THE PRIORITY OF TEMPORAL ASPECTS IN L2-SWEDISH PROSODY: STUDIES IN PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION Bosse Thorén The priority of temporal aspects in L2-Swedish prosody Studies in perception and production Bosse Thorén Stockholm University ©Bosse Thorén, Stockholm 2008 ©Cover picture, Hans Thorén, Vadstena 2008 ISBN 978-91-7155-610-3 Printed in Sweden by US-AB PrintCenter, Stockholm 2008 Distributor: Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University To all my lovely students who inspired this work Contents Phonetic transcriptions................................................................................... xi Introduction ...................................................................................................12 1.2. Foreign accent........................................................................................................17 1.2.2. Kinds and degrees of foreign accent .............................................................18 1.3. A growing interest in prosody in the teaching of Swedish as an L2.......................23 1.3.1. Experience-based ideas ................................................................................23 1.4. Principles of Basic Prosody as guidelines for a teaching strategy.........................27 1.4.1. The development of the present Basic Prosody (BP) ...................................27 1.4.2. The Principles of BP ......................................................................................31 1.4.3. The postvocalic consonant ............................................................................35 1.5. Some theoretical and pedagogical considerations ................................................40 1.5.1. Priority among prosodic phonological features..............................................41 1.5.2. Priority among phonetic correlates ................................................................46 1.5.3. Pedagogical considerations...........................................................................52 1.6. Methodological aspects of duration measurements...............................................59 2. Introduction to empirical studies ...............................................................62 2.1. Segmentation .........................................................................................................62 2.2 Studies aiming at the further illumination of the major issues in the concept of Basic Prosody .........................................................................................................................63 2.2.1. Experiment 1..................................................................................................63 2.2.2. Experiment 2..................................................................................................64 2.2.3. Production study 3 .........................................................................................64 2.2.4. Production study 4 .........................................................................................64 2.2.5. Production study 5 .........................................................................................65 3. Empirical studies .......................................................................................66 3.1 Duration versus spectrum: A perception test with manipulated durations..............66 3.1.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................66 3.1.2. Method ...........................................................................................................68 3.1.3. Result.............................................................................................................69 3.1.4. Discussion......................................................................................................74 3.2. The postvocalic consonant as a complementary cue to the perception of quantity in Swedish – a revisit.....................................................................................................76 3.2.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................76 3.2.2 Method ............................................................................................................79 3.2.3. Result.............................................................................................................81 3.2.4 Conclusion and discussion .............................................................................82 3.3. L2-speakers’ strategies to convey the Quantity contrast in Swedish – a production study ..............................................................................................................................84 3.3.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................84 3.3.2 Method ............................................................................................................89 3.3.3. Results ...........................................................................................................91 3.3.4. Conclusion and discussion ............................................................................96 3.4. L2-speakers’ strategies to convey the word stress contrast in Swedish – a production study ..........................................................................................................100 3.4.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................100 3.4.2. Method .........................................................................................................103 3.4.3. Results .........................................................................................................105 3.4.4. Discussion....................................................................................................109 3.5. Swedish Accent – Duration of postvocalic consonants in native Swedes speaking English and German....................................................................................................112 3.5.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................112 3.5.2. Method .........................................................................................................113 3.5.3. Results .........................................................................................................114 3.5.4. Discussion....................................................................................................116 4. General discussion and preliminary conclusions....................................119 4.1. Priority of certain aspects of L2-phonetics over others........................................119 4.2. Priority of temporal aspects over tonal.................................................................122 4.3. Priority of temporal aspects over spectral............................................................123 4.4. The inclusion of postvocalic consonant “length” in a pedagogic approach .........126 4.5. The suitability of BP as basic principle of pronunciation teaching for L2-learners of Swedish .......................................................................................................................129 Summary in Swedish (sammanfattning på svenska)..................................132 Inledning ......................................................................................................................132 Bakgrund................................................................................................................132 Principer för basprosodi .........................................................................................134 Prioritering av temporala fonologiska kontraster framför tonala............................135 Prioritering av temporal realisering av betoning och kvantitet framför tonal respektive spektral .................................................................................................136 Empiriska studier.........................................................................................................137 Duration eller spektrum som korrelat till kvantitet..................................................138 Den postvokaliska konsonantens duration som en kompletterande perceptuell ledtråd till kvantitetsdistinktionen ...........................................................................139 Andraspråkstalares strategier för realisering av svenskans kvantitetsdistinktion .139 Andraspråkstalares strategier för realisering av svenskans betoningsdistinktion.140 Svensk brytning – den postvokaliska konsonantens duration hos svenskar som talar engelska och tyska ........................................................................................141 Allmänna slutsatser och diskussion ............................................................................142 Acknowledgements .....................................................................................143 References..................................................................................................144 Abbreviations L1 first language L2 second language BP Basic Prosody FA Foreign accent SLM Speech Learning Model Sw. Swedish V vowel general sense V vowel in unstressed syllable C consonant W word: in measures of relative durations U utterance M mean value Sd standard deviation S strong/stressed syllable W weak/unstressed syllable: stress patterns, only