Prosodic Elements of L1 (Slovenian) in L2 (Italian)

Analysis of Polar Questions

Abstract

The present research aims to describe the intonational contours of polar interrogative sentences produced by Slovene speakers (from the Ljubljana area) in Italian as a second language (L2), with the objective of identifying possible prosodic transfer phenomena from the mother tongue. The choice of analysing this specific typology of utterances is mainly based on the different role that intonation plays in the formulation of polar interrogatives in Slovene and Italian. In Italian, in fact, intonation constitutes the only linguistic marker formally distinguishing assertive from interrogative utterances, whereas in Slovene this type of question is usually introduced by an interrogative element, such as the particle “ali”. Consequently, it is plausible to assume prosodic interference from L1 in the production of such utterances in L2.

The analysis was based on read speech data, comparing L1 and L2 productions according to the principles of the autosegmental-metric model.

The results show considerable variability in intonational profiles in both Slovene and Italian. Interrogatives in Slovene introduced by the particle “ali” frequently present contours of the type (H+)L-H% and L+H L%, profiles that are also found in numerous Italian productions. However, in the Italian data a higher incidence of (L+)H L-H% and (H+)L H-L% contours can be observed, intonative configurations attested only marginally in L1 productions.