Vowel lengthening in L2 Italian and L2 French: a cue for focus marking?

Our study investigates the role of vowel duration as a cue for focus marking in both L1 and L2 Italian and French. We aim to compare our data to highlight potential influences of the native language on L2 productions in the use of this cue. The analysis involves task-elicited speech from 60 partici- pants: 15 native Italian speakers, 15 native French speakers, 15 French learners of Italian (L2), and 15 Italian learners of French (L2). Participants produced the same target constituent under four information-structural conditions: background, broad fo- cus, identification focus, and correction focus. Results reveal that the information-structural function significantly influences stressed vowel duration in native Italian, with identification- focus and correction-focus constituents bearing longer duration than background and broad focus. However, the same pattern does not hold in native French. Crucially, this distinction is mirrored in the production of non-native speakers. While Italian learners of L2 French, in fact, modulate duration based on the informational role of the constituent, French learners of Italian L2 do not. We discuss these findings in relation to previous find- ings on other prosodic and syntactic markers of focus. Results are commented in light of typological differences in discourse- prominence marking and theories of L2 prosody acquisition.