Cue 51 3.2.2 Feature 55 3.2.3 From features to cues, from cues to features 59 3.3 The need for non-native experimental stimuli in Psycholinguistics 59 3.3.1 The validity of stimuli representing language cues and features in experimental designs 61 3.3.2 Mirroring features of non-native English 61 3.4 Considerations in the design of non-native experimental stimuli in Psycholinguistics 63 3.4.1 Methodological challenges 63 3.4.2 Using cues to represent features 64 3.5 Implications for TESOL 66 3.6 Conclusion 67 4 ERP Evidence for Slavic and German Word Stress Cue Sensitivity in English 69 4.1 Introduction 70 4.2 Materials and methods 78 4.2.1 Stimuli and paradigm 78 4.2.2 Participants 81 4.2.3 Experimental procedure 82 4.3 Results 84 4.4 Discussion 89 4.4.1 Slavic and German word stress sensitivity in English 89 4.4.2 Applications in language technologies and learning 97 4.5 Conclusion 98 5 Czech English Word Stress Features 101 5.1 Introduction 102 5.2 Methodology 105 5.2.1 Participants 105 5.2.2 Interview schedule 105 5.2.3 Transcription and data analysis 106 5.3 Results and Discussion 109 5.3.1 Czech English features 109 5.3.2 Word stress features 120 5.4 Applications 125 5.5 Conclusion 132 6 Training English Word Stress Perception and Production with Technology 135 6.1 Introduction 136 6.2 Background 137 6.2.1 Teaching word stress 137 6.2.2 Technology in word stress teaching 139 6.3 HVPT tool concept 141 6.4 Discussion 144 6.5 Conclusion 145 7 General Conclusion 147 7.1 Summary and conclusions 147 7.2 Contributions to the field 150 7.3 Limitations and outlook 153 References 157 A Appendix 189 A.1 Data availability 189 A.2 German summary 189 A.3 Supplementary materials 192 A.4 Eigenständigkeitserklärung 200