comparative prosodic study of questions in french in contact with occitan and catalan

In the south of France, the French language has developed in contact with Occitan in Provence and Languedoc, in contact with Catalan in Roussillon. This study reports on a first analysis of data collected in these regions, during a field survey carried out among speakers of Occitan and Catalan, in addition to French. In particular, we compared the prosody of yes/no questions ending in a word stressed on the penultimate syllable (e.g caserna ‘barracks’ in Occitan or Catalan, caserne with a pronounced final schwa in southern French). On the last two syllables of questions, it turns out that the rising-rising pitch pattern is the most common and, according to a perception experiment using prosody modification/resynthesis, that it is preferred to a falling-rising pattern by southern French listeners (without significant differences between Provence and Languedoc). A falling-rising pattern was also observed in Roussillon, possibly resulting from a prosodic transfer from Catalan to French. It was not associated with that region by southern French listeners who took part in a second perceptual experiment. Yet, the intonation patterns found may have different functions: the rising-rising pattern, especially, is most often interpreted as a confirmation query.

Prosodic effects on L2 grammars

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.

Bilingual children do not transfer stress patterns: Evidence from suprasegmental and segmental analysis of L1 and L2 speech of Polish–English child bilinguals

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The study examines bilingual children’s prosodic competence, specifically the ability to correctly assign word stress in both languages, and contrasts it with participants’ segmental competence. To this end, we estimated and compared the magnitude of prosodic and segmental transfer in L1 and L2 speech of typically developing Polish–English migrant bilingual children raised in the UK. We also explored the influence of cumulative language exposure on both types of transfer. Design/methodology/approach: A non-word repetition task was used in both languages to assess children’s faithfulness in repeating segmentals and stress patterns in two to five syllable-long items. Also, a parental questionnaire on cumulative language exposure was conducted to estimate the quality of input in both languages. All children ( N = 59, M = 5;8) were early bilinguals raised in the UK. Data and analysis: A 2x2 ANOVA and a correlation analysis were conducted to compare the magnitude of prosodic and segmental transfer, within and across languages. Also, multiple regression analysis was performed to establish the predictors of transfer in L1 and L2. Findings/conclusions: The bilingual children repeated stress patterns in both languages correctly, showing resistance to transfer in word stress, even though bidirectional transfer was observed in segmentals. The magnitude of segmental transfer in Polish and English was predicted by cumulative exposure to English, while prosodic transfer in Polish was predicted by cumulative exposure to Polish. Originality and significance/implications: The study provides evidence on word stress placement in the age group of bilingual children, 4–7 years of age, in comparison with segmental data. It uses a novel methodology in comparing the magnitude of transfer between prosody and segmentals, within and across languages. Moreover, the study highlights the importance of language exposure for reducing the amount of segmental transfer in this group of children.