the articulation of korean coronal obstruents - UHM Department of

143 Pages·2013·3.53 MB·English

by  Insung Ko

THE ARTICULATION OF KOREAN CORONAL OBSTRUENTS:
DATA FROM HERITAGE SPEAKERS AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
LINGUISTICS

MAY 2013

By
Insung Ko

Dissertation Committee:
William O’Grady, Co-Chairperson
Ho-min Sohn, Co-Chairperson
Victoria Anderson
Robert Bley-Vroman
Edward J. Shultz
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to many people whom I have met during my
days as a graduate student. First, I appreciate my teachers in both Hawai‘i and Korea
from whom I have learned so much. I cannot thank Professor William O’Grady enough.
He was an enlightening and inspiring scholar from our first meeting and a constantly
encouraging adviser throughout my years in graduate school. Some time ago, I had the
privilege of assisting him with his research on Korean pronunciation, and he encouraged
me to continue working in this rewarding field for my doctoral dissertation. I have also
been blessed to have Professor Ho-Min Sohn as my co-chair. I cannot imagine how I
could have been able to view my native language as an intellectual object if I had not
taken Korean linguistics courses from him. Whenever I met him in class, in his office, at
his home, or even in his books and articles, I learned not only about studies in Korean
linguistics but also about a life in academia. When I began exploring the Korean
language from a linguistic perspective, Victoria Anderson provided me with training in
experimental phonetics, for which I am very grateful. She trained me as a graduate
assistant when the department first opened the phonetics lab, where I started analyzing
speech sounds. Professor Robert Bley-Vroman expanded my understanding of second
language acquisition through his classes. I am honored to have had on my dissertation
committee Professor Edward J. Shultz through whose devotion to Korean studies I
observed the globalization of Korean study in advance. I would also like to thank
Professor Kyung-ja Park, my former adviser in Korea, who took care of my first steps as
a graduate student in Korea and guided me to the current doctorate program.
I was fortunate to have had good friends with whom I discussed life and
scholarship both inside and outside the classroom. For sharing their encouragement,
friendship, and wisdom, I offer my appreciation to Professors Seok-hoon You, Jae-keun
Lee, Miseon Lee, Sang Yee Cheon, Hangtae Cho, Youngkyu Kim, Hikyoung Lee, Eun-
Joo Lee, Mikyung Chang, Seung Bong Baek, Sangseok Yoon, DongKwan Kong, Hisun
H. Kim and Ebru Turker. I would also like to thank my colleagues in various
institutions—Professors Ok-sook Park, Haewon Cho, Sangkyung Han, Mijeong M. Kim,
Ji-Eun Lee, and Robert E. Hegel who not only understood my situation but also helped
me complete important procedures for this study. Finally, I am very grateful to those who
agreed to participate in this study and endured the investigative processes that they had to
undergo.
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My sincere thanks go to all my family in Korea—my parents, sisters and brothers-
in-law—for their love, support, and prayers over many years. Having left home during
high school, I also feel sorry that I have had to be away from them for so long. I now
have another family in the United States. I am proud of my two precious children, Habin
and Sunbin, who have been the delights on those tiring days and occasionally provided
linguistic data during their language acquisition. Last but not least, my special thanks go
to my best friend, love and personal consultant, Kyung Hee. I have finished this long
journey thanks to her endless understanding and sacrifice.
I give thanks to God for the journey that was allowed to me with these people.
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ABSTRACT

This study investigated where the consonantal constrictions take place when
Korean coronal obstruents are articulated since there is disagreement over the place of
articulation of these consonants. Unlike other studies in Korean phonetics, which focus
on various acoustic features, the current study used static palatography (SPG) in the form
of linguograms and palatograms to measure the linguo-palatal contact in the production
of Korean coronal stops, affricates, and fricatives.
Unlike many phonetic studies on the place of articulation of Korean obstruents,
however, no significant difference was observed among phonemes in three-way contrast.
Based on the results of Korean native speakers, the palatograms showed that the place of
articulation of the Korean stops /t, th, t*/ is (denti-)alveolar, which is similar to that of
English coronal stops. Unlike English affricates, which are palato-alveolar sounds,
Korean coronal affricates /c, ch, c*/ are simply alveolar sounds. In addition, the
linguograms showed that Korean native speakers use the tongue blade as well as the
tongue tip to articulate Korean coronal stops and affricates while English speakers prefer
the tongue tip for English coronal obstruents. As for the Korean coronal fricatives /s, s*/,
the fricative gap is made between the alveolar ridge region and the tongue tip.
This study also examined whether experience in the first language (L1) influences
the pronunciation of coronal consonants in three groups of second language (L2) learners
of Korean: non-heritage language learners at the first-year level (NHL1) and the second-
year or higher level (NHL2), and heritage learners at the first-year level (HL1). First,
Korean native speakers tend to make a smaller linguo-palatal contact than the three
groups of L2 learners of Korean. Second, NHL1 learners were significantly different
from NHL2 learners but were frequently similar to HL1 learners. Third, the movement of
the tongue seems to be influenced in the L2 pronunciation. Compared to Korean native
speakers, who tend to articulate Korean coronals as laminal or apico-laminal denti-
alveolar sounds, NHL1 learners and NHL2 learners preferred apical contacts for Korean
stops and affricates, as they do in English.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. x
CHAPTER 1 PHONETIC PROFILE OF KOREAN SPEAKERS..................................... 1
1.1 Korean as a Native Language ................................................................................... 2
1.1.1 Adult Native Speakers........................................................................................ 2
1.1.1.1 Acoustic features ......................................................................................... 4
1.1.1.2 Place of Articulation ................................................................................... 7
1.1.2 Child First Language Learners.......................................................................... 11
1.2 Korean as a Non-Native Language ......................................................................... 14
1.2.1 Non-Heritage Language Learners .................................................................... 17
1.2.2 Heritage Language Learners ............................................................................ 21
1.3 Purpose of the Present Study .................................................................................. 26
CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY – STATIC PALATOGRAPHY .................................... 29
2.1 Participants .............................................................................................................. 34
2.2 Materials ................................................................................................................. 38
2.2.1 Elicited production for auditory assessment .................................................... 38
2.2.2 Static Palatography .......................................................................................... 40
2.2.2.1 Test items .................................................................................................. 40
2.2.2.2 Materials ................................................................................................... 42
2.3 Procedures ............................................................................................................... 44
2.3.1 Elicited production for auditory assessment .................................................... 44
2.3.2 Static palatography study ................................................................................. 45
2.4 Analysis ................................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 3 RESULTS ................................................................................................... 55
3.1 Language Use by Korean Speakers ........................................................................ 55
3.2 Auditory assessment of the elicited production test ................................................ 57
3.3 Place of Articulation of Stops ................................................................................. 61
3.3.1 Korean stops /t, th, t*/ ....................................................................................... 61
3.3.2 English stops /d, t/ ............................................................................................ 66

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3.4 Place of Articulation of Affricates .......................................................................... 70
3.4.1 Korean affricates /c, ch, c*/ .............................................................................. 70
3.4.2 English affricates /ʤ, ʧ / .................................................................................. 75
3.5 Place of Articulation of Fricatives .......................................................................... 78
3.5.1 Korean fricatives /s, s*/.................................................................................... 78
3.5.2 English fricative /s/ .......................................................................................... 83
3.6 Comparisons across Variables ................................................................................. 85
CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................. 96
4.1 Korean Coronal Obstruents ..................................................................................... 97
4.1.1 Three-way Laryngeal Features......................................................................... 98
4.1.2 Manner of Articulation ................................................................................... 101
4.1.3 Place of Articulation ...................................................................................... 102
4.2 First Language Transfer ........................................................................................ 108
4.2.1 Language Experience ..................................................................................... 108
4.2.2 Effect of Native Language on L2 Pronunciation ............................................ 116
4.3 Limitations and Suggestions .................................................................................. 118
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 121
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 126
APPENDIX: DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................... 131

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Korean consonant phonemes .............................................................................. 9
Table 1.2 Studies on the PoA of Korean coronal obstruents ............................................. 10
Table 2.1 Demographic information of participants ......................................................... 37
Table 2.2 Static palatography wordlist .............................................................................. 41
Table 3.1 Language use in Korean as an L2 ..................................................................... 56
Table 3.2 Results of the elicited production test ............................................................... 58
Table 3.3 MANOVA results of the elicited production test of coronals ........................... 60
Table 3.4 Measurement on palatograms for Korean coronal stops ................................... 63
Table 3.5 MANOVA Results of palatograms of Korean coronal stops ............................ 63
Table 3.6 Results of linguograms of Korean coronal stops .............................................. 65
Table 3.7 Measurement on palatograms for English coronal stops .................................. 68
Table 3.8 MANOVA Results of palatograms of English coronal stops ............................ 68
Table 3.9 Linguo-palatal contact for English coronal stops ............................................. 69
Table 3.10 Measurement on palatograms for Korean coronal affricates .......................... 71
Table 3.11 MANOVA Results of palatograms of Korean coronal affricates ................... 71
Table 3.12 Results of linguograms of Korean coronal affricates ...................................... 73
Table 3.13 Measurement on palatograms for English coronal affricates .......................... 76
Table 3.14 Linguo-palatal contact for English coronal affricates ..................................... 77
Table 3.15 Measurement on palatograms for Korean coronal fricatives .......................... 79
Table 3.16 MANOVA Results of palatograms of Korean coronal fricatives ................... 80
Table 3.17 Results of linguograms of Korean coronal fricatives ...................................... 82
Table 3.18 Measurement on palatograms for English coronal fricative ........................... 84
Table 3.19 Results of linguograms of English coronal fricative ....................................... 85
Table 3.20 Comparison of palatograms between stops and affricates .............................. 86
Table 3.21 The rearmost contact of coronal sounds – stops and affricates ....................... 87
Table 3.22 The rearmost contact of affricates and fricatives ............................................ 88
Table 3.23 Relative place of articulation by Korean native speakers (%) ........................ 89
Table 3.24 Comparison between Korean and English coronals ....................................... 93
Table 3.25 Comparison of side contact length for lax consonants by NS ........................ 93
Table 3.26 Summary of linguographic analysis – stop and affricate ................................ 95
Table 4.1 Midsagittal contact of Korean and English coronals by NSs .......................... 105
Table 4.2 Korean and English coronal consonant (proposed) ........................................ 108
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Table 4.3 Results of the elicited production test ............................................................. 108
Table 4.4 Effects of the first language on the place of articulation ................................. 110

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 The distribution of Korean obstruents in VOT-F0 plot .................................... 7
Figure 1.2 Midsagittal articulatory profile .......................................................................... 8
Figure 2.1 Midsagittal MRI images .................................................................................. 29
Figure 2.2 Overlays of traced tongue contours ................................................................. 30
Figure 2.3 EPG linguo-palatal contact profiles................................................................. 31
Figure 2.4 Sample palatograms ......................................................................................... 46
Figure 2.5 Sample linguograms ........................................................................................ 47
Figure 2.6 Palate impression ............................................................................................. 49
Figure 2.7 Contour map of the palate ............................................................................... 49
Figure 2.8 Measurement of permanent palate impression ................................................ 50
Figure 2.9 Measurement of stops and affricates ............................................................... 51
Figure 2.10 Measurement of fricatives ............................................................................. 52
Figure 2.11 Measurement of linguograms ........................................................................ 53
Figure 3.1 Palatograms of Korean coronal stops .............................................................. 62
Figure 3.2 Linguograms of Korean coronal stops ............................................................ 65
Figure 3.3 Palatograms and linguograms of English coronal stops .................................. 67
Figure 3.4 Palatograms of Korean coronal affricates ....................................................... 70
Figure 3.5 Linguograms of Korean coronal affricates ...................................................... 73
Figure 3.6 Palatograms and linguograms of English coronal affricates ........................... 76
Figure 3.7 Palatograms of Korean coronal fricatives ....................................................... 79
Figure 3.8 Linguograms of Korean coronal fricatives ...................................................... 81
Figure 3.9 Palatograms and linguograms of English coronal fricative /s/ ........................ 83
Figure 3.10 Representative palatograms of coronal consonants ....................................... 88
Figure 3.11 Relative place of articulation of Korean coronal consonants ........................ 91
Figure 3.12 Relative place of articulation of Korean and English coronals ..................... 92

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANOVA Analysis of Variance
AoA Age of arrival
AP Accentual phrase
CPH Critical Period Hypothesis
EN English
EPG Electropalatography
F0 Fundamental frequency
GLM General Linear Model
H High tone
H1 First harmonic
H2 Second harmonic
HL Heritage language
IP Intonation phrase
KO Korean
L Low tone
L1 First language
L2 Second language
M Mean
MANOVA Multivariate analysis of variance
MoA Manner of articulation
MRI Magnetic resonance imaging
NHL Non-heritage language
NS Native speakers
PoA Place of articulation
SD Standard deviation
SEM Standard error of the mean
SPG Static palatography
VOT Voice onset time

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