Stop Consonants in Chinese and Slovak: Contrastive Analysis by Using Praat
The acquisition of the correct pronunciation in Chinese is closely linked to the initial phase of the study. Based on the contrastive analysis, we determine the differences in the pronunciation of stop consonants in Chinese and Slovak taking into consideration the place and manner of articulation to gain a better understanding of the students' main difficulties in the process of acquiring correct pronunciation of Chinese stop consonants. We employ the software Praat for the analysis of the recorded samples with an emphasis on the pronunciation of the students with a varying command of Chinese. The comparison of the voice onset time (VOT) length for the individual consonants in the students' pronunciation and the pronunciation of the native speaker exposes the differences between the correct pronunciation and the deviant pronunciation of the students.
[1] S. M. Gass, L. Selinker, Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York and London: Routledge, 2008.
[2] R. Bugarski, “Contrastive analysis of terminology and terminology of contrastive analysis,” in I. Vladimir and K. Damir (Eds.) Language in contact and contrast: Essays in contact linguistics, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 73-82, 1991.
[3] T. P. Krzeszowski, “What do we need lexical contrastive studies for?,” Papers and studies in contrastive linguistics, vol. 13, pp. 133-148, 1981.
[4] J. C. Richards, “A non-contrastive approach to error analysis,” English language teaching journal, vol. 25, nr. 2, pp. 204-219, 1971.
[5] K. Kohler, “On the adequacy of phonological theories for contrastive analysis,” in G. Nickel (Ed.) Papers in contrastive linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83-88, 1971.
[6] W. Chiao, H. P. Kelz, Chinesische Aussprache: ein Lernprogramm 汉语发音 (Chinese pronunciation: A tutorial). Bonn: Dümmler, 1980.
[7] H. Třísková, Segmentální struktura čínské slabiky (Segmental structure of Chinese syllable). Praha: Karolinum, 2012.
[8] I. Očenáš, Fonetika so základmi fonológie a morfológia slovenského jazyka (Phonetics with the basics of phonology and morphology of the Slovak language). Banská Bystrica: Univerzita Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici, 2003.
[9] L. Lisker, A. S. Abramson, “A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: acoustical measurements,” Word, vol. 20, nr. 3, pp. 384-422, 1964.
[10] M. Kraviarová, “Voice onset time slovenských explozív (Voice onset time of Slovak plosives),” Jazyk - Médiá - Text III, pp. 130-138, Nov. 2012.
[11] Z. Wu, 吴宗济. Wu Zongji yuyanxue lunwen ji 吴宗济语言学论文集 (Wu Zongji: selection of papers on linguistics). Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2004.
[12] L. Chen, K. Chao, and J. Peng, “VOT productions of word-initial stops in Mandarin and English: A cross-language study,” Proceedings of the 19th conference on computational linguistics and speech processing, pp. 303-317, 2007.
[13] H. Třísková, “Acquiring and teaching Chinese pronunciation,” in I. Kecskes (Ed.) Explorations into the structure and use of Chinese as a second language, New York: Springer, pp. 3-30, 2017.
[1] S. M. Gass, L. Selinker, Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York and London: Routledge, 2008.
[2] R. Bugarski, “Contrastive analysis of terminology and terminology of contrastive analysis,” in I. Vladimir and K. Damir (Eds.) Language in contact and contrast: Essays in contact linguistics, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 73-82, 1991.
[3] T. P. Krzeszowski, “What do we need lexical contrastive studies for?,” Papers and studies in contrastive linguistics, vol. 13, pp. 133-148, 1981.
[4] J. C. Richards, “A non-contrastive approach to error analysis,” English language teaching journal, vol. 25, nr. 2, pp. 204-219, 1971.
[5] K. Kohler, “On the adequacy of phonological theories for contrastive analysis,” in G. Nickel (Ed.) Papers in contrastive linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83-88, 1971.
[6] W. Chiao, H. P. Kelz, Chinesische Aussprache: ein Lernprogramm 汉语发音 (Chinese pronunciation: A tutorial). Bonn: Dümmler, 1980.
[7] H. Třísková, Segmentální struktura čínské slabiky (Segmental structure of Chinese syllable). Praha: Karolinum, 2012.
[8] I. Očenáš, Fonetika so základmi fonológie a morfológia slovenského jazyka (Phonetics with the basics of phonology and morphology of the Slovak language). Banská Bystrica: Univerzita Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici, 2003.
[9] L. Lisker, A. S. Abramson, “A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: acoustical measurements,” Word, vol. 20, nr. 3, pp. 384-422, 1964.
[10] M. Kraviarová, “Voice onset time slovenských explozív (Voice onset time of Slovak plosives),” Jazyk - Médiá - Text III, pp. 130-138, Nov. 2012.
[11] Z. Wu, 吴宗济. Wu Zongji yuyanxue lunwen ji 吴宗济语言学论文集 (Wu Zongji: selection of papers on linguistics). Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2004.
[12] L. Chen, K. Chao, and J. Peng, “VOT productions of word-initial stops in Mandarin and English: A cross-language study,” Proceedings of the 19th conference on computational linguistics and speech processing, pp. 303-317, 2007.
[13] H. Třísková, “Acquiring and teaching Chinese pronunciation,” in I. Kecskes (Ed.) Explorations into the structure and use of Chinese as a second language, New York: Springer, pp. 3-30, 2017.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:80469", author = "Maria Istvanova", title = "Stop Consonants in Chinese and Slovak: Contrastive Analysis by Using Praat", abstract = "The acquisition of the correct pronunciation in Chinese is closely linked to the initial phase of the study. Based on the contrastive analysis, we determine the differences in the pronunciation of stop consonants in Chinese and Slovak taking into consideration the place and manner of articulation to gain a better understanding of the students' main difficulties in the process of acquiring correct pronunciation of Chinese stop consonants. We employ the software Praat for the analysis of the recorded samples with an emphasis on the pronunciation of the students with a varying command of Chinese. The comparison of the voice onset time (VOT) length for the individual consonants in the students' pronunciation and the pronunciation of the native speaker exposes the differences between the correct pronunciation and the deviant pronunciation of the students.", keywords = "Chinese, contrastive analysis, Praat, pronunciation, Slovak.", volume = "15", number = "8", pages = "638-4", }
