Download Acquisition of Topic Shift by L2 Japanese speakers Tokiko Okuma

L2 acquisition of Japanese noun accents by L1 English speakers
Tokiko Okuma
McGill University
(CRBLM Department of Linguistics McGill University) [email protected]
1. Research Question
2. English
English and Japanese nouns have different prosodic
structures.
Can L1 English speakers of L2 Japanese (ESJ)
acquire the Japanese prosodic structures?
Contribution
-Test (and support) the Full Transfer Full Access
Hypothesis (FT/FA) in phonology.
- Fills a gap in L2 acquisition research.
(Prosody of compounds has been understudied )
2. English
English is a stress accent language. Stressed vowels
typically have higher fundamental frequency (F0),
longer duration and higher intensities.
Simple nouns
(Stressed)
a. Accent on the final syllable of N1: LH…H-LL
ákita + inú → aki(tá-i)nu
‘Akita dog’
b. Accent on the first syllable of N2: LH…H-HLLL
nó + nezumi → no-(nézu)mi ‘field mouse’
c. Unaccented LH…H-HH
akagi + jamá → akagi-jama ‘Akagi mountain’
(2a)
PWd
|
N
(footless)
PWd
|
Ft
|
N
Simple nouns
(Aaccented)
Compound nouns
(Unaccented)
pan ‘bread’
L
L
L
H
H
Example nouns
ká.ma.ki.ri ‘mantis’
a.sá.ga.o ‘morning glory’
a.o.zó.ra ‘blue sky’
ka.mi.na.rí ‘thunder’
ka.mi.ga.ta ‘hair style’
4. Prediction
Compound nouns
(Accented)
(3b)
PWd
|
Ft
|
N
PWd
|
Ft
|
N1N2
The FT/FA (Schwartz & Sprouse 1996) suggest that
the initial state for L2 acquisition is the end state L1
grammar, and all L1 properties can be transferred
into the interlanguage grammar.
If ESJ start with the L1 foot structures, then…
(i) they will initially have the structure (1a) for
unaccented simple nouns, in place of (2a).
⇒ Can ESJ acquire one-PWd compounds (3b), which
differs from L1 compounds (1b)?
(coordination of PWd)
(ii) they will initially have the structure (1b) for
accented compounds, in place of (3b).
property
b. The novel compound
(
?
)
c. The carrier sentence
（
？
）-ga arimasu ‘Here is a ( ? ) ’
-Nom is
Production of the simple nouns in (b) and compounds in (c) were analyzed
in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2011).
Stimuli examples: 8 conditions depending on N1/N2 accent patterns
CA formation
compound
coaccent
examples
N1 (1 or 3 morae)
N2 (2 or 3 morae)
N1
N2
nd
patterns
accent
accent
1
ka.ra.sú-futa
LH fu.ta ‘lid’
move
HLL ká.ra.su ‘crow’
2
ka.ra.sú-pan
HL pá.n ‘bread’
move deaccent
LHH-LL
3
usagí-futa
LH fu.ta ‘lid’
create
LHH u.sa.gi ‘rabbit’
4
usagí-pan
HL pá.n ‘bread’
create deaccent
5
ka.ra.su-zúbon
HLL zú.bo.n ‘pants’ deaccent
LHH-HLL
HLL ká.ra.su ‘crow’
6
ka.ra.su-tókee
LHH to.ke.e ‘clock’ deaccent create
7
ka-zúbon
HLL
zú.bo.n ‘pants’
L-HLL
H
ka ‘mosquito’
8
ka-tókee
LHH to.ke.e ‘clock’
create
simple nouns (2a)
(Unaccented)
elimination of Ft
target-like
usage ‘rabbit’
→
Summary of the results
Pitch results (height of sound)
structure
pan ‘bread’
1
2
3
4
5
Pitch patterns
H L L
L H L
Accented
L H H
L H H
Unaccented
L H H
→ J has words with no accent!
(3a)
(2b) (limited number)
PWd
|
N1N2
(footless)
acquisition task
+
usagi ‘rabbit’
PWd
|
Ft
|
N2
bòard
6. Results
Informants: ESJ (n=9, intermediate/advanced) and native J speakers
Task: The informants read aloud simple and compound nouns
a. Words in isolation
ryokoo ‘traveling’
PWd
|
Ft
|
N1
BLÁCK
3. Japanese
⇒ Can ESJ acquire unfooted simple nous (2a), which
their L1 does not have? (elimination of Ft)
5. The experiment
PWd
→ Ft is obligatory in E!
Default accentuation:the head of the bimoraic trochaic
foot (Shinohara 2002)
→ J has compounds with no accent. When accented,
the foot crosses over the N1N2 boundary
(1b)
Pitch accents
Japanese is a pitch accent language, in which the
prominence is realized by a drop in pitch. The pitch
falls from high(H) to low(L) after the accented mora.
Pitch patterns of 4 mora nouns
3. Japanese
Simple nouns
(Unaccented)
3. Japanese
Compound nouns
(Stressed)
(1a)
Compound stress
N1 stress is elevated to main prominence status of the
whole compound, and the N2 stress is downgraded to
a secondary level .
Prosodic hierarchy (Selkirk 1986)
compound nouns
Phonological Phrase (PPh)
a. BLÁCKbòard
Prosodic Word (PWd)
b. WÓMAN dòctor
Foot (Ft)
Syllable (σ)
3. Japanese
Variations of compound accent positions
SLP2012
University of York
July 6th 2012
Accuracy
(%)
PWd
|
N
(footless)
Compounds (3b)
(Accented)
modification of PWd
target-like
PWd
|
Ft
|
N1N2
81
74
looks like successful, but misleading!
structure
evidence
simple nouns (2a)
(Unaccented)
7. Conclusion
-Modification of prosodic constituents (PWds) is acquirable, whereas
elimination of prosodic constituents (Ft) is more problematic, though not
impossible.
-This provides new evidence for FT/FA, suggesting that we must
consider the nature of the constituents involved in order to determine the
Intensity results (loudness)
property
-Elimination of Ft : Contradictory (pitch is OK, while intensity is NG)
-Modification of PWd : Consistent (both pitch and intensity are OK)
extent of transfer.
Compounds (3b)
(Accented)
non-target-like
PWd
|
Ft
|
N
target-like
PWd
|
Ft
|
N1N2
ESJ still formed L1-like
Ft when they
pronounced nouns as
unaccented
Ft crossed the N1N2
boundary. ESJ did not
put pause on the
boundary.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to my supervisor, Professor Heather Goad, for her expertise and support in
every step of this study. I am also very thankful to my committee member, Professor Lydia White,
for her guidance and valuable comments.
References
Haraguchi, S. (2001). Accent. In Tsujimura, N (Ed). The handbook of Japanese linguistics.
Oxford: Blackwell. Blackwell Reference Online. 16 June 2011. / Schwartz, B. & Sprouse, R.
(1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research
12, 40-72. / Selkirk, O. (1986). On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology 3, 371405. / Shinohara, S. (2002). Metrical constraints and word identity in Japanese compound nouns.
MIT working papers in Linguistics, 42, 311-328.