2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
How the perceptual assimilation of English vowels by native Japanese speakers affects their perception and production of English vowels
| Project/Area Number |
14510635
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
言語学・音声学
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan University (2004)
Kansai University of International Studies (2002-2003) |
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Principal Investigator |
NOZAWA Takeshi Ritsumeikan University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (30198593)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2004
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| Keywords | Perceptual Assimilation Model / English vowels / native Japanese speakers / perception / production / consonantal contexts / discriminability / intelligibility |
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| Research Abstract |
This study is to see if discriminability of English vowels by native Japanese speakers can be predicted based on what Perceptual Assimilation Model (=PAM) (Best 1995) states. Native Japanese speakers served as subjects in the following four experiments ; discrimination experiment identification experiment, perceptual assimilation experiment, production experiment. Native English speakers participated as the control group in the discrimination and identification experiments.
The results of the series of experiments do not necessarily support what PAM states, but the results indicate Japanese speakers' perception of English vowels is affected by their L1 vowel categories. /ae/ is often perceptually assimilated to Japanese low vowel /a/, and is misidentified with /a/ and /∧/, which are both perceptually assimilated to the Japanese low vowel /a/, but when a velar stop precedes, /ae/ is perceptually assimilated to /ja/, which apparently makes it easier for Japanese subjects to differentiate
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/ae/ from /a/ or /∧/ in this consonantal context. The perception of /ae/ is also strongly affected by the following consonant: when /n/ follows, it is perceptually assimilated to /ea/ because formants bend in /ae/ in /CVn/ contexts, which apparently facilitates better discrimination of /a/ from /a/ or /∧/. The manner of articulation of the following consonant influences Japanese speakers' perception and production of English vowels: percent correct identification and discrimination are lower when a nasal (/n/) or a liquid (/l/) follows than when a stop (/t/ or /d/). Percent correct identification of /i/ is especially low when /l/ follows, and the intelligibility of the /i/ tokens produced by Japanese speakers is also low in this consonantal context. This is probably because there is no equivalent phone to the postvocalic /l/ in Japanese. This may be an indication that the ease to perceive and produce surrounding consonants can influence the perception and production of non-native vowels. Less
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