Learning questions in an L2: Koreans learning English question intonation
Date
2014-09
Authors
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
Remnants of a speaker’s first language (L1) are often present on features of their second language (L2). This paper investigates how native speakers of Korean acquire English intonational patterns on wh-questions and yes/no questions. English and Korean intonational structures differ on numerous levels. In additional to different intonational structures, English and Korean also differ as to how they distinguish between yes/no and wh-questions. In Korean, yes/no and wh-questions are syntactically the same. The only way in which they differ is in their intonational phrasing. In English, yes/no and wh-questions differ in multiple ways: choice of lexical item, syntactically, and intonationally. I will present preliminary experimental data from native speakers of Korean who are at various stages of acquiring English. I will also compare the intonational patterns to those of native English speakers and Korean L1 speakers. My preliminary results show that two of the native Korean participants do not seem to be aware of English intonational patterns, while the third (more advanced) speaker shows native-like intonational patterns in some English questions.
Description
Keywords
Linguistics, Language acquisition, Korean language, English language, Second language acquisition, Intonation (Phonetics)
Citation
MacDonald, D. (2014). Learning questions in an L2: Koreans learning English question intonation. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 28(Fall), 64-80.