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2. Prosodia e Foreign Accent - Prosody and Foreign AccentAlessandra Zappoli, 2012, master's thesis Abstract: This thesis investigates the production and acquisition of prosodic contours in Italian learners of German, and German learners of Italian as second languages (L2). The thesis compares speech production in L2 with speech production in the native language (L1). The goal is to verify whether the speech production in L2 is affected by Transfer phenomena that are linked to the phonological properties of the L1. The thesis also tests, in light of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis, whether the direction of acquisition - the acquisition of German as L2, being an L1 speaker of Italian vs. the acquisition of Italian as L2, being an L1 speaker of German – can predict a production in L2 connotated by Foreign Accent (FA). The thesis describes: i) the current state of the art of acquisitional theories of an L2 in adulthood; ii) the theoretical description of the patterns of prosodic prominence in Italian and German within the Autosegmental Theory of Intonation framework; iii) the interaction of the phonological structure with the Information Packaging of the Discourse Structure that differently affects the realization of prosodic patterns in Germanic and Romance languages. Finally, the thesis reports the preliminary results of a production experiment that adopts the paradigm of Swerts et. al (2002) in which participants utter a sequence of Noun-Phrases composed by a Noun and Adjective in which the Information Status rotates between the conditions of New, Given, and Contrastive information. The data highlight the presence of H+L* as the most frequently used Pitch Accent in the production of Italian speakers, that emerges also in the production of the German L2 speakers of Italian; in contrast, the data show the presence of Deaccentuation in the production of L1 speakers of German in correlation with the Given information status of a referent that is not successfully acquired by Italian L1 speakers of German as L2. The data indicate that it appears to be easier to successfully acquire the Italian prosodic system, being a native speaker of German, than vice-versa, supporting the MDH. The facilitatory effect is explainable by the less relevant role of the Discourse Structure in guiding the prominence patterns in Italian, which more heavily relies on the phonological structure, resulting in a less marked prosodic system compared to the prosodic system of German.
Found in: osebi
Keywords: pitch accents, prosody, foreign accent, prominence, second language acquisition, german, Italian, markedness, speech production
Published: 06.12.2021; Views: 1156; Downloads: 0
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3. The perception of intonation in native and non-native linguistic contexts and by different individuals:Alessandra Zappoli, 2019, doctoral dissertation Abstract: This thesis addresses the cognitive foundations of categorization and acquisition of intonational categories in native (L1) and second language (L2). It focuses on the link between the processing of intonational categories and the and pragmatic functions of language. The thesis reports two behavioral psychoacoustic experiments that studied the disambiguation of sentence-modality (statement vs. question) signaled by sentence-final Boundary Tones by manipulating lexical and linguistic status of the underlying segmental information. A third ERPs experiment studied with ERPs the association of specific Pitch Accents with the discourse status of a referent in German and how different processing-correlates of PA violation are processed in L1 and L2 speakers. In all experiments, specific attention has been devoted to individual differences both at the theoretical and empirical level. I showed that perceivers can display variability in processing as a function of biographic factors, in the quantity and quality of training in a second language, and in the presence of variables related to the construct of Theory-of-Mind (ToM). I support the view that the processing of intonational categories, modulated by Fundamental Frequency contours, links with the processing of segmental information, the semantic access at word-level, and the decoding of the information structure within the discourse model. The study of processing of pitch contours is a highly multidisciplinary discipline, but the different theoretical perspectives are not always considered within specific research. I propose to approach the study of pitch processing by trying to integrate the different theoretical and empirical approaches with the aim to use the available knowledge. This broader perspective considers the auditory categorization process, the integration of the sound-domain information with higher-order linguistic structure, and the modeling of individual variability of the perceivers. I support the view that the presence of individual traits that favor the efficient decoding of the interlocutor’s perspective and intentions correlates with a more efficient processing of the discourse information structure. I propose that this is observable through the manipulation of the associated intonational categories. I think that the adoption of a multidisciplinary perspective, centered on the processing of intonational categories, and the approach developed in this thesis is relevant to develop further the study of specific populations known to display less efficient processing of the pragmatic aspects of discourse, such as individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions.
Found in: osebi
Keywords: perception, intonation, prosody, L2 acquisition, German, Italian, pitch categorization, pitch discrimination, N400, Late Positivity, Individual Variability, ToM
Published: 06.12.2021; Views: 1046; Downloads: 0
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4. Affixation in Chinese - L'affissazione in CineseAlessandra Zappoli, 2008, undergraduate thesis Abstract: This thesis investigates specific derivational morphological processes in word formation in Mandarin Chinese. It addresses the theoretical linguistic differences between derivation and compounding in morphology. It analyzes the morphological features of specific Mandarin Chinese morphemes and characters that show to be “borderline” cases of both morphological processes.
In particular, this works considers the theoretical position advanced by Booij (2005) based on Item and Arrangement morphology, which focuses on the difference between free and bound morphemes and seeks to overcome the sharp theoretical division between derivation and compounding, allowing for a theoretical description of affixoids.
The thesis describes the processes of lexicalization and grammaticalization through which it is possible to form new words in Indo-European languages and in Mandarin Chinese; it aims to demonstrate that Modern Mandarin Chinese forms new bisyllabic words also through affixational processes.
The data discussed in the thesis are extracted from the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese (LCMC).
Found in: osebi
Keywords: affixation, affixoids, mandarin chinese, affissazione, affissoidi, cinese mandarino.
Published: 06.12.2021; Views: 852; Downloads: 0
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5. Prosodic marking of information status in L2 intonationMario Vayra, Giuliano Bocci, Cinzia Avesani, Alessandra Zappoli, unpublished conference contribution Found in: osebi
Keywords: Prosody, Information Status, L2 intonation, Deaccentuation, German, Italian, L2 Acquisition
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 950; Downloads: 0
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7. Prominence patterns in L2 acquisition. The differential learning of the prosody - information structure interface in L2-German and L2-ItalianCinzia Avesani, Giuliano Bocci, Mario Vayra, Alessandra Zappoli, unpublished conference contribution Found in: osebi
Keywords: Prominence, Prosody, Information Structure, German, Italian, Deaccentuation
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 870; Downloads: 0
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8. Pitch processing in L1 and L2: German and ItalianAlessandra Zappoli, Francesco Vespignani, Stefan Bauman, Martine Grice, Petra Schumacher, invited lecture at foreign university Found in: osebi
Keywords: Pitch processing, German, Italian, Deaccentuation, ERP, EEG, N400, Late Positivity, Given Information
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 896; Downloads: 0
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9. Learning a new intonation pattern also means learning how to use itAlessandra Zappoli, Francesco Vespignani, Stefan Bauman, Martine Grice, Petra Schumacher, unpublished conference contribution Found in: osebi
Keywords: Intonation, perception, EEG, N400, Late Positivity, L2 acquisition prosody, German
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 986; Downloads: 0
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10. The processing of German pitch accents by Italian learners of GermanMartine Grice, Stefan Bauman, Francesco Vespignani, Alessandra Zappoli, Petra Schumacher, unpublished conference contribution Found in: osebi
Keywords: German, Pitch Accents, EEG, N400, Late Positivity, Deaccentuation, Contrastive Focus, Information Status, L2 Acquisition, Italian
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 825; Downloads: 0
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