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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 25, No. 0, pp.247-263
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2025
Received 23 Nov 2024 Revised 02 Feb 2025 Accepted 10 Feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.25..202502.247

The role of acoustic cues in lexical stress recognition of real and nonce words by Korean learners of English

Eunkyung Sung
Professor, Department of English, Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies 107 Imun-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea, Tel: 02) 2173-8761 eks@cufs.ac.kr


© 2025 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study investigated how Korean learners of English perceived lexical stress, focusing on their reliance on acoustic cues such as duration, f0, and intensity when processing nonce words versus real words. Twenty-one Korean learners of English and 21 native English listeners participated in a perception experiment. The results showed that Korean listeners, whose L1 prosody utilizes f0 for phrasal prominence and segmental distinction in stop categories, tended to transfer this cue when perceiving English lexical stress. In contrast, English listeners primarily relied on duration cues. Furthermore, both listener groups demonstrated a stronger dependence on acoustic cues when processing nonce words compared to real words, indicating that familiarity with real words reduced reliance on detailed acoustic information. These findings indicate the impact of L1 prosody on L2 lexical stress perception and reveal differences in the processing of nonce and real words. This research contributes to the broader understanding of L2 prosodic perception, emphasizing the role of L1 transfer and lexical status.

Keywords:

lexical stress, acoustic cues, duration, f0, intensity, nonce words, real words, L2 perception

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2024.

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