Lecture: Phonotactic patterns in L2 English

This paper considers the acquisition of L2 English phonotactic patterns. It is argued that emerging phonotactic patterns from the L1, which are associated with an ongoing sound change, impact the acquisition of L2 forms (Pater & Tessier 2006). This study is based on an emerging sound pattern involving word-final stop + sibilant clusters ([Cs]) of regular plural forms in Brazilian Portuguese (BP): [duks] ~ [ˈdu.kis] ‘duke(s)’ or [klubs] ~ [ˈklu.bis] ‘club(s)’, where a high front vowel [i] may or may not be pronounced between both consonants (Soares 2016). In BP, only voiceless sibilants occur word-finally, whereas in English voiceless and voiced sibilants occur: [kæts] ‘cats’ or [klʌbz] ‘clubs’. The prediction was that [Cs] would be prevalent in L2 as it is the most common pattern in the L1, whereas word-final voiced sibilants would occur at low rates. Data were examined from 20 Brazilian Portuguese speakers with either novice or advanced levels of L2 English. A set of 36 plural nouns ending in [Cs] clusters were considered for both BP and L2 English. Results showed that when the noun ends in a voiceless consonant, a final [Cs] occurred for the vast majority of cases: [kæts] 'cats'. However, in nouns ending in a voiced consonant, as in [klʌb] 'club', a high rate of [Cs] ~ [Cis] alternation was observed: *[klʌbs] ~ *[ˈklʌbis]. Moreover, statistical analysis showed that factors such as orthographic pattern, following phonetic environment, cluster type and L2 proficiency level influence the production of accurate [Cs] forms. Analysis is mainly grounded on the assumptions of the Exemplars Theory (BYBEE, 2008).

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Day: 2022-11-05
Start time: 15:15
Duration: 00:30
Room: Wiwi-Bunker —Room 5050
Track: Phonetics and Phonology
Language: en

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