1,721,037 research outputs found
Phonetic aspects of fluency in read and spontaneous speech
No full textThe aim of this BA thesis was to compare linking and prosodic phrasing parameters in the recordings of students of English and American studies. We examined the speech of B2 Czech speakersof Englishwithstrongly accentedpronunciation to see whether thecompletion of English Phoneticsand Phonology course hadan impact on students' performance of these aspects of fluency. We analyzed two sets of recordings by 8 speakers, one was recorded when participants were in their first year of studies, another a couple of years later. We analyzedrecordings from Prague Phonetic and LINDSEI corpora, where we counted the numberof linked vsglottalized words, analyzed the structuring of prosodic phrases, and measured their temporal characteristics such as the length of prosodic phrases and speech rate. The use of linking was found to be significantly higherand prevailing over glottalizationin later recordings. Participants were successful in structuring logic prosodic phrases in both sets of recordings.No dynamicchangesin temporal characteristics of prosodic phrasing were observed.These results show thattraining thepronunciation of linking leads to a long-term improvement of skills. However, the same cannot be stated about the prosodic phrasingperformancewithin the framework of this study. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org
"Proč to neříct česky?": Slova převzatá z angličtiny v českém neheterosexuálním sociolektu a jejich používání v e-komunikaci
Full text linkThis thesis pays attention to the Czech non-heterosexual sociolect and, more precisely, the English loanwords used in otherwise entirely Czech computer-mediated communication. The term in the title: "non-heterosexual", is used to include a broader spectrum of possible respondents who consider their sexual identity different from binary homosexual and heterosexual sexual orientation. To be able to observe a real sample of this type of communication, this thesis gathers a collection of conversations from users of a popular dating app called Grindr, which is one of the most popular dating services in the world. The reasons for the tendency of using the English loanwords instead of their Czech counterparts are mainly accredited to a degree of emotional detachment that they provide. The hypothesis is that the users of this service are most likely to use English loan words instead of their Czech counterparts when discussing sexual relations as it serves as a "depersonifying" defensive tool. A follow-up questionnaire is then also proposed to the respondents in which they are supposed to pick from a selection of messages in three different contexts the one they are more likely to use themselves. If the hypothesis is correct, they are most likely to choose the message with English loanwords in the context of sex....Tato práce zkoumá český neheterosexuální sociolekt a jeho specifický aspekt používání slov převzatých z anglického jazyka v jinak zcela české e-komunikaci. Termín neheterosexuální je použit pro rozšíření možných respondentů, kteří používají jiných termínů než pouze binární dvojici heterosexuální a homosexuální pro označení svojí vlastní sexuální orientace. Aby práce mohla sledovat skutečný vzorek této komunikace, sbírá opravdové konverzace uživatelů populární seznamovací služby Grindr, která je jednou z nejpopulárnějších služeb svého druhu na světě. Používání těchto anglických přejímek místo jejich českých ekvivalentů je zejména zapříčiněno psychologickému a citovému odstupu, které cizí slova poskytují. Hypotézou této práce je, že uživatelé této služby sahají po těchto anglických přejímkách zejména při rozebírání sexuálních vztahů, protože jim poskytují obranný nástroj a možnost odosobnění od obsahu. Respondenti poté mají také zodpovědět na následující dotazník, ve kterém mají ze série zpráv ve třech různých kontextech vybrat tu, kterou by sami nejpravděpodobněji poslali. Pokud je hypotéza správná, jejich volbou budou v kontextech sexu zprávy s anglickými slovy. Použití anglicismů je zajímavý prvek českého neheterosexuálního sociolektu, který zatím nebyl prozkoumán. Tato práce tak přináší moderní přístup ke...Department of the English Language and ELT MethodologyÚstav anglického jazyka a didaktikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art
Americká angličtina na druhém stupni základních škol ve vztahu k sociolingvistickým a kulturním preferencím studentů
No full textThis thesis examines the relationship between linguistic and cultural preferences of Czech students in the 8th and 9th grades of elementary schools. Its hypothesis claims that today's students are still strongly influenced by the Czech education system that places great emphasis on the instruction of British English, and therefore students prefer British lexical forms. However, it is also assumed that, due to the strong cultural influence of the United States, the students will be more familiar with American cultural phenomena and they will prefer them over British culture. As a part of the research for this thesis, an online questionnaire was administered to 215 students. This questionnaire contained questions related to both linguistic and cultural topics and its results confirmed the hypothesis. Most of the students tend to use British vocabulary even though they proved to have a deeper knowledge of American culture, preferring it over the British one. Some differences were recorded between genders; females are more inclined to prefer British English and culture than males. Simultaneously, those students who evaluated themselves as good at English and also have a better relationship with this language seem to prefer American forms and culture. The vast majority of this thesis aligns with the...Tato práce zkoumá vztah mezi lingvistickými a kulturními preferencemi českých studentů angličtiny v 8. a 9. třídách základních škol. Vychází z hypotézy, že dnešní studenti budou stále silně ovlivněni systémem české výuky, která historicky klade velký důraz na britskou variantu angličtiny, a budou tak preferovat britské lexikální formy. Dále se také předpokládá, že díky silnému kulturnímu vlivu Spojených států budou studenti více obeznámeni s americkými kulturními reáliemi a budou je zároveň i preferovat. Součástí práce byl výzkum v podobě online dotazníků, kterého se zúčastnilo 215 studentů. Tento dotazník obsahoval témata jak lingvistická, tak kulturní a výsledky, které přinesl, hypotézu potvrdily. Většina studentů inklinuje k užívání britské angličtiny, zároveň ale prokázali hlubší znalosti kultury americké, kterou i osobně preferují před tou britskou. Rozdíly byly zaznamenány mezi pohlavími; dívky jsou silněji orientovány na britskou angličtinu i kulturu nežli chlapci. Studenti, kteří sami sebe lépe hodnotí a mají lepší vztah k angličtině, naopak tíhnou k angličtině a kultuře americké. Naprostá většina této práce odpovídá dosud publikované literatuře a zároveň poukazuje na...Ústav anglického jazyka a didaktikyDepartment of the English Language and ELT MethodologyFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult
Duration of stressed and unstressed vowels in British and American political debates
No full textand Key Words The aim of this thesis is to investigate segmental duration as an acoustic correlate of word stress in connected spontaneous speech in English. To lay the groundwork for this investigation, the theoretical part provides wide description of different aspects of the following three associated topics - speech rhythm, word stress and segmental duration. The practical study then aspires to reexamine the notion that stressed vowels are longer in duration than unstressed vowels which has been previously concluded from the analysis of controlled material and attest to whether the longer duration of stressed vowels in comparison to unstressed vowels is relevant for connected spontaneous speech. The analysed material is compiled from the recordings of connected speech of 8 British and 8 American speakers engaging in political debates. The analysis consists of the extraction of temporal information of stressed and unstressed vowels that is subsequently analysed in comparison between the two varieties of English and in terms of other aspects shown to affect segmental duration such as phonological vowel length or the nature of the following segment. The results of the study indicate that stressed vowels can be said to be longer in duration than unstressed vowels in connected speech of both..
Nonword Repetition Test for Detecting Developmental Language Disorder in Russian-English Bilingual Children
No full textThe present thesis is concerned with designing and evaluating a novel language-specific nonword repetition task (NWR) capable of identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in English-Russian bilingual children. The proposed NWR task manipulates three variables, item length, morphological complexity, and phonological complexity that reflect respective language processing mechanisms, namely, phonological working memory strain, phonological processing, and the knowledge of grammatical rules and long-term memory. The main question of the study was whether the proposed task could show adequate performance results for a typically developing bilingual child when matched with standardized language ability tests (TROG2, YARC, CNRep). To evaluate the efficacy of the task, a case study with one participant was conducted. The participant was a bilingual child (7;5) with simultaneous acquisition of English and Russian in an English-dominant environment. The findings showed that the proposed task passed the evaluation procedure and yielded expected patterns when matched against standardized tests both in terms of the patterns of difficulty and language dominance. As a result, the proposed NWR task demonstrated the potential for distinguishing DLD from typical development in bilingual children speaking..
Vázání u francouzských mluvčích angličtiny
Full text linkThis bachelor thesis aims to analyse linking phenomena in spontaneous and read speech of French native speakers. The theoretical part includes a detailed description of the linking phenomena in English and French, as well as the role of glottalization in both languages. Finally, we also include an overview of studies that explore the specific phenomena of linking in French speakers in English, especially the deletion of the consonant [h] and its insertion at the onset of vowel-initial words. The experimental part focuses on the analysis of 19 recording of French speakers of English. All recordings consist of three parts: a spontaneous conversation, prepared and read text, and twelve phrases. The research shows that French native speakers tend to link words in English more frequently than to glottalize. Initial [h] deletion is a relatively common phenomenon, by contrast, [h] epenthesis is rather characteristic for individual speakers and cannot be generalised. Key words: French, English, linking, glottalization, L2 phonology acquisition.Cílem této bakal sk pr ce je analyzovat, jak m p sobem franco rodil ml dosahují plynulosti pomocí vázání v anglické spontánní a p ipra en e i. Teore ick s práce se zabývá osvojováním fonologie cizího jazyka a faktory, které jej o li j . Dále obsahuje podrobný popis p n a role glo ali ace angli in a franco in . Na r teoretické s i d me p ehled dosa adn ch k m , k er se zabývaly analýzou fenom n n v angli in franco sk ch rodil ch ml ch, p ede m ed kl d n m konsonantu [h] na okalick a k slo , nebo naopak jeho vynechávání. Prak ick s se n je analýze 19 nahrávek franco sk ch ml ch, k er se skládají ze s : improvizované konverzace, e b p ipra en ho textu a e b 12 jedno li ch . E perimen doka je, e franco rodil ml angli in as ji ne glo ali j . Vynechávání po e n ho konsonantu [h] a n sledn n no nikl ch slo s okalick m po kem je pom rn as m je em, kde o kl d n konsonan [h] na okalick po k slo je sp e charakteristikou daného ml ho a nem e b ed obecn no na echn ml franco in . Kl ov slova: franco ina, angli ina, n , glo ali ace, akvizice fonologie cizího jazyka.Ústav anglického jazyka a didaktikyDepartment of the English Language and ELT MethodologyFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult
Examining lexical complexity in the written production of L2 proficient learners of English
No full textThe thesis analyses lexical complexity in the written production of L2 proficient learners of English (the highest C2 level). Additionally, it compares L2 lexical complexity with L1 lexical complexity of English native speakers. This lexical complexity is investigated in two key parameters: lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. A quantitative analysis is made by the means of single indicators and is followed by an analysis where composite indicators VOCD-D and MTLD are employed to measure lexical diversity. Lexical sophistication is explored through the English Vocabulary Profile tool (EVP), which categorises words in a text according to predefined frequency word lists (A1-C2 types). The main hypothesis presumed that the lexical complexity of L2 English speakers is inferior to L1 English speakers, despite the fact that their L2 English language competence is at the highest level possible (C2 level), often compared to "native-speaker competence". It was expected that the results in respective groups (L2 and L1 speakers) would be similar. Another working hypothesis is that low- frequency words at the C2 level will be smaller for L2 English speakers than that for L1 English speakers. The data comprises 20 comparable texts of L2 proficient English speakers in the dimension of their length (the..
Terminology of disability: A historical perspective
No full textand key words: The aim of this bachelor thesis is an analysis of the development of disability terminology in the past three decades. It intends to find out whether the disability terms are appearing more or less frequently in the Corpora Of Contemporary American English. Additionally, it analyses the differences, over the years, in the frequency of terms that are preferred to be used in comparison to the ones that are advised to be avoided. It also comments on the usage of terms from various kinds of groups of disabilities in different genres. This thesis first presents the theoretical part, which sets the background for the upcoming chapters, results and discussion. The theory also contains an explanation of disability, its history and terminology, together with information from previous pieces of research. The data from the analysis show that disability terms' frequency is declining. The biggest declination can be seen in terms that are advised to be avoided by the original source of terms. Over the years, the individual groups showed slightly different development of frequency. When it comes to the average frequency in genres, the highest one was spotted in the academic sphere. The list of preferred words shows similar results, contrary to the second list, where the frequency was the highest in..
Phonetic realization of coda /t/ in current Southern British English pronunciation
No full textThe phoneme /t/ is known for featuring a wide variety of realizations in speech throughout the English-speaking world. Its realization is conditioned both by linguistic factors, such as phonetic environment or stress, and by social factors, such as region, sex, or socioeconomic background. The present bachelor thesis aims to explore and analyse the manifestations of coda /t/ in current Southern British English pronunciation. The theoretical section includes a general description of stops in world languages and an overview of various realizations of /t/ in varieties of English and recent pronunciation developments in standard British English. In the empirical part, recordings of 16 speakers of Southern British English from political radio debates were collected and processed. An auditory analysis of the phonetic realization of the target consonants was conducted and subsequently, the occurrence of individual variants was evaluated in terms of segmental, prosodic as well as semantic context. The results confirm that stress, the word's position within a phrase, its segmental environment and semantic status, and the speaker's sex all have an influence on the realization of /t/ in speech. Furthermore, the thesis documents the recent development of the sociolinguistic status of glottalling, which has..
A Longitudinal Study of Receptive Mid-Frequency Vocabulary Knowledge in Czech Advanced Learners of English
No full textThe thesis deals with the knowledge and development of receptive mid-frequency vocabulary in 18 Czech learners of English, described by their teachers as advanced and more proficient in English in comparison to their other English class peers. For the purposes of the study, a serial multiple-choice vocabulary test was used. The test consists of 96 lexical items belonging to four frequency bands. The participants took the test three times within 1 year with approximately 6-month intervals between the individual test sessions. Globally, the learners showed better knowledge of more frequent words. However, only a minority of the learners had a sufficient command of the vocabulary in the individual frequency bands except for the most frequent level, where mastery was reached by at least a half of the learners in all the three sessions. As for lexical development, generally there was a significant improvement in the knowledge of less frequent words. Some of the participants reached gains stronger than 10% over the 1-year period, others showed gains weaker than 10%, some even reached lower scores in the final session. Given the amount of time that the students spend in English classes at school, more of them could be expected to show a significant improvement. Nevertheless, the results of the study..
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