Production of prosodic cues by Beijing Mandarin speakers in second language (L2) English.

Abstract

Does the prosody of speakers’ first language (L1) influence their prosody in their second language (L2)? The current work investigates this topic for a tone language, Beijing Mandarin (BMan), as L1, and an intonation/stress language, English, as L2. English uses F0 contours as part of the intonation system, to signal syllabic prominence in a word, word prominence in a phrase, and the difference between questions and statements. In English there is a pitch peak delay, where the F0 peak occurs after the stressed syllable in two‐syllable stress‐initial words. Conversely, BMan uses F0 contours lexically, as a lexical tone language, and the F0 peak is on the stressed syllable. The production of these F0‐related prosodic cues is investigated with BMan and Native English production of English narrow and broad focus statements and questions, with measurements of F0 contours on accented and unaccented words, pitch peak delay on accented words, and F0 levels in statements and questions. The goal is to learn if BMan speakers lexically specify tone of certain word types in English like in their L1, or realize F0 contours intonationally, like English speakers, or, finally, if they use an intermediate system different from L1 and L2.