Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:05:47.882Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Focus interpretation in L1 and L2: The role of prosodic prominence and clefting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2022

Mengzhu Yan Open the ORCID record for Mengzhu Yan [Opens in a new window] ,
Paul Warren Open the ORCID record for Paul Warren [Opens in a new window]  and
Sasha Calhoun Open the ORCID record for Sasha Calhoun [Opens in a new window]
Mengzhu Yan*
Affiliation:
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Paul Warren
Affiliation:
Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Sasha Calhoun
Affiliation:
Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author. Email: mengzhu_yan@hust.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although the importance of prosody in processing information structure (IS) has been shown in many languages including English and Mandarin, the interacting effects of prosody with other linguistic systems, such as syntax, are relatively under-studied, especially in L2. This paper reports two question-answer appropriateness rating experiments, investigating intermediate-to-high proficiency Mandarin listeners’ integration of prosodic prominence and clefting cues in the interpretation of focus in their L1 and L2 (English). It was found that prosodic prominence was more effective than clefting as a cue to focus in L1 Mandarin. However, clefting was as effective as prominence in L2, showing L1–L2 differences in integrating multiple cues. The findings are discussed in terms of Mennen’s L2 intonation learning theory (2015) and Bates and MacWhinney’s Competition Model (1989), which provide a framework for understanding difficulties in acquiring the use of particular cues in L2. The current study contributes to our limited knowledge of a crucial part of L2 learning: how L2 learners process IS.

Keywords

prosodic prominencecleftingfocusL1 MandarinL2 English
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2022 , pp. 1275 - 1303
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akker, E., & Cutler, A. (2003). Prosodic cues to semantic structure in native and nonnative listening. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6(2), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728903001056 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnhold, A. (2021). Prosodic focus marking in clefts and syntactically unmarked equivalents: Prosody – syntax trade-off or additive effects? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149(3), 1390–1399. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0003594 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In MacWhinney, B. & Bates, E. (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing (pp. 3–73). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Birch, S. L., & Clifton, C. (1995). Focus, accent, and argument structure: Effects on language comprehension. Language and Speech, 38(4), 365–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/002383099503800403 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2018). Praat: doing phonetics by computer (Version 6.0.37) [Computer software]. http://www.praat.org Google Scholar
Braun, B., & Tagliapietra, L. (2011). On-line interpretation of intonational meaning in L2. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26(2), 224–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2010.486209 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breen, M., Fedorenko, E., Wagner, M., & Gibson, E. (2010). Acoustic correlates of information structure. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(7-9), 1044–1098. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2010.504378 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brugos, A., Shattuck-Hufnagel, S., & Veilleux, N. (2006). Transcribing prosodic structure of spoken utterances with ToBI. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-911-transcribing-prosodic-structure-of-spoken-utterances-withtobijanuary-iap-2006/index.htm Google Scholar
Calhoun, S. (2010). The centrality of metrical structure in signaling information structure: A probabilistic perspective. Language, 86(1), 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0197 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calhoun, S., Wollum, E., & Kruse-Va’ai, E. (2021). Prosodic prominence and focus: Expectation affects interpretation in Samoan and English. Language and Speech, 64(2), 346–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830919890362 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, K., Dickey, M. W., Frazier, L., & Clifton, C. (2009). Information structure expectations in sentence comprehension. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(1), 114–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210701880171 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chafe, W. (1976). Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In Li, C. N. (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 25–55). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R. (1947). Cantonese primer. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chao, Y. R. (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chen, A., & Lai, V. (2011). Comb or coat: The role of intonation in online reference resolution in a second language. In Zonneveld, W., Quené, H., & Heeren, W. (Eds.), Sound and Sounds. Studies presented to M.E.H. (Bert) Schouten on the occasion of his 65th birthday (pp. 57–68). UiL OTS.Google Scholar
Chen, S.-H., Chen, S.-C., & He, T.-H. (2012). Surface cues and pragmatic interpretation of given/new in Mandarin Chinese and English: A comparative study. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(4), 490–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.12.006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., & Braun, B. (2006). Prosodic Realization of Information, Structure Categories in Standard Chinese. In Hoffmann, R., Mixdorff, H. (Eds.), Speech prosody 2006 (p. 54). Dresden, Germany: TUD Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, R. (2015). Ordinal – Regression models for ordinal data (R package version 2019.3-9).Google Scholar
Clifton, C., & Frazier, L. (2016). Focus in corrective exchanges: Effects of pitch accent and syntactic form. Language and Speech, 59(4), 544–561. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830915623578 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cobb, T. (2000). The Compleat lexical tutor [Website]. https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/comp/ Google Scholar
Delin, J., & Oberlander, J. (1995). Syntactic constraints on discourse structure: The case of it-clefts. Linguistics, 33(3), 465–500. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1995.33.3.465 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Destruel, E., Velleman, D., Onea, E., Bumford, D., Xue, J., & Beaver, D. (2013). A crosslinguistic study of the non-at-issueness of exhaustive inferences. In Schwarz, F. (Ed.), Experimental perspectives on presuppositions (pp. 135–156). Switzerland: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07980-6_6 Google Scholar
É Kiss, K. (1998). Identificational focus versus information focus. Language, 74(2), 245–273. https://doi.org/10.2307/417867 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Féry, C., & Ishihara, S. (Eds.) (2016). The Oxford handbook of information structure. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foltz, A. (2020). Using prosody to predict upcoming referents in the L1 and the L2: The role of recent exposure. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263120000509 Google Scholar
Ge, H., Chen, A., & Yip, V. (2020). Comprehension of focus-to-accentuation mapping in sentences with only by advanced Cantonese learners and Dutch learners of English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263120000248 Google Scholar
Graves, S., Piepho, H.P., & Selzer, L. (2019). multcompView: Visualizations of paired comparisons. (Version 0.1-8). https://cran.rproject.org/web/packages/multcompView/index.html Google Scholar
Greif, M. (2010). Contrastive focus in Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of speech prosody 2010 (pp. 1–4), Chicago Google Scholar
Greif, M., & Skopeteas, S. (2021). Correction by Focus: Cleft Constructions and the Cross-Linguistic Variation in Phonological Form. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 648478.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hedberg, N. (1999). The discourse function of English clefts and Mandarin Shi… de constructions. In Workshop on the discourse function of clefts (pp. 1–3). Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Hedberg, N. (2013). Multiple focus and cleft sentences. In Hartmann, K. & Veenstra, T. (Eds.), Cleft structures (pp. 227–250). John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedberg, N., & Sosa, J. M. (2008). The prosody of topic and focus in spontaneous English dialogue. In Lee, C., Gordon, M. & Büring, D. (Eds.), Topic and focus: Cross-linguistic perspectives on meaning and intonation (pp. 101–120). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Hervé, M. (2015). RVAideMemoire: diverse basic statistical and graphical functions (R package version 0.9-50).Google Scholar
Hole, D. (2011). The deconstruction of Chinese shì…de clefts revisited. Lingua, 121(11), 1707–1733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2011.07.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hole, D. (2012). The information structure of Chinese. In Krifka, M. & Musan, R. (Eds.), The expression of information structure (pp. 45–70). De Gruyter Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ip, M. H. K., & Cutler, A. (2020). Universals of listening: Equivalent prosodic entrainment in tone and non-tone languages. Cognition, 202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104311 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, J. (2002). A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied Linguistics, 23, 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/23.1.83 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kember, H., Choi, J., Yu, J., & Cutler, A. (2021). The processing of linguistic prominence. Language and Speech, 64(2), 413–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830919880217 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kisler, T., Reichel, U., & Schiel, F. (2017). Multilingual processing of speech via web services. Computer Speech and Language, 45, 326–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl.2017.01.005 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krifka, M. (2008). Basic notions of information structure. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 55, 243–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kügler, F., & Calhoun, S. (2020). Prosodic encoding of information structure: A typological perspective. In Gussenhoven, C. & Chen, A. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language prosody. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kügler, F., & Skopeteas, S. (2006). Interaction of Lexical Tone and Information Structure in Yucatec Maya. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (pp. 77–82). La Rochelle.Google Scholar
Ladd, D. R. (1996/2008). Intonational phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ladd, D. R., & Schepman, A. (2003). “Sagging transitions” between high pitch accents in English: experimental evidence. Journal of Phonetics, 31(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0095-4470(02)00073-6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambrecht, K. (2001). A framework for the analysis of cleft constructions. Linguistics, 39(3), 463–516. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.021 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, E.-K. & Fraundorf, S. H. (2017). Effects of contrastive accents in memory for L2 discourse. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(5), 1063–1079. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000638 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, E.-K., & Fraundorf, S. H. (2019). Native-like processing of prominence cues in L2 written discourse comprehension: Evidence from font emphasis. Applied Psycholinguistics, 40(2), 373–398. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716418000619 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Y.-C., Wang, T., & Liberman, M. (2016). Production and Perception of Tone 3 Focus in Mandarin Chinese. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1058. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01058 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P., and MacWhinney, B. (2013). Competition model. In Chapelle, C. A. (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 1–5). Malden, MA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Liu, H., Bates, E., & Li, P. (1992). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13, 451–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, W., & Kempson, R. (2018). Chinese cleft structures and the dynamics of processing. Transactions of the Philological Society, 116(1), 91–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12106 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Y., & Yang, Y. (2016). Exhaustivity in Mandarin Shi…(de) sentences: experimental evidence. In Köllner, M. & Ziai, R. (Eds.), Proceedings of European summer school in logic language and information 2016 student session (pp. 167–179). Bolzano: Free University of Bozen.Google Scholar
Luchkina, T., & Cole, J. (2021). Perception of word-level prominence in free word order language discourse. Language and Speech, 64(2), 381–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830919884089 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathôt, S., Schreij, D., & Theeuwes, J. (2012). OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 314–324. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0168-7 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McAuliffe, M., Socolof, M., Mihuc, S., Wagner, M., & Sonderegger, M. (2017). Montreal Forced Aligner (Version 0.9.0) [Computer software].Google Scholar
Mennen, I. (2015). Beyond segments: Towards a L2 intonation learning theory. In Delais-Roussairie, Elisabeth, Avanzi, Mathieu, and Herment, Sophie (Eds.), Prosody and language in contact (pp. 171–188). Springer.Google Scholar
Molnár, V. (2006). On different kinds of contrast. In Molnár, V. & Winkler, S. (Eds.), The architecture of focus (pp. 197–233). Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Onea, E. (2019). Exhaustivity in it-clefts. In Cummins, C. & Katsos, N. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of experimental semantics and pragmatics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198791768.013.17 Google Scholar
Ortega-Llebaria, M. and Colantoni, L. (2014). L2 English intonation: Relations between form-meaning associations, access to meaning, and L1 transfer. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 36(2), 331–353. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263114000011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, W., & Whitman, J. (2008). Shi … de Focus Clefts in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Review, 25(3-4), 413–451. https://doi.org/10.1515/TLIR.2008.012 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J., & Hirschberg, J. (1990). The meaning of intonational contours in the interpretation of discourse. In Cohen, P., Morgan, J. & Pollack, M. (Eds.), Intentions in communication (pp. 271–311). Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prince, E. F. (1978). A comparison of wh-clefts and it-clefts in discourse. Language, 54(4), 883–906. https://doi.org/10.2307/413238 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team. (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing: Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar
Reichle, R., & Birdsong, D. (2014). Processing focus structure in L1 and L2 French: L2 proficiency effects on ERPs. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36(3), 535–564. doi: 10.1017/S0272263113000594 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, C. (1996). Information structure in discourse: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics. In Yoon, J. H. & Kathol, A. (Eds.), OSU Working Papers in Linguistics 49: Papers in Semantics (pp. 91–136). Columbus: The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Roland, D., Dick, F., & Elmanc, J. (2007). Frequency of basic English grammatical structures: A corpus analysis. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(3), 348–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.03.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rooth, M. (1992). A theory of focus interpretation. Natural Language Semantics, 1(1), 75–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02342617 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teng, S.-H. (1979). Remarks on cleft sentences in Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 7(1), 101–114.Google Scholar
Trouvain, J., Gut, U., & Barry, W. J. (2007). Bridging research on phonetic descriptions with knowledge from teaching practice: The case of prosody in non-native speech. In Trouvain, J. & Gut, U. (Eds.), Non-native prosody: Phonetic description and teaching experience (pp. 3–21). Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallduví, E. (2016). Information structure. In Aloni, M. & Dekker, P. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of formal semantics (pp. 728–755). UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139236157.024 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Maastricht, L., Krahmer, E., Swerts, M. (2016). Prominence patterns in a second language: Intonational transfer from Dutch to Spanish and vice versa. Language Learning, 66(1), 124–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wayland, R., Guerra, C., Chen, S., & Zhu, Y. (2019). English focus perception by Mandarin listeners. Languages, 4(4), 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4040091 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welby, P. (2003). Effects of pitch accent position, type, and status on focus projection. Language and Speech, 46(1), 53–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309030460010401 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wickham, H., Chang, W., & Wickham, M. H. (2016). Package ‘ggplot2’. Create elegant data visualisations using the grammar of graphics (Version 3.0.0).Google Scholar
Xu, L. (2004). Manifestation of informational focus. Lingua, 114(3), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(03)00031-7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Y. (1999). Effects of tone and focus on the formation and alignment of F0 contours. Journal of Phonetics, 27(1), 55–105. https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.1999.0086 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yan, M., & Calhoun, S. (2019). Priming effects of focus in Mandarin Chinese. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1985. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01985 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yan, M., & Calhoun, S. (2020). Rejecting false alternatives in Chinese and English: the interaction of prosody, syntax and default focus position. Laboratory Phonology, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.255 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yan, M., Calhoun, S., & Warren, P. (2022). The role of prominence in activating focused words and their alternatives in Mandarin: Evidence from lexical priming and recognition memory. Language and Speech. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309221126108 CrossRefGoogle Scholar