The reduction of unstressed high vowels in modern Greek

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Dauer
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Stressed Syllable ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
High Vowels

The unstressed high vowels /i/ and /u/ are subject to extreme shortening, devoicing, or elision in certain environments in standard modern Greek. This process goes on below the consciousness of most native speakers in their own speech; however, they will recognize it in speakers of northern Greek dialects where unstressed /i/ and /u/ are frequently elided (see Newton, 1972; Papadopoulos, 1926). In the phonology of the language, vowel reduction and elision are treated as a collection of optional ‘fast speech’ rules (e.g. Theophanopoulou-Kontou, 1973). In this study, they are considered as related stages in the same phonetic process, which will be described from both an auditory and acoustic point of view. An analysis of read texts and spontaneous speech samples by a number of educated speakers from Athens and Thessalonika shows that vowel reduction is not purely optional, but depends on a number of factors, the most important of which are phonetic environment and position relative to the stressed syllable. Some hypotheses concerning the phonetic motivation for this kind of vowel reduction will then be discussed.

Aspects of interrogative use in near-native French

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Communicative Function

Abstract This paper reports on interrogative (question) use in the informal spontaneous speech of near-native second-language French speakers. Interrogatives present considerable variation in French, and choices of interrogative form depend on semantics, communicative function, and register. Using a corpus of spontaneous conversations between near-native (NNSs) and native speakers (NSs), the inventory of interrogatives used is described; A detailed examination is then given of the question marker est-ce que (“is it that”), a candidate for overuse in L2 French (Zwanziger 2008, p. 91). The results, from 825 occurrences of interrogative structures, reveal that the NNSs possess extremely similar inventories of interrogative forms to their NS interlocutors and that their interrogative choices are both communicatively and socio-stylistically appropriate. What appears quantitatively as overuse of est-ce que by two NNSs is, from a communicative point of view, entirely felicitous: Like NSs, the NNSs reserve est-ce que for several marked interrogative contexts. The results suggest that the NNSs successfully integrate syntactic, semantic, communicative, and sociolinguistic information in spontaneous conversation.

The expectation marker of course in a cross-linguistic perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen ◽  
Karin Aijmer
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Multilingual Corpus ◽  
Core Meaning

The study of of course presented in this article has an applied, a descriptive and a theoretical aim. Since of course proves to be very frequent in English, learners will need to know what meanings the item has and in what pragmatic contexts it is used. It has indeed been shown that some learners tend to use of course in contexts where it is felt by native speakers to be inappropriate. In order to explain such inappropriate uses we need detailed descriptions of the semantics and pragmatics of of course. From a theoretical point of view such multifunctional items raise the question of whether semantic polysemy or pragmatic polysemy is the best explanatory account. It is argued in this paper that empirical cross-linguistic work can contribute to providing answers to all three research questions. First, the study of correspondences and differences between languages with regard to the meanings and uses of pragmatic markers is a necessary step in the explanation of learner problems. Second, the bidirectional approach to equivalents, which involves going back and forth from sources to translations, enables us to show to what extent the equivalents have partially overlapping pragmatic functions. An in-depth comparison of the semantic fields in which the translation equivalents operate is the ultimate goal. Third, the translation method helps to see to what extent a core meaning account is justified. In this paper three languages are brought into the picture, viz. English, Swedish and Dutch. The cross-linguistic data have been gathered from three translation corpora, i.e. the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus, the Oslo Multilingual Corpus and the Namur Triptic Corpus.

PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE STRATEGY

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Ekaterina A. Egorova ◽  
◽  
Polina V. Syrovatkina ◽  
Tatiana F. Chernova ◽  
Irina S. Brikoshina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Management ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Portfolio Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Market Situation

This article reveals the specifics of developing a corporate strategy using portfolio analysis, taking into account the current market situation, which has created a number of factors affecting labor produc-tivity, internal and external policies of organizations, using the example of the work of the "Vishnevii sad" theater. The information about portfolio analysis in the development of corporate strategy is presented from the point of view of strategic management. Both theoretical and practical data are given, including different ways of constructing portfolio analysis, rules and methods that can be implemented. Proposals for modifica-tion and improvement of internal processes taking into account the influence of extraneous factors, possible goals and results are presented.

He who Hesitates: Hesitation Phenomena as Quality Control in Speech Production, Obstacles in Non-Native Speech Perception

2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marnie Reed
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Control Devices ◽  
Content Processing ◽  
Hesitation Phenomena

This study was designed to determine the nature and occurrence of hesitation phenomena in spontaneous speech of native and non-native speakers, and to determine whether and to what extent the hesitation phenomena normal in spontaneous speech pose perception problems for non-native speakers. A quantitative analysis reveals that hesitation phenomena are ubiquitous in both native and non-native speech production. A qualitative analysis based on a content-processing classification framework reveals the function of hesitations. Hesitations act as overt traces of prospective and retrospective speech-processing tasks which function to forestall errors, and to permit detection and repair of errors once they are committed. Hesitations are quality control devices; native and non-native speakers are highly successful utilizing them to forestall errors. However, hesitation phenomena clearly pose perception problems for non-native speakers who show little evidence of recognizing them as such. Like native speakers, non-native speakers produce hesitation phenomena. Unlike native speakers, who edit and filter out the hesitations they hear, non-native speakers attempt to assign meaning to speakers' faulty output or to parenthetical remarks. Hesitations are unpredictable in their frequency or occurrence; failure to provide training in these oral discourse features of connected speech may result in non-native speakers whose speech production vastly outstrips their perception.

scholarly journals A Pronunciation Prior Assisted Vowel Reduction Detection Framework with Multi-Stream Attention Method

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 8321
Author(s):  
Zongming Liu ◽  
Zhihua Huang ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Pengyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Recognition Rate ◽  
Auxiliary Information ◽  
Vowel Reduction ◽  
Phoneme Recognition ◽  
End To End ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Auxiliary Input

Vowel reduction is a common pronunciation phenomenon in stress-timed languages like English. Native speakers tend to weaken unstressed vowels into a schwa-like sound. It is an essential factor that makes the accent of language learners sound unnatural. To improve vowel reduction detection in a phoneme recognition framework, we propose an end-to-end vowel reduction detection method that introduces pronunciation prior knowledge as auxiliary information. In particular, we have designed two methods for automatically generating pronunciation prior sequences from reference texts and have implemented a main and auxiliary encoder structure that uses hierarchical attention mechanisms to utilize the pronunciation prior information and acoustic information dynamically. In addition, we also propose a method to realize the feature enhancement after encoding by using the attention mechanism between different streams to obtain expanded multi-streams. Compared with the HMM-DNN hybrid method and the general end-to-end method, the average F1 score of our approach for the two types of vowel reduction detection increased by 8.8% and 6.9%, respectively. The overall phoneme recognition rate increased by 5.8% and 5.0%, respectively. The experimental part further analyzes why the pronunciation prior knowledge auxiliary input is effective and the impact of different pronunciation prior knowledge types on performance.

scholarly journals Lak proverbs with the religious code of culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Abakarova
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Social ◽  
Present Participle ◽  
Cultural Code ◽  
Positive Traits ◽  
The Given ◽  
Syntactical Analysis

The article analyzes Lak proverbs with the religious cultural code. The research was based on the descriptive method, syntactical analysis, morphological analysis and cognitive analysis. The proverbs collected from 3 books of Lak proverbs were analyzed from the point of view of semantics, axiological connotations, syntax and morphology. Semantic analysis revealed 6 groups of lexemes: (1) denominations of people; (2) words related to religious pillars and rituals; (3) words related to holy scriptures, religious attributes and terms; (4) words denoting death and afterlife; (5) words denoting commendable religious acts and notions; (6) words denoting sin and punishment. In the course of the axiological analysis there have been defined proverbs with positive evaluation of a person and proverbs with negative characteristics of a person. Positive traits include honesty, piety, decency, erudition and diligence, while negative ones include insulation, indecency, hypocrisy and negligence in the religious worship. Syntactical analysis of the Lak proverbs has revealed the presence of adverbs of asyndetic structure within which there have been established adversative, concessive and comparative relations, as well as of proverbs with copulative and disjunctive conjunctions. Some of the proverbs are based on the principle of alogism. Morphological analysis of the proverbs has revealed the most frequent grammatical tense, the Present Affirmative Tense, which is formed by means of adding the affix -r to the present participle. The Present Affirmative Tense in the Lak language denotes an action as an attribute of the subject which explains the fact of usage of this tense in proverbs that summarize the social experience of the native speakers. Lak proverbs with the given code have not been researched earlier that makes this study relevant.

scholarly journals THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE CONCEPT OF ADVOCACY ETHICS AT THE PRESENT STAGE: CONTENT AND SIGNIFICANCE

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Legal Profession ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Legal Ethics ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
And Behavior

the article States that the ethics of a lawyer is an important component of the legal ethics; stated that the legal profession has as its object the person, affects its interests, rights, private life, so the study of moral aspects and problems of advocacy is today of paramount importance; marked by such key concepts as morality, law, ethics, justice, duty, good, evil, conscience, responsibility, honor, dignity, humanity; noted that part of ethics, legal ethics is a scientific discipline whose subject is the manifestation of morality in justice and law enforcement; marked what is the value of legal ethics is that it gives the moral nature of the activities for implementation of justice, the implementation of the prosecutorial, investigative work and other activities carried out by professional lawyers; States that legal ethics contributes to the proper formation of consciousness, attitudes of members of the legal profession, focusing them on rigorous compliance with moral norms; stated that today is the actual context of the conversation separately about the ethics of judges, investigative ethics, ethics counsel; noted that the specifics of advocacy requires a balance in the service of a lawyer; noted, what legal ethics is designed to ensure the performance of lawyer's duties honestly, competently and in good faith, to form proper level of public confidence in the legal profession as a representative of civil society and personally to the lawyers; noted that the basis of the relationship of the lawyer and the client is trust; noted that the attorney has no right to own, not coordinated with the client the position of the defence, counsel should pay special attention to the client, who is in custody, fee practice a lawyer shall take into consideration a number of factors; the caveats regarding the prohibition resumania of participants in the process; indicate their objections against the wrong actions of the investigator or body of inquiry, the lawyer is obliged to clothe in a legal form and contribute to the formation of a respectful attitude to the court as a branch of government; provided that an advocate shall be prohibited to violate professional ethics, and the need to build relationships with colleagues in the profession on standards of decency and respect to help Junior colleagues; to respect the dignity, prestige and business reputation of other lawyers to form a decent line of their own positions and behavior and have compelling personal point of view.

scholarly journals Linguodidactic potential of concepts in teaching foreign languages to students-interpreters

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-262
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Vasilenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
The World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Nature

The paper discusses possibilities and ways of studying concepts in teaching foreign languages to students-interpreters. The author notes that modern didactic research has interdisciplinary nature, analyzes the theory of the concept from the point of view of linguistics, cultural studies and psycholinguistics. The author also notes the fact of creation of linguo-conceptodidactics as a new scientific direction. The paper presents a linguodidactic understanding of the concept, analyzes its structure and semantic content. The author describes in detail the process of foreign language concepts acquisition and presents it as a sequence of several stages. The acquisition of foreign language concepts is associated with the development of concept competence. The paper notes that the acquisition of foreign language concepts should go in parallel with the acquisition of foreign language lexis. In addition, it is necessary to use authentic materials in teaching foreign languages that allows forming a conceptual picture of the world of native speakers. Acquisition of foreign language concepts is especially important for students-interpreters who study several foreign languages and are faced with the problem of translating foreign concepts and phenomena of foreign language reality. The paper presents how conceptuality can be realized in teaching foreign languages. The author gives a practical example of studying the English concept Travel, offers examples of exercises and tasks for mastering it, as well as mnemonic techniques for memorizing lexemes that represent the concept. In the paper is stressed, that the concepts should be included in the content of foreign language teaching to students-interpreters. This contributes to the development of correct ideas about foreign language reality, understanding the facts of the native and foreign language culture, i.e. cultural reflection development.

Digital or Information Divide

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Hulicki
Keyword(s):  
Developing Economies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Economic Stratification ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Concept Of Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Successful Collaboration

In different regions of the world, the growth in home broadband adoption and development of e-services depends on a number of factors which can decrease digital divide in size or can result in widened “gaps” between developed and developing economies as well as between rich and poor regions or social groups. These factors comprise both drivers of, and barriers to, development of broadband access and growth of e-services as well as human communication and digital interactions in terms of comprehension and relationship building (i.e., the successful collaboration in contemporary society). Using a human communication point of view, this chapter provides insight into a concept of information divide, specifies the distinction between digital and information divide, examines each of the factors that condition the mass-market broadband adoption, and considers the impact of techno economic stratification for the development of web-based e-services.

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