Estratégias de reparo na atribuição do acento primário do inglês por falantes nativos de PB

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the repair strategies applied to English word primary stress in the process of acquisition by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). For this purpose, we used Connectionist Optimality Theory (henceforth, COT) by Bonilha (2004) as its theoretical basis. COT, beyond previewing constraint interaction, the interaction of different phonological levels (such as segment, syllable and stress) and constraints reranking in an L2 acquisition process, it also claims that constraints which are specific from the L2 may be acquired. Such restructuring process may be explained by an implemented gradual learning algorithm (BOERSMA & HAYES 2001) which constitutes a great advantage to acquisition data analysis. In the present study, we analyzed English stress acquisition in suffixed words, especially, the production of words whose suffixes carry the primary stress. In this last group, we observed the following suffixes: -oon, -eer, -ee, -ette, -esque, - ese, -ique, -et, -aire, -euse and -eur. Taking into account the process of constraint reranking, we intended to characterize interlanguage hierarchy evidenced by learners from the repair strategies they applied to deviant productions. For this aim, we used oral language data from sixteen informants, academics of Languages - English major from a Brazilian Southern university. Data collection consisted of two recordings of an instrument which contained 135 suffixed and non-suffixed words and 135 carrier-sentences. Afterwards, data were transcribed by auditory method and reviewed by two evaluators. The transcriptions were based on IPA. Data were statistically treated by Chi-Square test via Statistica 7.0 software. We could observe that, among the suffixes that present different behaviors concerning the stress of the primitive words, the ones which receive the primary stress were the least correctly produced, presenting around 50% of errors. Data also confirmed the trends indicated by studies on L2 acquisition that interlanguage systems show the militancy of L1 hierarchy of constraints. This is due to the predominance of the trochaic pattern as a repair strategy - around 50% of deviant productions, and, as argued by Bisol (1992), it is the stress pattern of BP. Concerning the suffixes that carry the primary stress, it seems that L2 vowel length, that may be the main element of stress attribution in words such as refugee and mountaineer, is not easily perceived/produced by BP native speakers, according to the findings by Nobre-Oliveira (2007). Taking into account the results, we understand that some specific constraints to vowel length were not ranked in learners interlanguage hierarchy yet. Also, we relate the phenomenon of the random production of such stress pattern to its low frequency in English lexicon. Thus, frequency seems to be one important factor for learners oral productions. In sum, we believe that such factors as a whole may be conspiring to the fact that informants productions are still deviant from the pattern of the target language. Finally, we argue that COT seems to be an important tool in order to describe and analyze L2 language acquisition data.