LINGUIST List 25.1589
Thu
Apr 03 2014
Diss: English, Italian,
Phonetics, Phonology, Language Acquisition:
Rognoni: 'The phonetic realization of narrow
focus ...'
Editor for this issue:
Xiyan Wang <xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 03-Apr-2014
From: Luca Rognoni
<ummalido
gmail.com>
Subject: The phonetic
realization of narrow focus in English L1 and
L2. Data from production and perception
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Institution: Università degli Studi di
Padova
Program: PhD in Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Luca Rognoni
Dissertation Title: The phonetic realization of
narrow focus in English L1 and L2. Data from
production and perception
Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
Phonetics
Phonology
Subject Language(s):
English (eng)
Italian
(ita)
Dissertation Director:
M. Grazia Busa
Dissertation Abstract:
The typological differences between English and
Italian are reflected in
the strategies adopted to mark sentence-level
prominence. While English
mark focus by modulating prosodic parameters
(namely, pitch, duration and
intensity), Italian normally recurs to word
order strategies, benefitting
from the freer word order admitted by its
syntax. This study is aimed to
investigate the acquisition of the prosodic
marking of narrow
non-contrastive focus by Italian speakers of
English L2.
This study was mainly aimed at: (a) determining
and comparing the prosodic
cues used by English native speakers and
Italian speakers of English L2
when marking narrow focus; (b) verifying if the
Italian speakers are able
to acquire the English prosodic strategies in
focus marking as a function
of their competence in English, progressively
avoiding the focus marking
strategies that characterize their L1 in favor
of more native-like
solutions; (c) investigating the phenomenon not
only at the production
level, but also from the point of view of
perception. Consequently, this
work is composed by a production and a
perception study.
The production study consisted in the acoustic
analysis of native and
non-native productions. Three groups of
speakers were prompted to record
sentences presenting narrow focus on subject or
on verb: English native
speakers NS), Italian native speakers with a
higher competence in English
L2 (NNS1), and Italian native speakers with a
lower competence in English
L2 (NNS2). A similar set of Italian L1
sentences was also elicited from the
Italian speakers.
The acoustical analysis was performed at
sentence and word level, and it
was mainly based on the measurement of
fundamental frequency and duration.
The results confirmed that English native
speakers mark narrow focus mainly
by modulating pitch. NNS1 showed a progress
towards the target model, by
implementing an active use of pitch, although
not perfectly matching with
the native one. Finally, NNS2 were not able to
mark focus with the use of
prosodic parameters. The analysis of the
Italian L1 data set suggested that
in Italian narrow non-contrastive focus is not
marked prosodically.
The perception study was designed to verify
whether the differences shown
by the acoustical measurements could also have
an impact on the listeners'
perception. Two perception tests were designed,
based on a two-alternative
forced-choice paradigm, where listeners were
asked to identify narrow focus
by guessing the wh-question that had triggered
each sentence.
The results of the production study and the
perception study converged in
showing that in English pitch plays an
important role in the production and
perception of narrow non-contrastive focus. As
for non-native productions,
NNS1 could approach the native model to a
certain extent by modulating F0.
From the perceptual point of view, their
productions were effective enough
to be successfully understood by English native
listeners.
These findings are particularly interesting not
only for research in L2
phonetics, but also for their implications for
language instruction, where
prosody has only recently started to be studied
and taught with renewed
interest and momentum.
Page Updated: 03-Apr-2014