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Part of
Generative SLA in the Age of Minimalism: Features, interfaces, and beyond
Edited by Tania Leal, Elena Shimanskaya and Casilde A. Isabelli
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 67] 2022
► pp. 157–188

Transfer of prosodic representation

L1 Bengali production of L2 English regular simple past tense

| The University of Sheffield

This study examines the spoken suppliance of inflectional morphology by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English in the phonological framework of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (Goad, White, & Steele, 2003; Goad & White, 2004; Goad & White, 2006, et seq.). Data from a semi-spontaneous elicitation task suggests that, at lower levels of proficiency, production of inflection is partially conditioned by the stem vowel in terms of vowel length and the voicing status of the stem-final consonant. This finding is proposed to be indicative not only of transfer of L1 prosodic representations, but also transfer of L1 word minimality requirements and moraic structure below the level of the prosodic word. Evidence of such transfer is arguably visible when there is a mismatch between word minimality and the distribution of syllable weight in the L1 and L2.

Keywords: prosodic transfer, Bengali, prosodic representation, inflectional morphology, minimal word constraints
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background to the study
    • 2.1Prosodic representation of English regular simple past tense
    • 2.2Interim summary
    • 2.3Prosodic representation of Bengali past tense
      • 2.3.1Bengali verbal morphology
      • 2.3.2Bengali prosodic representation: Simple past
      • 2.3.3Bengali prosodic representation: Present perfect
      • 2.3.4Interim summary
    • 2.4Minimality requirements in Bengali and English
      • 2.4.1Minimality requirements in Bengali
      • 2.4.2Interim summary
      • 2.4.3Minimality requirements in English
      • 2.4.4Pre-lenis lengthening in English but not Bengali
    • 2.5Interim summary and discussion
  • 3.The study: Suppliance of regular simple past inflection by L1 Bengali speakers of L2 English
    • 3.1Predictions
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Stimuli and tasks
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Summary of results
  • 5.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 17 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.67.07ing
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