Neutralization in the perception and production of English coda obstruents by Korean learners of English

Abstract

Phonological neutralization rules require the suspension of differences between segments in perception and production. This paper examines the role of neutralization in the production and perception of Korean learners of English. In Korean, laryngeal and manner contrasts found in initial obstruents are systematically neutralized in coda position into stops that sound like voiceless stops in English. The current paper pursues two questions: (1) Does neutralization have the same effect on perceptual and production abilities? (2) are neutralization effects found with all English segments, or are they restricted to stops, which are transferred from Korean? /p, b, t, d, f, v, θ, δ/ were placed after /a/. Two tasks are compared: (A) Identification. Forty Korean learners identified coda consonants produced by four native speakers of English, using English labels. (B) Reading. Ten native English listeners identified coda consonants produced by four Korean learners. Identification errors were largely unidirectional; for example, many segments were labeled /f/, while /f/ identification was highly accurate. Reading errors were largely bidirectional with a systematic tendency for more errors, resulting in voiceless consonants and stops, conforming to the Korean neutralization pattern. Such neutralization effects were as prevalent in fricatives as stops. [Work supported by NSF.]