Muradás-Taylor, B (2022) Accuracy and Stability in English Speakers’ Production of Japanese Pitch Accent. Language and Speech, 65 (2). pp. 377-403. ISSN 0023-8309
Abstract
Standard Japanese uses pitch accent to distinguish words such as initially-accented hashi “chopsticks” and finally-accented hashi “bridge.” Research on the second language acquisition of pitch accent shows considerable variation: in accuracy scores in identification, in different dominant accent types in production, and in the unstable accent types of repeated words. This study investigates pitch accent production in English-speaking learners of Japanese, asking how accuracy and stability vary (a) with amount of Japanese experience and (b) between learners. Two groups of learners (13 less experienced; 8 more experienced) produced 180 words in three contexts (e.g., ame “rain,” ame da “it’s rain,” and ame ga furu “rain falls”). Three Japanese phoneticians identified the accent types of the words that the learners produced. The results showed no difference in accuracy or stability between the two groups and little inter-learner variation in accuracy: all had low accuracy. Although some learners had relatively high stability, they did not maintain accent type contrasts across contexts. These results suggest that first language English speakers do not encode pitch accent in long-term memory, raising questions for future research and language teaching.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
Keywords: | prosody; suprasegmental; acquisition; experience; individual difference |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 May 2022 12:17 |
Last Modified: | 30 May 2022 12:17 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/00238309211022376 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187421 |