Analysis for: How Experience with Tone in the Native Language Affects the L2 Acquisition of Pitch Accents

This paper tested the ability of Mandarin learners of German, whose native language has lexical tone, to imitate pitch accent contrasts in German, an intonation language. In intonation languages, pitch accents do not convey lexical information; also, pitch accents are sparser than lexical tones as they only associate with prominent words in the utterance. We compared two kinds of pitch-accent contrasts: (1) a “non-merger” contrast, which Mandarin listeners perceive as different and (2) a “merger” contrast, which sounds more similar to Mandarin listeners. Speakers of a tone language are generally very sensitive to pitch. Hypothesis 1 (H1) therefore stated that learners produce the two kinds of contrasts similarly to native German speakers. However, the documented sensitivity to tonal contrasts, at the expense of processing phrase-level intonational contrasts, may generally hinder target-like production of intonational pitch accents in the L2 (Hypothesis 2, H2). Finally, cross-linguistic influence (CLI) predicts a difference in the realisation of these two contrasts as well as improvement with higher proficiency (Hypothesis 3, H3). We used a delayed imitation paradigm, which is well-suited for assessing L2-phonetics and -phonology because it does not necessitate access to intonational meaning. We investigated the imitation of three kinds of accents, which were associated with the sentence-final noun in short wh-questions (e.g., Wer malt denn Mandalas, lit: ‘Who draws PRT mandalas?’ ‘Who likes drawing mandalas?’). In Experiment 1, 28 native speakers of Mandarin participated (14 low- and 14 high-proficient). The learners’ productions of the two kinds of contrasts were analysed using General Additive Mixed Models to analyse differences in pitch-accent contrasts over time, in comparison to the productions of native German participants from an earlier study (Zahner-Ritter et al., 2022). Results showed a more pronounced realisation of the non-merger contrast compared to German natives and a less distinct realisation of the merger contrast, with beneficial effects of proficiency, lending support to H3. Experiment 2 tested low-proficient Italian learners of German (whose L1 is an intonation language) to contextualise the Mandarin data and further investigate CLI. Italian learners realised the non-merger contrast more target-like than Mandarin learners, lending additional support to CLI (H3).

The analysis script presents the analysis reported on in the paper:

Zahner-Ritter, K., Zhao, T., Einfeldt, M., & Braun, B. (to appear). How experience with tone in the native language affects the L2 acquisition of pitch accents. Frontiers in Psychology.

The statistical analyses were conducted by Katharina Zahner-Ritter ([e-mail]) and Bettina Braun ([e-mail]). We also include a description of the materials.

本研究旨在检验德语学习者，其中母语为具有声调的语言的普通话学习者，模仿德语中语调重音对比的能力。在语调语言中，语调重音不传达词汇信息；此外，语调重音相较于词汇声调更为稀疏，因为它们仅与话语中的突出词语相关联。我们比较了两种语调重音对比：（1）一种“非合并”对比，普通话听者感知为不同；（2）一种“合并”对比，对普通话听者而言更为相似。声调语言的使用者通常对音高非常敏感。因此，假设1（H1）指出，学习者产生的两种对比与母语德语者相似。然而，以牺牲处理短语级语调对比为代价的音调对比的敏感性，通常会在第二语言（L2）中阻碍语调重音的类似目标产出（假设2，H2）。最后，跨语言影响（CLI）预测了这两种对比的实现存在差异，以及随着熟练程度的提高而有所改善（假设3，H3）。我们采用了延迟模仿范式，该范式非常适合评估第二语言的语音学和音韵学，因为它不需要访问语调意义。我们研究了三种与短wh-疑问句中的句子最终名词相关的重音的模仿（例如：“Wer malt denn Mandalas”，意为“谁绘制了曼荼罗？”或“谁喜欢绘制曼荼罗？”）。在实验1中，28名普通话母语者参与者（其中14名为低熟练度，14名为高熟练度）参与了实验。使用广义加性混合模型分析了学习者产生的两种对比，以分析随时间变化的语调重音对比差异，并与先前研究中（Zahner-Ritter等，2022年）的母语德语参与者的产出进行比较。结果显示，非合并对比的实现比德国母语者更为明显，而合并对比的实现则不那么鲜明，熟练度的有益影响为H3提供了支持。实验2测试了低熟练度的意大利语学习者（其母语为语调语言）以语境化普通话数据并进一步研究CLI。意大利语学习者实现的非合并对比比普通话学习者更接近目标，为CLI（H3）提供了额外的支持。

分析脚本呈现了论文中报告的分析：

Zahner-Ritter, K., Zhao, T., Einfeldt, M., & Braun, B.（即将发表）。母语中声调体验如何影响第二语言对语调重音的习得。心理学前沿。

统计分析由Katharina Zahner-Ritter（[e-mail]）和Bettina Braun（[e-mail]）进行。我们还包括了对材料的描述。