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Assuming that post-lexical processes significantly affect the English spoken language when in connected speech, and that this is one of the main reasons why students of English as a foreign language find listening comprehension so difficult to cope with, this study aims to find out the main processes concerning phrasal phonology that render spoken language so different from the written one. Drawing on these findings, it investigates the connection between listening comprehension and the teaching of pronunciation using a top-down approach, that is to say, starting from the whole picture, and based on the organization of the language in chunks in the fluidity of speech. This is an action-research, conducted with two groups of upper-intermediate students during one semester. It is based on the assumption that by raising students‟ awareness of post-lexical processes, with the support of the Lexical Approach which encourages teaching language in chunks, teachers can enable students to be better listeners. One of the groups did pronunciation awareness raising exercises whereas the other one only followed the coursebook. Students‟ listening abilities were tested using the Cambridge FCE Listening test, at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. At the end of the semester, the comparison of both groups‟ performance in the FCE listening test showed that the group who had been explicitly taught phrasal phonology developed their listening comprehension skills considerably, outperforming the other group. The results point to the importance of teaching pronunciation to develop listening comprehension. / Partindo do pressuposto de que processos pós-lexicais afetam significativamente o inglês oral na fala fluente, e que esta é uma das principais razões que fazem com que alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira considerem a compreensão oral tão difícil, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar os principais processos que fazem a língua falada ser tão diferente da escrita. Partindo dessa diferença, foram investigadas as conexões entre compreensão oral e ensino de pronúncia, usando-se uma abordagem holística, ou seja, começando de uma visão geral, da organização da língua em blocos na fluidez da fala. Esta é uma pesquisa-ação efetuada com dois grupos de alunos de nível intermediário superior durante um semestre, e está baseada na tese que chamando a atenção dos alunos para processos pós-lexicais, com o suporte da abordagem lexical (o ensino da língua em blocos), poderemos ajudá-los a desenvolver sua compreensão oral. Um dos grupos trabalhou com exercícios de pronúncia enquanto o outro somente com o livro didático. A capacidade de compreensão oral destes alunos foi testada no começo e no final da pesquisa, através do teste de FCE da Universidade de Cambridge. No final do semestre, comparados os resultados de ambos os grupos nesse teste, verificamos que o grupo que recebeu instrução explícita de fonologia frasal apresentou uma melhora significativa na compreensão oral, superando o outro grupo. Os resultados apontam para a importância do ensino de pronúncia para desenvolvimento da compreensão oral.

This dissertation reports research into the problem of how to teach mastery of the English writing system (MEWS) to students of English as a second language (ESL). The problem involves the relatedness of English orthography and phonology. The research had two purposes. First was development of classroom instructional materials for improving reading proficiency in ESL students by application of generative phonological principles. Second was use of the instructional materials in a pilot study of fifty-three ESL college freshmen. A major finding was that subjects' reading proficiency was far below that of native speakers at the college level. Another was that the subjects had more difficulty with English vowels than with consonants. The subjects' scores on nonsense-word tests correlated significantly with five other criteria, including measures of ability to use ESL. A uniform disparity between ESL-student and native-speaker scores on tests of nonsense words was identified. Native-speakers generally had perfect scores, and ESL students had low scores. A chief implication is the importance of understanding orthography in reading English. Recommendations are that ESL proficiency be determined by nonsense-word tests and that the MEWS program be used by students of English as a second dialect.

Production errors made by second language (L2) learners of English have been attributed to markedness, L1 transfer or input frequency (cf. Major, 2001; Edwards & Zampini, 2008; Baptista, Rauber, & Watkins, 2009). This thesis examines the production of 17 English initial consonant clusters (e.g., /pr/ in “pray”) in a markedness relationship, whereby clusters with greater sonority distance between the first and second consonants are unmarked and clusters with smaller sonority distance between the first and second consonants are marked, by two groups of Saudi Arabian L2 English learners. It also explores the effect of input frequency and L1 transfer. Participants were asked to read 60 sentences and their reading was recorded for acoustic analysis. Analysis showed that “prothesis” was always used to simplify the clusters, and that, the duration of the prothetic vowel tended to get longer when clusters become more marked. Intermediate participants had greater degree of difficulty in producing the clusters and tended to insert a longer prothetic vowel in general. Markedness explained the performance on #sC clusters; however, performance on non #sC clusters was best explained by L1 transfer. Results further indicated that input frequency was irrelevant to this study.

Cette grammaire de l’amuzgo (ISO 639-3) ou n͂omndaa (littéralement ‘le mot de l’eau’) tend à combler un manque de travaux théoriques sur cette langue otomangue de la branche orientale (branche qu’elle partage avec le mixtec). La source référentielle Ethnologue lui attribue le statut ‘en développement’. Pourtant, l’amuzgo reste vulnérable sur le plan socio-politique de par son statut de langue indigène du Mexique : le village Xochistlahuaca (Etat de Guerrero) est la 16è municipalité la plus pauvre du pays. En employant des approches non-concaténatives de phonologie et de morphologie, telles la phonologie gabaritique, la morphologie templatique, et des formalismes non-lexicalistes comme le Paradigm Function Morphology, cette grammaire cherche à modéliser des systèmes complexes représentés dans cette langue. Des approches non-linéaires sont plus aptes à rendre compte des inventaires élaborés comme les tons, et (dans une échelle scalaire) la phonation non-modale, la nasalisation, et la balisticité (un contraste phonétique et articulatoire au niveau de la syllabe). Ces systèmes complexes comprennent des fonctions lexico-grammaticales par grades à travers des structures diverses dans la grammaire, de la lexicalité à la phonologie interne, de la dérivation à la flexion. / This grammar of Amuzgo (ISO 639-3), endonymically n͂omndaa, literally ‘the word of water’) seeks to fill a lack in theoretical work on this Otomanguean language from the Eastern branch (shared with Mixtec). Rated as developing by the reference Ethnologue, this language is nevertheless in a constant position of socio-political vulnerability as an indigenous language of Mexico, spoken in the village of Xochistlahuaca (Guerrero State), also the 16th poorest municipality in the country. Using non-concatenative approaches in phonology and morphology such as autosegmental phonology, templatic morphology and non-lexical morphological formalisms such as Paradigm Function Morphology, this grammar seeks to model complex systems represented in this language. Non-linear approaches account for elaborate inventories of tone, and, in a gradient scale, non-modal phonation and autosegments like nasalization and ballisticity, a syllable level contrast of phonetic and articulatory saliency. These complex systems display gradient lexical-grammatical functions across structures in the grammar, from lexicality to internal phonology, to derivation and inflection.

Orientador: Maria Filomena Spatti Sândalo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T18:43:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pioli_AlexandreTunis_M.pdf: 14647464 bytes, checksum: d11052859655c3adc334ae80c8920985 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como objetivos (i) contribuir para o maior conhecimento de aspectos da fonologia da língua Rikbaktsa e (ii) oferecer duas análises para a formação de sintagmas fonológicos nesta língua. O primeiro objetivo é atingido através de uma análise inicial da fonologia entoacional do Rikbaktsa, em que sentenças de diferentes configurações (variando em termos de posições de constituintes) são analisadas conforme o modelo da fonologia entoacional autossegmental-métrica (Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988, entre outros). Desta análise partem as observações de nível segmental e suprassegmental que contribuem ao alcance do segundo objetivo. As evidências entoacionais sugerem que níveis prosódicos como palavra fonológica, sintagma fonológico e sintagma entoacional são razoavelmente delimitados entoacionalmente, embora seus limites não emerjam de imediato se modelos tradicionais como Nespor & Vogel (1986) e Selkirk (1995) são levados em consideração. Este trabalho oferece, então, percursos de análise no quadro teórico da Teoria da Otimalidade e de uma faceta da fonologia baseada em regras, partindo do pressuposto de que o processo analítico de um e outro modelo podem trazer insights interessantes sobre os fenômenos abordados. Tal discussão foi amplamente estimulada pela literatura recente, notadamente por Nevins & Vaux (2008). A discussão, que inevitavelmente passa por uma comparação entre os pontos-de-vista derivacional e representacional para o fenômeno em análise, encontra seu termo no argumento de que o modelo de Frampton (2008), em que aspectos de ambos se influenciam, oferece uma visão satisfatória para a formação de sintagmas fonológicos na língua, tanto com respeito a um critério conceptual, quanto empírico. / Abstract: This work aims to (i) contribute to the better knowledge of some aspects of the Rikbaktsa phonology and to (ii) offer two approaches to the phonological phrasing in this language. The first goal is fulfilled through an initial analysis of the intonational phonology of Rikbaktsa. Different syntactic configurations (varying in complexity and word order) are analyzed using the autosegmental-metric approach to intonational phonology (Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988, inter alia). This intonational analysis results in segmental and suprasegmental observations that support the analyses of the following chapters (the second goal of this work). Intonational evidence suggest that prosodic domains such as the phonological word, the phonological phrase and the intonational phrase are delimited by intonation markers. These domains won't emerge automatically if traditional models such as Nespor & Vogel (1986) and Selkirk (1995) are used. This work offers two approaches to the phonological phrasing in this language - in both Optimality Theory and Derivational Phonology-based frameworks -, assuming that good insights can emerge in the analytic process. The discussion, mainly triggered by recent works in the phonological literature such as Nevins & Vaux (2008), also presents an informal comparison between the derivational and representational analyses. This results in the choice of the deffect-driven model by Frampton (2008) as an eligible approach to the phonological phrasing in Rikbaktsa, in which both conceptual and empirical criteria are satisfied in a good measure. / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestre em Linguística

Orientador: Wilmar da Rocha D'Angelis / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T00:12:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivo_IvanaPereira_M.pdf: 6651068 bytes, checksum: 6997aedfa7a3caf004ca18d20275721a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O resumo na íntegra poderá ser visualizado no texto completo da tese digital / Abstract: Note: The complete abstract is available with the full electronic document / Mestrado / Linguistica / Mestra em Linguística

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-08-08T15:59:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação Paula Penteado de David.pdf: 1660108 bytes, checksum: 9e31ea77aed66458dddff26f630b597e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-08-08T17:18:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação Paula Penteado de David.pdf: 1660108 bytes, checksum: 9e31ea77aed66458dddff26f630b597e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-08T17:19:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertação Paula Penteado de David.pdf: 1660108 bytes, checksum: 9e31ea77aed66458dddff26f630b597e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Esta dissertação analisa os processos de sândi externo presentes em um corpus de falantes nativos e residentes do Uruguai, em um contexto de entrevistas. O método utilizado para a coleta de dados baseia-se em Labov (1972), que afirma ser válido obter dados de programas de rádio e de televisão, principalmente no caso de entrevistas, palestras ou debates. Este estudo tem por finalidade apresentar os processos de sândi externo ? ditongação, degeminação e elisão ?, bem como sua recorrência nos dados do espanhol uruguaio. Atém-se à descrição e análise dos mencionados processos, a partir do corpus de espanhol (LM), com base em Nespor & Vogel (1986) e estudos relacionados ao sândi externo na língua espanhola (Contreras, 1966; Hualde, 1991). A partir da análise realizada, constatou-se que o processo de sândi externo mais recorrente foi o de degeminação, seguido do processo de elisão e, por último, com um número pouco expressivo de ocorrências, a ditongação. / This essay analyzes the external sandhi processes present in a corpus of reporters natives and residing in Uruguay, in a context of interviews. The method utilized for data collection is based in Labov (1972), which states that is valid to obtain data from radio and television shows, mainly in the case of interviews, lectures or debates. This paper has the objective of presenting the external sandhi processes ?diphthongization, degemination and elision ?, as well as its recurrence in Uruguayan Spanish data. This paper sticks to the description and analisys of the mentioned processes, on the Spanish corpus (LM), based on the prosodic theory of Nespor & Vogel (1986) and studies related to external sandhi in Spanish language (Contreras,1966; Hualde, 1991). From the analysis realized, one has concluded that the external sandhi process with the greatest number of occurrences in the sample was the degemination, followed by the elision process and, at last, with an unexpressive number of occurrences, the diphtongization.

This study aims at investigating the suitability of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis and the Speech Learning Model in describing young Swedish learners’ L2 phonology difficulties. It also explores what L1 sounds they replace L2 sounds with, and whether spelling has any influence on pronunciation. 15 Swedish students aged 9-10 were interviewed and recorded reading a word list containing minimal pairs, a text passage, and free speech. The focus was on initial and final / ʃ / and / tʃ /, initial and medial / s / and / z /, and initial / ð / and / θ /. The recordings were analysed with spectrograms and compared to a native speaker. The results were that the SLM has an advantage over the CAH. The results show that / z / was replaced by / s / 100% of the time, / tʃ / was mostly replaced by / ʃ /, but also by / k /; and that / θ / and / ð / were replaced by many different sounds that were not anticipated. The results also showed that orthography affects pronunciation for / θ /, / ð / and / tʃ /, but not for / z /. Some students had nearly established new categories for some of the new sounds, but their daily encounters with English through TV, music, and school does not seem to have had a significant part in this.

This study describes the verse design of Old English poetry in terms of modern phonological theory, developing an analysis which allows all OE verse lines to be described in terms of single metrical design. Old English poetry is typified by a single type of line of variable length, characterised by four metrical peaks. The variation evident in the lengths of OE metrical units has caused previous models to overgenerate acceptable verse forms or to develop complex typologies of dozens of acceptable forms. In this study, Metrical phonology and Optimality theory are used to highlight some aspects of the relationship between syntax, phonology and verse metrics in determining how sentences and phrases interact with the verse structure to create variation. The main part of the study is a metrical model based on the results of a corpus analysis. The corpus is centred on the OE poems Genesis and Andreas, complemented by selected shorter poems. A template of a prototypical line is described based on a verse foot which contains three vocalic moras, and which can vary between 2 and 4 vocalic moras distributed across 1 to 4 syllables. Each standard line is shown to consist of four of these verse feet, leading to a line length which can vary between 8 and 16 vocalic moras. It is shown that the limited variation within the length of the verse foot causes the greater variation in the length of lines. The rare, longer ‘hypermetric’ line is also accounted for with a modified analysis. The study disentangles the verse foot, which is an abstract metrical structure, from the prosodic word, which is a phonological object upon which the verse foot is based, and with which it is often congruent. Separate sets of constraints are elaborated for creating prosodic words in OE, and for fitting them into verse feet and lines. The metrical model developed as a result of this analysis is supported by three smaller focused studies. The constraints for creating prosodic words are defended with reference to compounds and derivational nouns, and are supported by a smaller study focusing on the metrical realisation of non-Germanic personal names in OE verse. Names of biblical origin are often longer than the OE prosodic word can accommodate. The supporting study on non-Germanic names demonstrates how long words with no obvious internal morphology in OE are adapted first to OE prosody and then to the verse structure. The solution for the metrical realisation of these names is shown to be patterned on derivational nouns. The supporting study on compound numerals describes how phrases longer than a verse are accommodated by the verse design. It is shown that compound numerals, which consist of two or more numeral words (e.g. 777 – seofonhund and seofon and hundseofontig) are habitually rearranged within the text to meet the requirements of verse length and alliteration. A further supporting study discusses the difference between the line length constraints controlling OE verse design and those for Old Norse and Old Saxon verse. Previous studies have often conflated these three closely related traditions into a single system. It is shown that despite their common characteristics, the verse design described in this study applies to all OE verse, but not to ON or OS.