Cross-Linguistic Differences in Healthy Speakers: A Comparative Study of English, Chinese, and Italian Groups.

Introduction: Cross-linguistic studies offer unique and new insights into the relationship between language and cognition and the impact of linguistic differences on the diagnostic process in neurological conditions. However, differences in speech production among healthy speakers have been scarcely investigated. We aim to address cross-linguistic variability in the connected speech production of English, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and Italian speakers using a picture description task.

Methods: Thirty-nine sex-, age-, and education-matched subjects (thirteen for each language) described the Picnic scene from the WAB battery. Twenty-eight linguistic features encompassing phonological, lexico-semantic, morpho-syntactic, and discourse/pragmatic domains were then coded using a semi-automated computerized language analysis program (CLAN). The frequency of each feature was compared across the three groups.

Results: While the majority of features were similar across languages, we identified differences among English, Chinese, and Italian speakers. Specifically, we found reduced production of prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns, and increased adverb use in the Chinese-speaking group compared to the groups speaking the other two languages. English participants produced a higher proportion of prepositions, while Italian speakers produced significantly more conjunctions and empty pauses than the other groups.

Conclusions: Our results support the role of cross-linguistic studies in capturing language-specific nuances in spoken production and highlight the need for linguistically tailored tools for the assessment of language performance.