Cross-linguistic phonological interaction: Word-stress usage in the English of Polish advanced EFL speakers

Abstract

The paper discusses the emergence of L1-induced word-stress patterns in the spoken production of Polish advanced speakers of English. In Polish, unlike in English, a great deal of word-stress predictability is attested, and the paper investigates whether this affects the actual production. The investigations are couched within the broad area of contact linguistics and are analysed in the usage-based cognitive phonological approach. A possible lack of exemplar connections to standard English forms is postulated here, so that EFL speakers develop patterns where the connections are being made to their native exemplars. The Frequency in a Favourable Context criterion is used here to estimate effects of use pattern that are distinct in the investigated languages. The data were obtained in a series of production tasks in a test-like format, by students in the English Department at PUK in Kraków. The results were analysed to the effect that they demonstrated a high level of L1 influence bordering possibly on innovation and propagation of new pattern of use, with cognate forms demonstrating the more rigid adherence to L1 stress locus.