Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:39:52.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The functional weight of a prosodic cue in the native language predicts the learning of speech segmentation in a second language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2017

ANNIE TREMBLAY ,
MIRJAM BROERSMA  and
CAITLIN E. COUGHLIN
ANNIE TREMBLAY*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
MIRJAM BROERSMA
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Nijmegen
CAITLIN E. COUGHLIN
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
*
Address for Correspondence: Annie Tremblay, Department of Linguistics, University of Kansas, 1541 Lilac Lane, Blake Hall Room 427, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study newly investigates whether the functional weight of a prosodic cue in the native language predicts listeners’ learning and use of that cue in second-language speech segmentation. It compares English and Dutch listeners’ use of fundamental-frequency (F0) rise as a cue to word-final boundaries in French. F0 rise signals word-initial boundaries in English and Dutch, but has a weaker functional weight in English than Dutch because it is more strongly correlated with vowel quality in English than Dutch. English- and Dutch-speaking learners of French matched in French proficiency and experience, and native French listeners completed a visual-world eye-tracking experiment in French where they monitored words ending with/out an F0 rise (replication of Tremblay, Broersma, Coughlin & Choi, 2016). Dutch listeners made earlier/greater use of the F0 rise than English listeners, and in one condition they made greater use of F0 rise than French listeners, extending the cue-weighting theory to speech segmentation.

Keywords

second-language speech segmentationprosodic cuesfunctional weightFrenchEnglishDutch
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 640 - 652
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Supplementary material can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672891700030X

*This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. BCS-1423905 awarded to the first author (AT). Support for this research also comes from a Language Learning small research grant awarded to the first author, and a Vidi grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research awarded to the second author (MB). We are grateful to Dr. Amandine Michelas for help with the French listeners’ data collection.

References

Barr, D. J., Gann, T. M., & Pierce, R. S. (2011). Anticipatory baseline effects and information integration in visual world studies. Acta Psychologica, 137, 201–207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckman, M. (1986). Stress and non-stress accents. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, Z. S., & Small, L. H. (1983). Voicing, vowel and stress mispronunciations in continuous speech. Perception & Psychophysics, 34, 470–474.Google Scholar
Cooper, N., Cutler, A., & Wales, R. (2002). Constraints of lexical stress on lexical access in English: Evidence from native and non-native listeners. Language and Speech, 45, 207–228.Google Scholar
Cutler, A. (1986). Forbear is a homophone: Lexical prosody does not constrain lexical access. Language and Speech, 29, 201–220.Google Scholar
Cutler, A., & Carter, D. M. (1987). The predominance of strong initial syllables in the English vocabulary. Computer Speech and Language, 2, 133–142.Google Scholar
Cutler, A., & Clifton, C. Jr. (1984). The use of prosodic information in word recognition. In Bouma, H. & Bouwhuis, D. G. (Eds.), Attention and Performance X: Control of Language Processes (pp. 183–196). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaulm.Google Scholar
Donselaar, W. v., Koster, M., & Cutler, A. (2005). Exploring the role of lexical stress in lexical recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 251–273.Google Scholar
Dupoux, E., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Navarrete, E., & Peperkamp, S. (2008). Persistent stress ‘deafness’: the case of French learners of Spanish. Cognition, 106, 682–706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fear, B. D., Cutler, A., & Butterfield, S. (1995). The strong/weak syllable distinction in English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 1893–1904.Google Scholar
Francis, A. L., Baldwin, K., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2000). Effects of training on attention to acoustic cues. Perception and Psychophysics, 62, 1668–1680.Google Scholar
Francis, A. L., Ciocca, V., Ma, L., & Fenn, K. (2008). Perceptual learning of Cantonese lexical tones by tone and non-tone language speakers. Journal of Phonetics, 36, 268– 294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, A. L., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2002). Selective attention and the acquisition of new phonetic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28, 349–366.Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, C. (2004). Transcription of Dutch intonation. In Jun, S. A. (Ed.), The phonology of intonation and phrasing (pp. 118–145). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Holt, L. L., & Lotto, A. J. (2006). Cue weighting in auditory categorization: Implications for first and second language acquisition. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 3059–3071.Google Scholar
Huettig, F., & McQueen, J. M. (2007). The tug of war between phonological, semantic and shape information in language-mediated visual search. Journal of Memory and Language, 57, 460–482.Google Scholar
Ingvalson, E. M., Holt, L. L., & McClelland, J. L. (2011). Can native Japanese listeners learn to differentiate /r-l/ on the basis of F3 onset frequency? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 255–274.Google Scholar
Iverson, P., Kuhl, P. K., Akahane-Yamada, R., Diesch, E., Tohkura, Y. i., Kettermann, A., & Siebert, C. (2003). A perceptual interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes. Cognition, 87, B47–B57.Google Scholar
Jun, S. A., & Fougeron, C. (2000). A phonological model of French intonation. In Botinis, A. (Ed.), Intonation: Analysis, Modeling and Technology (pp. 209–242). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Jun, S. A., & Fougeron, C. (2002). Realizations of accentual phrase in French intonation. Probus, 14, 147–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQueen, J. M., & Viebahn, M. C. (2007). Tracking recognition of spoken words by tracking looks to printed words. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 661–671.Google Scholar
Mirman, D. (2014). Growth curve analysis and visualization using R. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Mirman, D., Dixon, J. A., & Magnuson, J. S. (2008). Statistical and computational models of the visual world paradigm: Growth curves and individual differences. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 475–494.Google Scholar
Qin, Z., Chien, Y.-F., & Tremblay, A. (2016). Processing of word-level stress by Mandarin-speaking second language learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 1– 30.Google Scholar
Salverda, A. P., Dahan, D., & McQueen, J. M. (2003). The role of prosodic boundaries in the resolution of lexical embedding in speech comprehension. Cognition, 90, 51– 89.Google Scholar
Salverda, A. P., Dahan, D., Tanenhaus, M. K., Crosswhite, K., Masharov, M., & McDonough, J. (2007). Effects of prosodically modulated sub-phonetic variation on lexical competition. Cognition, 105, 466–476.Google Scholar
Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (1994). Prefix stripping re-revisited. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 357–375.Google Scholar
Small, L. H., Simon, S. D., & Goldberg, j. S. (1988). Lexical stress and lexical access: Homographs versus nonhomographs. Perception & Psychophysics, 44, 272–280.Google Scholar
Tremblay, A. (2008). Is second language lexical access prosodically constrained? Processing of word stress by French Canadian second language learners of English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 553–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremblay, A. (2011). Proficiency assessment standards in second language acquisition research. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 339–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremblay, A., Broersma, M., Coughlin, C. E., & Choi, J. (2016). Effects of the native language on the learning of fundamental frequency in second-language speech segmentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. Retrieved from http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00985/fullCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tremblay, A., Coughlin, C. E., Bahler, C., & Gaillard, S. (2012). Differential contribution of prosodic cues in the native and non-native segmentation of French speech. Laboratory Phonology, 3, 385–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremblay, A., & Ransijn, J. (2015). Model selection and post-hoc analysis for (G)LMER models. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/LMERConvenienceFunctions/Google Scholar
Vroomen, J., & de Gelder, B. (1995). Metrical segmentation and lexical inhibition in spoken word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 98–108.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. (2008). L2 stress perception: The reliance on different acoustic cues. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2008 (pp. 135–138). Campinas, Brazil. Retrieved from http://sprosig.isle.illinois.edu/sp2008/papers/id045.pdf.Google Scholar
Welby, P. (2006). French intonational structure: Evidence from tonal alignment. Journal of Phonetics, 34, 343–371.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., & Francis, A. (2010). The weighting of vowel quality in native and non-native listeners’ perception of English lexical stress. Journal of Phonetics, 38, 260–271.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Tremblay supplementary material

Tremblay supplementary material 1

Download Tremblay supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 119.9 KB