St’át'imcets intonation contours: a preliminary study

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-155
Author(s):  
Marion Caldecott
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Intonational Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Interior Salish

AbstractAcoustic research on the prosody and intonation of Northwest Coast languages has until recently been under-researched. This paper joins the growing body of research on the subject and reports on the results of the first study of intonation in St’át'imcets (Lillooet Salish; Northern Interior Salish). It tests the generalization proposed by Davis (2007) that information structure is not correlated with prosody in Salish languages by comparing the intonation contours of declaratives and yes/no questions. Specifically, I ask two questions: is nuclear accent rightmost? And are yes/no questions associated with higher pitch, as predicted by the Universality of Intonational Meaning? Results are comparable to those reported for other Salish languages, namely Koch (2008, 2011) on Nɬeʔkepmxcín, Jacobs (2007) on Skwxwú7mesh and Benner (2004, 2006) and Leonard (2011) on SENĆOŦEN. Nuclear accent is associated with the rightmost stressed vowel, regardless of focus, and while no speaker signals yes/no questions with a final rise, each has higher pitch within typologically common parameters.

Virgil the Grammarian and Bede: a preliminary study

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 7-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian Bracken
Keyword(s):  
Early Medieval ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Biblical Commentaries

AbstractThe chapters in Bede's De temporum ratione begin with an etymology for the name of the subject to be examined. Sources and analogues for some have not hitherto been identified. This article shows that some of these etymologies of words for the divisions of time come ultimately, though perhaps not directly, from bk XI of Virgil the Grammarian's Epitomae. These accounts of the origins of calendrical and cosmological terms wound their way through early western computistical works and eventually into Bede's De temporum ratione. The article identifies examples of Virgil's influence on anonymous early medieval biblical commentaries and discusses their significance as pointers towards their place of composition.

Clause structure, case and agreement in Polish existential, possessive and locative sentences: A phase-based account

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-696
Author(s):  
Joanna Błaszczak
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Case Alternation ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Existential Sentences ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Event Variable

Abstract In this paper it will be argued that the difference between existential and locative sentences is primarily structurally encoded at the vP/VP level (at the first phase of a derivation). The crucial question is which argument of the verb BE (the Location or the nominal argument (“Theme”)) is projected as the “external argument”, i.e., which argument is the subject of inner predication. In the case of existential sentences it is the Location argument which is the subject of inner predication, and in the case of locative sentences it is the nominal argument. The subject of inner predication becomes by default also the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence. Hence, in the case of locative sentences the nominal argument is the subject of outer predication, i.e., the topic of the sentence, and in the case of existential sentences it is the Location which becomes the topic. (Or, alternatively, the actual topic (the subject of outer predication) might be the situational/ event variable, and the Location functions as a restriction on it.) However, the actual arrangement of constituents in the sentences under discussion, as in any other Polish sentence, is determined by the pragmatic/communicative principles. Given this, it is reasonable to think that the NOM/GEN case alternation in negated existential/locative sentences is primarily a matter of syntax, and not one of information structure or scope of negation. The analysis will be modeled in accordance with the phasal model of Chomsky (2000 et seq.).

scholarly journals The Musical Offers of Children’s Programming on «Televisión Española» as its Hearing Universe

Comunicar ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (37) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amparo Porta-Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Incidental Music ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study

The music that children are exposed to in their everyday lives plays an important role in shaping the way they interpret the world around them, and television soundtracks are, together with their direct experience of reality, one of the most significant sources of such input. This work is part of a broader research project that looks at what kind of music children listen to in a sample of Latin American and Spanish TV programmes. More specifically, this study focuses on children’s programmes in Spain, and was addressed using a semiotic theoretical framework with a quantitative and musical approach. The programme «Los Lunnis» was chosen as the subject of a preliminary study, which consisted in applying 90 templates and then analysing them in terms of the musical content. The results show that the programme uses music both as the leading figure and as a background element. The most common texture is the accompanied monody and the use of voice, and there is a predominance of electronic instrumental sounds, binary stress and major modes with modulations. Musical pieces are sometimes truncated and rhythmically the music is quite poor; the style used is predominantly that of foreign popular music, with a few allusions to the classical style and to incidental music. The data reveal the presence of music in cultural and patrimonial aspects, as well as in cognitive construction, which were not taken into account in studies on the influence of TV in Spain. Such aspects do emerge, however, when they are reviewed from the perspective of semiotics, musical representation, formal analysis and restructuring theories.La música de la vida cotidiana del niño tiene uno de sus referentes, junto a su experiencia real, en la banda sonora de la televisión, configurando una parte de su interpretación de la realidad. Este trabajo forma parte de una investigación más amplia sobre la escucha televisiva infantil en una muestra iberoamericana. El objetivo, conocer qué escuchan los niños en la programación infantil de «Televisión Española», ha sido estudiado desde un marco teórico semiótico con un enfoque cuantitativo y musical. El artículo presenta un resumen de los resultados obtenidos en un primer análisis del programa «Los Lunnis» mediante la aplicación de noventa plantillas y sus análisis musicales correspondientes. Estos resultados indican que el programa utiliza la música como fondo y figura, textura de monodía acompañada y utilización de la voz, predominio del sonido electrónico instrumental, acento binario y modo mayor con modulaciones. Aparecen piezas musicales cortadas y cierta pobreza rítmica, su opción estilística es la música popular no propia, con algunos guiños al estilo clásico y a la música incidental. Los datos muestran la presencia de la música en aspectos culturales, patrimoniales y de construcción cognitiva no considerados en los estudios sobre la influencia de la TV en España, pero que emergen cuando son revisados desde la semiótica, la representación musical, el análisis formal y las teorías de la reestructuración.

The wisdom of the road

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payal Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rates ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Hydro Power ◽  
The Road ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
War Games ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Subject ◽  
India And China

The Silk Roads Ethos (SRE; Ling, 2014) animates the idea that India and China must draw from the legacy of historical exchanges for future cooperation. Mainstream scholarship on the subject employs and relies predominantly on a state-centric rivalry-oriented framework to study the issue, in which a standard focus on demographic comparisons, growth rates, GDP, FDI, energy-security complex, and cognate connotations of “hypermasculine war games” demarcate India-China relations in mutually distinct and discrete “boxed” categories (Banerjee and Ling, 2010). It also does not engage with the growing body of historically attuned, critical scholarship that focuses on the nuances of exchange, collaboration, and conflict between India and China. If scholars working on China-India are serious about offering a counter-hegemonic alternative to the current work-manuals, then our research approaches in understanding one another must also employ a counter-hegemonic epistemology. Drawing on insights from two recent collaborative projects, one on hydro-power projects in India and China, and a second, larger project on India-China relations, this article outlines the specific ways in which the wisdom of the SRE carries with it unequivocal empirical and pedagogical possibilities.

Increasing The Ability To Recognize Number Symbols Through The Activities Of Playing Snakes And Stairs For Children Of Group A In Tk Aisyiyah Busthanul Athfal 6 Candi

Academia Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Retno Nur Hardani ◽  
Luluk Iffatur Rocmah
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Learning Material ◽  
Matching Number ◽  
Child Group ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Classroom Action Research

This research is motivated by the lack of ability of group A children in Kindergarten Aisyiyah Busthanul Athfal 6 Candi in recognizing the symbol of numbers. Based on a preliminary study in Kindergarten Aisyiyah Busthanul Athfal 6 Temple found that 70.59% of 17 Kindergarten A children were still wrong in recognizing good symbols when asked to say by sorting number cards, dancing lines according to the number of drawings, counting many marbles and pasting numbers right. These problems are caused by the introduction of non-matching number symbols, and non-concrete learning media (using worksheets). The solution provided is the introduction of the number symbol by playing snakes and ladders with steps to recognize the symbol number. This research is a classroom action research (CAR) that uses Kemmis and Mc. Taggart. The subject of the action was the children of group A "Kindergarten Aisyiyah Busthanul Athfal 6 Candi, totaling 17 children, each with 13 boys and 4 girls. In this study using three stages, namely pre cycle, cycle I, and cycle II. The results of this study that have been carried out to improve the ability to recognize child group A symbols in Aisyiyah Busthanul Athfal 6 Kindergarten Temple show that the ability to recognize child number symbols from pre-cycle, cycle I, and cycle II has increased. In the pre-cycle completeness the overall value of group A was 29.41%, the first cycle completeness the overall value of group A was 52.94%, and in the second cycle the completeness value of group A was 82.35%. This proves that there is an increase in the ability to recognize child number symbols after a study using a snake ladder game in learning material.

scholarly journals A preliminary study on the Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs about Stuttering (UTBAS) questionnaire in Croatia

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Ena Klarin ◽  
Ana Leko Krhen ◽  
Suzana Jelčić Jakšić
Keyword(s):  
Therapy Outcome ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Adults Who Stutter ◽  
The Relationship

Along with disrupted speech fluency, people who stutter often develop a fear of speaking or fear of social situations that may lead to the emergence of social anxiety disorder. This has been the subject of numerous studies during recent decades, and specific questionnaires have been developed to assess relationships between stuttering and anxiety. The Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs About Stuttering (UTBAS) Questionnaire (St Clare et al. 2009) was developed recently and has been applied to evaluate the frequency and belief in thoughts about stuttering and the degree of anxiety induced by such thoughts. The aim of our preliminary study was to test the Croatian translation of the UTBAS (UTBAS-C) on people who stutter and those who do not stutter and to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between these two groups, i.e. whether people who stutter are more socially anxious than people who do not stutter. Participants were 16 adults who stutter and 16 controls with normal fluence, aged 18-40 years. Because the results were not distributed normally, all data were analyzed with a non-parametric statistical method. The results showed a statistically significant difference between adults who stutter and those who do not. People who stutter had higher total scores on the Questionnaire, i.e. they are more socially anxious or have more negative thoughts and beliefs regarding speech-related situations than fluent adults. The results of our preliminary study are not unexpected and are consistent with most previous studies on the relationship between stuttering and anxiety. However, as there is a lack of specific instruments in the Croatian language that can be used in diagnosing adults who stutter, especially their attitudes and emotions, our translation of and further research on the UTBAS should help to fill that absence. This study should also alert clinicians working with adults who stutter of the importance and influence of attitudes and beliefs on therapy outcome.

'Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama', II: 'verkocht, verhandeld, verëerd, geruild en overgedaan'

1985 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-154
Author(s):  
B.P.J. Broos
Keyword(s):  
Previous Article ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Country House ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Interesting Part ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Temple

AbstractAfter the death of his father Isaac Feitama in 1709, the young Sybrand continued collecting, making several purchases that same year. Not all of them were happy ones, however. The Presentation in the Temple by Jan van Neck (Fig. 1, Note 2), bought from Simon Schijnvoet, proved to be a worked-up offset of the original drawing, which he eventually acquired from his friend Egidius Beukelaar in 1736 (Fig. 2, Note 3), so he sold it to L.F. Duboug in 1754 (Note 5). He seems not to have known that the original drawing was probably a preliminary study for the altarpiece mentioned by Houbraken as Van Neck's best work (Note 4). As in this case, so most of the background information on the Feitama drawings has been lost since the sale of 1758, the catalogue giving only a description of the subject, the measurements and the technique (Note 6). It is precisely the additional information that makes the 'Notitie' so fascinating, although the least interesting part of it now are the prices Sybrand 11 noted so carefully as his own main concern. It is worth noting, however, that exceptionally high prices are mentioned for sheets by Nicolaas Berchem, Gerard Dou, Frans van Mieris, Adriaen van Ostade and Adriaen van de Velde, Rembrandt coming nowhere by comparison. Some of the valuable information provided by the `Notitie' was dealt with in the previous article (Note 7). Some of this is very clear, e.g. in the case of a Ruisdael drawing virtually certainly to be identified with a view of the country-house Kostverloren (Fig. 3, Note 8). The authenticity of this work, which was bought by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel in 1758, has been doubted (Note 10), but the problem would seem to be solved by Feitama's note that it is one of those which Dirck Dalens acquired from Ruisdael's estate after 1682 and subsequently worked up (Note 11). Another of these is a view of Alkmaar now in Budapest (Fig. 4, Note 13). An example of additional information that might easily be overlooked is the note relating to a drawing by Frederik de Moucheron bought in 1745. This must have come from the album of

Information Structure: The final hurdle?

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieke Verheijen ◽  
Bettelou Los ◽  
Pieter de Haan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Structural Function ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
The Subject

Although texts produced by (very) advanced Dutch learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) may be perfectly grammatical, they often feel distinctly non-native. Dutch, as a verb-second language, makes separate positions available for discourse linking and aboutness-topics. Although the English sentences of these advanced learners conform to the subject-verb-object order of English, the pre-subject adverbial position in English is made to perform the information-structural function of the verb-second discourse-linking position, producing texts that are perceived as non-native, without being ungrammatical. A side-effect of this L1 interference is the underuse of special focusing constructions in English, like the stressed-focus it-cleft. This paper investigates the progress of Dutch writers towards a more native-like use of the pre-subject position and the it-cleft in a longitudinal corpus of 137 writings of Dutch university students of English. We conclude that information-structural differences present the final hurdle for advanced Dutch EFL writers.

The syntax, information structure, and prosody of German ‘VP’-fronting

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-283
Author(s):  
Vera Lee-Schoenfeld ◽  
Anya Lunden
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
High Tone ◽  
New Information ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Vp Fronting ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
Definiteness Effect

Abstract This paper explores fronted verb phrases in German, drawing attention to the difference between passive/unaccusative VPs and fronted agentive vPs. While both kinds of verb phrases have been discussed in the literature as being frontable, it has been largely overlooked that fronted vPs typically come with a certain kind of post-fronting context and a rise-fall or bridge-contour intonation, which is characteristic of I-topicalization. We observe that, unlike VPs, agentive vPs essentially need to be I-topics, with a high tone at the right edge of the fronted domain, in order to be frontable. Given the special context required for fronted vPs, the situation described by the vP does not contain new information but must already have been under discussion and is now being commented on. We present the results of two experimental studies and appeal to the thetic/categorical distinction to offer a new angle on the definiteness effect that has been associated with fronted verb phrases. We propose that a subject-containing fronted vP is associated with a thetic rather than the default categorical judgment, which means that the fronted subject and predicate form only one information-structural unit (a topic) rather than two (topic and comment). Contributing to the literature on theticity, we observe that, unlike in non-fronting thetic statements, the subject in fronted vPs cannot be a true definite. We attribute this to clashing intonation restrictions on theticity in non-fronting constructions versus theticity in just the fronted portion of a sentence.

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