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An investigation of pause location in spoken English corpora

Dikilitas, Dilara Gizem (2023) An investigation of pause location in spoken English corpora. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

We all pause, but, um, do we all pause … in a similar manner? The first language (L1) of speakers is proposed as one factor that influences their pausing behavior in a target language, especially with regard to the frequency and location of the pauses (Goldman-Eisler, 1968). It is also assumed that the preference for a certain type of pause (silent or filled pauses) is related to its location in an utterance (Dumont, 2018). Given the complex relationship between these variables, more research is needed to understand language learners’ behavior better. This corpus-based study investigates the pause behavior of speakers of three L1 backgrounds from two English-spoken corpora: The Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI) and The Louvain Corpus of Native English Conversation (LOCNEC). Descriptive statistics and binomial logistic regression were used for analysis. The study answers two research questions: (1) In what ways do L1 speakers of English, French, and Spanish differ in terms of the location and type of pause produced in English interviews? (2) Does L1 background and/or presence vs. absence of a clause boundary have an effect on what type of pause (silent vs. filled) is produced? The results show that the L1 Spanish group differed considerably from the other groups with regard to both frequency and location of pauses. Additionally, both L1 and the presence of a clause boundary were found to be predictors of pause type.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement: © Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords: LINDSEI; LOCNEC; pause location; pause type; pauses; spoken corpus
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PE English
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status: Student
Department/Unit: Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations
College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited: 29 Aug 2023 22:27
Last Modified: 29 Aug 2023 22:27
URI: https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6105

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