Tag: Linguistics

Exploring sibilants and gender: A le/s/on from transgender speakers

Presenter: Jaidan McLean – Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Tyler Kendall

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Diversity and Analysis

Sibilant consonant variation is a well-studied topic in linguistics research to examine multiple social axes. Regarding gender, Zimman (2017) raised questions about the social patterning of sibilants in transgender speaker’s /s/ production since previous literature has only examined sibilant variation through a binarily cisgender lens. Focusing on transgender men and transmasculine people, Zimman found the social implications of gender identity and expression influence /s/ production in complex ways. As part of an undergraduate honors thesis, this study attempts to address the following two questions regarding /s/ production among a sample of transgender women and transfeminine people: How does speaker identity influence the patterns for /s/ variation found among the speakers? How do intraspeaker variations differ across speech, gender identities and expressions? Sociolinguistic interviews were used to elicit natural /s/ production, followed by a reading passage and word list task to elicit scripted speech. Focusing on center of gravity (COG) frequencies, this study finds its speaker productions to vary greatly with one’s expression and in certain linguistic conditions, both across the group’s and within individual speech. Such drastic variation complicates binarily established COG frequency ranges from previous literature and parallels Zimman’s (2017) findings. These data demonstrate the importance of considering all aspects of social identities as everyone is complex.

The Effectiveness of Audiovisual Training on Non-Native English Speech Production and Perception

Presenter(s): Chia-ni Shen − Psychology, Communication Disorders & Sciences

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Baese-Berk

Poster 118

Research Area: Linguistics (Second Language Production And Perception)

Funding: UROP Mini Grant

In this project, we will examine the effectiveness of audiovisual training, pairing audio input with visual input, on non-native English speech production and perception. Speech perception relies on both acoustic information and visual information. Audiovisual training is a method that applies use of the two domains. Previous research utilizing this method has been employed in the field of speech pathology, showing positive outcomes in improving speech among dyslexic children. However, few studies to date have examined its use in second language learning. Furthermore, this research has focused primarily on perception and production of English /l/ and /r/ but not consonants made with the lips (i.e., labial sounds: /b,p,m,f,v/), which are known to be challenging for many second language learners though the differences between these consonants are typically visible on the lips. Therefore, the aim of this project is to explore audiovisual training across 3 non-native language groups: Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. Participants will take part in a training study designed to examine the effects of audiovisual and audio-only training. Performance before and after the training will be assessed via perception and production tests. We hypothesize that 1) student production performance and perception performance will improve and 2) production and perception improvement will rely heavily on a participant’s language background and known difficulties with labial sounds. Results from this research will enrich understanding of language perception and production and provide information on the use of audiovisual training in second language learning.

The Role of Semantic Predictability in Adaptation to Nonnative-Accented Speech

Presenter(s): Kayla Walker—Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Baese-Berk

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Nonnative-accented speech is more difficult for native listeners to understand than native-accented speech . However, listeners can improve their abilities to understand nonnative- accented speech through exposure and training . The goal of this project is to explore whether exposing native listeners to different sentence types affects listeners’ adaptation to nonnative speech . Listeners will be trained on high predictability sentences (e .g ., “The color of a lemon is yellow”), low predictability sentences (e .g ., “Mom said that it is yellow”), or semantically anomalous sentences (e .g ., “The green week did the page”) . Previous research has demonstrated that semantic predictability impacts speech perception, but its influence on adaptation to nonnative speech is unknown . This research aimed to answer the following questions: Does training with low predictability or anomalous stimuli require listeners to focus more attention on the acoustic-phonetic properties of the accent and thus lead to greater adaptation and generalizable learning? Or will training with high predictability stimuli provide valuable semantic information that will allow listeners to create a better framework for improving perception? Overall, preliminary results indicate that training with low predictability sentences provides listeners with an advantage over training with high predictability sentences . Using higher effort in training with more challenging sentences allows listeners to construct generalizable knowledge about the speech rather than relying on semantic prediction during a transcription task .

The competitive relationship between linguistic perception and production when learning a new sound contrast

Presenter(s): Tillena Trebon—Linguistics, Spanish

Co-Presenter(s): Zoe Haupt, Allegra Wesson, Maggie Wallace

Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Melissa Baese-Berk, Dr. Zachary Jaggers

Session 6: Cerebal Matters

This research investigates the connection between perception and production when learning to discriminate between unfamiliar sounds . It is commonly assumed that humans use the same neural mechanisms for recognizing a spoken sound and producing a sound . If this assumption is correct, when we get better at perceiving sounds, we should also get better at producing them, and vice versa . Our research asks: Do linguistic perception and production utilize the same neural processes? Does one get better at perceiving the difference between two sounds by producing them? To answer these questions, experiment participants were trained on a new sound contrast . In the “Perception and production” condition, subjects produced the sounds during training . In the “Perception only” condition, subjects did not produce sounds during training . Results show that “Perception only” participants learned to perceive the difference between the sounds they were trained on . “Perception and production” participants did not learn the contrast nearly as well . Our research challenges traditional assumptions of linguistic perception and production by showing that the relationship between perceiving and producing new sounds appears competitive . Our research reveals that producing new sounds while learning to discriminate between those sounds hinders perceptual learning . Our results are consistent with recent research, which also show that perception and production may not utilize the same neural mechanisms . These results shed light on the complex language acquisition mechanisms in the brain . Understanding the relationship between linguistic perception and production is essential for optimizing second language teaching methods and for understanding how humans acquire language .

The Extent, Contributing Factors and Responses to Depression and Suicidal Ideation in Modern South Korea

Presenter(s): James Taylor—Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Session 5: It’s a Small World After All

The Republic of Korea (Korea) has seen a high rate of economic development in the post-WWII era and is currently the country with the 11th highest GDP worldwide (International Monetary Fund) .At the same time, Korea is beset by a mental health crisis more severe than similar countries in the world . Korea has the highest rate of suicide both in the South-East Asian region and in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at 26 .6 people per capita as of 2018 (compared to the regional average of 10 .8 people per capita in 2015 and the OEDC average of 11 .4 in 2017) .2-5 Other mental health problems, including depression, alcohol dependence and mood disorders, correlate to suicidal ideation; as a result, the prevalence of these disorders exacerbate the core issue of suicidal ideation . This literary review evaluates the extent of these mental health issues in Korea, identifies correlatory factors relating to mental health, and presents current policies and approaches addressing mental health in part or in whole . In addition, it focuses on the population in general but also through four specific lenses: students, full-time employees, the elderly, and celebrities . The significance of this research mainly focuses on improving the quality of life for people in South Korea by identifying factors associated with mental health and proposing solutions that reduce the frequency and severity of mental health disorders .

How Does Our Background Influence Social Output?

Presenter(s): Kathryn Paulus—Linguistics, Pre-International Studies

Co-Presenter(s): Claire Amistoso, Bryan Salazar, Owen Morgan

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Baese-Berk

Session 1: Human Behavior—I am Who I Am

Recently, intersectionality has been used to analyze social dynamics around the world . We recognize that everyone comes from different places and has many different experiences . To operationalize social background, we divided social background into four subsections: race/ ethnicity, socioeconomic, language and gender . Our research focuses on how people express each subsection of social background . We plan on releasing a survey that focuses on four major topics by asking a series of questions within each topic . Because of the current situation of the world, we plan on releasing this survey on our social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram . The significance of this research is to identify the results of intersectionality through social output from diverse backgrounds .

Focusing on those aspects of our lives is something that not everyone around the world fully realizes yet, as we only focus on either one or two of those . So it’s a topic that we as a research group want to focus as to how everything builds up to one point in our lives and how impactful it is for better or for worse .

Memory specificity and generalization: Competing or complementary memory processes?

Presenter(s): Celina Maldonado—Psychology and Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Lea Frank, Dasa Zeithamova

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Memory serves two important functions: we must remember individual experiences (memory specificity) and we must be able to link across these experiences to form general concepts (generalization) . It is unclear, however, whether generalization and memory specificity are competing or complementary processes . One possibility is that individual memories are stored in detail and then generalized during retrieval . In this case, successful generalization relies on intact memory for the individual memories . Another possibility is that memories are linked to previous experiences during encoding, leading to some of the information of individual experiences being lost to support generalization . In this experiment, two tasks were used to study memory specificity and generalization . To investigate memory specificity, participants studied a series of colored objects . The test phase required participants to select the color of each object from a continuous color wheel, allowing us to measure how precisely they could remember the color-object pair . To measure generalization, participants studied face-scene pairings in which two faces were paired with a given scene (F1-S1, F2-S1), and one of the faces was also paired with a second scene (F2-S2) . Generalization was measured by how often participants linked the second face with the second scene (F2-S2) at test given the faces’ shared preference for the first scene . To understand the relationship between memory specificity and generalization, we correlated performance on the two independent tasks . If generalization relies on intact memory for individual experiences, then I predict performance on generalization and memory specificity will be positively correlated .

Investigating the Effect of Second Language Learning on the Acquisition of a Third Language Rhythm Pattern

Presenter(s): Carissa Diantoro—Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Redford

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

Language rhythm arises from the language-specific timing of syllables, dictated by the language- specific stress patterns . Previous studies show that speaking a language with a similar rhythm pattern to a target second language (L2) could aid in rhythm acquisition of that language . The question addressed in this study is whether training in an L2 could help the acquisition of a third language (L3) . We hypothesize that compared to a monolingual speaker, an L2 learner will better acquire the rhythm patterns of an L3 if the L2 rhythm pattern is similar to that of the L3 . We tested this hypothesis by asking whether English-speaking learners of French more quickly learn an L3 language with a French-like rhythm pattern (i .e ., Indonesian) than English speakers with no such L2 experience . The French learners and English-only speakers were recorded while repeating Indonesian sentences as well as French sentences . Their repetitions were acoustically segmented into consonant and vowel intervals, and several interval-based rhythm metrics were calculated . Preliminary findings, based on 5 second-year English learners of French and 5 monolingual English speakers, show little meaningful differences between the two groups in their production of Indonesian . Segmentation and analysis of the French sentences is on-going to ensure that there are at least difference between the groups in their production of French . Also, more study participants are being recruited to increase the sample sizes . Overall, the goal of the study is to better understand adult language acquisition, including the benefits of L2 learning .

Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech

Presenter(s): Hayli Brown—Linguistics, Japanese

Faculty Mentor(s): Kaori Idemaru

Session 1: Speech and Sound—Can you Hear Me?

This study extends previous findings on the perception of pitch accent in Japanese second language speech (L2) and further analyzes its effect on the word level in isolation . Previous research revealed that pitch accent is the strongest acoustic factor that affects how accented a speaker sounds
when speaking Japanese as an L2 . Analyzing this effect at the word level will inform us on where this accentedness is heaviest in a phrase . Japanese speech samples were collected from 20 American English speakers (10 speakers in both second and third year groups) studying Japanese . The L2 participants provided speech samples of 18 words both with and without a native speaker model . Pitch patterns 0 (LHH), 1 (HLL), and 3 (LHL) were examined in words that had three morae— units of time, which are given separate pitch accents to create a tonal pattern in Japanese . Native Japanese listeners (10 participants) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent . Words with Type 0 and Type 2 pitch accents were rated the highest for having a perceived foreign accent . Perceived foreign accentedness was also rated higher for the second year group of Japanese learners . Further research should be conducted to ascertain the exact acoustic or phonological motivations for these results, but the difference between English and Japanese intonation patterns is considered as one motivation in this study . With more research, the findings of this study may provide useful tools for better pronunciation teaching methods with the goal of achieving native-like fluency .

Demographic Influences on Perception of Singular They/Them Pronouns

Presenter(s): Danni Black—Linguistics

Co-Presenter(s): Mel Birke, Lydia Murtha, Sam Montagne

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Baese-Berk

Session 1: Speech and Sound—Can you Hear Me?

A society does not just have one characteristic, it has many . Not only that, but those traits often influence and alter one another . While this is known and observable for traditional relations, such as gender and race, it is not as established for concepts that are later introduced into a society rather than initially integrated . Such is the case for the pronouns of they/them in American society . In order to determine how one’s previous societal roles and beliefs affect their perception and acceptance/ rejection of the pronouns of “they/them” and alternative gender identities in general in a linguistic state . To do this, we plan to submit a digital survey to students and staff of as many kinds as we can gain access to at the University of Oregon . In this survey we will include cultural identifiers such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community, and more . Then we will observe that data to determine if there is a statistical significance among our subjects between one of those traits and their perception of “they/them” pronouns . Additionally, there is an option on the survey where subjects can express their desire to participate in an interview to elaborate on their views and the development of those views . This interview will be conducted remotely and respectfully, and will provide us with a more in-depth explanation and conclusion of the research being conducted .