Intonation and reference maintenance in Turkish learners of Dutch: a first insight

This paper investigates L2 learners’ use of intonation in reference maintenance in comparison to native speakers at three longitudinal points. Nominal referring expressions were elicited from two untutored Turkish learners of Dutch and five native speakers of Dutch via a film retelling task, and wer...

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Pubblicato in:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/aile,
Autore principale: Chen, Aoju
Natura: Article ou chapitre numérique
Lingua:Anglais
Pubblicazione: Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère 2012
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Accesso online:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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Riassunto:This paper investigates L2 learners’ use of intonation in reference maintenance in comparison to native speakers at three longitudinal points. Nominal referring expressions were elicited from two untutored Turkish learners of Dutch and five native speakers of Dutch via a film retelling task, and were analysed in terms of pitch span and word duration. Effects of two types of change in information states were examined, between new and given and between new and accessible. We found native-like use of word duration in both types of change early on but different performances between learners and development over time in one learner in the use of pitch span. Further, the use of morphosyntactic devices had different effects on the two learners. The inter-learner differences and late systematic use of pitch span, in spite of similar use of pitch span in learners’ L1 and L2, suggest that learning may play a role in the acquisition of intonation as a device for reference maintenance.