Language Proficiency and Sonorant Devoicing in English Plosive-Sonorant Clusters

Q2 Arts and Humanities

Research in Language Pub Date : 2023-12-28 DOI:10.18778/1731-7533.21.4.06

Klára Přečková, Pavel Šturm, J. Volín

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article explores the timing of phonetic voicing in plosive-sonorant clusters in English. VOT was measured in two groups of Czech learners with different proficiency levels and a native English control group. The hypothesis was that cross-language differences in the implementation of the voicing contrast would be reflected in lower devoicing by the non-native speakers, modulated by proficiency. 24 participants read a text with plosive-sonorant clusters (such as in plan or troops). The study found that less proficient speakers exhibited smaller degrees of devoicing compared to more proficient speakers, who however did not differ from the native controls. In line with the absence of devoicing in Czech secondary-school textbooks, the results provide insight into the interplay between language proficiency and pronunciation details in L2 acquisition. The research was supported by the European Regional Development Fund-Project ‘Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World’ (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734). The study was created within the Charles University programme ‘Cooperatio’, scientific field Linguistics.

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语言能力与英语质音-声母群中的声母去声化

本文探讨了英语中质子-声母音群的语音发声时间。对两组不同水平的捷克语学习者和一个英语为母语的对照组进行了发声对比测量。我们的假设是，语音对比实施过程中的跨语言差异将反映在非母语者较低的去声上，并受熟练程度的影响。24 名参与者阅读了一篇带有plosive-sonorant 语群（如 plan 或 troops）的文章。研究发现，与母语对照组相比，母语水平较低的人表现出较小程度的去声，而母语水平较高的人则没有差异。研究结果与捷克中学教科书中不存在devoicing的情况相一致，有助于深入了解语言能力和发音细节在学习第二语言过程中的相互作用。本研究得到了欧洲地区发展基金项目 "创造力和适应性是欧洲在相互关联的世界中取得成功的条件"（编号：CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734）的支持。这项研究是在查尔斯大学 "Cooperatio "计划语言学科学领域内进行的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Research in Language Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics

CiteScore

0.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Research in Language (RiL) is an international journal committed to publishing excellent studies in the area of linguistics and related disciplines focused on human communication. Language studies, as other scholarly disciplines, undergo two seemingly counteracting processes: the process of diversification of the field into narrow specialized domains and the process of convergence, strengthened by interdisciplinarity. It is the latter perspective that RiL editors invite for the journal, whose aim is to present language in its entirety, meshing traditional modular compartments, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and offer a multidimensional perspective which exposes varied but relevant aspects of language, e.g. the cognitive, the psychological, the institutional aspect, as well as the social shaping of linguistic convention and creativity.