Chapter 5. Wh-questions in Brazilian Portuguese and Quebec French

2020 ◽  
pp. 136-150
Author(s):  
Mary Aizawa Kato
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Wh Questions

scholarly journals L1 phonological effects on L2 (non-)naïve perception: A cross-language investigation of the oral–nasal vowel contrast in Brazilian Portuguese

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110449
Author(s):  
Ruth Maria Martinez ◽  
Heather Goad ◽  
Michael Dow
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The Status ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Caribbean Spanish ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Vowel Contrast ◽  
Cross Language

Feature-based approaches to acquisition principally focus on second language (L2) learners’ ability to perceive non-native consonants when the features required are either contrastively present or entirely absent from the first language (L1) grammar. As features may function contrastively or allophonically in the consonant and/or vowel systems of a language, we expand the scope of this research to address whether features that function contrastively in the L1 vowel system can be recombined to yield new vowels in the L2; whether features that play a contrastive role in the L1 consonant system can be reassigned to build new vowels in the L2; and whether L1 allophonic features can be ‘elevated’ to contrastive status in the L2. We examine perception of the oral–nasal contrast in Brazilian Portuguese listeners from French, English, Caribbean Spanish, and non-Caribbean Spanish backgrounds, languages that differ in the status assigned to [nasal] in their vowel systems. An AXB discrimination task revealed that, although all language groups succeeded in perceiving the non-naïve contrast /e/–/ẽ/ due to their previous exposure to Québec French while living in Montréal, Canada, only French and Caribbean Spanish speakers succeeded in discriminating the naïve contrast /i/–/ĩ/. These findings suggest that feature redeployment at first exposure is only possible if the feature is contrastive in the L1 vowel system (French) or if the feature is allophonic but variably occurs in contrastive contexts in the L1 vowel system (Caribbean Spanish). With more exposure to a non-native contrast, however, feature redeployment from consonant to vowel systems was also supported, as was the possibility that allophonic features may be elevated to contrastive status in the L2.

scholarly journals Introduction: Seven types of continuity in discourse

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-123
Author(s):  
Gunnel Tottie
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Discourse Processes ◽  
Oral Speech ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Australian English ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

This issue of Language Variation and Change brings together seven articles from four continents, North and South America, Europe, and Australia, dealing with Québec French, Brazilian Portuguese, British and Australian English, respectively. Although the geographical spread is great, the articles have in common a focus on how various discourse strategies and devices (punctors, pragmatic expressions, extension particles) maintain coherence or continuity in spoken discourse, and all subscribe to the importance of a rigorous quantitative methodology. They thus bear testimony to the important development in linguistics in recent years that regards discourse processes found mainly in unedited oral speech as crucial data offering a key to the functioning of human language (Ducrot, 1980; Roulet et al., 1985; Schegloff et al., 1977; Schiffrin, 1987; Stenström, 1990).

scholarly journals Quantitative analysis of fundamental frequency in Spanish (L2) and Brazilian Portuguese (L1)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. e021003
Author(s):  
Cristiane Conceição Silva ◽  
Pablo Arantes
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Dynamic Time Warping ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Time Warping ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Dynamic Time

This paper analyzes the intonation of Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) produced by monolingual speakers of both languages and bilingual BP speakers that lived in Spain on average for 6 years. Bilinguals produced data in both Spanish L2 (BL2) and BP L1 (BL1). Speech materials are sentences in different modalities (declaratives, yes-no and wh-questions) and reading styles (isolated sentences and storytelling). Fundamental frequency (f0) contours were analyzed to assess learning in Spanish L2 and language attrition in the L1 production of bilinguals. Variability in the f0 contours of the four language conditions was gauged by means of three indices (peak rate, peak range and global standard deviation). Dynamic time warping (DTW) distances between pairs of f0 contours were also measured as a way to measure within- and between-language differences in intonation patterns. The main results are: 1) BL2 and BL1 contours are significantly more variable than the monolingual ones both quantitatively and qualitatively; 2) BL2 contours partially converge towards the patterns of Spanish monolinguals, showing that there is learning; 3) there is evidence for language attrition in the form of transfer of Spanish patterns to BP contours produced by bilinguals; 4) Learning and attrition levels are different depending on sentence modality, such that learning is greater in modalities that differ less between BP and Spanish and attrition is greater in modalities that differ the most.

scholarly journals A estreita relação entre quantidade e intensidade Evidências translinguísticas

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Guerra Vicente ◽  
Marcus Vinicius Lunguinho
Keyword(s):  
Southern Cone ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
Degree Of Participation

The aim of this paper is to provide further evidence for a unified analysis of todo-all as an intensifier and quantifier, which, we claim, is a sole lexical item and should be called a ‘degree modifier’. The evidence comes from Brazilian Portuguese, English, Southern Cone Spanish, French and Quebec French. The main advantage of our proposal is that the distinct readings are yielded depending on whether the degree modifier has scope over (i) a scale associated with a nominal extension and its degree of participation in an event (quantificational reading) or (ii) a scale associated with a degree adjective and a nominal extension holding an adjectival property (intensificational reading).

scholarly journals The development of language and its interaction with other aspects of cognition: the case of medial wh-questions in English and in Brazilian Portuguese

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Elaine Grolla ◽  
Adam Liter ◽  
Jeffrey Lidz
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Cognitive System ◽  
High Activation ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Inhibition Control ◽  
Children's Grammar ◽  
Peculiar Behavior

Preschool children acquiring English and Brazilian Portuguese display a peculiar behavior when prompted to produce multi-clause wh-questions. In elicited production tasks, structures with an extra wh-element in medial position are sometimes produced. Such medial questions are impossible in the adult languages being acquired. Following a hypothesis put forth by Grolla & Lidz (2018), we propose that children’s productions are not generated by children’s grammar, but reflect difficulties of their developing cognitive system. More specifically, we propose that children’s more limited inhibition control capacity leads them to pronounce elements with high activation levels in wrong places of the structure. Experimental data on both languages are provided which corroborate this claim. These data show that children with more limited inhibition control capacity are more likely to produce medial wh-questions.

Responses of Language-Disordered Children to Wh-Questions

1986 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha M. Parnell ◽  
James D. Amerman ◽  
Roger D. Harting
Keyword(s):  
Relative Difficulty ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Wh Questions

Nineteen language-disordered children aged 3—7 years responded to items representing nine wh-question forms. Questions referred to three types of referential sources based on immediacy and visual availability. Three and 4-year-olds produced significantly fewer functionally appropriate and functionally accurate answers than did the 5- and 6-year-olds. Generally, questions asked with reference to nonobservable persons, actions, or objects appeared the most difficult. Why, when, and what happened questions were the most difficult of the nine wh-forms. In comparison with previous data from normal children, the language-disordered subjects' responses were significantly less appropriate and accurate. The language-disordered children also appeared particularly vulnerable to the increased cognitive/linguistic demands of questioning directed toward nonimmediate referents. A hierarchy of wh-question forms by relative difficulty was very similar to that observed for normal children. Implications for wh-question assessment and intervention are discussed.

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