Cover not available

In:Second Language Acquisition of Turkish
Edited by Ayşe Gürel
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 59] 2016
► pp. 19–48

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Acquisition of L2 Turkish prosody

The effects of purely phonological and phonosyntactic issues

 | Indiana University
Published online: 25 May 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.59.02ozc
This paper investigates second language acquisition of lower-level (i.e. word-­level) and higher-level prosody in Turkish to address the role of Universal Grammar (UG) via two different studies. The results of the first study demonstrate that lower-level prosody presents particular challenges for English-­speaking learners, as the task for them involves expunging a prosodic constituent from the grammar, which is hypothesized to be impossible. Higher-­level prosody, on the other hand, was found to be relatively easy to acquire, despite not being taught in Turkish language classes in a comprehensive and linguistically correct manner. Although learners were not native-like in their performance on lower-level prosody, their representations were UG-constrained. Thus, it is concluded that learners have access to UG for prosody at both levels.
References (76)
References
Akita, M.O. 2006. Global foreign accent and classroom input in L2 perception and production. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development , D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia & C. Zaller (eds), 1–14. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Global foreign accent and the effectiveness of a prosody-oriented approach in EFL classrooms. In Proceedings of the 31st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development , H. Caunt-Nulton, S. Kulatilake & I. Woo (eds), 46–57. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Archibald, J. 1992. Transfer of L1 parameter settings: Some evidence from Polish metrics. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 37: 301–339.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. Language Learnability and L2 Phonology: The Acquisition of Metrical Parameters. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Second language phonology, phonetics, and typology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 190–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, M.L. 1998. L2 acquisition and obligatory head movement: English-speaking learners of German and the local impairment hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20: 311–348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beckman, M.E. 1986. Stress and Non-stress Accent. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belikova, A. 2008. Explicit instruction vs. linguistic competence in adult L2-acquisition. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development , H. Chan, E. Kapia & H. Jacob (eds), 48–59. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
. 2013. Getting L2 Reflexive and Reciprocal Verbs Right. PhD dissertation, McGill University.
Berwick, R.C. 1985. The Acquisition of Syntactic Knowledge. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. 1990. The logical problem of foreign language learning. Linguistic Analysis 20: 3–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. 2011. Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer [Computer program]. Version 5.2.27, retrieved March 2011 from <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clahsen, H. & Hong, U. 1995. Agreement and null subjects in German L2 development: New evidence from reaction-time experiments. Second Language Research 11: 57–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demircan, Ö. 1996. Türkçenin Ses Dizimi. İstanbul: Der Yayınevi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demuth, K. 1995. Markedness and development of prosodic structure. In Proceedings of the North Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS 25), J. Beckman (ed.), 13–25. Amherst MA: GLSA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dresher, E. & Kaye, J. 1990. A computational learning model for metrical phonology. Cognition 34: 137–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erguvanlı, E. 1984. The Function of Word Order in Turkish Grammar. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erkü, F. 1983. Discourse Pragmatics and Word Order in Turkish. PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota.
Féry, C. 2001. Focus and phrasing in French. In Audiatur Vox Sapientiae: A Festschrift for Arnim von Stechow, C. Féry & W. Sternefeld (eds), 153–181. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fikkert, P. 1994. On the Acquisition of Prosodic Structure. PhD dissertation, HIL dissertations 6, Leiden University. The Hague: HAG.
Flynn, S. & Martohardjono, G. 1994. Mapping from the initial state to the final state: the separation of universal principles and language-specific principles. In Syntactic Theory and First Language Acquisition: Crosslinguistic Perspectives, Vol. 1: Heads, Projections and Learnability, B. Lust, M. Suner & J. Whitman (eds), 319–335. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fry, D. 1955. Duration and intensity as physical correlates of linguistic stress. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 27: 765–768. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goad, H. 1997. Codas, word minimality, and empty-headed syllables. In Child Language Research Forum 28, E.V. Clark (ed.), 113–122. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. To appear. Phonological processes in child speech. In The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Linguistics, J. Lidz, W. Snyder & J. Pater (eds). Oxford: OUP.
Goad, H. & Prévost, A.E. 2011. A test case for markedness: The acquisition of Québec French stress. Ms, McGill University.
Goad, H. & White, L. 2004. Ultimate attainment of L2 inflection: Effects of L1 prosodic structure. In EUROSLA Yearbook, S. Foster-Cohen, M. Sharwood Smith, A. Sorace & M. Ota (eds), 119–145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Ultimate attainment in interlanguage grammars: A prosodic approach. Second Language Research 22: 243–268. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Prosodic structure and the representation of L2 functional morphology: A nativist approach. Lingua 118: 577–594. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goad, H., White, L. & Steele, J. 2003. Missing inflection in L2 acquisition: Defective syntax or L1-constrained prosodic representations? Canadian Journal of Linguistics 48: 243–263. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gordon, M. 2014. Disentangling stress and pitch-accent: A typology of prominence at different prosodic levels. In Word Accent: Theoretical and Typological Issues, H. van der Hulst (ed.), 83–118. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Göksel, A. & Kerslake, C. 2005. Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. New York NY: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halle, M. & Vergnaud, J.-R. 1987. An Essay on Stress. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hawkins, R. & Chan, C.Y. 1997. The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research 13: 187–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayes, B. 1981. A Metrical Theory of Stress Rules. PhD dissertation, MIT. (Distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club).
. 1995. Metrical Stress Ttheory: Principles and Case Studies. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J.I., Elordieta, G., Gamind, I. & Smiljanic, R. 2002. From pitch-accent to stress-accent in Basque. In Laboratory Phonology 7, C. Gussenhoven, N. Warner & T. Rietveld (eds), 547–584. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyman, L.M. 2014. Do all languages have word accent? In Word Accent: Theoretical and Typological Issues, H. van der Hulst (ed.), 56–82. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inkelas, S. & Orgun, C.O. 1998. Level (non)ordering in recursive morphology: Evidence from Turkish. In Morphology and its Relation to Phonology and Syntax, S.G. Lapointe, D.K. Brentari & P.M. Farrell (eds), 360–410. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Turkish stress: A review. Phonology 20: 139–161. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
İşsever, S. 2003. Information structure in Turkish: The word order-prosody interface. Lingua 113: 1025–1053. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
İpek, C. 2011. Phonetic realization of focus with no on-focus pitch-range expansion in Turkish. In Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhs 17) , W.-S. Lee & E. Zee (eds), 140–143.
İpek, C. & Zubizarreta, M.L. 2014. Nuclear stress as an abstract rhythmic notion: Evidence from Turkish. Paper presented at the 10th Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics , MIT, Cambridge MA.
Jun, S.-A. & Fougeron, C. 2000. A phonological model of French intonation. In Intonation: Analysis, Modelling and Technology, A. Botinis (ed.), 209–242. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kabak, B. & Vogel, I. 2001. The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish. Phonology 18: 315–360. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamali, B. 2011. Topics at the PF Interface in Turkish. PhD dissertation, Harvard University.
Kılıçaslan, Y. 1994. Information Packaging in Turkish. MA thesis, University of Edinburgh.
Konrot, A. 1981. Physical correlates of linguistic stress in Turkish. University of Sussex Language Centre Occasional Papers 24: 26–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Stress in Turkish: Is it determined phonologically or morphologically? In Studies on Modern Turkish: Proceedings of the Third Conference on Turkish Linguistics , H. E. Boeschoten & L.T. Verhoeven (eds). Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
Kornfilt, J. 1997. Turkish Grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladd, D.R. 1996. Intonational Phonology. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lieberman, P. 1960. Some acoustic correlates of word stress in American English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 32: 451–454. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liberman, M. & Prince, A. 1977. On stress and linguistic rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry 8: 249–336.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marcus, M.P. 1980. A Theory of Syntactic Recognition for Natural Language. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. & Prince, A. 1986. Prosodic morphology. Ms, Brandeis University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Nespor M. & Vogel, I. 1986. Prosodic Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçelik, Ö. 2011. Redefining the Prosodic Hierarchy. Paper presented at Phonology in the 21st Century: In Honour of Glyne Piggott , McGill University, Montréal.
. 2013. Exceptions in stress assignment: Feet in input. In Proceedings of 40th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 40) , S. Kan, C. Moore-Cantwell & R. Staubs (eds). Amherst MA: GLSA.
. 2014. Prosodic faithfulness to foot edges: The case of Turkish stress. Phonology 31: 229–269. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. To appear. The Foot is not an obligatory constituent of the Prosodic Hierarchy: “stress” in Turkish, French and child English. The Linguistic Review [forthcoming 2017].
Özçelik, Ö & Nagai, M. 2010. Possible syntactic subject positions in Turkish: Evidence from phonology. In Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics (WAFL 6) [MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 61], Hiroki Maezawa & Azusa Yokogoshi (eds). Cambridge MA: MITWPL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Özçelik, Ö. & Nagai, M. 2011. Multiple subject positions: A case of perfect match between syntax and prosody. In Proceedings of the 28th West Coast Conference for Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 28) , M. Byram & B. Tomaszewicz (eds), 303–312. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Özge, U. 2012. Notes on focus projection in Turkish. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics , É. Kincses-Nagy & M. Biacsi (eds), 141–154. Szeged: Studia Uralo-Altaica.
Pater, J. 1997. Metrical parameter missetting in second language acquisition. In Focus on Phonological Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 16], S.J. Hannahs & M. Young-Scholten (eds), 235–262. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peterson, G. & Lehiste, I. 1960. Duration and syllable nuclei in English. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 32: 693–703. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Post, B. 2003. French phrasing and accentuation in different speaking styles. In Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics 8, E. Grabe & D. Wright (eds), 69–83.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R. 1994. Word order and nominative case in nonnative language acquisition: A longitudinal study of (L1 Turkish) German interlanguage. In Language Acquisition Studies in Generative Grammar [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 8], T. Hoekstra & B.D. Schwartz (eds), 317–368. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, B. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research 12: 40–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selkirk, E. 1984. Phonology and Syntax: The Relation Between Sound and Structure. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology 3: 371–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tremblay, A. 2007. Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Linguistics and Psycholinguistics in L2 Phonology: The Acquisition and Processing of Word Stress by French Canadian L2 learners of English. PhD dissertation, University of Hawai’i.
Trofimovich, P. & Baker, W. 2006. Learning second language suprasegmentals: Effect of L2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28: 1–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I.M. & Sorace, A. 2006. Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax–semantics and syntax–discourse phenomena. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (eds), 653–664. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, L. 1989a. Linguistic universals, markedness and learnability: comparing two different approaches. Second Language Research 5: 127–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1989b. Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, M.L. 1998. Prosody, Focus, and Word Order. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Özçelik, Öner
2024. The Phonology of Turkish, DOI logo
GÜNGÖR, Haluk & Halit KARATAY
2023. Fluent Reading Skills of Learners of Turkish as A Foreign Language. Participatory Educational Research 10:2 ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo
White, Lydia
2018. Formal linguistics and second language acquisition. In Bilingual Cognition and Language [Studies in Bilingualism, 54], ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue