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. 2011 Jan 1;39(1):1-17.
doi: 10.1016/j.wocn.2010.10.006.

Word Durations in Non-Native English

Rachel E Baker  1 , Melissa Baese-Berk, Laurent Bonnasse-Gahot, Midam Kim, Kristin J Van Engen, Ann R Bradlow
Affiliations

Word Durations in Non-Native English

Rachel E Baker et al. J Phon. .

Abstract

In this study, we compare the effects of English lexical features on word duration for native and non-native English speakers and for non-native speakers with different L1s and a range of L2 experience. We also examine whether non-native word durations lead to judgments of a stronger foreign accent. We measured word durations in English paragraphs read by 12 American English (AE), 20 Korean, and 20 Chinese speakers. We also had AE listeners rate the `accentedness' of these non-native speakers. AE speech had shorter durations, greater within-speaker word duration variance, greater reduction of function words, and less between-speaker variance than non-native speech. However, both AE and non-native speakers showed sensitivity to lexical predictability by reducing second mentions and high frequency words. Non-native speakers with more native-like word durations, greater within-speaker word duration variance, and greater function word reduction were perceived as less accented. Overall, these findings identify word duration as an important and complex feature of foreign-accented English.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of within-speaker relative word duration variance for all words in the English, Chinese, and Korean language groups
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of within-speaker relative word duration variance for content words in the English, Chinese, and Korean language groups
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatterplot of the relationship between years of English study and mean function word duration divided by mean content word duration for non-native participants
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatterplots showing the relationship between relative duration per segment and log word frequency in the English, Chinese, and Korean language groups. Relative durations per segment were calculated by dividing the mean relative duration for each word by the number of phonemes in the word (as listed in the MRC psycholinguistic database).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of relative durations per segment in content and function words for the English, Chinese, and Korean speaker groups. Relative durations per segment were calculated by dividing the mean relative duration for each word by the number of phonemes in the word (as listed in the MRC psycholinguistic database).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Scatterplots showing the relationship between relative duration per segment and log word frequency for content and function words in the English, Chinese, and Korean language groups. Relative durations per segment were calculated by dividing the mean relative duration for each word by the number of phonemes in the word (as listed in the MRC psycholinguistic database). In these plots, the filled circles and solid lines represent content words, while the empty circles and dashed lines represent function words.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Ratios of first mention mean durations divided by second mention mean durations for the English, Chinese, and Korean language groups. Everything above the line at 1 represents reduction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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