Identification and discrimination of syntactically and pragmatically contrasting intonation patterns by native and non-native speakers of standard Japanese

This paper reports the results of an empirical study which examined the discrimination and identification of prosodic variations by native and non-native speakers of Japanese. The data support the idea that recognizing prosodic cues is easier than associating the correct interpretations with them. This result is in keeping with first language acquisition studies showing that children acquire accurate production of prosodic effects well before they acquire adult like competence in pragmatic use.