The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

Abstract

<jats:p>The study investigates the impact of glottal elements before word-initial vowels on the speed of processing of the phrases taken from natural continuous speech. In many languages a word beginning with a vowel can be preceded by a glottal stop or a short period of creaky voice. However, languages differ in the extent of use and functions of this glottalization: it may be used to mark the word boundary, for instance, or to add special prominence to the word. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether the presence of the glottal element can influence reaction times in a word-monitoring paradigm. Users of different languages - Slovak and Czech learners of English, as well as native speakers of English - were participating in perception testing so that the influence of the mother tongue could be determined. The results confirm the effect of both glottalization and the L1 of the listeners. In addition, a significant effect of test item manipulations was found. Although the phrases with added or deleted glottal stops displayed no obvious acoustic artefacts, they produced longer reaction times than items with naturally present or absent glottalizations. We believe that this finding underlines the importance of inherent stress patterns, whose alterations lead to the increase in processing load.</jats:p>

Monitoring English Sandhi Linking – A Study of Polish Listeners’ L2 Perception

“…Considering the prevalence of glottalization in L1 Polish and in Polish-accented English, we expected it to play a more significant role in perception and lead to a larger decrease in response times across all groups of learners. This is what was found in other monitoring studies with Spanish, Czech and Slovak learners of English (Bissiri et al, 2011;Volín et al, 2012), in which glottalized tokens were recognized on average about 10% more quickly. Nevertheless, there were differences between this study and the other studies that may have contributed to the discrepancy in the results.…”

“…Although we learned that glottalization is a more robust boundary cue than aspiration, the relative salience of glottalized vs. linked tokens was not tested. Another series of studies (Bissiri et al, 2011;Volín et al, 2012) has taken up this question explicitly. These studies used a word monitoring paradigm in which listeners were presented a target word on a computer screen accompanied by an audio recording.…”

“…Studies by Cebrian (2000), Zsiga (2003Zsiga ( , 2011, Lleo and Vogel (2004), Altenberg (2005), Ito and Strange (2009), Bissiri, Lecumberri, Cooke, and Volín (2011), Volín, Uhrinová, and Skarnitzl (2012), Šimáčková, Kolářová, and Podlipský (2014), Schwartz, Balas, and Rojczyk (2014), and Shoemaker (2014), along with a larger body of work on the acquisition of the well-known processes of liaison and enchaînement in L2 French, (e.g. Howard, 2006;Howard, 2008;Sturm, 2013;Shoemaker, 2010), indicate that L2 research has started to move beyond simple segmental features such as vowel quality and Voice Onset Time (VOT).…”

Rhythmic structure effects on glottalisation: A study of different speech styles in Polish and German

“…Future work will show the extent to which glottal marking aids the recognition of word boundaries if rhythmic parameters are manipulated, a point which has been already partially investigated in other languages such as Czech, English, Slovak, and Spanish (Bissiri et al 2011;Volín et al 2012;Heffner et al to appear …”

Spectral dynamics in L1 and L2 vowel perception

“…As in other studies (Volín et al 2012), responses classified as false alarms and hesitations were excluded. The thresholds for these categories for this study were set at 150ms and 1500ms.…”