Do　English　learners　of　Japanese　produce　isolated　nouns　with

Standard　Japanese　lexical　accent？

英語を母語とする日本語学習者は独立名詞を標準アクセントで生成するか？

Becky　Taylor

ベッキーテイラー

Nagoya　University

名古屋大学

Abstract

In　much　of　previous　research　on　the　acquisition　of　Japanese　lexical　accent　by　English　learners，

no　distinction　has　been　made　between　the　direct　inf【uence　of　Standard　J．apanese　on　the　one　hand，

and　chance　correspondences　between　Standard　Japanese　and　the　leamers’interlanguage　on　the

other．　A　study　was　carried　out　in　which　phonetically　trained　Japanese　native　speakers　identified

the　accent　types　of　2－and　3－mora　isolated　nouns　produced　by　l　31ess　experienced　and　8　more

experienced　British　English　learners　of　Japanese，　and　these　were　compared　with　Stalldard

Japanese（SJ）accent　types．　The　less　experienced　and　more　experienced　leamers　differed　in　the

amount　of　Japanese　tuition　they　had　received　and　the　length　oftime　they　had　spent　in　Japan，　and

stimuli　were　chosen　that　were　expected　to　be　familiar　to　the　learners．　Two－mora　nouns　showed

the　result　that，　fbr　both　groups　of　leamers，　whether　a　word　was　produced　with三nitial　or　no　accent

had　no　relation　to　its　accent　type　in　SJ．　For　3－mora　nouns，　a　statistically　significant　influence　of

SJ　was　observed　fbr　both　groups　of　leamers，　but　the　correspondence　with　SJ　was　not　high，

regardless　of　Japanese　experience．　These　results　imply　that　much－or，　in　the　case　of　2－mora

nouns，　al1－of　the　correspondence　with　a　word量s　SJ　accent　type　can　be　attributed　to　chance

matches　with　the　learner’s　interlanguage，　and　may　suggest　that　English　learners　of　Japanese　have

di　fficulty　in　recognising　Pitch　as　a　lexical　property．

要旨

英語を母語とする学習者による日本語の語レベルアクセントの習得を調査している先行研究では，

標準語の直接的な影響と，学習者の中間言語と標準語の偶然の一致という二点を区別しているもの

は少ない．本研究では，イギリス英語を母語とする日本語学習者を対象に，経験の少ない学習者13

名，経験の多い学習者8名が生成する2～3拍の独立名詞のアクセント型を音声学の専門知識のある

日本語母語話者に判定させ，標準語のアクセント型との比較を行った．経験の少ない学習者と経験

の多い学習者は，日本語の学習時間及び日本滞在期間の点で異なっていたが，資料語は学習者にと

って馴染みがあると予測されるものを選定した．分析の結果，2拍名詞が有核で生成されるのか無核

で生成されるのかは，どちらの学習者群においても，標準語のアクセント型とは無関係であるとい

一 15一

う結果となった．3拍名詞に関しては，標準語のアクセント型の影響はどちらの学習者群においても

統計的に有意ではあるものの1標準語との一致は日本語の経験に関わらず高くなかった．この結果

から，標準語の一致の大部分一2拍名詞の場合はその全て一は学習者の中間言語との偶然の一致の結

果であるということが示唆され，また，英語を母語とする日本語学習者にとっては，ピッチを語の

特徴として解釈することが困難であるという可能性が示唆される．

11ntroduction

This　paper　aims　to　fill　a　gap　in　previous　research　on　the　acquisition　of　Japanese　lexical　accent　by

English　leamers：namely，　that　no　distinction　has　been　made　between　the　direct　influence　of

Standard　Japanese　on　the　one　hand，　and　chance　correspondences　between　Standard　Japanese　and

the　leamers’interl　anguage　on　the　other．　In　this　paper　we　will　see　that，　even　fbr　more　experienced

learners，　the　likelihood　of　a　2－mora　noun　being　produced　with　initial　or　no　accent　has　no　relation

to　its　accent　type　in　Standard　Japanese，　and　fbr　3－mora　nouns，　although　there　is　some　influence

of　Standard　Japanese，　the　correspondence　with　it　is　not　high．　It　will　be　suggested　that　this　may

reflect　a　diff7iculty　in　recognising　Pitch　as　a　lexical　propertY．

1．肌exica】accent　in　Stand髄rd　J叩anese

Standard　Japanese（hereafter，　SJ）has　lexical　accent　which　is　realised　as　a　sharp　fall　in　pitch

（Bec㎞an＆Pierrehumbert，1986，　p．256；Pierrehumbert＆Bec㎞2m，1988，　p．13）starting　near

the　end　of　the　accented　moral（Venditti，2005，　p．174）．　Lexical　items　are　either　accented　or

unaccented；when　unaccented　they　have　no　such　sharp　pitch　fall（Bec㎞｛m＆Pierrehumbert，

1986，p．261；Pierrehumbert＆Beckman，1988，　p．7；’Venditti，2005，　p．174）．　In　this　paper血e

lexically　determined　presence　or　absence　of　an　accent　and　its　position　will　be　referred　to　as　the

word，s，accent　type’．

　　　　Not　all　accent　types　are　equally丘equent　in　SJ．　Verbs　and　a（lj　ectives，　in　principle，　either

have　an　accent　on　the　second　to　last　mora　or　are　unaccented（Kindaichi＆Akinag42001，

appendix，　pp．49－52）．　h　contrast，　nouns　show　a　greater　variety　of　accent　types，　the丘equency　of

which　depends　on　the　number　of　mora（Kindaichi＆Akinag亀　2001，appendix，　pp．10－ll；Sugito

＆Tahara，1989）．　Which　accent　type　a　word　will　take　can　be　predicted　to　a　certain　extent丘om

syllable　structure．　Thi　s　is　particularly　evident　in　the　case　ofIoanwords　and　compound　nouns，　but

there　is　also　a　more　general　tendency　within　accented　words　fbr　heavy　syllables　to　attract　accent

（Kubozono，2006，　pp．1146－ll50）．

　　　　However，　the　accent　type　ofmany　words　is　not　predictable．　Words　such　as　chizu　’map’，　heya

サroom’and　hako’box’all　have　the　syllable　structure　CV．　CV，　with　no　heavy　syllables，　yet　o乃伽

has　initial　accent，加yαhas　final　accent　and乃oんo　is　unaccented．　Likewise，　deguch　i’exit’，　hac勿’

’80’clock’，　hかuma　’daytime冒and　hi∂∂バleftサall　have　the　syllable　structUre　CV．　CV．CV，　again　with

no　heavy　syllables，　but∂2g〃c乃ゴhas　initial　accent，加c勿ゴhas　medial　accent，　hかuma　has　final

accent　and　hidari　is　unaccented．　This　paper　will　fbcus　on　the　acquisition　of　lexical　accent　which

1The　mora　is　the　subsyllabic　phonological　unit　that　is　the　bOth　the　tone　bearing　unit　and　unit　of　rhythm　in

Japanese．

一 16一

is not predictable from syllable structure, i.e. that of nouns with only light syllables.

in addition to the sharp fall in pitch associated with the lexical accent, words produced in

isolation start with a rise in pitch and show a gradual fall in pitch toward the end of the word

(Beckrnan & Pierrehumbert, 1986, p.261; Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1988, p.13; Venditti, 2005,

p.175). In the case of initially-accented words the pitch rises to the accentual peak associated

with the first mora; for other accent types the rise is from a low first mora to a high second mora

(Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1988, p.28). Both this word-initial rise and gradual fall in pitch

toward the end of the word are considered to be properties, not of the word, but of a higher level

prosodic grouping called the accentual phrase (Becknan & Pierrehumbert, 1986, p.261;

Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1988, p.25; Venditti, 2005, p.175). When words are produced in

isolation, both the accentual pitch fall (if there is one) and these phrasal tones will appear:

Howeveg the presencelabsence of the accentual pitch fall and its position are the only cues

necessary fbr a native speaker of SJ to identify a word's accent type (Sugito, 1982, pp.50-75).

This paper will focus on the acquisition of only the lexical propenies of pitch, namely the

accentual pitch fall and its position.

1.2 Comparison with Eng}ish

Japanese accent shares some similarities with English stress. Neither Japanese accent nor

English stress are restricted to a fixed position in the word, as stress in Finnish is to the initial

syllable or stress in Polish is to the penult. Thus both Japanese accent and English stress can in

theory distinguish between minimal pairs, giving pairs in Japanese such as initially accented ame

'rain' and unaccented ame 'candy', and pairs in English such as insight, which has stress on the

first syllable and incite, which has stress on the second, although in English the number of

minimal pairs is extremely small2 (Cutleg 1986, p.204) and even in Japanese is not as high as,

saM Chinese (Shibata & Shibata 1990). AdditionallM both Japanese accent and English stress are

attracted to heavy syllables (see for example Hayes, 1982, pp.238-239 for English and

Kubozono, 2006, for Japanese).

Howeveg there are also differences. Firstly, Japanese accent is realised primarily by pitch,

with only very minor changes in duration and amplimde (Beckman, 1986, p.170). In contrast,

English stress has many acoustic correlates, with stressed and unstressed syllables differing in

pitch, intensity and duration.3 In addition, vowels in unstressed syllables are frequently reduced

in English, so that for example the noun OBj ect and the verb obJECT have a different vowel

quality in their first syllables (i.e. Ipbd36kti and /ebd3skt/ respectively).

SecondlM Japanese words contrast in accentedness (accented or unaccented) as well as in

accent position, but English words only contrast in stress position: there are no words in English

lexically specified to have no stress. Thus in Japanese there is a three-way contrast fbr 2-syllable

nouns (e.g. initially-accented chizu, finally-accented haya and unaccented hako) but for English

2 According to Cutler (1986) there are only about a dozen minimal pairs such as insight and incite which are

lexically distinct, segrnentally identical and contrast only in stress position. There are also nounlverb oppesitions,"

(e.g. object, decrease, conduct) which usually also differ in vowel quality.

3 Pitch and intensity are, strictly speaking, correlates ofEnglish pitch aocent; see Beckman and Edwards (1994,

p.13) and Sluljter and van Heuven (l996, p.633).

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2-syllable nouns there is only a two-way contrast (e.g. initially-stressed insight and

finally-stressed incite). More generallM this means that Japanese accent has one more contrast

fbr each number of syllables than English stress.4

'IIhirdly, unlike Japanese accent, which is always realised as a pitch fall, the pitch shapes

associated with stressed syllables in English show a rich inventory of falls and rises and are used

to convey intonational meaning (Pierrehumbert, 1980; Pierrehumbert & Hirschberg, 1990,

pp.288-302). in the examples given by Pierrehumbert (1980, pp.7-8), the stressed first syllable of

the nameAnna could have an associated high tone, a fall from a high to a low tone, a rise from a

low to a high tone, 6r a low tone; combined with phrasal tones these could be used, respectivelM

as the answer to a question, when calling out to someone, to convey incredulousness, and as a

question. This contrasts to Japanese, which uses phrasal tones to convey intonational meaning

(Venditti, 2005, pp.181-184), leaving unchanged the pitch shape associated with the accented

mora. Although there are considerable difl}:rences between Japanese accent and English stress,

these are less apparent in the citation fbrms of isolated words. The accent on the final mora of

finally-accented words is only realised when there is a following grammatical particle: utterance

finally it is not realised, neutralising the distinction with unaccented words. 5 Thus, although

Japanese accent has one more contrast fbr each number of syllables than English stress, the

number of contrasting forms realised in the citation forms of isolated words is in fact the same,

i.e. two fbr 2-syllable and three fbr 3-syllable words. Also, although the pitch shape on stressed

syllables can take many forms in English, in neutral declarative intonation it is very similar to

Japanese, with a high pitch on the stressed syllable (Beckman, 1986, p.146).

'IThe purpose of this paper is not to determine whether the learners have acquired the above

differences between English stress and Japanese accent: only citation forms of isolated

utterances will be considered, which, as we have seen, have the same number of contrasting

fbrms to Japanese, and a superficially similar pitch pattern. We will also not consider whether the

learners are able to produce a change in pitch without corresponding changes in duration,

amplitude or vowel quality. What will be investigated is whetheg despite the differences between

English stress and Japanese accent, the learners are able to learn which words take which accent

type in SJ.

1.3 Accent types produced by English learners

Although the accent types produced by English learners of Japanese have sometimes been

reported to correspond with the accent types in SJ, it is not clear whether this is actually due to

the influence of that word's SJ accent type. An alternative explanation could be that

generalisations in a particular learner's interlanguage (such as those which will be introduced in

this section) sometimes result in a chance match with SJ.

Research has been carried out into the accent patterns produced by both American English

4 It is the number of syllables not mora that determine the number of contrasts for Japanese, since non-syllabic

mora cannot bear accent.5 Some speakers have been found to make a distinction even in isolated utterances (Sugito, 1982, pp.182-201;

Vance, 1995) but this does not involve the accentual pitch fall.

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and Australian English learners of Japanese (Horiguchi, 1973; Isomura 1996; Kuno, 1998 and

'Ibki, l980 for Americar} English; Yamad4 1994 and Ybshimitsu, 1981 fbr Australian). No

differences particular to the variety of English have been reported in the literature and so they

will be reported here together as examples of English learners of Japanese.

Early research on the production of Japanese accent predicted that English stress rules

would transfer. For example, Horiguchi (1973) predicted that four mora words would either be

accented two mora from the end or on heavy syllables. Howeveg the accent positions in the

speech of English learners of Japanese that Horiguchi (1973) reports often do not match her

predictions. It is likely that there is some correlation between syllable structure and accent

position in the learners' speech (especially as both English stress and Japanese accent are

attracted to heavy syllables) but the exact details of this remain unclear.

Much variation has been reported. Tbki (l980, p.96) reports that English learners rarQly

produce words unaccented, but according to Ybshimitsu (1981) and Kuno (1998), some learners

have a tendency to overuse the unaccented type. In fact, Kuno (1998, p.85) shows that whether

words are most frequently produced unaccented, with an accent two mora from the end, or with

an accent three mora from the end varies from learner to learnen Also the accent type of a word

has been reported to vary within a single learner's speech (Yamada 1994, p.18), varying perhaps

with speech environment ('Ibki, 1980, p.87), aithough the details of this are, again, unclear.

Isomura (1996) reports that, despite a high level of proficiency in Japanese, many learners

have a tendency to produce two mora nouns with a pitch fall in a statement context and a pitch

rise in a question context, making no distinction between different lexical accent types. As he

notes, this results in pitch patterns which are superficially correct for initially-accented words in

a statement context, and fbr unaccented words in a question context, but this is simply a chance

correspondence between the learner's interlanguage and SJ (p.2).6

ln the same waM the generalisations about accent patterns in each individual learner's

interlanguage that appear to be suggested by the above research - i.e. accenting heavy syllables;

producing the majority of words unaccented or with an accent two or three mora from the end;

producing a difl}:rent accent type in different sentence envirorrments - are also likely to result in

accent types that correspond with SJ for some lexical items. Hence matches with SJ are not

necessarily due to the influence of a word's SJ accent type: they could also be the result of a

chance match with the learner's interlanguage.

1.4 Acquisition of L2 lexical prosody

Japanese pitch accent is not the only example of lexical prosody that has been researched in the

context of second language acquisition. Research has also been carried out on the L2 acquisition

of lexical stress. Three main approaches have been taken. '

The first approach is that of Archibald (1992, 1993) and Pater (1997). These papers, which

look at the acquisition of English lexical stress by Polish, Spanish and French speakers

respectivelM assume a model of English lexical stress that is predictable from syllablC[eKlstmcture

and lexical class, and finthermore that it is the namre of the relation (fbrmalised as parameters)

6 Isomura (1996) in fact assumes that this is a chance correspondence between the learngr's L1 and SJ, but pitch

fi]lling on a statement and rising on a question could have another source, such as the phrasal tones in SJ itself

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between these factors and stress placement that the learners must acquire. Howeveg these studies

are of limited relevance to the current study since here we are looking at the aequisition of accent

types that are not predictable.

The second approach is that of Guion and colleagues. They assume a model of English

lexical stress that is not entirely predictable: instead, syllable structure, lexical class and the

stress pattern of phonologically similar words compete to determine the stress pattern of (new or

nonce) words (Guion, Clark, Harada & Wayland, 2003). Guion and her colleagues report that

compared to Ll English speakers, L2 English learners show reduced or different effects of

lexical class and syllable structure (see Guion, Harada and Clark, 2004 for Korean; Guion, 2005

fbr Spanish; and Wayland, Guion, Landfair and Li, 2006 fbr Thai leamers). However, despite

this difference in underlying knowledge, the learners are reported to be extremely successful in

their placement of stress in real (not nonce) words. Wayland et al. (2006, p.298) interpret these

results to mean that (particularly late) learners of English 'may rely more heayily on

word-by-word learning of stress patterns and are less likely to abstract generalities about stress

placement by syllabic stmcture and lexical class'.

The third approach is by Dupoux and colleagues, who have carried out a series of studies on

the perception of lexical stress by speakers of French, a language which does not have any

contrastive lexical prosody (Dupoux, Pallieg Sebastian & Mehleg 1997; Dupoux, Pepetkamp &

Sebastian-Galles, 2001; Dupoux, Sebastian-Galles, Navarrete & Pepetkamp, 2008). They

investigated the perception of nonce words with either a phoneme contrast (such as tupu versus

tuku) or a stress contrast (such as T(ipu versus tuPU). ln simple tasks (AX or ABX with stimuli

from one speaker), the French speakers could perceive the stress contrast; howeveg in recall

tasks involving increased memory load and phonetic variation, the French speakers' performance

on the stress contrast was poor compared to the phoneme contrast. Dupoux and colleagues

interpret these results to mean that French speakers can distinguish between stress patterns using

acoustic cues but, because there are no lexical prosodic contrasts in French, are unable to encode

lexical stress in their phonological representations.

The accent types of the target words that are the focus of the present study are not

predictable from syllable structure and so presumably must be learned on a word-by-word basis.

If matches with SJ are due to a direct influence of a word's SJ accent type, this may indicate that,

despite having lexical prosody with very different characteristics to Japanese, English learners

can encode pitch accent in their phonological representations.

1.5 The suitability ef SJ as a 'target'

Accentuation varies between Japanese dialects. Some have the same accentual system as SJ but

differ in the accent types of particular words. Others difller in the accentual system itselC

including some 'dialects with no lexical accent (for details see Igarashi, 2007). This substantial

variation between accent types (and even accentual systems) between Japanese dialects presents

a confbund. Can we assume that it is SJ that the learners are acquiring? Learners of Japanese will

be exposed to SJ: through classroom materials, broadcast medi4 and contact with Japanese

native speakers, since speakers of other dialects will generally use SJ in formal situations (see

Otake & Cutler, 1999, pp.232-233 and references therein). In educational establishments such as

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universities - both in the UK and in Japan - it seems aPpropriate to assume that the learners will

be exposed to Standard Japanese. Howeveg additional exposure to other dialects cannot be ruled

out, especially in the case of those learners that have lived in areas of Japan with a dialect other

than SJ. This topic will be returned to in the discussion.

2 The current study

2.1 Aim

The aim of this study is to determine whether the accent types produced by English learners of

Japanese show the infiuence of a word's SJ accent type. SpecificallM we ask: are words whose SJ

accent type is x (initial, medial, final or unaccented, respectively) more likely to be produced

with accent type )c than words whose SJ accent type is not x? two- and 3-mora high familiarity

nouns, which contain only light syllables and hence have an accent type which cannot be

predicted from syllable structure, are considered. The motivation for this study is to determine

whether correspondences with SJ are due to the influence of that word's SJ type - presumably

through the encoding of that accent type in the phonological representation - or simply the result

of a chance match with the learner's interlanguage.

2.2 Participants

Twenty-one British English learners, who were currently studying or had studied Japanese at a

UK universityl took part in the study. Students studying Japanese at UK universities will

typically spend one year in a university in Japan in either the second or third year of their course.

Two groups of learners were recruited: a less experienced (LE) group who had studied Japanese

at a UK university for either one or two years and had not yet participated in the year in Japan,

and a more experienced (ME) group who had studied Japanese fbr four years including one in

J apan.

A questionnaire was used to screen possible participants. Panicipants were chosen who

were selfreported speakers of Standard Southem British English, and who had not been exposed

to a second language until at least the age of seven. 13 learners (seven female, six male) with less

experience of Japanese and 8 learners (three female, five male) with more experience of

Japanese were chosen to take part in the study They were not paid fbr participating.

The participants were asked how many hours of Japanese tuition they had received. The LE

group ranged from 69 hours minimum to 425 hours maximum (mean 246 hours, standarddeviation 91 hours7). The ME group ranged from 638 hours to 1400 hours (mean 967 hours,

standard deviation 3 17 hours). The range is due to different universities, diffi:rent types of course

and whether they had studied Japanese befbre starting university The LE group had received at

most 425 hours and the ME group had received at least 638 hours of Japanese tuition. The two

groups are significantly diffk)rent (Welch's two sample t-test, t(7.72) = -6.28,p < .01).

'Ihe panicipants were also asked how much time they had spent in Japan. The LE group

ranged from never having been (six learners) to ll weeks. The ME group ranged from 43 weeks

7 All statistics in this paper are carried out using R (R Development Core Team, 2009).

- 21-

(approximately 11 months) to 212 weeks (approximately four years), with six learners having

spent approximately one year in Japan, one having spent approximately two, and one having

spent approximately fbur This last learner had lived in Japan fbr three years after graduation; the

other seven learners were just at the end of their university courses at the time of the study.

Overall, the LE group had never been to Japan or spent at most three months there, and the ME

group had spent at least ten months in Japan.

It seems reasonable to assume that the two groups have been exposed to significantly

different amounts of Japanese. Following the discussion in section 1.5, it will be assumed that

more exposure to Japanese implies more exposure to SJ. The learners were asked if they

considered their Japanese accent to be standard and all replied either 'yes' or 'don't know' to this

question. This at least suggests that none of the participants are aware that they speak a

non-standard dialect. However, of the ME learners, two had lived in areas of Japan where the

accentual system differs from SJ: one had lived in Kumamoto, and one had lived in Kagoshima8.

To avoid this affecting the data, the analysis fbr the me group will be repeated with these two

participants excluded. The remainder of the ME participants had lived in 'Ibkyo or Nagoya,

where SJ (or a dialect with an SJ-type accentual system) is used.

No native speaker controls were used; it was assumed that native speakers of Standard

Japanese would use the accent types in the Shin Meikai Japanese Accent Dictionary (Kindaichi

& Akinag& 200 1 ).

2.3 Stimuli

A total of 84 two- and 3-mora nouns were used as stimuli, twelve of each accent type, i.e. initial,

final and unaccented 2-mora nouns and initial, medial, final and unaccented 3-mora nouns.

Only 2-mora words with the structure (C)VLCV and 3-mora words with the stmcture

(C)VLCVLCV were used, to avoid the influence of syllable structure on accent placement. Both

words with an initial consonant such as chizu 'map' and without, such as ame 'rain' were included,

since neither the rules proposed to predict stress placement from syllable structure in English

(Hayes, 1 982) or accent placement from syllai)le structure in Japanese (Kubozono, 2006) involve

syllable onsets.

The Japanese high vowels i and u are often devoiced when they are between voiceless

consonants (such as k s, sh, 4 ch, ts, p). It was considered possible that the sequence of voiceless

consonant, devoiced high vowel and voiceless consonant (e.g. kr't, smp, chik etc.) may} to the ears

of English speakers, be perceived as a consonant cluster Therefbre words including these

sequences were also excluded from the stimuli. Howeveg words ending in a sequence of

voiceless consonant and high vowel (e.g. ki, su, tsu etc.), which may also be devoiced in

Japanese, were not excluded, as doing so was judged as restricting the possible stimuli too

extremely. No loan words were used, to avoid the effect of direct transfer of the English stress

patterns. Also, stimuli were restricted to those words that did not show variation in their SJ

accent type (i.e. with only one accent type shown in the Shin Meikai Japanese'Accent Dictionary,

Kindaichi and Akinaga, 2001).

8 This is the leamer who had spent fbur years in Japan: the first year was in Tokyo (where SJ is spoken) and a

further three years were in Kagoshima

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Where possible, stimuli were chosen from books 1 and 2 of the beginners' textbooks Minna

no Nihongo (3A Corporation, 1998). However, due presumably to the uneven distribution of

accent types mentioned above, fbr 3-mora medially-accented and finally-accented words this

was not possible since fewer than the required twelve words fitted all the criteria. (According to

Sugito and Tahara, 1989, medial and final accent are relatively infrequent accent types for

3-mora SJ nouns). In this case, words were added that the author considered likely to be familiar

to the learners. The stimuli are shown in the Appendix.

2.4 Procedure

The stimuli fbr this paper were part of a larger study. In total there were 676 stimuli including

longer phrases and words from other Iexical classes. Each stimulus was presented on a card

showing the kanji, hiragana and English translation. They were read aloud in random order with

each stimulus appearing only once. The learners were allowed to repeat themselves if they

wished and in the event of their having misread the Japanese script they were asked to repeat the

word. On repetition, the learners showed a tendency to emphasize the corrected portion, and so

in this case were asked to repeat it again 'more naturally'. No carrier sentence such as 'watashi

wa target word to iimasita' (I said target woreD was used. Instead the nouns were read as isolated

words. This was to avoid the effect of the carrier sentence on the target word, since the phrasing

and accent types of the carrier sentence itself might difl]:r from leamer to learner The production

task was divided into eight sections of approximately five minutes and, with breaks, took around

90 minutes to complete. The data were recorded digitally (44.1 kHz, 16 bit) using a computer in

a university recording studio in the UK, in June 2009.

The accent type of each word the leamers produced was identified by three phonetically

trained native Japanese judges, in ten separate one hour sessions in October/November 2009. In

total six judges were used, but each word was heard by three judges, arranged so that each judge

heard words from every Iearner and fbr both 2- and 3-mora nouns. The first session was

preceded by a practice session. The judges heard the words fbr this paper (and the same number

again of utterances from the larger study) in random order, with each word played twice in

succession. The sessions were divided into approximately five minute sections with breaks

between them. Where the judges' decisions differed, the majority decision (two out of three) was

used. A very small minority of the possible 1764 words were discarded from the analysis: twenty

because all three judges' decisions differed, and a further five due to a problem with the sound

file.

2.5 Statistical Analysis

For each group of learners (LE and ME) and each set of stimuli (2- or 3-mora), a chi-square test

of independence was performed to examine whether stimuli with different SJ accent types were

produced with different accent types by the learners. in the case that a significant relation was

fbund, further chi-square tests of independence were canied out to deterrnine if the proponion of

stimuli produced with accent type x (initial, medial or unaccented, respectively) is higher for

stimuli whose SJ accent type is )c (i.e. initially-accented, medially-accented and unaccented,

respectively) than for those stimu'li which are not thus accented in SJ. Since SJ final-accent is not

- 23-

rea}ised in isolation, being produced with no accentual fall and thus neutralising the distinction

with the unaccented type, stimuli whose SJ accent type is unaccented were only compared with

the initially-accented and medially-accented stimuli, not the finally-accented stimuli. Similarly, a

chi-square test of independence was carried out to determine if the proportion of stimuli

produced with no accent is higher fbr stimuli whose SJ accent type is finally-accented than for

stimuli which are initially-accented or medially-accented in SJ.

3 Results

Figure l shows the accent types of the 2-mora nouns produced by the LE leamers, separated

according to their SJ accent type. The SJ accent types are shaded with diagonal lines. A

chi-square test of independence was perfbrmed to examine whether stimuli with diffk)rent SJ

accent types are produced with different accent types, The relation between produced accent type

and SJ accent type was not significant ( x 2(2) == 1.67,p > .05).

SJ initially-accented SJ finally-accented SJ unaccented

53% 59%

U Accented on lst mora (t) E2 SJ accent type tw No accent (0)

Figure 1. Accent types of 2-mora nouns produCed by LE learners

Figure 2 shows the accent types of the 2-mora nouns produced by the ME learners, separated

according to their SJ accent type. A chi-square test of independence was perfbrmed to examine

whether stimuli with different SJ accent types are produced with different accent types. The

relation between produced accent type and SJ accent type was not significant ( x 2(2) == l.95, p

> .05). Neither was a significant relation fbund if the two learners who had lived in areas of

Japan with an non-SJ accentual system were excluded (' x 2(2) = 1 .89,p > .05).

SJ inltially-accented SJ finally-accented Sj unaccented

" Accented on ist mora (1) n SJ accent type ew No accent (0>

Figure 2. Accent types of 2-mora nouns produced by ME learners

- 24-

Figure 3 shows the accent types of the 3-mora nouns produced by the LE learners, separated

according to their SJ accent type. A chi-square test of independence was perfbrrned to examine

whether stimuli with different SJ accent types are produced with different accent types. The

relation between produced accent type and SJ accent type was significant (x2(6) = 21.92, p

< .01). Further chi-square tests of independence were carried out as fbllows. The proportion of

stimuli produced with initial accent in the group of SJ initially-accented stimuli is 44%,

significantly higher than the proportion produced with initial accent in the group of SJ

non-initially accented (i.e. medially, finally and unaccented) stimuli, which is 28% (x2(1) ==

l2.53, p < .Ol). The proportion of stimuli produced with medial accent in the group of SJ

medially-accented stimuli is 37%, significantly higher than the proportion produced with medial

accent in the group of SJ non-medially accented (i.e. initiallM finally and unaccented) stimuli,

which is 24% ( x 2(1) == 9.22,p < .01). The proportion of stimuli produced with no accent in the

group of SJ finally-accented stimuli is 42%, which is not significantly higher than the proportion

produced with no accent in the group of SJ accented (i.e. initially--accented andmedially-accented) stimuli, which is 36% (x2(1) = 1.43,p > .05). The proportion of stimuli

produced with no accent in the group of SJ unaccented words is 48%, significantly higher than

the proportion produced with no accent in the group of sJ accented (i.e. initially-accented and

medially-accented) stimuli, which, as above, is 36% ( x 2(1) = 5.99, p < .05).

SJ initially-accented SJ medially-accented SJ finally-accented

l

SJ unaccented

O Accent on lst mora (l) ts$ No accent (0) ssge Accent on 2nd mora (2) % SJ accent type

Figure 3. Accent types of 3-mora nouns produced by LE learners

o

Figure 4 shows the accent types of 3-mora nouns produced by the ME learners, separated

according to their SJ accent type. A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine

whether stimuli with different SJ accent types are produced with different accent types. The

relation between produced accent type and SJ accent type was significant (x2(6) = 28.07, p

< .01). Further chi-square tests of independence were carried out as fbllows. The proportion of

stimuli produced with initial accent in the group of SJ initially-accented stimuli is 59%,

significantly higher than the proponion produced with initial accent in the group of SJ

non-initially accented (i.e. medially, finally and unaccented) stimuii, which is 389!6 (x2(1) =

13.07, p < .01). The proportion of stimuli produced with medial accent in the group of SJ

medially-accented stimuli is 33%, significantly higher than the proponion produced with medial

accent in the group of SJ non-medially accented (i.e. initially, finally and unaccented).stimuli,

which is 17% (x 2(1) == 9.79,p < .01). The proponion of stimuli produced with no accent in the

group of SJ finally-accented stimuli is 44%, significantly higher than the proportion produced

- 25-

with no accent in the group of SJ accented (i.e. initially-accented and medially-accented) stimuli,

which is 26% (x(1)== 7.71,p < .01). FinallM the proponion of stimuli produced with no accent

in the group of SJ unaccented words is 46%, significantly higher than the proponion produced

with no accent in the group of SJ accented (i.e. initially-accented and medially-accented) stimuli,

which, as above, is 26% (x(1) = 10.16, p < .01). A repeat of the analysis excluding those

learners who had lived in areas of Japan with a non-SJ accentual system gave similar results: the

proportion of tokens produced overall with an SJ accent type was the same (46%) with or

without the two learners excluded.

SJInitial)y-accented SJmedially-accented SJfinally-accented

1 2 o

O Accent on tst mora (1) N No accent (0)Eee Accent on 2nd mora (2) en SJ accent type

SJ unaccented

i 2 o

Figure 4. Accent types of 3-mora nouns produced by ME learners

4 Discussion

two-mora nouns showed the result that, for both groups of learners, there was no significant

relation between SJ accent type and produced accent type. This means that whether a word was

produced with initial or no accent had no relation to that word's accent type in SJ, even for the

ME learners. For 3-mora nouns, the learners' accent type production showed some SJ influence.

Both groups of learners were significantly more likely to produce words with initial, medial or

no accent if they were so accented in SJ (i.e. initially-accented, medially-accented and

unaccented, respectively), and the ME learners were also significantly more likely to produce

words with no accent if they were finally accented in SJ. (This final result is also consistent with

SJ since final accent is not realised in isolation.) 9 However the match with SJ was still low,

ranging from to 33% to 59%. This is markedly lower than the percentage of target-like stress

patterns reported by Guion and colleagues fbr learners of English, vvhich was 98% fbr both

Spanish and Korean learners and 909!6 fbr Thai learners fbr words with typical stress patterns,

and 96%, 95% and 72% respectively fbr the same learners fbr words whose stress patterns were

atypical (Guion et al., 2004; Guion, 2005; Wayland et al., 2006). For the present studM the

influence of SJ appears not to be strong, regardless of Japanese experience.

The SJ influence in 3- but not 2-mora nouns may be linked to the fact that there are no

words lexically specified to have no stress in English, so all lexical stress contrasts are contrasts

in stress position. In the citation form of 2-mora SJ nouns, only the contrast in accentedness

(initial accent vs. no accent) is realised, since final-accent is not realised in isolation; however

9 Although the ME but not the LE leamers reached significance with final accent, it may be premature to consider

this evidence fbr a developmental sequence, since the overall match with SJ was so low.

- 26-

3-mora nouns do have a contrast in accent position (initial vs. medial accent) which is realised

even in isolation. If this is a factor, the accent types of 3-mora verbs, which, as a rule, only

contrast in accentedness and not in position, would be predicted to be diflicult to acquire, and

this is a direction further research could take.

Perhaps the more notable result of the current study is not the relative level of SJ acquisition

in 3-mora nouns, but the weakness of the SJ influence overall. This is despite the stimuli being

words that are expected to be familiar to the learners. It will be suggested here that this may be

due to a diflliculty in interpreting pitch as a lexical property. However, other factors may be at

work and these will be considered first.

One possibility is that it may be due to the reading-aloud task used in this study. Perhaps

there would be more evidence of SJ influence if the participants were to produce forms in a more

natural context, such as in a picture description or picture naming task, fbr example. iO Or

perhaps the task was too long and the participants quickly became tired. Howeveg although

either or both of these may be the case, the question would still remain as to why the SJ

influence is weak enough to be so adversely affected by the choice of task. Another possibility is

that perhaps it is not SJ that the learners are acquiring. As was discussed in the introduction, it is

likely that the leamers are exposed to SJ, but may also be exposed to other dialects, especially in

the case of the ME learners who have spent some time in Japan. Although excluding the two

learners who had lived in areas of Japan with a non-SJ accentual system did not change the

results, perhaps is it necessary to be far more rigorous in controlling the type of exposure the

participants have had. However it is notable that the LE learners and ME learners showed a

highly similar pattern of results. Since the LE learners are less Iikely to have been exposed to

other dialects (since they have only studied in the UK, where it is the norm to teach SJ), this

seems to suggest a true linguistic difficulty in acquiring Japanese pitch accent.

rlhis may imply that English learners of Japanese have difficulty in encoding accent type in

their phonological representations. This would be like French learners of Spanish, who have

difliculty in encoding stress in their phonological representations, a characteristic that has been

attributed to the fact that French does not have contrastive lexical prosody (Dupoux et al., 1997;

Dupoux et al., 2001; Dupoux et al., 2008. However, unlike French, English does have

contrastive lexical prosody: stress. Hence it appears that the presence of lexical stress in the Ll is

not suflicient fbr lexical accent to be acquired in the L2. This may be related to the fact that,

although a large body of work has shown that Ll English speakers use stress in word recognition

(see Cutler et al., 1997, pp.148-155 fbr a review), the greatest effect on word recognition seems

to be due to segmental not supra-segmental differences, i.e. the vowel quality difference between

full and reduced vowels (Cooper et al., 2002, p.223). ln fact, Cutler (1986) shows that Ll

English speakers treat words with two full vowels but different stress pattern (e.g. insight and

incite) as homophones on a priming task. Since Japanese accent is only realised with pitch, with

no corresponding difference in vowel quality (or, in fact, amplitude or duration), English Iearners

of Japanese may have difficulty in recognizing that Japanese has a lexical prosodic contrast. This

is not to suggest that English speakers are insensitive to changes in pitch: pitch has an active role

10 Thanks are due to an anonymous reviewer fbr this and the fbllowing suggestion.

- 27-

in English intonation as was mentioned in the introduction. However, the results of the current

study may suggest that English learners have a difficulty in recognising pitch as a lexical

property.

The aim of this paper was to determine whether SJ-like accent types in the learners'

production are due to the direct influence of that word's SJ type or simply the result of a chance

match with the learner's interlanguage. The results imply that much - or, in the case of 2-mora

nouns, all - of the correspondence with SJ can be attributed to chance matches with the learners'

interlanguage. It was not the aim of the current study to determine what the properties of the

interlanguage might be. However it is interesting that despite restricting the stimuli to the same

syllable structure, lexical class and speech environment, a variety of accent'types were seen. A

cursory glance at each individual learner's productions shows much variation: some learners

favour the accented types, some the unaccented type, and some a mixture. This paper has shown

that the SJ accent type has little influence on which words take which accent type; further

research is needed to establish what does determine which words take which accent type for each

learner.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank the English participants and the Japanese judges, without whom this

research could not have taken place, and Nagoya University, the Japan Student Services

Organization and the Daiko Foundation for Phl) funding. I would also like to thank the two

anonymous reviewers whose comments helped greatly to improve this paper.

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AppendixThe　stimuli　used　in　the　study

2－mora　nouns

SJ　in韮tblly－accented SJ血n劉lly一紐ccented SJ　unaccented

雨o〃！θ’rain’ 部屋heya　’room’ 箱加たo’box’

地図凶伽，map， 犬加ガdo9 暇痂1ηα，倉ee　time，

駅ε鳶ヂstation’ 鍵kOgi　’keゾ 紐him・璽S廿ing奪

船ノinne　lt）oat奪 怪我舵9α’i伽ry「 星hOS海i讐star撃

傘肋30「㎜brella’ 町〃tachi－’town’ 医者’5加’doctor’

窓溜o欲プwindovゾ 夏礁’S㎜er’ 椅子’∫〃「cha三r’

猫neko　’cat’ 音o多o’sound’ 壁兎oわε’wal1’

奥oんガinside’ 島∫痂溜α，island’ 道michi　’path’

空s・ra　’sky’ 山畏〃ro’backe 右migガright’

外30’o’outside’ 山yo溺α’mountain’ 水〃2∠zガwater’

海〃〃ガsea’ 雪yuki　’snovs 庭niwa　’garden’

夜ア・耀’night’ 夢yume　’dream’ 横ア・ん・’side’

3－mora　nouns

SJ　initiaHy－accented SJ　mediaHy－accented SJ　fina蔓ly一紐ccented SJ　unaccented

出口漉9麗訪”exit’ あなたanata　’you’ 昼間ん潮〃2α’daytime「 左hidari　’left1

技術9珈魏’tec㎞ique’ ノk時乃αc乃グガ801clockl 地獄ノ’goんガhell’ 日にちhinichi　’date’

五月gog傭ガMarch’ 花屋加η卿’nower　shop’ 鏡加80〃2”mirror’ 田舎inakO

花火hoηαわmreworks’ 一部ichibu，a　parぜ 言葉kotoba　’word’ 「countryside’

医学’g露ガmed圭clne’ いとこ’∫0疋0「ooush1「 娘溺〃3〃耀，daughter， 子供んαわ脚’child’

彼女㎞〃（ワリ’girl丘iend’ 事務所御励・’off・ce’ 仲間nakamo 車た〃瑠〃2α’car’

家族㎞zOんガ銭amilyl 中身〃α加〃ガcontents’ ’companion’ 昔加耽o面’the　pastロ

目艮鏡〃2θ8ηηθ，glasses， 斜めηαηo〃θ’diagonally’ 表0溺0∫θ，飴nt8 同じoηの7’the　same’

緑mid・ri　’greenery’ ニカ斬nikOsho 男otoko　’man’ 大人o’o〃o’adult’

x戻namida℃tears’ ’twO　Places’ 刺身soshimi　’raw　fish’ 魚30㎞ηα’fish，

荷物η∫〃20纏’luggage’ おもちゃ0〃20c加’toy’ 宝如初酒α’treasure’ 仕事shigoto　’work’

姿sugata薯figure曾 おしやれoshare 手元∫θ〃20’o’handy’ 手紙∫εgo〃ガleUerl

’f誌hionable’ 夜中yonaka 後ろ〃3痂70’behind’

和菓子wagashi ，middle　ofthe　ni呂ht’

Japanese　sweets，

一 31一