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4. Prediction

SLP2012 University of York July 6 th 2012. McGill U niversity. L2 acquisition of Japanese noun accents by L1 English speakers Tokiko Okuma (CRBLM Department of Linguistics McGill University) tokiko.okuma@mail.mcgill.ca. 2. English Simple nouns Compound nouns

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4. Prediction

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  1. SLP2012 University of York July 6th 2012 McGill University L2 acquisition of Japanese noun accents by L1 English speakersTokiko Okuma (CRBLM Department of Linguistics McGill University) tokiko.okuma@mail.mcgill.ca 2. English Simple nounsCompound nouns (Stressed) (Stressed) (1a) (1b) PWd PWdPWdPWd | | | Ft Ft Ft || | N N1N2 BLÁCK bòard → Ft is obligatory in E! 2. English English is a stress accent language. Stressed vowels typically have higher fundamental frequency (F0), longer duration and higher intensities. Compound stress N1 stress is elevated to main prominence status of the whole compound, and the N2stress is downgraded to a secondary level . Prosodic hierarchy (Selkirk 1986) compound nouns Phonological Phrase (PPh) a. BLÁCKbòardProsodic Word (PWd) b. WÓMAN dòctor Foot (Ft) Syllable (σ) 3. Japanese 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 → J has words with no accent! 1. Research Question 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 ) 4. Prediction 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) forunaccented simple nouns, in place of (2a). (ii) they will initially have the structure (1b) foraccented compounds, in place of (3b). 3. Japanese Simple nouns Compound nouns (Aaccented) (Accented) (3a) (3b) PWdPWd | | Ft Ft | | N N1N2 ⇒Can ESJ acquire one-PWd compounds (3b), which differs from L1 compounds (1b)? (coordination of PWd) • 3. Japanese • Variations of compound accent positions • 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’ • Default accentuation:thehead of the bimoraictrochaic foot (Shinohara 2002) • → J has compounds with no accent. When accented, the foot crosses over the N1N2 boundary 3. Japanese Simple nouns Compound nouns (Unaccented) (Unaccented) (2a) (2b) (limited number) PWdPWd | | N N1N2 (footless) (footless) ⇒ Can ESJ acquire unfooted simple nous (2a), which their L1 does not have? (elimination of Ft) 5. The experiment 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’ pan ‘bread’ usage ‘rabbit’ b. The novel compound + → usagi ‘rabbit’ pan ‘bread’ ( ? ) c. The carrier sentence （　　　？　　　）-gaarimasu‘Here is a ( ? ) ’ -Nom is Production of the simple nouns in (b) and compounds in (c) were analyzed in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2011). 6. Results Pitch results (height of sound) looks like successful, but misleading! Intensity results (loudness) - Summary of the results -Elimination of Ft : Contradictory (pitch is OK, while intensity is NG) -Modification of PWd : Consistent (both pitch and intensity are OK) 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 extent of transfer. 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 Research12, 40-72. / Selkirk, O. (1986). On derived domains in sentence phonology. Phonology3, 371-405. / Shinohara, S. (2002). Metrical constraints and word identity in Japanese compound nouns. MIT working papers in Linguistics, 42, 311-328.

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