Word goodness affects the L1-dependent ability to store pitch contrasts

Y. Asano, H. Mitterer
2020 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020   unpublished
The ability to store prosodic information is known to be modulated by the use of prosodic contrasts in one's first language (L1). We tested to what extent this L1-dependent ability can vary along the levels of word goodness of the stimuli (a word, a pseudoword respecting L1 phonotactics; henceforth native pseudoword, or a pseudoword violating L1 phonotactics; henceforth nonnative pseudoword). Three L1 groups; Mandarin, Japanese and German listeners participated into an online adaptive version
more » ... the Sequence Recall Task presenting sequences of between 2-9 stimuli (with high-low or low-high F0 contrasts) expressed on the word goodness. Mandarin listeners showed the highest ability to store F0 contrasts of words, followed by pseudowords with native and nonnative phonotactic structures, the least ability in the control segmental condition (, whose stimuli differed not in tone but in their segmental make-up). The outcome by German listeners was the opposite. Mandarin listeners seem to store F0 information together with words, while Germans process F0 and segments separately, and their ability to store F0 contrasts was interfered with the word goodness. Japanese did not show any differences among the conditions, supporting their insensitivity to F0.
doi:10.21437/speechprosody.2020-96 fatcat:4msl2njavnb7rfm62kddxqiqlq