Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves

First Language Attrition: The Effects of English (L2) on Brazilian Portuguese VOT Patterns in an L1-Dominant Environment

Departing from a view of language as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) (BECKNER et al., 2009; DE BOT et al., 2013), this paper discusses language attrition, by verifying possible attrition symptoms in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) among learners of English living in Brazil (an L1-dominant environment). We analyze the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of voiced and voiceless, bilabial and velar initial plosives in BP. There were 33 participants in the study (11 monolinguals of BP, 11 intermediate learners of English, and 11 advanced learners of English). All participants produced, individually, a reading task of words in BP. ANOVA tests demonstrated a significant difference among groups regarding the voiceless velar plosive, suggesting the occurrence of first language attrition in this segment. No significant differences between intermediate and advanced learners of English were found. These results, although suggesting that attrition is less common in contexts of L1 dominance, allow us to consider the possibility of occurrence of this phenomenon, providing evidence in favor of a bidirectional linguistic transfer in a bilingual setting.

Efeitos da instrução articulatória das vogais médias baixas do português (L3) no espanhol (L1) e no inglês (L2) : um estudo de caso

Este trabalho, a luz da Teoria dos Sistemas Dinâmicos Complexos (de BOT, 2017), investiga a premissa de que uma mudanca em qualquer parte do sistema linguistico pode gerar alteracoes nas demais partes. Conduziu-se um estudo longitudinal com um aprendiz trilingue, residente no Brasil, falante de espanhol (L1), ingles (L2) e portugues (L3). Tal estudo contou com instrucao formal por 4 meses, de base comunicativa e articulatoria, acerca das vogais medias baixas do Portugues Brasileiro (L3). Visou-se a causar uma modificacao acelerada no sistema fonetico-fonologico de L3 do aprendiz, para se verificar se tal modificacao ocasionaria efeitos sobre a L1 e L2. As coletas contaram com listas de palavras nas tres linguas referidas e ocorreram anteriormente, durante e ao termino da instrucao formal, totalizando 5 coletas. Os achados deste estudo longitudinal evidenciaram que as alteracoes no portugues (L3) causaram modificacoes na producao vocalica dos demais sistemas, devido a interconexao dos sistemas do falante multilingue.

PERCEPCIÓN DE LA DISTINCIÓN ENTRE OCLUSIVAS SORDAS Y SONORAS INICIALES DEL INGLÉS (LE) POR ESTUDIANTES ARGENTINOS: DATOS DE IDENTIFICACIÓN Y DISCRIMINACIÓN

espanolEn este trabajo, verificamos si el tiempo de inicio de voz (en ingles, Voice Onset Time – VOT) corresponde a la principal pista acustica utilizada en la identificacion y discriminacion de sonoridad de los segmentos oclusivos del ingles. Investigamos un grupo de 15 estudiantes de ingles, hablantes de espanol rioplatense como L1, los cuales realizaron un test de identificacion y otro de discriminacion (AxB) en que se testearon cuatro patrones de VOT del ingles: (i) VOT Negativo y VOT Cero, que ocurren variablemente en las producciones de oclusivas sonoras; (ii) VOT Positivo, producido en oclusivas sordas y (iii) VOT Cero Artificial, un patron manipulado y construido a partir del corte de aspiracion de /p/, /t/, /k/. Los resultados confirman que el VOT no corresponde a la pista mayoritariamente seguida por los estudiantes, y que las distinciones de sonidos en la interlengua no son establecidas a partir de las mismas pistas acusticas que son funcionalmente primordiales entre hablantes nativos del ingles. EnglishIn this article, we investigate if Voice Onset Time (VOT) is the main acoustic cue employed by Argentinean students in the identification and discrimination of voicing in word-initial stops in English. Fifteen advanced learners of English participated in the study. Participants took an Identification and a Discrimination (AxB) test, in which four VOT Patterns were investigated: (i) Negative VOT and Zero VOT, which occur variably in the production of voiced stops; (ii) Positive VOT, found in voiceless stops and (iii) Artificial Zero VOT, a manipulated pattern built with the extraction of aspiration in /p/, /t/, /k/. The results confirm that VOT is not the main acoustic cue followed by learners, and that voicing distinctions in the interlanguage are not based on the same acoustic cues employed by native speakers of English.

The role of L1 knowledge on L2 speech perception: investigating how native speakers and Brazilian learners categorize different VOT patterns in English

Abstract : The present study aimed to investigate how different Voice Onset Time (VOT) patterns are categorized by native speakers of American English and Brazilian Learners of English. American English and Brazilian Portuguese diverge as to the voicing pattern of plosive consonants, for the VOT cue plays different roles in the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonant categories in each system. This study contrasted four VOT patterns ( Negative VOT , Zero VOT , Positive VOT and a manipulated pattern, named Artificial Zero VOT ) in two perceptual tasks (AxB discrimination and identification tests), and verified how the two groups of participants categorized these patterns. Results reinforce the idea that speech perception is multimodal and, therefore, the action of multiple cues must be taken into account when we consider phonetic-phonological processes. Keywords : Voice Onset Time; Speech Perception; Discrimination; Identification. Resumo : O presente estudo buscou investigar como diferentes padroes de Voice Onset Time (VOT) sao categorizados por falantes nativos de Ingles Americano e aprendizes brasileiros de Ingles. O Ingles Americano e o Portugues Brasileiro divergem quanto ao padrao de vozeamento das consoantes plosivas, uma vez que a pista VOT desempenha diferentes papeis na formacao de categorias de consoantes vozeadas e desvozeadas em cada sistema. Este estudo contrastou quatro padroes de VOT ( VOT Negativo, VOT Zero, VOT Positivo e um padrao manipulado, nomeado VOT Zero Artificial ) em duas tarefas perceptuais (testes de discriminacao AxB e identificacao), e verificou como os dois grupos de participantes categorizaram esses padroes. Os resultados corroboram a ideia de que a percepcao da fala e multimodal e, portanto, a acao de multiplas pistas acusticas deve ser levada em consideracao quando abordamos processos fonetico-fonologicos. Palavras-chave : Voice Onset Time; Percepcao da Fala; Discriminacao; Identificacao.

Interview with Ocke-Schwen Bohn

We report an interview we conducted with Professor Ocke-Schwen Bohn, from Aarhus University (Denmark). Professor Bohn is worldwide famous for his work on L2 Phonetic Learning, and has written and organized many important articles, books and book chapters in the field. Professor Bohn is also organizing the next edition of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech (New Sounds), which is going to take place in June 2016, at Arrhus University. In what follows, Professor Bohn talks about his career, his views on the area of L2 Phonetic-Phonological Acquisition and what we may expect in the next New Sounds convention.

A aquisição das codas mediais /p/ e /k/ do inglês (L2) por aprendizes do sul do Brasil (L1): uma análise gestual na Teoria da Otimidade Estocástica

In this article, we formalize the acquisition of word-mid /pt/ and /kt/ sequences in English (L2) by learners from Southern Brazil. The participants, who presented a basic proficiency level in English, had their productions recorded both in English and in Brazilian Portuguese, which allowed for an analysis of the acoustic patterns found in the production of /p/ and /k/ obstruent codas. The acoustic patterns produced by the learners were analyzed using the Stochastic-Optimality Theory, and the constraints used in the analysis were based on the framework of Gestural Phonology (BROWMAN & GOLDSTEIN, 1992) and in the gestural landmarks proposed by Gafos (2002). We conclude that a gestural analysis allows for the formalization of a wider range of acoustic patterns which tended not to be considered in traditional accounts of phonology, as these patterns assume a different status since they are then considered to be part of the grammar.

O efeito da anterioridade e da altura na identificação das vogais médias altas e médias baixas do Português Brasileiro por falantes de espanhol.

Speakers of L1 Spanish have difficulty discriminating the open and close-mid vowels [e], [E], [o], [O] in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The goal of this paper is to verify the effects of frontness and height in the perception of these vowels. A test of vowel identification was given to 16 speakers of Argentine Spanish, aged between 16 e 18 years, using minimal pairs in BP. Results show that, in both front and back vowels, participants had higher scores in items containing close-mid vowels if compared with items containing open-mid vowels In relation to the frontness effect, participants also demonstrated more difficulty in identifying open-mid vowels than close-mid vowels. The results confirm the difficulty of Spanish speakers in identifying mid vowels of BP, as well as provide evidence that these learners are forming new L2 phonetic-phonological categories, despite the difficulty of defining aspects that characterize such acoustic-articulatory categories.

A PRODUÇÃO DA VOGAL EPENTÉTICA NO PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO POR COLOMBIANOS: UMA ANÁLISE VIA GRAMÁTICA HARMÔNICA

Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar a producao de segmentos plosivos em codas mediais de palavras, por colombianos, aprendizes de Portugues Brasileiro (PB), que sao susceptiveis a producao de segmentos epenteticos. Para a constituicao do corpus, foi proposto um instrumento composto de palavras cognatas do Portugues e Espanhol para a leitura em frases veiculo, gravadas no Programa AUDACITY 1.3.5 (ANSI). Foram escolhidos, para participar como sujeitos da pesquisa, quatro estudantes colombianos que permaneceram no Brasil por um periodo medio de seis meses. Foi confirmada a hipotese de que, mesmo em palavras cognatas nas duas linguas analisadas, ha diferente tratamento as plosivas em coda, dependendo do sistema linguistico que esta sendo utilizado pelo falante de Espanhol aprendiz de PB. Tal fato foi captado, a luz do algoritmo de aprendizagem vinculado ao modelo formal da Gramatica Harmonica - HG (LEGENDRE, MIYATA & SMOLENSKY, 1990; SMOLENSKY & LEGENDRE, 2006).

A aquisição das sequências finais C fricativa C plosiva e C plosiva C plosiva do inglês por falantes do sul do Brasil: análise via Teoria da Otimidade

Este trabalho apresenta uma analise, via Teoria da Otimidade, doprocesso de aquisicao das sequencias finais CfricCplos e CplosCplos doingles por falantes do sul do Brasil. A trajetoria de aquisicao dosaprendizes foi tracada com base no Algoritmo de AprendizagemGradual (BOERSMA & HAYES, 2001). Especial atencao foi dada,ao longo da analise, a questao da formalizacao das restricoes demarcacao. Para obtermos as restricoes por meio de escalaslinguisticas primitivas, recorremos a dois mecanismos: AlinhamentoHarmonico e Conjuncao Local. Acreditamos que a analise desenvolvidase caracteriza como pertinente nao somente para os pesquisadoresvoltados a investigacao do processo de aquisicao de linguagem, mastambem para todos aqueles envolvidos com o estudo de modelosformais de analise linguistica, tal como a Teoria da Otimidade.

A AQUISIÇÃO FONOLÓGICA DO INGLÊS COMO L2 À LUZ DA OT: OS VERBOS CONTENDO A MARCA «-ED»

This paper focuses on the acquisition, by Brazilian Portuguese speakers, of both the syllabicstructure and the sonority of the coda segments of the English verbs containing the morpheme “-ed”.The analysis which was developed under the framework of Optimality Theory was able to show theevolution of the learners’ constraint ranking from the initial state H0 to the hierarchy which led tonative-like production. The analysis has also shown that, regarding the acquisition of the syllabicstructure, the production of native-like forms implied not only the demotion of constraints, but also theabandonment of an input originated from the written form, and the subsequent acquisition of a newunderlying representation which was able to lead to the production of the target structures. In thisregard, the analysis has revealed that, as for L2 acquisition, variable output forms do not need to besolely originated from the constraint ranking, given the fact that such outputs may also come from theexistence of more than one input representation maintained by the same learner