A phoneme-detection task shows that listeners of Sepedi use semantic information in processing but not prosody (Experiment 1). Sepedi is a language with no grammaticalised prosodic expression of focus. Sepedi listeners detected phoneme targets faster when the phoneme-bearing words were focussed (as opposed to unfocussed) but not when occurring in a context conducive to prosodic emphasis (as opposed to non-conducive). Experiment 2 tested the role of semantic focus and prosody in processing by Sepedi L1/English L2 listeners (English being a language with systematic focus-to-accent mapping). Non-native listeners detected phoneme-bearing words faster in focussed condition (as opposed to unfocussed) and in accented condition (as opposed to deaccented). The results suggest that the L2 prosodic structure is exploited by Black South African English listeners even if this feature is not present in their L1. Our experiments replicate the pattern of results found in Akker and Cutler’s (Biling Lang Cogn 6:81–96, 2003) experiment for Dutch L1/ English L2 listeners, even with listeners whose L1 does not use prosody the way English does.

音素检测任务表明 Sepedi 的听众在处理过程中使用语义信息而不是韵律（实验 1）。Sepedi 是一种没有语法化韵律表达的语言。当带有音素的单词被集中（而不是不集中）时，Sepedi 听众更快地检测到音素目标，但在有利于韵律强调的上下文中（而不是不引导）发生时则不然。实验 2 测试了语义焦点和韵律在 Sepedi L1/英语 L2 听众处理中的作用（英语是一种具有系统的焦点到重音映射的语言）。非母语听众在集中状态（与非集中状态相反）和重音状态（与去重音状态相反）中更快地检测到带有音素的单词。结果表明，南非黑人英语听众利用了 L2 韵律结构，即使该特征在他们的 L1 中不存在。我们的实验复制了 Akker 和 Cutler (Biling Lang Cogn 6:81–96, 2003) 针对荷兰语 L1/英语 L2 听众的实验中发现的结果模式，即使对于 L1 不像英语那样使用韵律的听众也是如此。