Significance of non-native responses: Interpretive strategies for intonational meaning

The non-natives intonation patterns in L1 DO NOT exactly match with intonational meaning in L2. However, non-native listeners make use of systematic procedures (strategies) to interpret the intonation patterns of L2 Transfer strategy Pitch height strategy Lexico-syntactic strategy

Transfer Strategy
Where the same intonational difference operates on a familiar structure in L1, the meaning conveyed by intonation in L1 is generalized to L2 Positive vs. Negative Positive transfer strategy: uses of intonation are similar across L1 and L2 Transfer of L1 patterns to L2 is successful due to mere positive coincidence of forms and meanings in L1 and L2. * Negative transfer strategy: uses of intonation are conventional and idiosyncratic ; provides evidence for the arbitrariness of certain uses of intonation

Pitch Height Strategy

Where the meaning contrast conveyed by intonation in L2 can be associated with broadly similar uses of pitch contours or height in L1, then abstract generalizations regarding meaning seem to be made, correlating higher overall pitch with openness and lower pitch with finality. Considered as a more sophisticated variant of a positive transfer strategy. Support for implicational universals of intonation (Cruttenden, 1981)*: forms and meanings stand in predictable correlation Rising or higher pitch correlated with more open meanings; Falling or lower pitch correlated with more closed meanings Features of intonation lie beyond particular uses in each language

Lexico-syntactic Strategy
Where certain lexical items or grammatical patterns of L2 are most commonly associated with an unmarked meaning, this straightforward interpretation suggested by the words will tend to override a marked interpretation which is highly intonation-dependent. e.g. ambiguous sentences with two meanings: unmarked (straightforward), marked (intonation-dependent) Non-native listeners tend to favor the straightforward interpretation of the sentence, high-bias interpretation (Berkovits, 1981) They tend to ignore any intonational cues to a marked meaning, especially when the pitch pattern of L2 is non-existent in L1

In conclusion
Consistent trends in the non-native behaviour towards foreign intonation patterns. Strategies do not necessarily reflect productive intonational competence in foreign language Some strategies operate reflecting some cross-linguistic or universal use of intonation (positive transfer strategy, pitch height strategy) Others reflect the conventional or idiosyncratic use of intonation among languages (negative transfer strategy, lexico-syntactic strategy