The Influence of Word-level Prosodic Structure of the Mother Tongue on Production of Word Stress in Dutch as a Second Language

The central question in the current research is whether the prosodic structure of the first language (L1) influences production of word stress in Dutch as a second language (DSL). In Dutch the position of word stress can be predicted on the basis of phonological and morphological rules, but there are many exceptions to these rules. In the current investigation existing Dutch words were used, varying the predictability of the stress position systematically. As L1s French, Mandarin Chinese, Polish and Hungarian were selected. For each L1 five intermediate DSL-speakers were asked to read aloud a set of stimulus materials. Results reveal that the non-native speakers do make word stress errors, but transfer of the L1 prosodic system does not seem to be the main cause. Instead overgeneralization of stress rules provides a better explanation of the errors, pointing to spontaneous acquisition of the Dutch word stress systematics.