earticle

영어

It is recognized that word frequency is a significant factor influencing voice onset time (VOT). Nevertheless, the effects of word frequency factor on VOT have scarcely been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the VOT of the English voiceless stops in word-initial position is differently realized in high frequency words and low frequency words in terms of gender, age, place of articulation (POA) and vowel height. The results of the current study showed that in high frequency words the factors of age, POA and vowel height had a significant influence on VOT values, with longer VOT for younger people, for the alveolar stop /t/ and for the high vowels. In low frequency words only POA significantly affected VOT values, with longer VOT for the velar stop /k/. The interactions between POA and vowel height, and between age and vowel height were statistically different, although no interaction was found in the high frequency words.