Marjoleine Sloos | Fryske Akademy (original) (raw)

Papers by Marjoleine Sloos

In Austrian Standard German (ASG), the vowels in the words Beeren and Bären are usually regarded ... more In Austrian Standard German (ASG), the vowels in the words Beeren and Bären are usually regarded to be merged. Some acoustic studies on ASG also suggest a merger between the vowels as in Miete and Mitte and even between the BEEREN/BÄREN merger and the MIETE vowel. This paper re-investigates these mergers from a sociolinguistic viewpoint and shows that older speakers tend to merge the vowels more than younger speakers. This points towards an ongoing dispersion (or 'unmerger') and we argue that this is a result of accommodation toward Standard German as it is pronounced in Germany.

ABSTRACT Word frequency plays a role in reduction processes: high-frequency words undergo more re... more ABSTRACT Word frequency plays a role in reduction processes: high-frequency words undergo more reduction than low-frequency words. Pretonic schwa reduction in Dutch is susceptible to frequency effects in this way, but the well-formedness of the cluster that remains after schwa deletion also plays a role. An experiment shows that cluster well-formedness and frequency effects in fact interact with each other. This suggests that phonological models should incorporate both lexical as well a grammatical information.

In dialectology, it is often necessary to obtain a measure for the level of dialectal accent show... more In dialectology, it is often necessary to obtain a measure for the level of dialectal accent shown by individual speakers, especially if statistical analysis is needed. This also applies to studies on standard variants which are " coloured " by regiolects or dialects. In this paper I explore the feasibility of letting native speakers judge the degree of accentedness in Low-Alemannic German. Specifically, I investigate whether listeners who speak a similar dialect as the speakers who are evaluated assign different judgements than listeners who do not. A novel methodology is applied, which involves an on-line elicitation task using audio files. This experiment shows that listeners who speak different varieties of German form a homogeneous group, with respect to rating the level of accent. STANDARD ODER DIALEKT? EINE NEUE ONLINE ELIZITATIONS-TECHNIK Zusammenfassung In der Dialektologie wird häufig ein Maß für den Grad des dialektalen Akzents einzelner Sprecher benötigt, insbesondere, wenn eine statistische Analyse benötigt wird. Das gilt auch für Studien über Standardvarietäten, die durch Regiolekte oder Dialekte "gefärbt" sind. In diesem Artikel prüfe ich, inwieweit es möglich ist, Muttersprachler den dialektalen Akzent in nieder-alemannischem Deutsch einschätzen zu lassen. Insbesondere untersuche ich, ob Hörer, die einen ähnlichen Dialekt wie die bewerteten Sprecher sprechen, zu anderen Urteilen kommen als Hörer, die keinen ähnlichen Dialekt sprechen. Eine neuartige Methode mit einer Marjoleine Sloos 96 Online-Elizitations-Aufgabe anhand von Audio-Dateien kommt zum Einsatz. Das Experiment zeigt, dass Hörer, die verschiedene Varietäten des Deutschen sprechen, den erhobenen Bewertungen nach eine homogene Gruppe bilden.

In this paper, we show that Input-Reduplicant correspondence is a necessary ingredient of a full ... more In this paper, we show that Input-Reduplicant correspondence is a necessary ingredient
of a full analysis of Leti reduplication. IR correspondence accounts for reduplication
patterns that fail to be explained by Base-Reduplicant correspondence
and also by earlier accounts in linear phonology (van Engelenhoven 2004; van der
Hulst & Klamer 1996). Input-Reduplicant correspondence was introduced in McCarthy
& Prince (1995), in order to explain Klamath reduplication of full vowels,
which are reduced to schwa in the ‘base’, but which surface as full vowels in the
reduplicant. Subsequently, some other languages have been reported that show
IR correspondence. For instance Kwakwala (Struijke 1998) and Palauan (Zuraw
2005), which is related to Leti, have a pattern that highly resembles Klamath. In
Kirundi (Brassil 2003) vowel length and tone in the reduplicant are more faithful
to the underlying form than to the base. However, when we assume IR correspondence
is a necessary set of constraints, we predict that not only Faith is a relevant
constraint, but in fact that the whole family of correspondence constraints exists.
Whereas Ident-IR constraints have frequently been invoked, Max-IR, AnchorBR,
Contiguity-BR and Dep-IR, have, to the best of our knowledge, not yet been
reported. These constraints, we argue, play a role in Leti reduplication.

Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in the application of modern methodology to the s... more Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in the application of modern
methodology to the study of geographic language variation. One instance
of this, applied to the Dutch language area, is the topic of dialectometry.
It seems fair to say that the measurements in most dialectometrical
projects are fairly superficial from a linguistic point of view. In
this article, we propose a view of dialect distance which is radically different
both in its methodology and in its goals. We present a view in
which the distances between grammars are computed rather than the
differences between words or constructions, which we view as products
of the grammars. In particular, we consider the phenomenon of umlaut in
diminutive forms. Umlaut, a phenomenon in which back vowels become
front in certain morphological contexts, is virtually absent in the western
parts of the Dutch speaking area, but fully productive in many parts of the
east. We show how this east-west transition can be elegantly described as
a gradual change in grammars.

In reduction processes, frequency is known to be an important factor of variation: h... more In reduction processes, frequency is known to be an important factor of variation:
highfrequency words tend to undergo more reduction than lowfrequency words.
Similarly, recency, or repetition, also leads to more reduction. Pretonic schwa in Dutch
is susceptible to reduction in which frequency as well as recency are likely to play a
role. However, it has been claimed that schwadeletion also depends on Dutch phonotactics:
schwadeletion would not occur if it results in an illformed onset cluster. This
paper investigates possible interactions between frequency, recency, and phonotactic
structure. The results show that the degree of reduction driven by frequency and recency
effects interacts with phonotactics. Schwa reduction occurs more often if the
preceding and following consonant together form a phonotactically permissible onset
cluster. These results call for an integrated approach of usagebased phonology, which
explains the frequency and recency effects, and constraintbased phonology which explains
the categorical cluster effect.

The Urumqi Mandarin dialect has three tones, whereas Standard (Beijing) Mandarin has four tones. ... more The Urumqi Mandarin dialect has three tones, whereas Standard (Beijing) Mandarin has four tones. Recently, younger speakers in Urumqi began to use Standard Mandarin in daily conversation. We investigate how they acquire the tones in Standard Mandarin, especially the rising tone (T2) which lacks a counterpart in Urumqi Mandarin. We will show that these younger speakers initially use Urumqi tones in Standard Mandarin (but for different lexical sets). At that stage, the production of T1, T3 and T4 approximates Standard Mandarin relatively well. However, T2 is merged with T3. In the second stage, unmerger of T2 and T3 occurs, which is characterized by a distinction between early (T2) and late (T3) low turning points in the dipping tone. In the third stage, further disambiguation occurs by lowering the lowest turning point in T3. However, the final rise of T2 is still missing. We assume that raising the final part of T2 will be the final step to be taken in the near future.

In this paper we discuss the four tones of Standard (Beijing) Mandarin Chinese. First, we will su... more In this paper we discuss the four tones of Standard (Beijing) Mandarin Chinese. First, we will suggest a proposal for their phonological representation. Then, we discuss the order in which they are acquired in first language acquisition, relating this both to the representations we propose and to the relative frequency with which these tones appear in the most frequently used Chinese words. It turns out that the former predicts the order of acquisition more closely than the latter: We provide an explanation for this based on the early stage at which the tones are acquired.

Although speech rhythm is a highly important factor in the evaluation of nativeness, it is usuall... more Although speech rhythm is a highly important factor in the evaluation of nativeness, it is usually not explicitly taught in second language acquisition. Moreover, acquisition studies of Mandarin prosody typically focus on the acquisition of tone. We investigated durational patterns of Mandarin Chinese as produced by Danish learners. Native Mandarin Chinese rhythm is characterized by, first, sentence-final syllable lengthening, then tone-intrinsic duration, and finally, rhyme structure. Danish speech rhythm is fundamentally different, since Danish is a stress language with only primary stress on the level of the phonological phrase, and extensive reduction of unstressed syllables. We show that the interlanguage of Danish learners of Chinese is comparable to native Mandarin Chinese duration patterns with regard to rhyme structure. However, differentiation of duration based on tone and final lengthening lags behind in Danish acquisition of Chinese.

In a language identification task, native Belgian French and native Swiss French speakers identif... more In a language identification task, native Belgian French and native Swiss French speakers identified French from France as their own variety. However, Canadian French was not subject to this bias. Canadian and French listeners didn't claim a different variety as their own. ''Which language variety do you perceive?'' This question, elicited to establish dialect categorization, boundaries, and continua (see Tamati, 2010 and Baker, Eddington, & Nay, 2009 and references cited there) is usually posed as a forced choice question: possible answers are already provided. The reason is obviously that open choice questions are felt to be too difficult (like in Baker et al., 2009, p. 50). An apparent caveat of this method is that a proportion of answers consist of a (wild) guess. So let us face the facts and see what respondents answer on the open question ''which language variety do you perceive?'' We conducted an online survey consisting of small excerpts of 20 to 25 s (two or three adjacent sentences) of read speech of French from France and Canadian French. The fragments were selected from the online corpus Phonologie du Franc¸ais Contemporain (Durand, Laks, & Lyche, 2002). The selected fragments consisted of recordings of 12 speakers from Canada (six from Quebec and six from Peace River [Alberta Province]) and 12 speakers from France (six from Paris and six from Dijon), equally balanced for gender and varied for age. We investigated the ability to identify French from France and Canadian French by native speakers of four different French nationalects (viz. French from France, Canadian French, Belgian French, and Swiss French). In addition, we asked the subjects to estimate the level of standardness of the speech fragments. Respondents were contacted via e-mail and social networks of the authors. In total, 70 responses were received, but eight respondents (all from France) did not complete the question about the geographic variety

This contribution explores a methodological problem in language acquisition studies. Much researc... more This contribution explores a methodological problem in language acquisition studies.
Much research in language acquisition has shown that children use statistical
learning as a strategy in the acquisition of their native language (Saffran et al. 1996
and many others). Frequency of occurrence is also believed to determine the order of
acquisition of phonological structures in the construction of the grammar (Boersma
and Levelt 2000, Levelt et al. 2000, van de Weijer and Sloos 2013). How do we
obtain the relevant frequency information for acquisition studies?

Recent research has shown that speech perception can easily be influenced by the overall accent o... more Recent research has shown that speech perception can easily be influenced by the overall accent of the speaker. This paper investigates whether such accentinduced bias also occurs in speech transcription by professional and linguistically trained coders and to what extent such a bias may affect linguistic analyses. We compare the transcriptions of the Bären vowel in Standard German with the acoustic values of these vowels, as well as sociolinguistic analyses based on both of these. The results of the two analyses turn out to be considerably different. Further examination shows that the coders only partly relied on the acoustic values. The residual does not consist of random errors, but correlate with the degree of accentedness of the speakers. We conclude that this accent-induced coder bias led the coders to transcribe the codings according to their expectations about the pronunciation in the local dialect – expectations that were quite different from the acoustic reality.

In language change, a reversal of a merger is generally considered to be impossible, since after ... more In language change, a reversal of a merger is generally considered to be impossible, since after two sounds have become fully merged, they are no longer distinct, so no phonetic or phonological cues exist that could reverse this process. This article investigates such an 'impossible' merger reversal: the split of the Bären vowel (orthographically represented by <ä> or <äh>) and the Beeren vowel (orthographically represented by , or in Austrian Standard German. We investigated a corpus of spoken data, measured the acoustic properties of the vowels, and determined the degree of the merger (by computing Pillai scores) for younger and older speakers. It turns out that the two sounds were formerly merged, but currently a split can be observed as an ongoing process. This paper argues that language contact with Standard German as it is spoken in Germany motivates the ongoing reversal. Since the Bären vowel is also subject to substantial variation in German Standard German, in order to get the split right, Austrian speakers are likely to invoke orthographical knowledge. We will consider the mental representations of this sound, including the graphemic representations from an Exemplar-theoretical viewpoint.

Some roots in Japanese compounds always undergo the rule of rendaku, others never undergo the rul... more Some roots in Japanese compounds always undergo the rule of rendaku, others never undergo the rule, and still others vacillate. In this paper, we investigate this kind of lexical variation from the perspective of the frequency of such roots. Different types of frequency are considered, such as that of roots in isolation, and the roots' frequency of occurrence as a left-or right-hand member of compounds. We show that frequency is related to the likelihood of a root undergoing rendaku. Since rendaku also clearly involves phonological factors, we argue that this result should be interpreted in a model which integrates usage-based factors with phonological grammar.

Sociolinguistic research often relies on transcription or coding by one, two, or maximally three ... more Sociolinguistic research often relies on transcription or coding by one, two, or maximally three native coders. Recently, it has been shown that this method may have some drawbacks, since listeners may be biased by an overall impression of the accent of the speakers. Whereas coders are expected to judge only on the basis of the acoustic signal, other factors might also play a role. This paper investigates the degree to which the transcriptions of two coders match the acoustic measurements of the long vowel <ä> in Swiss Standard German. For this purpose, a standard statistical analysis of the coders' judgements was compared to an analysis of the acoustic measurements of the same vowels. It turned out that the coders only partly rely on the acoustic signal; moreover, the coders seem to be biased towards an overall accent of the speakers, and transcribe the vowels concerned accordingly. This points towards a linguistic halo effect. This bias leads to statistical results that differ considerably from the acoustic analysis. The comparison of the two types of analyses, based on categorical judgements of native speakers and on acoustic measurements, shows that this type of sociolinguistic research should be treated with great care.

This paper questions the assumption made in classic Optimality Theory ) that markedness constrain... more This paper questions the assumption made in classic Optimality Theory ) that markedness constraints are an innate part of Universal Grammar. Instead, we argue that constraints are acquired on the basis of the language data to which L1 learning children are exposed. This is argued both on general grounds (innateness is an assumption that should not be invoked lightly) and on the basis of empirical evidence. We investigate this issue for six general markedness constraints in French, and show that all constraints could be acquired on the basis of the ambient data. Second, we show that the order of acquisition of the marked structures matches the frequency of violations of the relevant constraints in the input quite well. This argues in favour of a phonological model in which constraints are acquired, not innate, i.e. a model in which grammatical notions such as constraints are derived from language use.