#3669. Acquisition of L2 Japanese WH questions: Evidence of phonological contiguity and non-shallow structures

October 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Linguistics and Language;
Education;
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Abstract:
In this article we look at some of the structural properties of second language (L2). In a rehearsed-reading, sentence production task, we look to see whether non-native speakers of Japanese who are learning the L2 are able to acquire grammars which are constrained by such universal properties as Match Theory and Contiguity Theory. While linear mixed effects analyses of the pitch contours reveal that the L2ers have not acquired the phonetic implementation distinction of the documented pitch boost on WH words compared to non-WH, our data show that the participants have acquired the pitch compression patterns indicative of having no prosodic phrases. This property of WH questions is not taught in their classes, and, thus we argue, that the data are supportive of the position that interlanguage grammars are constrained by universal grammatical properties such as the prosodic contiguity of WH-phrase licensing.
Keywords:
phonetics/phonology interface; phonology; phonology–syntax interface; shallow structure

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