This study aims to identify characteristics of intonation in Korean interrogative sentences by analyzing the acoustic phonetics in Korean and Japanese utterance in order to provide empirical data for teaching intonation to Japanese Korean language lea...
This study aims to identify characteristics of intonation in Korean interrogative sentences by analyzing the acoustic phonetics in Korean and Japanese utterance in order to provide empirical data for teaching intonation to Japanese Korean language learners. This study covers ‘wh- questions’ and ‘yes/no questions’, which have the same syntax, but different semantics of intonation. Korean and Japanese intonations are analyzed separately.Chapter 1 describes the aim and method of the study. The study examines the characteristics of intonation in Korean interrogative sentences and identifies the specific difference between intonation in Korean and Japanese speech using experimental acoustic phonetics.As a theoretical background, Chapter 2 gives a description of the concept of intonation in Korean interrogative sentences. Intonation is defined as the fluctuation of rising and falling within a complete spoken sentence. Existing studies of intonation in Korean interrogative sentences are examined, most of which focused on the terminal contour. Studies implementing auditory judgment suggest that the terminal contour falls in 'wh- questions' and rises in 'yes/no questions'. Experimental studies of speech, however, conclude that the terminal contour in 'wh- questions' may either rise or fall.Chapter 3 describes the experimental method of the acoustic phonetics and analyzes intonation in Korean interrogative sentences uttered by Koreans and Japanese.First, the analysis result of Korean speech patterns shows that the terminal contour in both 'wh- questions' and 'yes/no questions' rises. Importantly, the result is different from that of existing studies concluding that the terminal contour rises in 'wh- questions'. The result is very significant in that it comes from the empirical experiment. It can be safely said that this is one of the characteristics of Korean interrogative sentences.The result which is statistically significant can be derived only in pitch difference, even though the terminal contour rises in both types of interrogative sentences when examining intonation difference. The interrogative intonation may not be distinguished by intonation curve, but by duration and pitch which are significantly different. Differentiators of two types of questions include pitch, duration and pause, of which the determining factor is the pitch of the terminal contour.Next, the interrogative sentences uttered by Japanese learners are analyzed the same way. The terminal contour of them falls first and then rises, forming a curve. It is difficult to distinguish the type of interrogative through intonation.Intonation type on each sentence was also examined depending on the learning levels. There was no consistent difference in utterance depending on the levels, which suggests that intonation must be continuously taught from beginning to advanced levels.Based on the analysis in Chapter 3, Chapter 4 examines intonation characteristics of Korean interrogative sentences, beginning with the terminal contour. Koreans pose questions with linearly rising terminal contour while Japanese speak with a turning point of falling-and-rising terminal contour, which leads to a conclusion that the turning point is one of the biggest characteristics of Japanese learners' speech.Chapter 5 concludes this study and makes some suggestions for future studies. The objective and specific patterns of intonation is examined for intonation teaching to Japanese Korean language learners. The result shows that there are different intonation patterns between Koreans and Japanese. This empirical study will help identify the general pattern of Korean intonation. Yet the study is incomplete as we could not conduct listening tests. This study conclusively proves that the terminal contour rises in Korean 'wh- questions', but requires more research specified towards characteristics of the terminal contour of 'wh- questions' through various experiments specifying types of sentential endings as well as the age and sex of the subjects.