ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH STRESS SHIFT BY SPEAKERS OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

FRAGOZO, Carina; SANTOS, Raquel Santana

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Alfa: Revista de Linguística (São José do Rio Preto)

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE • Alfa, Rev. Linguíst 65 • 2021 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-5794-e11797 copy

ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH STRESS SHIFT BY SPEAKERS OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE¹ 1 An earlier version of this research was presented in Fragozo (2017). We would like to thank the members of the examining committee for their comments and discussion of the manuscript. They bear no responsibility for any remaining problems.

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

By addressing the acquisition of the English stress-shift rule by speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, this article sheds more light on the debate about the influence of first language and formal instruction on the acquisition of a second language. We carried out an experiment in which 37 native and non-native English speakers were asked to pronounce the same words as single words, in stress clash and non-stress clash contexts in order to observe the productivity of this phenomenon. The results show that stress shift occurs in similar proportions in contexts with and without stress clash and that productivity of the phenomenon among the advanced-level learners was very similar to that of the native speakers. We also found that words ending in an obstruent do not favor the application of the rule, whereas words ending in long vowels or nasals do. These findings show that syllable structure and the segmental inventory of the first language affect the results in the target language.

Second language acquisition; Stress shift; English; Brazilian Portuguese; Phonological acquisition

Single word	Sequences with stress clash	Sequences without stress clash
1.thirTEEN 2.fourTEEN 3.fifTEEN 4.sixTEEN 5.sevenTEEN 6.eighTEEN 7.nineTEEN 8.unKIND 9.kangaROO 10.TenneSSEE 11.groTESQUE 12.roBUST 13.bamBOO 14.poLICE 15.disCRETE 16.comPLETE 17.Bel-AIR 18.U2 19.reTAKE (v.) 20.exPRESS 21.disLIKE	1.thirTEEN PENcils 2.fourTEEN WOmen 3.fifTEEN GIRLS 4.sixTEEN CHAIRS 5.sevenTEEN YEARS 6.eighTEEN CHILdren 7.nineTEEN BOYS 8.unKIND COmment 9.kangaROO KIM 10.TenneSSEE PEOPLE 11.groTESQUE PICtures 12.roBUST BAbies 13.bamBOO BRAcelets 14.poLICE OFFICER 15.disCRETE AREAS 16.comPLETE PAper 17.Bel-AIR BOY 18.U2 SONG 19.reTAKE COURSE 20.exPRESS TRAIN 21.disLIKE CHOcolate 22.disLIKE POWer 23.disLIKE PROblems	1.thirTEEN poTAtoes 2.fourTEEN baNAnas 3.fifTEEN toMAtoes 4.sixTEEN imiTAtions 5.sevenTEEN paPAYas 6.eighTEEN adVENtures 7.nineTEEN eXAMples 8.unKIND reVENge 9.kangaROO MeLIssa 10.TenneSSEE volCAno 11.groTESQUE deCEPtion 12.roBUST umBRElla 13.bamBOO maTErials 14.poLICE conVENtion 15.disCREET beGInning 16.comPLETE comPUters 17.Bel-AIR ceLEbrity 18.U2 celeBRAtion 19.reTAKE examiNATION 20.exPRESS transforMAtions 21.disLIKE perFECtionism 22.disLIKE conFUsion 23.disLIKE poliTIcians

DEPENDENT VARIABLE	Occurrence of Stress Shift	Shift occurred.
DEPENDENT VARIABLE	Occurrence of Stress Shift	Shift did not occur.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES	Context	Single word
		Sentence With Clash
		Sentence Without Clash
	Target Word	Each of the 21 words analyzed
	Stress Pattern in Use	Oxytone
		Paroxytone
		Proparoxytone
	Segment in the Final Syllable	Long vowel
		Long vowel + nasal
		Long vowel + obstruent
	Pause	Pause
	Pause	No Pause
	Level of proficiency	Basic
		Intermediate
		Advanced
		Native Speaker
	Informant	1, 2... 37

Context	Shift		No shift
Context	N	%	N	%
Sentence With Clash	80	49.7%	81	50.3%
Sentence Without Clash	83	51.6%	78	48.4%

Level of proficiency	Pause
	Pause		No Pause
	N/Total	%	N/Total	%
Basic	4/39	10%	76/419	18%
Intermediate	0/5	0	114/455	25%
Advanced	1/1	100%	201/459	44%
TOTAL	5/45	11%	391/1333	29%

Final Segment	Shift		No shift		RELATIVE WEIGHT
Final Segment	N	%	N	%	RELATIVE WEIGHT
Nasal	78	79.6%	20	20.4%	0.80
Long vowel	42	75%	14	25%	0.75
Obstruent	43	25.6%	125	74.4%	0.23

Target word	Shift		No shift		Target word	Shift		No shift
Target word	N	%	N	%	Target word	N	%	N	%
Eighteen	14	100%	0	0	Fifteen	7	50%	7	50%
Seventeen	14	100%	0	0	U2	6	42.9%	8	57.1%
Sixteen	12	85.7%	2	14.3%	dislike	16	41%	23	59%
Tennessee	12	85.7%	2	14.3%	Bel-Air	5	35.7%	9	64.3%
bamboo	12	85.7%	2	14.3%	robust	2	14.3%	12	85.7%
kangaroo	12	85.7%	2	14.3%	grotesque	0	0	14	100%
fourteen	11	78.6%	3	21.4%	complete	0	0	14	100%
retake	11	78.6%	3	21.4%	discrete	0	0	14	100%
thirteen	11	78.6%	3	21.4%	police	0	0	14	100%
nineteen	9	64.3%	5	35.7%	express	0	0	14	100%
unkind	9	64.3%	5	35.7%

Stress Pattern in Use	Shift		No shift
Stress Pattern in Use	N	%	N	%
Paroxytone	125	95.4%	6	4.6%
Proparoxytone	38	95%	2	5%
Oxytone	0	0	151	100%

Target Word	STRESS APPLIED TO SINGLE WORD
	Oxytone		Paroxytone		Proparoxytone
	N/Total	%	N/Total	%	N/Total	%
Bamboo	24/30	80	6/30	20
Bel-Air	26/30	86.6	4/30	13.4
Complete	25/30	83.3	5/30	16.7
Discrete	23/30	76.6	7/30	23.4
Dislike	26/30	86.6	4/30	13.4
Eighteen	16/30	53.3	14/30	46.6
Express	28/30	93.3	2/30	7.7
Fifteen	13/30	43.3	17/30	56.5
Fourteen	18/30	60	12/30	40
Grotesque	23/30	76.6	7/30	23.4
Kangaroo	15/30	50	1/30	3.3	14/30	46.6
Nineteen	16/30	53.3	14/30	46.7
Police	15/30	50	15/30	50
Retake	29/30	96.7	1/30	3.3
robust	18/30	60	12/30	40
seventeen	17/30	56.6	0/30	0	13/30	43.4
sixteen	18/30	60	12/30	40
Tennessee	17/30	56.6	3/30	10	10/30	33.4
thirteen	14/30	46.6	16/30	53.3
U2	26/30	86.6	4/30	13.4
Unkind	23/30	76.6	7/30	23.4

Context	Shift		No shift
Context	N	%	N	%
Phrases with Clash	206	29.9%	483	70.1%
Phrases without Clash	190	27.6%	499	72.4%

Target Word	Shift		No shift		Relative weight
Target Word	N	%	N	%	Relative weight
U2	31	51.7%	29	48.3%	0.75
Seventeen	30	50%	30	50%	0.74
Sixteen	29	48.3%	31	51.7%	0.72
Nineteen	26	43.3%	34	56.7%	0.68
Fourteen	24	40%	36	60%	0.64
Unkind	21	35%	39	65%	0.64
Tennessee	23	38.3%	37	61.7%	0.63
thirteen	23	38.3%	37	61.7%	0.63
fifteen	23	38.3%	37	61.7%	0.63
kangaroo	22	36.7%	38	63.3%	0.61
eighteen	22	36.7%	38	63.3%	0.61
robust	18	30%	42	70%	0.58
bamboo	20	33.3%	40	66.7%	0.57
grotesque	15	25.9%	43	74.1%	0.52
express	12	20%	48	80%	0.43
police	12	20%	48	80%	0.43
Bel-Air	11	18.3%	40	81.7%	0.41
discrete	9	15%	51	85%	0.35
retake	8	13.3%	52	86.7%	0.31
complete	7	11.7%	53	88.3%	0.28
dislike	10	5.6%	170	94.4%	0.14

Final Segment	Shift		No shift
Final Segment	N	%	N	%
Nasal	177	42.1%	243	57.9%
Long vowel	96	40%	144	60%
Obstruent	123	17.1%	595	82.9%

Stress Pattern in Use	Shift		No shift
Stress Pattern in Use	N	%	N	%
Paroxytone	320	54.4%	268	45.5%
Proparoxytone	76	54%	65	46%
Oxytone	0	0	649	100%

Target Word	STRESS PATTERN APPLIED IN CASES OF SHIFT
	Oxytone		Paroxytone		Proparoxytone
	Cases/Total	%	Cases/Total	%	Cases/Total	%
Dislike	0/171	0	8/9	89%	0	0
U2	0/26	0	29/36	81%	0	0
Bamboo	0/35	0	20/25	80%	0	0
Retake	0/50	0	8/10	80%	0	0
express	0/45	0	12/15	80%	0	0
unkind	0/32	0	21/28	75%	0	0
Bel-Air	0/45	0	11/15	73%	0	0
discrete	0/46	0	9/14	64%	0	0
sixteen	0/8	0	29/52	56%	0	0
grotesque	0/30	0	15/28	54%	0	0
complete	0/47	0	7/13	54%	0	0
fourteen	0/14	0	24/46	52%	0	0
nineteen	0/6	0	26/54	48%	0	0
eighteen	0/12	0	22/48	46%	0	0
robust	0/19	0	18/41	44%	0	0
thirteen	0/7	0	23/53	43%	0	0
fifteen	0/4	0	23/56	41%	0	0
police	0/25	0	12/35	34%	0	0
Tennessee	0/13	0	1/6	17%	22/41	54%
seventeen	0/4	0	0/2	0	30/54	56%
kangaroo	0/12	0	0/2	0	22/46	48%
TOTAL	0/651	0	318/588	54%	74/141	52%

Pause	Shift		No shift
Pause	N	%	N	%
Pause	5	11.1%	40	88.9%
No Pause	391	29.3%	942	70.7%

Level of Proficiency	Shift		No shift		RELATIVE WEIGHT
Level of Proficiency	N	%	N	%	RELATIVE WEIGHT
Basic	80	17.5%	378	82.5%	0.34
Intermediate	114	24.8%	346	75.2%	0.45
Advanced	202	43.9%	258	56.1%	0.69

Level of proficiency	Context per Level of Proficiency
	With clash		Without clash
	N	%	N	%
Basic	42	20.4%	38	20%
Intermediate	57	27.7%	57	30%
Advanced	107	51.9%	95	50%

Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho Rua Quirino de Andrade, 215, 01049-010 São Paulo - SP, Tel. (55 11) 5627-0233 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: alfa@unesp.br

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