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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: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ...of prosodic contours in Italian learners of German, and German learners of Italian as second...
Keywords: pitch accents, prosody, foreign accent, prominence, second language acquisition, german, Italian, markedness, speech production
Published: 06.12.2021; Views: 1161; 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: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ...the discourse status of a referent in German and how different processing-correlates of PA violation...
Keywords: perception, intonation, prosody, L2 acquisition, German, Italian, pitch categorization, pitch discrimination, N400, Late Positivity, Individual Variability, ToM
Published: 06.12.2021; Views: 1048; Downloads: 0
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4. All’interfaccia tra prosodia e struttura informativaAlessandra Zappoli, Mario Vayra, Giuliano Bocci, Cinzia Avesani, 2013, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: Germanic and Romance languages differ in the way they assign prosodic prominence within the domain of the utterance in the discourse structure. Italian relies on the hierarchical phonological structure and assigns the prosodic prominence to the metrical head on the right. On the other hand, German assigns prominence combining both the phonological structure and the pragmatic information, considering the degree of activation of a specific referent. Referents that have not been previously mentioned introduce New information in the discourse. New information is marked with prominent pitch patterns. On the contrary, referents that have been already mentioned are cognitively activated in the mind of the hearer and they represent Given information. Given information has been proven to be most frequently deaccented in Germanic languages. In this study, we show that native speakers of Italian, Second Language learners of German, show to have difficulties in the acquisition of the Deaccentuation pattern, and are affected by prosodic transfer from their L1. The L1 prosodic system not being sensitive to the pragmatic cues can assign prominence on a metrical head even if the referent is Given within Discourse. On the contrary, we show that native speakers of German, learning Italian as a second language show to acquire more easily the prosodic pattern of Italian.
Found in: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ... Germanic and Romance languages differ in the way...
Keywords: Pitch Accents, Prosody, L2 acquisition, Transfer, Given Information, Deaccenting, German, Italian
Published: 12.01.2022; Views: 937; Downloads: 0
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5. Prosody and information status in Italian and German L2 intonationMario Vayra, Giuliano Bocci, Cinzia Avesani, 2015, independent scientific component part or a chapter in a monograph Abstract: In this work, we address the systemic difference in the prosodic strategies of accentuation at the utterance level of Italian and German, belonging respectively to Romance and Germanic languages. In particular, we address the Interlanguage properties of the speech produced by adult Second Language Learners of the two languages analyzing their production in semi-spontaneous elicitation contexts.
We focus on the acquisition of the interplay of phonological and discourse structure occurring in German causing Given Information to be prosodically deaccented, because already cognitively activated in the mind of the interlocutor. The Deaccentuation contour is prosodically realized as a flat low pitch contour and is pragmatically assigned in Germanic languages to a non-focused element, even in positions that metrically would require the positioning of a Nuclear Pitch Accent. This strategy is not reported in Italian, causing referents that align to the position of the prosodic metrical head to be standardly pitch-accented. Deaccentuation, is hard to acquire and subject to prosodic transfer when produced by L2 learners native speakers of Italian, especially when aligning with the metrical head requiring accentuation. Italian L2 speakers of German show to accent Given referents because adopting the Italian accentuation strategy, while German L2 speakers of Italian seem to accommodate more easily the accentuation pattern in L2. We provide a possible explanation in light of the Differential Markedness Hypothesis that considers the number of parameters to be acquired by the L2 speakers.
Found in: ključnih besedah
Keywords: pitch accents, deaccentuation, German, Italian, discourse structure, L2 acquisition, prosody
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 931; Downloads: 0
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6. Prosodic marking of information status in L2 intonationMario Vayra, Giuliano Bocci, Cinzia Avesani, Alessandra Zappoli, unpublished conference contribution Found in: ključnih besedah
Summary of found: ...Prosody, Information Status, L2 intonation, Deaccentuation, German, Italian, L2 Acquisition...
Keywords: Prosody, Information Status, L2 intonation, Deaccentuation, German, Italian, L2 Acquisition
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 961; Downloads: 0
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7. The mapping between prosody and information structure in German and in Italian L2 learnersAlessandra Zappoli, Mario Vayra, Giuliano Bocci, Cinzia Avesani, 2013, published scientific conference contribution abstract Found in: ključnih besedah
Keywords: prosody, information status, german, italian, L2 acquisition, Deaccentuation
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 886; Downloads: 33
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8. 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: ključnih besedah
Keywords: Prominence, Prosody, Information Structure, German, Italian, Deaccentuation
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 878; Downloads: 0
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9. 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: ključnih besedah
Keywords: Pitch processing, German, Italian, Deaccentuation, ERP, EEG, N400, Late Positivity, Given Information
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 903; Downloads: 0
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10. 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: ključnih besedah
Keywords: Intonation, perception, EEG, N400, Late Positivity, L2 acquisition prosody, German
Published: 14.12.2021; Views: 990; Downloads: 0
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