Effects of experience on bilinguals' production and perception of phonological categories
10h30-12h LPL, salle de conférences B011, Aix-en-Provence
Résumé :
Speakers growing up and living in a bilingual environment are exposed to an input that contains information relative to two different phonological systems. Research on bilinguals’ phonology has shown that cross-language similarity, the age of acquisition, the quantity and quality of input, and the patterns of language dominance determine differences in the interaction of the phonemic inventories and the representation of phonological categories. Moreover, assuming an exemplar theory approach, it can be observed how phonological categories are also changing beyond the acquisition stage as a result of social and linguistic experience. In this talk, two studies on the perception and production of /r/ in Italian-German bilinguals will be presented, and the results will be discussed, trying to emphasize the role of language use and social information in the formation of phonological categories.
