Desvendando a prosódia do sotaque estrangeiro: produção e percepção do acento tônico no inglês por falantes brasileiros / Unraveling foreign accent prosody: production and perception of lexical stress in English by Brazilian Portuguese speakers

Filipe Modesto; Plinio Almeida Barbosa

doi:10.17851/2237-2083.27.1.165-189

Desvendando a prosódia do sotaque estrangeiro: produção e percepção do acento tônico no inglês por falantes brasileiros / Unraveling foreign accent prosody: production and perception of lexical stress in English by Brazilian Portuguese speakers

Filipe Modesto, Plinio Almeida Barbosa

Abstract

Resumo: muitos adultos aprendizes de uma L2 possuem algum grau de sotaque. Contribui para esse sotaque a não adequada realização do acento tônico (AT), que tem papel preponderante para a estruturação prosódica da fala. 24 falantes do português brasileiro (PB) de quatro níveis autorreferidos de inglês americano (IA) participaram de testes de produção e percepção de AT. Os dados acústicos de produção dos participantes, assim como os escores na marcação da posição acentual foram coletados e comparados com um sujeito nativo. Os parâmetros acústicos de maior relevância para a realização do AT dos falantes do PB foram a duração, intensidade total e intensidade relativa das sílabas acentuadas. Os escores de percepção foram maiores do que os de produção, de modo geral. As palavras com acento inicial foram as que tiveram maior número de acertos tanto na produção quanto na percepção. Os falantes nativos do PB de todos os níveis empregam os mesmos parâmetros acústicos de acentuação da L1 no IA, sendo que estes tendem a se aproximar dos do nativo à medida em que o nível de inglês aumenta. O cognatismo não foi relevante para o uso dos parâmetros acústicos empregados na marcação do acento, mas influenciou os escores da posição acentual.

Palavras-chave: sotaque estrangeiro; acento tônico; fonética acústica.

Abstract: many adults who learn a second language have a foreign accent to some extent. The misproduction of lexical stress (LS), which plays an important role in the prosodic structure of speech, contributes to the perception of a heavier foreign accent. Twenty-four Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers of English of four different self-reported levels underwent tests of production and perception of LS. This study aimed to describe how production and perception of lexical stress happen to BP speakers of four different self-reported levels. Acoustic data, as well as the percentage of scores in stress placement, were collected and compared to the production of a native speaker of American English (AmE). Syllable duration, total intensity, and relative intensity were the most important parameters used by the BP speakers to stress syllables. Hits in the perception task were greater than the production task, overall. Initially stressed words had the greatest hits in both production and perception. Overall, the BP speakers from this use, in AmE, the same acoustic parameters used in BP for signaling LS. The production, in regards of acoustic parameters use, gets closer to the native when the proficiency level increases. Cognate words were not relevant in the acoustic parameters choice of the speakers, but they were relevant for the stress position hits.

Keywords: foreign accent; lexical stress; acoustic phonetics.

Keywords

sotaque estrangeiro; acento tônico; fonética acústica; foreign accent; lexical stress; acoustic phonetics.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17851/2237-2083.27.1.165-189