The Department of Contemporary English and Multilingualism and the Experimental Phonology and Phonetics Lab cordially invite everyone to the first meeting of Phon&Phontastic, a newly established reading group that merges the long-standing Phon&Phon and Phontastic groups into one cohesive community dedicated to phonetics and phonology.
Our first presenter will be Min Zeng from Waseda University, Tokyo, with a talk titled, “Effects of L3 Japanese on Production and Perception of L2 English Word-Initial Stops by Mandarin Trilinguals.”
Date: Wednesday, 13.11.2024
Time: 11:30 AM
Location: Room 211 (Collegium Heliodori Święcicki) & on Zoom [external link]
Meeting ID: 831 4749 3846
Passcode: 4DmAhN
Abstract
This study targets Mandarin trilinguals with advanced proficiency in L3 Japanese, exploring their production and perception of L2 English word-initial voiceless stops. Thirty-one Mandarin trilinguals, 34 Japanese bilinguals, and 26 Mandarin bilinguals participated in a production experiment by producing English words containing word-initial /p, t, k/ and a perception experiment by listening to three English stop continua with synthetic stimuli varying in VOT values. The VOT values of each stop and the category boundaries along each continuum were measured. Results showed that the Mandarin trilinguals produced /p, t, k/ with mean VOT values falling between those of the Japanese and Mandarin bilinguals. Along the bilabial and alveolar continua, the Mandarin trilinguals exhibited category boundaries at similar VOT values to those of the Japanese bilinguals, but at significantly shorter VOT values than the category boundaries of the Mandarin bilinguals. These results suggest that the Mandarin trilinguals’ production and perception of English stops were influenced by the phonetic systems of both L1 Mandarin and L3 Japanese.