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The Perception of Intonation in Japanese Sentence Types by Swedish Speakers : Wh-Questions, Yes/No-Questions and Declaratives

Lam, Jenny LU (2017) JAPK11 20171
Japanese Studies
Abstract
This study is concerned with the topic of sentence-final intonation in wh-questions, yes/no- questions and declaratives. The aim of the study is to investigate whether native speakers of Swedish can recognize these sentence types in standard Japanese by listening to the intonation alone. In addition, whether exposure to the language affects the ability to distinguish these sentence types is investigated. Therefore, two quantitative online surveys were created for native speakers of Japanese and Swedish for further comparison.
The Swedish participants were initially asked to choose between four categories corresponding to their exposure to and proficiency in Japanese: little to no exposure, regular exposure, 1-year students at university,... (More)
This study is concerned with the topic of sentence-final intonation in wh-questions, yes/no- questions and declaratives. The aim of the study is to investigate whether native speakers of Swedish can recognize these sentence types in standard Japanese by listening to the intonation alone. In addition, whether exposure to the language affects the ability to distinguish these sentence types is investigated. Therefore, two quantitative online surveys were created for native speakers of Japanese and Swedish for further comparison.
The Swedish participants were initially asked to choose between four categories corresponding to their exposure to and proficiency in Japanese: little to no exposure, regular exposure, 1-year students at university, and 2-year students or higher at university. The participants were then asked to listen to Japanese sentences and choose the most suitable answer. The results from the Japanese speakers showed high recognition rate in all three sentence types. Similar results were produced by students of Japanese, except in declaratives. The answers indicate that declaratives were perceived as interrogative sentences instead. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Lam, Jenny LU
supervisor
organization
course
JAPK11 20171
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Wh-questions, yes/no-questions, declaratives, sentence-final intonation, Swedish, Japanese
language
English
id
8925472
date added to LUP
2017-09-18 12:44:22
date last changed
2017-09-18 12:44:22
@misc{8925472,
  abstract     = {{This study is concerned with the topic of sentence-final intonation in wh-questions, yes/no- questions and declaratives. The aim of the study is to investigate whether native speakers of Swedish can recognize these sentence types in standard Japanese by listening to the intonation alone. In addition, whether exposure to the language affects the ability to distinguish these sentence types is investigated. Therefore, two quantitative online surveys were created for native speakers of Japanese and Swedish for further comparison.
The Swedish participants were initially asked to choose between four categories corresponding to their exposure to and proficiency in Japanese: little to no exposure, regular exposure, 1-year students at university, and 2-year students or higher at university. The participants were then asked to listen to Japanese sentences and choose the most suitable answer. The results from the Japanese speakers showed high recognition rate in all three sentence types. Similar results were produced by students of Japanese, except in declaratives. The answers indicate that declaratives were perceived as interrogative sentences instead.}},
  author       = {{Lam, Jenny}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Perception of Intonation in Japanese Sentence Types by Swedish Speakers : Wh-Questions, Yes/No-Questions and Declaratives}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}