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SUMMARY:On some segmental and prosodic intricacies of `foreign accent' - P
 rofessor Conxita Lleó. University of Hamburg.
DTSTART:20071204T160000Z
DTEND:20071204T173000Z
UID:TALK8365@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Napoleon Katsos
DESCRIPTION:Acquisition of the phonology of a second language is a challen
 ging enterprise\, not only for the learner\, but also for theories of acqu
 isition and for phonological theories. In general\, a late learner\, that 
 is\, somebody who begins learning a second language as an adult will never
  reach a ultimate state\, in which s/he will be perceived as a native spea
 ker\, a few exceptions notwithstanding. Many theories and models try to un
 derstand the causes of a “foreign accent” and still many try to help o
 vercome it with several types of methods. This talk is not a pedagogical o
 ne\, so that I will concentrate on analyzing areas in which a “foreign a
 ccent” emerges and reasons for its appearance.\n\nIn what areas does a 
 “foreign accent” emerge? One of the first well-known answers to this q
 uestion was Contrastive Analysis (CA)\, which was a mechanistic and thus s
 implistic proposal based on the comparison of the two phonological systems
 —that of L1 and L2: identical (or similar) phonemes should not cause any
  difficulties\, but different phonemes should be difficult to acquire. How
 ever\, according to the Speech Learning Model (SLM)\, those sounds that ar
 e similar\, but not identical\, in the L1 and L2 pose the most problems. T
 he predictive power of CA was limited\, and other factors were sought\, as
  e.g. markedness relations between the L1 and L2 phonemes and their distri
 butional properties\, as proposed in the Markedness Differential Hypothesi
 s (MDH) and the Structural Conformity Hypothesis (SCH). New insights came 
 into the analyses as the MDH and the SCH proposals were considered within 
 the Principles and Parameters (P&P) paradigm\, in which the question was r
 aised as to the accessibility of UG by L2 learners and the parametric diff
 erences between L1 and L2. Optimality Theory (OT) in turn has contributed 
 to the question of the role of markedness in L2 acquisition. However\, all
  theories have concentrated on segmental phenomena\, when in fact supraseg
 mental\, i.e. prosodic differences between L1 and L2 may also contribute e
 ssentially to a “foreign accent”.\n\nWhat are thus the reasons of a 
 “foreign accent”? Perception\, age\, markedness are possible factors\,
  besides alleged motivation\, input frequency\, etc. Perception may explai
 n some of the shortcomings\, but not all. The question of age is still a p
 uzzling one: is there a critical age for language acquisition? Or are ther
 e several critical ages depending on the linguistic module to be acquired?
  Or is the critical or sensitive age rather like a continuum\, which for p
 honology begins to fade extremely soon? As far as markedness is concerned\
 , OT has put it in the center of research through the notion of the “eme
 rgence of the unmarked”\, but the function of markedness is better defin
 ed for L1 than for L2. Only a global analysis that goes beyond segments an
 d considers suprasegmentals can begin to give an answer to some long-stand
 ing issues. The talk will illustrate theories and issues by means of relev
 ant examples of L2 acquisition. 
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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