| This dissertation examines three issues concerning syllabification from a variety of angles: perception, production, and orthography. First, it focuses on whether and how a certain syllabification strategy observed in a language is maintained when the speaker is parsing typologically different languages. Secondly, it explores effects of segmentation units of native language on second (or target) language perception. Finally, it attempts to ask and answer how written forms of languages relate not just to pronunciations, but also to other levels of linguistic knowledge by closely looking at Korean orthography for English words.; Findings showed that the strongly CV syllable-based (C: consonant; V: vowel) syllabification strategy from the native language, Korean, was also employed in the syllabification of the target language, English. It is suggested that CV syllable structure consists of segmentation units in Korean, which may be able to account for Koreans' difficulty perceiving the segmentation unit of English, which is strong syllable-based (Cutler and Norris, 1988).; Furthermore, different segmentation units depending on languages may lead to incomplete perception of L2 (here, English) syllables by L1 (Korean) listeners, which could be a possible explanation for unauthentic production of L2 syllables by L1 speakers.; The CV syllable-based syllabification strategy of Koreans became more evident in perception of repetitive speech in English, where perceptual patterns of dynamic modulation of syllables are probed as a function of speech rate—i.e., VC syllable structure is perceived as CV syllable structure as speech rate increases (Stetson, 1951; de Jong, 2001a; 2001b).; Finally, as characterized as relatively transparent mapping between print and sound, Korean orthography is a good reflex of phonology in Korean, which may affect perception of second (or target) languages. |
