Cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation by Chinese speakers: Effects of linguistic experience and prosodic features

Peizhu Shang; Paolo Roseano; Wendy Elvira-García

doi:10.30827/portalin.vi42.27042

Authors

Peizhu Shang Beijing Institute of Technology
Paolo Roseano Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia & University of South Africa
Wendy Elvira-García University of Barcelona https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-9851

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi42.27042

Keywords:

Intonation patterns, cross-linguistic perception, Chinese learners of Spanish, linguistic experience, stress pattern

Abstract

This study aims to explore the cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation patterns and the role of linguistic experience and prosodic features in identifying the question-statement contrasts. To this end, 43 Spanish native listeners and 75 Chinese learners of Spanish were presented with auditory stimuli in a gating paradigm for the recognition of sentence types. The results showed that listeners’ perception of target intonational contours was highly dependent on their language experience. Although Spanish listeners outperformed Chinese learners in perceiving different intonational cues, most Chinese learners were able to correctly identify sentence types after hearing the initial F0 peak due to the positive transfer of their tonal processing ability in their native language. In addition, our data revealed that the position of the final stressed syllable might also be a relevant factor for discriminating the sentence type depending on the length of the utterance. Overall, the findings seem to suggest a complex integration mechanism for cross-linguistic intonation perception, in which listeners’ language specificity and the prosodic structures of the materials should be accounted for evaluating non-native auditory performance.

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Author Biographies

Peizhu Shang, Beijing Institute of Technology

Peizhu Shang received her Ph.D. degree in Cognitive Science and Language in 2022. She is now a tenure-track assistant professor working at the Beijing Institute of Technology (China) and an external investigator at the Phonetics Laboratory of the Universitat de Barcelona. Her research interests include both theoretical and applied phonetics, and she has published six research papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

Paolo Roseano, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia & University of South Africa

Paolo Roseano woks mainly on prosody, morphology, and sociolinguistics. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Estudios de Fonética Experimental, a leading member of the UNED Phonetics Laboratory (Spain) and a research fellow at the University of South Africa. He has published a large number of studies, including 50 research papers, 42 book chapters, 15 authored books, and 5 edited books and issues.

Wendy Elvira-García, University of Barcelona

Wendy Elvira-García is an assistant professor at the University of Barcelona and a leading member of the Phonetics Laboratory there. She also serves as the associate editor of the journal Estudios de Fonética Experimental. In her career, she has published 25 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, a book review, and presented at over 40 conferences. She has also published 2 books, co-authored 16 book chapters, and edited a book.

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FUNDING INFORMATION

This study received funding from the Beijing Institute of Technology Research Fund Program for Young Scholars (No. 3240012222308) and the Ministry of Education University-Industry Collaborative Education Program of China (No. 230824085307241), awarded to the first author (P.S.). Peizhu Shang of the Beijing Institute of Technology is the corresponding author for this paper.