Student Research
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Korean Rhythm Structure
- Researcher: Younah Chung
- I am interested in prosody, especially intonation and rhythm. I am currently working on a research focused on Korean rhythm. The focus of this research is to figure out how rhythm works and what forms it takes in Korean speech. I am running a speech cycling experiment; speakers are asked to produce a sentence for each beep cycle, and as many cycles as they can with one breath. It is anticipated that either the first or the last syllable of each prosodic unit (acccentual phrase) would appear regularly within one beep cycle. It is also anticipated that the number of syllables in each prosodic unit (accentual phrase), and the speed of the beep would play a role. Different syntactic structures will be examined as well.
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The Production of Spanish-English Code-Switching
- Researcher: Page Piccinini
- I am interested in whether
bilingual speakers have two separate phonologies or if they are
actively suppressing the phonology from their L1 when producing their
L2. I am investigating this by examining code-switching productions and
seeing if speakers will produce sounds similarily or differently in a
monolinginal utterance as compared to at the boundary of a code-switch.
It is antcipated that any overlap of phonologies would be found within
the prosodic unit that includes the switch. Spontaneous speech will be
examined both in directed conversations recorded in the lab and
undirected conversations recorded outside of the lab.
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Southern California Intervocalic Flapping
- Researcher: Nadav
Sofer
- I am currently working on a
survey of intervocalic flapping in Southern California. I am comparing
flapped /t/s to flapped /d/s within words, and word finally before
clitics, across words, and across phrase boundaries. This study looks
at how prosodic boundaries influence the production of flaps, while
taking into account that flapping varies regionally by concentrating on
native monolingual Southern Californian English speakers. Though I am
investigating only the production of flaps at the moment, I hope to
extend this study with a follow up perception study.
