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Foreigner talk through word reduction in native/non-native spoken interactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2017

SARA RODRIGUEZ-CUADRADO Open the ORCID record for SARA RODRIGUEZ-CUADRADO [Opens in a new window] ,
CRISTINA BAUS  and
ALBERT COSTA
SARA RODRIGUEZ-CUADRADO*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, United Kingdom
CRISTINA BAUS
Affiliation:
Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
ALBERT COSTA
Affiliation:
Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
*
Address for correspondence: Sara Rodriguez-Cuadrado, Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QProdrigus@edgehill.ac.uk
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Abstract

We explore the properties of foreigner talk through word reduction. Word reduction signals that the speaker is referring to the same entity as previously and should be preserved for foreigner talk. However, it leads to intelligibility loss, which works against foreigner talk. Pairs of speakers engaged in a task where native speakers talked either to a native or non-native listener. Natives talking to non-natives performed foreigner talk for duration and intensity. Duration and intensity were reduced for native and non-native listeners equally. These results suggest that word reduction is insensitive to communicative adjustments in the context of foreign talk.

Keywords

word reductionforeigner talknon-native speakersword durationword intensity
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 419 - 426
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00012) and the Catalan government (Consolidat SGR 2009-1521). Sara Rodríguez-Cuadrado was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Government (FPU 2008–2012). Cristina Baus was supported by the People Program (Marie Curie Actions, FP7-PEOPLE 2014–2016) under REA agreement n° 623845.We would like to thank Sumeer Chadha, Joanna Corey and Carlos Romero-Rivas for their assistance during data recruitment and manuscript elaboration.

Supplementary material can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000402

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