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The role of acoustic cues in the development of (non-)target-like second-language prosodic representations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Annie Tremblay  and
Nathan Owens
Annie Tremblay
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nathan Owens
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Abstract

This study investigates the acquisition of English (primary) word stress by native speakers of Canadian French, with focus on the trochaic foot and the alignment of its head with heavy syllables. L2 learners and native English speakers produced disyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense nouns. The participants with consistent stress patterns were grouped according to their prosodic grammar, and their productions were analyzed acoustically. The results indicate that the L2 learners who failed to align the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized stress with higher pitch. Conversely, the L2 learners who aligned the head of the trochaic foot with the heavy syllable realized non-initial stress by lengthening the syllable. Surprisingly, the native speakers produced higher pitch on the initial syllable irrespective of stress, and they used length to realize stress oh the heavy syllable. These findings suggest that L2 learners may have reached different prosodic grammars as a result of attending to distinct acoustic cues to English stress.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette étude examine l’acquisition de l’accent principal dans le mot anglais chez les locuteurs francophones canadiens, se concentrant sur le pied trochaïque et l’alignement de sa tête avec les syllabes lourdes. Des apprenants de l’anglais, langue seconde (L2), et des locuteurs natifs de l’anglais ont produit des substantifs dissyllabiques et trisyllabiques dépourvus de sens. Les participants ayant produit des patrons accentuels constants ont été regroupés selon leur grammaire prosodique, et leurs productions ont été analysées de façon acoustique. Les résultats indiquent que les apprenants de L2 qui ne réussissent pas à aligner la tête du pied trochaïque avec la syllabe lourde, réalisent l’accent avec une tonalité (pitch) élevée. Inversement, les apprenants de L2 qui alignent la tête du pied trochaïque avec la syllabe lourde réalisent l’accent non-initial en allongeant la syllabe. Il est surprenant de constater que les locuteurs anglophones produisent une tonalité plus élevée sur la syllabe initiale indépendamment de l’accent et qu’ils allongent la syllabe lourde pour l’accentuer. Les résultats suggèrent que les apprenants de L2 ont peut-être atteint des grammaires prosodiques différentes en faisant attention à différents indices acoustiques de l’accent anglais.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 85 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2010 

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