The effect of pitch accents on the interpretation of short exchanges by Dutch-English and French-English bilinguals

This study explores whether Dutch and French bilinguals leverage pitch accents to resolve sentence ambiguity in English (second language, L2) and how their native language (L1) and L2 level affects this process. Pitch accents, a key prosodic feature to mark focus in English and Dutch, are less prominent in French. Using a question-answer paradigm, participants interpreted ambiguous answers with pitch accents. Results showed that Dutch and French speakers can detect and use pitch accents to interpret sentence meaning, with Dutch speakers showing no effect of proficiency, whereas French speakers improved pitch accent detection and use with higher proficiency. Findings highlight the role of L1 in shaping the learning and use of prosodic cues in bilinguals’ L2. Our results suggest that similarity in L1-L2 pitch accent usage leads to between-language transfer and different developmental trajectories, but does not ultimately prevent mastery.