May 25, 2021

New paper: Kang and Schertz (2021)

Yoonjung Kang (faculty) and Jessamyn Schertz (faculty) have a paper out in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 39(2): "The influence of perceived L2 sound categories in on-line adaptation and implications for loanword phonology."

Some propose that loanword adaptation is at its core non-native perception of foreign input (Boersma and Hamann 2009; Peperkamp et al. 2008; Silverman 1992). It has also been noted, however, that cross-language correspondences in loanwords are far more consistent than expected based on on-line perception by naïve monolinguals. There is also evidence that cross-language perception itself differs depending on adapters’ experience with the source language (henceforth, L2) (Bundgaard-Nielsen et al. 2011; Kwon 2017; Nomura and Ishikawa 2018). These findings suggest that cross-language perception is mediated by adapters’ knowledge of L2 sound structure, rather than a simple function of native language (L1) perception applied to L2 acoustic signals. The current study presents a direct test of the influence of L1 vs. L2 perceptual strategies on cross-language speech perception through a series of phonetic categorization experiments in three language modes: L1, L2, and L2L1 (cross-language). Results point to a distinct influence of listener’s L2 knowledge on cross-language perception: L2L1 mapping was well explained by listeners’ L2 perceptual strategies, and for those listeners who showed different perceptual patterns for L1 and L2, cross-language perception more closely mirrored L2 than L1 perception. By demonstrating that perceived L2 phonological categories shape cross-language perception, the study suggests a way to reconcile the perceptual view of loanword adaptation with the phonological regularity of established loanwords.

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