The Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis

A remarkable example of Spanish-Italian contact is the Spanish variety spoken in Buenos Aires (Porteño), which is said to be prosodically “Italianized” due to migration-induced contact. The change in Porteño prosody has been interpreted as a result of transfer from the first language (L1) that occurred when Italian immigrants learned Spanish as a second language (L2; McMahon, 2004). This article aims to examine if and to what extent prosodic features that are typical of Italian show up in Porteño and in L2 Castilian Spanish produced by Italian native speakers. Specifically, we investigated speech rhythm and the realization of yes-no questions in Porteño and L2 Castilian Spanish in comparison to Italian and L1 Castilian Spanish. We hypothesized that Italian, Porteño, and L2 Castilian Spanish would exhibit similar rhythm patterns, showing high values for the percentage of vocalic material, the variation coefficient of vocalic intervals, and the speech-rate-normalized pairwise variability index for vowels as well as high frequencies of rising prenuclear accents, with the peak located at the end of the syllable (L+H*) and falling final contours in yes-no questions, in contrast to Castilian Spanish. The results confirm our predictions for speech rhythm but not entirely for the intonation of yes-no questions.

Download Full-text

Prosodic transfer in Vietnamese acquisition of English contrastive stress patterns

Journal of Phonetics ◽

10.1016/j.wocn.2007.09.001 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 158-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

T. Anh-Thư Nguyễn ◽

C.L. John Ingram ◽

J. Rob Pensalfini

Keyword(s):

Prosodic Transfer ◽

Stress Patterns

Download Full-text

Prosodic effects on L2 grammars

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.19043.goa ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 769-808 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Heather Goad ◽

Lydia White

Keyword(s):

L1 Transfer ◽

Prosodic Transfer ◽

Discourse Pragmatics ◽

Over Time

Abstract This paper provides an overview of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH), which accounts for certain difficulties that learners experience with L2 morphosyntax. We focus on inflection and articles, which have often been accounted for through defective syntactic representations or problems with the interface between morphology and syntax (inflection) and between semantics or discourse/pragmatics and syntax (articles). We argue that some problems in these domains reflect transfer of L1 prosodic constraints: certain forms cannot be prosodically represented as target-like and hence are omitted or mispronounced. We trace how the PTH has developed over time, from its initial instantiation as involving permanent L1 transfer, to currently, where L1 representations are seen as adaptable to the needs of the L2, and new representations can in fact be acquired. We provide an overview of work conducted in this framework and discuss how the theory has been extended beyond production to encompass comprehension and processing.

Download Full-text

Dual activation of word stress from orthography

Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/dujal.3.2.05sil ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 171-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Amanda Post da Silveira ◽

Vincent J. van Heuven ◽

Johanneke Caspers ◽

Niels O. Schiller

Keyword(s):

Opposite Effect ◽

Naming Task ◽

Word Stress ◽

Lexical Activation ◽

L2 Production ◽

Prosodic Transfer ◽

Multiple Levels ◽

Dual Activation ◽

L1 And L2 ◽

Activate Form

Studies in bilingualism have shown that words activate form-similar neighbors in both first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the degree of form similarity between L1–L2 word pairs causes a proportional amount of prosodic transfer in L2 speech production. Thus, cognate pairs L1–L2 which bear lexical stress in the same syllable position should be facilitated in L2 production, while cognates with stress on mismatching positions L1–L2 should be inhibited. The results of a speeded word naming task with English L2 speakers showed facilitation in production of cognate words overall. Concerning word stress in L1–L2, an opposite effect was found between 2- and 3-syllable cognate words, while no effect was found for non-cognates. The effects found for cognate words correlate with form similarity and L2 lexical frequency values, corroborating the hypotheses that lexical activation in L2 is non-selective and that the bilingual lexicon is built in association between L1 and L2 at multiple levels of linguistic representation.

Download Full-text