The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French
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Ellenor M. Shoemaker
Abstract
French is a language that poses particular difficulties for the second language (L2) learner in the processing of continuous speech. The phonological processes of liaison and enchainement (resyllabification), can render syllable and word boundaries ambiguous (e.g. un air ‘a melody’ and un nerf ‘a nerve’, both [oe˜ne˜]). Some research has suggested that speakers of French give listeners acoustic cues to word boundaries by varying the duration of liaison and initial consonants and that access to mental representations in the lexicon is facilitated by these cues (e.g. Spinelli, McQueen & Cutler, 2003); however no study to date has directly demonstrated that durational differences are exploited in the online segmentation of speech. One way to directly test the exploitation of duration as a parsing cue by both native and non-native speakers is to manipulate and exaggerate this single acoustic factor while holding all other factors constant. To this end, the current study employed ambiguous French phrases in which the pivotal consonants (i.e. the /n/ in un air/nerf) had been instrumentally shortened and lengthened while the rest of the phrase remained unaltered. Eighteen native speakers of French and 18 advanced late learners of L2 French were tested on an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task employing these manipulated stimuli. The results suggest that duration alone can indeed modulate the lexical interpretation of sequences rendered ambiguous by liaison in spoken French. In addition, although a good deal of variance was observed in both participant groups, five out of 18 non-native participants scored at or above the native mean on both perceptual tasks. These results are particularly interesting in that they suggest that not only can advanced L2 learners develop native-like sensitivity to non-contrastive phonological variation in a L2, but that these learners can exploit this information in L2 speech processing.
Abstract
French is a language that poses particular difficulties for the second language (L2) learner in the processing of continuous speech. The phonological processes of liaison and enchainement (resyllabification), can render syllable and word boundaries ambiguous (e.g. un air ‘a melody’ and un nerf ‘a nerve’, both [oe˜ne˜]). Some research has suggested that speakers of French give listeners acoustic cues to word boundaries by varying the duration of liaison and initial consonants and that access to mental representations in the lexicon is facilitated by these cues (e.g. Spinelli, McQueen & Cutler, 2003); however no study to date has directly demonstrated that durational differences are exploited in the online segmentation of speech. One way to directly test the exploitation of duration as a parsing cue by both native and non-native speakers is to manipulate and exaggerate this single acoustic factor while holding all other factors constant. To this end, the current study employed ambiguous French phrases in which the pivotal consonants (i.e. the /n/ in un air/nerf) had been instrumentally shortened and lengthened while the rest of the phrase remained unaltered. Eighteen native speakers of French and 18 advanced late learners of L2 French were tested on an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task employing these manipulated stimuli. The results suggest that duration alone can indeed modulate the lexical interpretation of sequences rendered ambiguous by liaison in spoken French. In addition, although a good deal of variance was observed in both participant groups, five out of 18 non-native participants scored at or above the native mean on both perceptual tasks. These results are particularly interesting in that they suggest that not only can advanced L2 learners develop native-like sensitivity to non-contrastive phonological variation in a L2, but that these learners can exploit this information in L2 speech processing.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
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Part I. Introduction
- Second language processing and parsing 3
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Part II. Relative clauses and wh -movement
- Relative clause attachment preferences of Turkish L2 speakers of English 27
- Evidence of syntactic constraints in the processing of wh -movement 65
- Constraints on L2 learners’ processing of wh-dependencies 87
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Part III. Gender and number
- The effects of linear distance and working memory on the processing of gender agreement in Spanish 113
- Feature assembly in early stages of L2 acquisition 135
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Part IV. Subjects and objects
- Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences 159
- Second language gap processing of Japanese scrambling under a Simpler Syntax account 177
- The processing of subject-object ambiguities by English and Dutch L2 learners of German 207
- Connections between processing, production and placement 231
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Part V. Phonology and lexicon
- The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French 259
- Translation ambiguity 281
-
Part VI. Prosody and context
- Reading aloud in two languages 297
- Near-nativelike processing of contrastive focus in L2 French 321
- Author index 345
- Subject index 349
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
-
Part I. Introduction
- Second language processing and parsing 3
-
Part II. Relative clauses and wh -movement
- Relative clause attachment preferences of Turkish L2 speakers of English 27
- Evidence of syntactic constraints in the processing of wh -movement 65
- Constraints on L2 learners’ processing of wh-dependencies 87
-
Part III. Gender and number
- The effects of linear distance and working memory on the processing of gender agreement in Spanish 113
- Feature assembly in early stages of L2 acquisition 135
-
Part IV. Subjects and objects
- Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences 159
- Second language gap processing of Japanese scrambling under a Simpler Syntax account 177
- The processing of subject-object ambiguities by English and Dutch L2 learners of German 207
- Connections between processing, production and placement 231
-
Part V. Phonology and lexicon
- The exploitation of fine phonetic detail in the processing of L2 French 259
- Translation ambiguity 281
-
Part VI. Prosody and context
- Reading aloud in two languages 297
- Near-nativelike processing of contrastive focus in L2 French 321
- Author index 345
- Subject index 349
