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A comparison of the intonation of modern Greek and English with special reference to Greek learners of English

Georgountzou, A; (1993) A comparison of the intonation of modern Greek and English with special reference to Greek learners of English. Doctoral thesis , University of London. Green open access

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Abstract

The present study is an investigation of the production and perception of English intonation by a group of forty-four native speakers of Greek, together with a study of the production and perception of Greek intonation by the same forty-four subjects, and of the production and perception of English intonation by a control group of twelve native speakers of English. For both languages, data was gathered from the reading of a text and of sentences, and from spontaneous speech in conversation. Both auditory and (to a lesser extent) instrumental analysis is employed. Three main aims are included in the present study. (i) With regard to the Greek data, an attempt is made to describe the intonation of Modern Greek using a system closely modelled upon that devised for English by O'Connor and Arnold and presented in the Intonation of Colloquial English, (1973). This attempt, believed to be the first of its kind, leads to a satisfactory characterisation of Greek intonation, particularly for the comparative and pedagogical purposes of this thesis. (ii) With regard to English as produced and perceived by native speakers of Modern Greek, an attempt has been made to trace any possible signs of intonational interference from Modern Greek to English, as predicted by Contrastive Analysis. Extensive evidence of interference is found in both production and perception, lending strong support to the transfer theory. (iii) As far as native speakers of English are concerned, the aim was to gather control data in order to find out whether and to what extent actual performance is in accordance with what might be expected on the basis of O'Connor and Arnold's influential pedagogical account. Although the findings are largely in agreement with the existing account. some specific divergences have come to light.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Title: A comparison of the intonation of modern Greek and English with special reference to Greek learners of English
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Thesis digitised by EThOS.
Keywords: Phoenetics, linguistics, education
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > Centre for Languages and Intl Educatn
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1546136
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