Knowledge of the English Noun–Verb Stress Difference by Native and Nonnative Speakers

Abstract

This research tested native and nonnative English speakers in their knowledge of the tendency for disyllabic English nouns to have first-syllable stress and disyllabic verbs to have second-syllable stress. Experiment 1 showed that nonnative speakers are nearly as accurate as native speakers in identifying the intended stress pattern of disyllabic words. Hence they have the perceptual prerequisite for learning the noun-verb stress difference. In Experiment 2, both native and nonnative subjects used disyllabic pseudowords as verbs in sentences more often when they had second rather than first syllable stress. In Experiment 3, nonnative speakers classified words as nouns or verbs more quickly and accurately if they had stress patterns typical of their grammatical class. Native speakers showed the same patterns, but not significantly. None of the experiments found correlations between English experience variables and effects of the noun–verb stress difference. We discuss why nonnative acquisition of vocabulary is relatively resistant to sensitive period effects.