Acoustic Realization and Perception of English Lexical Stress by Mandarin Learners

The acquisition of English lexical stress by Mandarin L2 learners was examined. An acoustic study focusing on the implementation of mean F0, max F0, duration, intensity, and F2 in stressed and unstressed vowels in noun-verb word pairs contrasting in stress location (e.g. object-object) was conducted. The results indicate that native English speakers use all correlates in nouns but rely mostly on duration in verbs. The learners use these cues more consistently across different contexts. A perceptual study utilizing the disyllabic nonword 'dada', with resynthesized max F0, duration, and vowel quality indicates that full vowels induce stronger stress perception in all listener groups. Beginning listeners relied on duration, advanced listeners focused on max F0, while native listeners used both in perception. The similarities and differences in prosodic systems between Mandarin and English, as well as the possible discrepancies in production and perception data from second language learning research were discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Lai, Yuwen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jongman, Allard

• Language, linguistics
• Production
• Perception
• English
• Stress
• Chinese language
• L2 learning
• Mandarin Chinese

Statement dc:rights

• This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

EN

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations2.umi.com/ku:2669

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/4201