The prosodic realization of emotions in native and non native Italian

Abstract

This study explores the expression of vocal emotions by Russian, Spanish and Tunisian learners of L2 Italian. The research is firstly intended to contribute to the studies on the emotional speech in L2, through an analysis of the acoustic profiles of vocal emotions produced by the learners both in Italian and in their own L1. Furthermore, the study aims to determine whether and to what extent the prosodic realization of L2 emotional speech is influenced by transfer phenomena from the learners’ cultural background and/or reveals more universal tendencies due to L2 acquisition process. Results show a fuzzy and unexpected picture. On the one hand, Tunisian learners reproduce in L2 Italian intonational contours very similar to their mother tongue. On the other hand, both Russian and Spanish learners show hybrid prosodic patterns which do not adhere to their mother tongue and diverge both from the Tunisian and the native speakers of Italian.