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That came as no surprise! The processing of prosody-grammar associations in Danish first and second language users

Gosselke Berthelsen, Sabine LU orcid and Burholt Kristensen, Line (2025) In Languages 10(8).
Abstract
In some languages, prosodic cues on word stems can be used to predict upcoming suffixes. Previous studies have shown that second language (L2) users can process such cues predictively in their L2 from approximately intermediate proficiency. This ability may depend on the mapping of the L2 prosody onto first language (L1) perceptual and functional prosodic categories. Taking as an example the Danish stød, a complex prosodic cue, we investigate an acquisition context of a predictive cue where L2 users are unfamiliar with both its perceptual correlates and its functionality. This differs from previous studies on predictive prosodic cues in Swedish and Spanish, where L2 users were only unfamiliar with either the perceptual make-up or... (More)
In some languages, prosodic cues on word stems can be used to predict upcoming suffixes. Previous studies have shown that second language (L2) users can process such cues predictively in their L2 from approximately intermediate proficiency. This ability may depend on the mapping of the L2 prosody onto first language (L1) perceptual and functional prosodic categories. Taking as an example the Danish stød, a complex prosodic cue, we investigate an acquisition context of a predictive cue where L2 users are unfamiliar with both its perceptual correlates and its functionality. This differs from previous studies on predictive prosodic cues in Swedish and Spanish, where L2 users were only unfamiliar with either the perceptual make-up or functionality of the cue. In a speeded number judgement task, L2 users of Danish with German as their L1 (N = 39) and L1 users of Danish (N = 40) listened to noun stems with a prosodic feature (stød or non-stød) that either matched or mismatched the inflectional suffix (singular vs. plural). While L1 users efficiently utilised stød predictively for rapid and accurate grammatical processing, L2 users showed no such behaviour. These findings underscore the importance of mapping between L1 and L2 prosodic categories in second language acquisition. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
SLA, L2, prediction, speech processing, prosody, grammar, Danish, stød, L1
in
Languages
volume
10
issue
8
article number
181
pages
24 pages
publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
2226-471X
DOI
10.3390/languages10080181
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
54dc6cc5-1d29-4ddc-9378-2e1144b18fcd
date added to LUP
2025-08-07 11:34:29
date last changed
2025-08-14 14:33:07
@article{54dc6cc5-1d29-4ddc-9378-2e1144b18fcd,
  abstract     = {{In some languages, prosodic cues on word stems can be used to predict upcoming suffixes. Previous studies have shown that second language (L2) users can process such cues predictively in their L2 from approximately intermediate proficiency. This ability may depend on the mapping of the L2 prosody onto first language (L1) perceptual and functional prosodic categories. Taking as an example the Danish stød, a complex prosodic cue, we investigate an acquisition context of a predictive cue where L2 users are unfamiliar with both its perceptual correlates and its functionality. This differs from previous studies on predictive prosodic cues in Swedish and Spanish, where L2 users were only unfamiliar with either the perceptual make-up or functionality of the cue. In a speeded number judgement task, L2 users of Danish with German as their L1 (N = 39) and L1 users of Danish (N = 40) listened to noun stems with a prosodic feature (stød or non-stød) that either matched or mismatched the inflectional suffix (singular vs. plural). While L1 users efficiently utilised stød predictively for rapid and accurate grammatical processing, L2 users showed no such behaviour. These findings underscore the importance of mapping between L1 and L2 prosodic categories in second language acquisition.}},
  author       = {{Gosselke Berthelsen, Sabine and Burholt Kristensen, Line}},
  issn         = {{2226-471X}},
  keywords     = {{SLA; L2; prediction; speech processing; prosody; grammar; Danish; stød; L1}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{8}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Languages}},
  title        = {{That came as no surprise! The processing of prosody-grammar associations in Danish first and second language users}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/languages10080181}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/languages10080181}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}