Chiedere in italiano: le domande polari e lo sviluppo della competenza prosodica in parlanti cinesi di italiano L2

International audienceThe present study investigates the role of prosody in the production and the perception of 6 yes/no questions produced in L2 Italian. To this end, polar questions and the corresponding 7 statements uttered by 3 groups of Chinese learners (elementary, intermediate and advanced 8 level) were analyzed and compared to both L1 Italian and L1 Chinese productions, in order 9 to identify the main trends in non-native prosodic behavior and to detect possible phenomena 10 of prosodic transfer. Furthermore, a sample of the L2 Italian was selected and manipulated, 11 using the prosody transplantation technique, which allowed the exchange of acoustic 12 features between native and non-native Italian utterances. Original and manipulated stimuli 13 were administered in a perception test to a group of native Italian listeners. 14 Results show the relevance of prosody and interesting differences among elementary, 15 intermediate and advanced Chinese learners of Italian. In no case, however, suprasegmental 16 traits related to prosodic transfer phenomena from Chinese were detected. The listening test 17 outcome suggests that non-native segments with a native Italian prosody are rated as less 18 foreign-accented than are native Italian segments with a non-native prosody. Similar trends 19 were found, overall, in terms of question/statement discrimination, confirming the 20 importance of prosody. These findings could be helpful for teachers and learners of Italian 21 as a foreign language