Article published In: Epistemological issue with keynote article “Prosodic effects on L2 grammars”
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9:6] 2019
► pp. 769–808
Epistemological paper
Prosodic effects on L2 grammars
Published online: 8 October 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19043.goa
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19043.goa
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.
Keywords: prosodic transfer, articles, inflection, omission, substitution
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Puzzles
- 3.Prosodic structure
- 4.Prosodic effects on the production of functional elements
- 4.1Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis: Full Transfer No Access
- 4.1.1Inflection
- 4.1.2Function words
- 4.2Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis: Full Transfer Partial Access
- 4.3Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis: Full Transfer Full Access
- 4.1Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis: Full Transfer No Access
- 5.Prosodic effects on the perception, comprehension and processing of functional elements
- 5.1Perception
- 5.2Comprehension
- 5.3Processing
- 6.Discussion and conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
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