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Native language influences on the production of second-language prosody

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2015

Evia Kainada  and
Angelos Lengeris
Evia Kainada
Affiliation:
Department of Philology, University of Ioannina, Greeceekainada@cc.uoi.gr
Angelos Lengeris
Affiliation:
Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greecelengeris@enl.auth.gr
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Abstract

This study examined native language (L1) transfer effects on the production of second-language (L2) prosody by intermediate Greek learners of English, specifically the set of tonal events and their alignment, speech rate, pitch span and pitch level in English polar questions. Greek uses an L* L+H- L% melody giving rise to a low–high–low f0 contour at the end of the polar question that does not resemble any of the contours used by native speakers in English polar questions. The results showed that the Greek speakers transferred the full set of Greek tonal events into English associating them with stressed syllables, and consistently placed the focus on the verb. The Greek speakers also anchored the peak of the phrase accent in polar questions around the midpoint of the stressed vowel across L1/L2 despite using longer vowel durations in L2. At the same time, their productions deviated from L1 forms in terms of speech rate (slower in L2), pitch span (narrower in L2) and pitch level (lower in L2), indicating that even when learners adopt an L1 prosodic feature in their L2, they still produce interlanguage forms that deviate from L1.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 269 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © International Phonetic Association 2015 

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