Non-Native Differences in Prosodic-Construction Use

Many language learners never acquire truly native-sounding prosody. Previous work has suggested that this involves skill deficits in the dialog-related uses of prosody, and may be attributable to weaknesses with specific prosodic constructions, but this has not been systematically investigated. Using semi-automated methods, we identified 32 of the most common prosodic constructions in English dialog. We performed the same analysis for 90 minutes of six advanced native-Spanish learners conversing in English, and we then compared the two sets. Three prosodic constructions common in the English-native data were saliently absent from the learners data, relating to the pragmatic functions of showing involvement, showing lack of involvement, and explaining from a factual perspective.