An Acoustic Study on the Differences of Contrastive Emphasis between Native and Non-Native Spanish Speakers

Abstract

Since intonation is a suprasegmental element of phonology, it does not receive as much attention in a language class as many other areas of language teaching. This is unfortunate because correct intonation is a vital part of being understood. John Dalbor (1969:223) has observed, is so important in language that it not only controls grammatical meaning to a large extent, but it also conveys attitude of speaker even more effectively than words he chooses. Bowen (1956:33) states that improper intonation in moments of high emotion may cause non-native speaker of Spanish to angry or disgusted. The purpose of this study is to focus on different ways to express contrastive emphasis in Spanish and English to determine how range of pitch of advanced non-native speakers of Spanish compares with that of native Spanish speakers. This will be done by acoustically comparing their Spanish intonation patterns with those of native Spanish speakers and also by comparing them with English intonation patterns of native English speakers. There are some often used terms that may need to be more closely defined for this study. These terms are: contrast, emphasis, intensity, intonation, pitch, and stress. Webster's dictionary defines contrast as showing differences when comparing. Emphasis is defined as a special stress given to a syllable, word, etc. in speaking. Therefore, one of ways to contrast something is to emphasize it with a special stress. Ladefoged defines stress as the extra use of respiratory energy during a syllable (1975:285). He also defines as amount of acoustic energy in a (1975:282). In other words, stress is extra perceived energy and is extra energy that can be acoustically measured. Intonation is pattern of pitch changes that occur during a phrase (Ladefoged 1975:252, Quilis and Fernaindez 1973:164). Pitch is auditory property of a that enables a listener to place it on a scale going from low to high, without considering acoustic properties such as of sound (Ladefoged 1975:284). This study will key on contrasts made through use of pitch and intensity. The term normal tone frequency will be defined as pitch of a subject's voice at beginning of a phrase. Contrasted tone frequency is defined as pitch of voice in syllables. Likewise, normal intensity will be at beginning of a phrase while contrasted intensity will be of syllables.