Emphatische Akzentuierung in der Fremdsprache. Theoretische und didaktische Überlegungen zu einem möglichen Lerngegenstand am Beispiel des Sprachenpaars Italienisch L1 und Deutsch L2

The paper deals with emphatic accentuation in spoken language. First, the term emphatic is discussed. What are the functional and formal properties connected with emphasis or emphatic in linguistic literature? With regard to German, three main functions are described (together with their formal realizations): expressive emphasis, emphasis for contrast and emphasis for intensity. In the second part, predictions are made regarding the acquisition of emphatic accentuation in a second language (in this case Italian): communicative or paralinguistic uses of intonation and accentuation are said to be similar across languages and thus easy to acquire. This is tested by investigating a corpus with German L2 / Italian L1- speakers at B2 level. Although the corpus was not designed in order to elicit emphatic speech, emphatic use of accentuation can be largely detected. This speaks in favour of the hypothesis that emphatic use of accentuation is a similar cross-linguistic, paralinguistic feature allowing for positive transfer.