THE REALISATION OF NUCLEUS PLACEMENT IN SECOND LANGUAGE INTONATION

This paper investigates the realisation of nucleus placement in the production of Greek yes/no questions by non-native (Dutch) advanced speakers of (Modern) Greek. The yes/no questions which are investigated can have two possible nucleus locations: the nucleus can appear on the first or the last of two content words. It will be shown that half of the subjects of this study do not distinguish between the two in production, and consistently produce either just one or the other type. Experimental evidence will be given that the contour which does not have a counterpart in the first language (L1), is more accurately produced than the one which is more similar to an L1 contour. However, both contours are phonetically inaccurately produced when compared to the native norm. It will be shown that this is possibly caused by a phonological misinterpretation of the contour's final risefall.