Learning new segments and reducing domains in German L2 phonology: The role of the Prosodic Hierarchy

Abstract

This paper investigates interactions between the prosodic structures of L1 and L2 in second language acquisition. We focus here on a case in which the L1 and L2 are quite different with regard to the role played by the prosodic structures: the acquisition of German by speakers of Spanish. “Demarcating languages” such as German tend to phonologically mark the beginnings and/ or ends of relatively small prosodic constituents, while “Grouping languages” such as Spanish tend to favor the application of phonological phenomena throughout relatively long constituents. The subset-superset relationship inherent in current views of L2 acquisition, in particular the Asymmetry Hypothesis, predicts that reducing the domain of application of a process should be impossible to learn. In this light, we examine data (spontaneous and read speech of 11 Spanish speakers learning German) involving phonological processes which differ both in their segmental content and in their domains of application in the two languages. Our results are different from those predicted, that is, the pattern of acquisition cuts across the categories that would be established in such framework. Our findings thus demonstrate that the Asymmetry Hypothesis cannot be maintained as a model of L2 phonological acquisition, at least in its present form.