Korean Sequences Research Articles

Request for confirmation sequences in Korean

Abstract As part of a cross-linguistic investigation of request for confirmation (RfC) sequences, this article provides an overview of distributional tendencies associated with Korean RfC sequences based on an examination of 200 tokens of RfC excerpted from audio- and video-recorded face-to-face ordinary conversations. Various grammatical and contextual features associated with RfCs are analyzed, e.g., as interactional resources for grounding RfCs in inferencing, rendering them modulated in action, or connecting them to prior talk/action. They include negative polarity markers, connective particles (e.g., -nuntey ‘circumstantial’), modal markers (e.g., -keyss ‘I suppose’), and sentence-ending suffixes (SESs) such as -na (‘dubitative), -ney (‘noticing’), and ‘pseudo-tags’ -ci/cianha, which are composed of -ci (‘committal’). Features of responses to RfCs are examined in terms of response type (e.g., confirmation, disconfirmation, or neither) with special reference to the form and distribution of response tokens, which include not only unmarked interjections such as ung/yey (‘yes’) and ani(-yo) (‘no’), but also kule-marked indexical forms (e.g., ku(leh)ci ‘certainly it is’). The findings shed light on the role of SESs, modal markers, and discourse particles as stance-marking resources that crucially shape the function of RfCs, and the compositional features of response turns that constitute or frame a responsive action to RfCs.

Ultrasound study for patterns of tongue movement in diphthongs, triphthongs, and vowel sequences in Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin

Diphthongs have formant transitions sensitive to speaking rate, stress, vowel quality, and language ability. Tongue movement typically shows a functional “pivot” where the palate to tongue distance is almost constant; some combinations result in an “arch,” with only part of the tongue moving [Iskarous, J. Phon. 33, 363-381, 2005]. Here, ultrasound images of the tongue in Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin diphthongs and triphthongs (Mandarin) (vowel sequences in Korean and Japanese) were analyzed. Five repetitions of 6 nonwords were presented in Hangul, Hiragana or both Pinyin and a character for a word with the same vowel on tone 1. Diphthongs were [ai, ei, au] and triphthongs/sequence of three vowels were [iau, ieu, and uai]. All the ultrasound image frames for the target vowels were traced and superimposed. Preliminary results indicate that most vowel quality pairs resulted in a pivot pattern, with some arch patterns as well. Even in Mandarin triphthongs, there were generally two pivots, even though phonologically the sequence is considered a single vowel nucleus. Several approaches to quantifying this effect will be presented. It is possible that the success in producing a pivot could indicate mastery of production, both in development and in second language learning.

External Sandhi in a Second Language: The Phonetics and Phonology of Obstruent Nasalization in Korean-Accented English

This article presents the results of an acoustic study of nasal assimilation and gestural overlap at word boundaries in Korean and Korean-accented English. Twelve speakers of Seoul Korean recorded phrases containing obstruent#nasal and obstruent#obstruent sequences in both Korean and English. Nasalization of the word-final obstruent, predicted by the rules of Korean phonology, occurred in 93% of obstruent#nasal sequences in Korean and in 32% of such sequences in Korean-accented English, a rate of application higher than that reported in most other studies of external sandhi alternations in nonnative speech. Acoustic analysis found categorical nasalization in the L1 Korean productions, but both categorical and gradient nasalization, along with a high degree of inter- and intraspeaker variation, in the L2 English productions. For a subset of speakers, there was a significant correlation between quantitative measures of nasalization in English and measures of consonant overlap in the English obstruent#obstruent sequences. An analysis in terms of articulatory gestures and the coupled-oscillator model of speech planning is supported. The analysis is based on the articulatory phonology model (Browman & Goldstein 1990a,b, 1992, 2000, Goldstein et al. 2006), though with modifications. Implications for phonetic and phonological representations, and for speech planning in both L1 and L2, are explored.

Optimality Theoretic Analysis of Phonological Optionality and Transfer: Korean Speaker’s Pronunciation of Nasal-Liquid Sequences in Korean and English

Optimality Theoretic Analysis of Phonological Optionality and Transfer: Korean Speaker’s Pronunciation of Nasal-Liquid Sequences in Korean and English

Korean lexical bundles in conversation and academic texts

Over the past few decades, there has been growing interest in phraseology and the extent to which natural language use consists of prefabricated linguistic chunks ( Biber et al., 2004 ; Ellis, 1996 ; Howarth, 1998 ; Moon, 1997 ; and Wray, 2002 ). One approach to this issue has involved the analytical construct of ‘lexical bundles’, which are defined simply as the most common recurrent sequences of words in a register. This study explores the use of multi-word sequences in Korean based on Biber et al.'s (1999) frequency-driven approach to the identification of lexical bundles. Building on previous lexical bundle studies in English and Spanish ( Biber et al., 2004 ; Cortes, 2004 ; and Tracy-Ventura et al., 2007 ), the study examines lexical bundles in a large corpus of Korean texts consisting of academic prose and conversation. The analysis focusses on three major characteristics: the overall distribution of bundles, their typical structures, and their typical functions in discourse. More lexical bundles were identified in academic prose than in conversation. The findings support the notion that lexical bundles should be regarded as a basic linguistic construct with important functions for the construction of discourse for different languages.

Perception of Stop-Nasal Sequencesby Korean Learners of English:An Optimality Theoretic Approach

This paper explores how Korean learners of English perceive stop-nasal sequences and how L2 perception can be accounted for within the Optimality Theoretic framework. Voiced stop-nasal sequences in English are possible at the phonetic level, while voiceless stop-nasal ones are permissible with an inserted glottal stop at the phonetic level. Those sequences in Korean are possible at the phonemic level, but they are not permissible at the phonetic level because of a phonological constraint in Korean. This research was designed to provide answers to the following questions: (a) How do native Korean listeners perceive English stop-nasal sequences? (b) Is their perception affected by Korean phonology? (c) What factors play a role in their perception? The results show that Korean listeners` perception is different from English listeners` perception. Overall, Korean listeners show the perception of epenthetic vowels, which is affected primarily by the release and/or voicing of stops. Their perception is affected by the phonological patterning of Korean in which the release of stops and voiced stops occur only in the syllable-initial position. The variations could be accounted for by some constraints proposed by Davis and Shin (1999) and Dep-IO, and by adopting a model of floating constraints which yield the variable rankings apparent in L2 perception.

Deux types de représentations des séquences nominales figées en coréen et de leurs formes fléchies avec INTEX

Summary In this paper, we present the methodology for the construction of electronic dictionaries for frozen nominal sequences in Korean and their inflectional forms. For efficiency, we propose two independent dictionaries : one for frozen nominal sequences using list or graphical representation and the other for nominal postpositions using graphical representation. One could merge the two dictionaries into a single dictionary through the aid of the pre-defined inflectional code of each frozen nominal sequence and the inflection module in INTEX. In spite of the substantial differences between inflectional and agglutinative languages, we can describe frozen nominal sequences in Korean and their inflectional forms in INTEX.

Aerodynamic Evidence for Articulatory Overlap in Korean

Abstract Aerodynamic evidence indicates the existence of overlapped labial//velar sequences in Korean. Oral pressure readings for [ipku] show a brief rarefaction in oral pressure during the consonantal sequence, indicating that tongue retraction during a front-back vowel sequence occurs simultaneously with full closures at the labial and velar places of articulation. This confluence of phenomena results in the observed pressure rarefaction due to expansion of the sealed oral cavity. Similarly, pressure readings for [upki] show a brief, marked increase during the consonantal sequence, indicating that tongue advancement during a back-front vowel sequence temporally overlaps with full closures at both the labial and velar places of articulation. This results in a pressure increase due to contraction of the sealed oral cavity. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to demonstrate consonant coproduction in terms of oral pressure, and to report on coarticulatory effects involving four sequenced segments.