Cross-linguistic interference of intonation in regard to tag questions in native, second and third language use. Does Russian have an impact on Danish and English in terms of intonation in the tags?

Summary, in English

This study investigates the cross-linguistic interference between speakers of Russian (as a first language or L1), Danish (as a second language, or L2) and English (as a third language, or L3) in terms of rising intonation patterns in tag questions in read speech. The subjects of the investigation are ten adults with an additive bilingualism between the ages of twenty to twenty-three, who immigrated to Denmark with their parents between the ages of four and fourteen. The control group involves native speakers of Russian (=3), Danish (=3) and English (=3). The results of individual acoustic analysis of pitch range in the tag has shown that intonation in Russian used by subjects matched with intonation used by native speakers of Russian in ninety percent of tags, whereas in Danish it was eighty percent, and in English it was fifty-seven percent. Cross-linguistic interference L1↔L2↔L3 was clearly observed in the speech of some speakers, which means that it is more individual than general interference, which, basically, depends on the subjects‟ respective backgrounds.

• Author: Anna Knudsen
• Department/s: General Linguistics; Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
• Publishing year: 2011
• Language: English
• Full text: Available as PDF - 1 MB; Download statistics
• Document type: Student publication for Master's degree (two years)
• Topic: Languages and Literatures
• Keywords: Tag questions; Tag Word or Tag Phrase; Rising Intonation Pattern; Additive Bilingualism; Third Language Acquisition; Cross-linguistic interference L1↔L2↔L3; Russian; Danish; English
• Supervisor: Mechtild Tronnier