The Production of English Noun-Verb Stress Contrast in Rising ...

The Production of English Noun-Verb Stress Contrast in Rising Intonation byTaiwanese EFL LearnersThis paper investigates the phonetic characteristics of the English noun-verb stresscontrast (i.e., pérmit (n.) vs. permít (v)) produced by Taiwanese EFL learners. Previousstudies have shown that L2 learners whose L1 does not have lexical stress have problems inproducing English stress to some extent. For instance, Kondo (2009) reports that L1 Japanesespeakers tend to use higher pitch, longer duration and greater intensity in producing Englishstressed syllable but they fail to cue stress using vowel quality. Furthermore, Lai (2008)reports that L1 Mandarin speakers do not use all the phonetic cues in producing Englishstress. Specifically, in nouns of which stress is on the first syllable (i.e., pérmit (n.)), they tendto produce the stressed syllable using higher pitch, longer duration and greater intensitythough the way is different from native speakers. On the other hand, in verbs (i.e., permít (v)),the extent to which they use the cue of duration is different from English native speakers. It isworth mentioning that the production data used in the previous studies are isolated words orin the falling intonation. There is no study so far to analyze L2 learners’ production ofEnglish stress in other intonation patterns like rising, so this study is motivated to look intothe noun-verb stress contrast in the rising intonation. According to Ladefoged (2006), in therising intonation, the stressed syllable is associated with a low tone (L*) and followed by ahigh boundary tone (H%), as shown in Example (1). In the rising intonation, stressedsyllables are not characterized by higher pitch any more. Therefore, it would be interesting tocompare how L2 learners and native speakers produce the stress contrast under this condition.(1) L* H% L* H%pér . mit (n.) vs. per . mít (v.)Eight Taiwanese EFL learners, in either advanced or intermediate level, recorded sixEnglish stress pairs (i.e., tránsplant (n.) v.s. transplánt (v.); ímport (n.) v.s. impórt (v.); pérmit(n.) v.s. permít (v.); désert (n.) v.s. desért(v.); rébel (n.) v.s. rebél(v.); récord (n.) v.s. recórd(v.)) which were put in the sentence frame (i.e., Did you say _______?) to elicit theirproduction of stress in the rising intonation. Another four English native speakers were alsorecorded as a comparison basis. The production data were then analyzed in terms of the meanF0, duration, and intensity of the vowels of stressed and unstressed syllables in nouns andverbs. The results show that the English subjects use lower mean pitch (t (23) = -12.089, p= .000) and longer duration (t (23) = 6.928, p = .000) to signal stress in the rising intonation.That is, in nouns the first syllable has longer duration and lower pitch and the second syllablehas shorter duration and high-rising pitch. In contrast, in verbs the first syllable has shorterduration and a low pitch, and the second syllable has longer duration and a low-rising pitch

contour. An example is shown below.(2) pérmit (n.) permít (v.)F0F093ms 89ms 70ms 150msHowever, the Taiwanese subjects uses only longer duration (t (46) = 7.108, p = .000) butnot pitch difference (t (46) = 2.982, n.s.) to signal stress. That is, in nouns the first syllablehas longer duration while the second syllable is shorter. On the other hand, in verbs the firstsyllable is shorter and the second syllable is longer. As for mean pitch, in both nouns andverbs, the first syllable is always low in pitch and the second syllable has no difference inmean pitch or pitch contour shape, as shown below.(3) pérmit (n.) permít (v.)F0F0217ms159ms97ms184msThe results suggest that Taiwanese EFL learners use the cue of duration, but not pitchdifference, in producing the noun-verb stress contrast in the rising intonation while nativespeakers use both in producing such a contrast.ReferencesKondo, M. (2009). Is acquisition of L2 phonemes difficult? Production of English stress byJapanese speakers. Proceedings of the 10 th Generative Approaches to Second LanguageAcquisition Conference (GASLA 2009), ed. Melissa Bowles et al., 105-112. Somerville,MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Ladefoged, P. (2006). A course in phonetics (5 th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.

Lai, Y. W. (2008). Acoustic Realization and Perception of English Lexical Stress by MandarinLearners, Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas.