Karolina BrośUniversity of Warsaw | UW · Institute of Applied Linguistics
Karolina Broś
PhD
About
32
Publications
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44
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I currently work at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw where I conduct research on the phonetics and phonology of dialectal language change funded by the Polish National Science Centre.
In 2017-2018, as a visiting post-doc at the University of Zurich, I conducted an EEG study funded by the Swiss government. I am now running another EEG study in Nice, France, funded by the French Embassy in Warsaw.
I also study cognitive psychology at SWPS University, Poland.
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - August 2018
October 2013 - present
Education
September 2020 - June 2022
October 2007 - June 2012
Publications
Publications (32)
This paper discusses the corpus of Gran Canarian Spanish gathered in 2016 in order to provide an in-depth sociolinguistic account of the lenition processes identified in the dialect. After a detailed description of the methodology and database preparation, I present two case studies showcasing the utility of such corpora. First, I show the phonetic...
Gran Canarian Spanish: A Reflection of Weakening Language Change in the Spanish-Speaking World The aim of the paper is to present a thorough description of the terms weakening and lenition in the context of language change, and to present major theories of lenition proposed in the framework of generative phonology. Among the most recent theories of...
It is unclear whether word stress in a language is stored as part of the word or whether it is generated by a rule. We test the generativist hypothesis of lexical storage stating that only unpredictable stress is stored in long-term memory against the contrasting usage-based approach assuming that all phonetic information regardless of its (un)pred...
This study explores ongoing lenition of postvocalic /p t k b d g/ in the Spanish of Gran Canaria. Duration, intensity and harmonics-to-noise ratio of 16,454 sounds produced by 44 native speakers were measured, with the latter phonetic parameter used for the first time to investigate lenition. The results show a path of gradual sound shortening and...
This paper examines opaque examples of phrase-level phonology taken from Chilean Spanish under the framework of Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) (Rubach 1997; Bermúdez-Otero 2003, 2019) and Harmonic Serialism (HS) (McCarthy 2008a, b, 2016). The data show an interesting double repair of the coda /s/ taking place at word edges. It is argued that Strata...
Background/aims:
This paper examines the process of postvocalic voicing in the Spanish of Gran Canaria from the point of view of language change. A perception-production study was designed to measure the extent of variation in speaker productions, explore the degree to which production is affected by perception and identify variables that can be c...
This paper examines opaque examples of phrase-level phonology taken from Chilean Spanish under the framework of Stratal OT (Rubach 1997; Bermúdez-Otero 2003, forthcoming) and Harmonic Serialism (McCarthy 2008a, 2008b, 2016). The data show an interesting double repair of the coda /s/ taking place at word edges. It is argued that Stratal OT is superi...
This paper takes a series of lenition phenomena from Gran Canarian Spanish as a point of departure to discuss the influence of phonology on the phonetics component. Based on phonetic and phonological data, it can be concluded that a blocking effect ensues between the process of coda deletion and post-vocalic voicing, giving rise to phonetic opacity....
Spanish dialects show substantial variation in coda s weakening. Yet, to provide a comprehensive treatment of this phenomenon, a bigger prosodic constituent than just the coda position should be considered.
Crucially, two aspirating varieties of Spanish are considered. The Granada dialect weakens s to [h] inside words, at word edges and at prefix e...
This paper takes a series of lenition phenomena from Gran Canarian Spanish as a point of departure to
discuss the influence of phonology on the phonetics component. Based on phonetic and phonological data, it
can be concluded that a blocking effect ensues between the process of coda deletion and post-vocalic voicing,
giving rise to phonetic opacity...
This paper discusses the dialectal differences in phrase-level obstruent voicing in Polish. The language distinguishes between two regional varieties, one of which apparently involves presonorant assimilation across word boundaries. Although both Warsaw and
Poznań/Kraków dialects present voice assimilation, only the latter admits voicing before son...
En el presente artículo se pretende considerar dos cambios fonéticos en el español de Gran Canaria y sus consecuencias para el inventario de fonemas de esta variedad. Más específi camente, se describen los alófonos de las obstruyentes interruptas producidos mediante la aproximantización y la sonorización post-vocálica. Los dos procesos contribuyen...
The Spanish of Gran Canaria has been reported to have post-vocalic voicing (/p t k tʃ/ -> [b d g dʝ]) inside words and across word boundaries (e.g. Oftedal 1985): apasionado [a.ba.sjo.na.ð̞o] 'enthusiastic', fonetica [fo.ne.di.ga] 'phonetics', tengo una prima [teŋ.go.u.na.bri.ma] 'I have a cousin', etc. What is more, the process is blocked after vo...
Kiparsky (1999, 2013) and Berm´udez-Otero (2003, 2011), among others, propose that opacity can be dealt with in Optimality Theory by distinguishing between three levels of derivation. This means that the morphology-phonology interface is structured in a way that explains non-transparent mappings without recourse to any other information. Transition...
Poster presented at the NELS 46 meeting in Montreal
Poster presented at the 2015 Manchester Phonology Meeting
Survival of the Fittest provides an in-depth analysis of weakening processes attested in Spanish and English within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). The book examines fricative lenition as an instance of sound change in progress, contributing to the study of phonological change and the notion of strength in phonology. It also provides motiv...
Poster presented at the OCP conference in Barcelona, 2015
The aspiration of syllable-final /s/ is a well-studied phenomenon in Spanish phonology across all dialects. It is typically described as coda /s/ weakening to [h] in preconsonantal contexts spreading from word-medial to word-final and even phrase-final position. This paper further explores the process as an interesting interaction of aspiration and...
En este artículo se estudia la llamada aspiración de /s/ implosiva y su pérdida en una variedad del español contemporáneo encontrada en Chile. El concepto de debilitamiento del fonema /s/ se presentará en términos generales, seguido por la presentación del problema dentro de los principales marcos teóricos desde los años 90 del siglo XX hasta hoy e...
Projects
Projects (4)
The goal of this project is to investigate the way native speakers perceive and process deviations from their native speech patterns, be it a change in lexical stress or a segmental change (e.g. vowel reduction of the centralising type).
The project encompasses a series of perception studies based on audio stimuli.
The current step in the project is an EEG study of the perception of stress shift in native words by speakers of Spanish, to be implemented at the University of Zurich together with Volker Dellwo and Martin Meyer as a part of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships programme (2017/2018).
The Swiss project is entitled:
Perception of Stress Shift by Speakers of Spanish – a Comparative ERP Study
The aim of this project is to investigate the effects of foreign stress patterns on the perception and processing of prosodic categories. In the course of a neurolinguistic perception experiment, it is to be determined whether stress shift in a syllable-timed language with variable stress, as exemplified by Spanish, leads to lexical inhibition, i.e. difficulties with word recognition in language processing. The experiments will be based on a pilot perception study concerning stress shift, which suggested that Spanish speakers rely on stress when identifying words from the lexicon.
Here, I explored sociolinguistic and phonological approaches to fricative weakening in English (historically) and in Chilean Spanish. I conducted linguistic fieldwork on Chilean and analysed the data in Optimality Theory, looking at the standard model, as well as at a series of auxiliary mechanisms and modifications: output-output theories (including Transderivational Correspondence), sympathy, positional faithfulness, OT with candidate chains and Stratal OT. In particular, I looked at phrase-level phonology and prefixes, which show differences in surface representations with respect to morpheme and word-internal forms. As a result of this investigation, I published a volume entitled „Survival of the Fittest: Spanish and English Fricative Lenition from the Perspective of Optimality Theory”.
