Intonation and Intelligibility of Time-Compressed Speech. Supplementary Report: English vs. French

1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Wingfield ◽  
J. Buttet ◽  
A. W. Sandoval
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Compressed Speech ◽  
French And English ◽  
Supplementary Report

Comparative data are reported for the intelligibility of English and of French time-compressed speech when heard spoken either in normal intonation or in intonation patterns conflicting with underlying syntactic structure. Within an overall decrement in intelligibility with increasing compression, both French and English show similar superiority functions for sentences heard in normal intonation. Results suggest a role of prosodic features in perceptual processing of French comparable to that previously reported for English.

Prosodic Features and the Intelligibility of Accelerated Speech

1984 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Wingfield ◽  
Linda Lombardi ◽  
Scott Sokol
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Compressed Speech ◽  
Normal Speech

An experiment is reported in which subjects heard paragraph-length samples of time-compressed speech which were interrupted for intermediate reports either on a simple periodic basis or at points corresponding to sentence and major clause boundaries. The passages were spoken in a normal prosodic pattern, in list intonation, or were electronically processed to produce otherwise normal speech specifically deprived of pitch variation. Decrease in intelligibility scores with increasing speech rate was accompanied by a significant effect of place of interruption for report and of the prosodic pattern in which the passages were heard. Interactions among these variables were interpreted to suggest ways in which prosody ordinarily facilitates the determination of syntactic structure in connected speech.

THEMATIC ROLE ASSIGNMENT IN ENGLISH SENTENCES: A QUICK GLANCE AT AN INTERFACE BETWEEN SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eni Maharsi
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Role Assignment

This paper examines the role of elements of English sentences by employing the approach ofthematic role assignment. The emphasis is on how the positioning of words and phrases insyntactic structure helps determine the roles that the referents of NPs play in the situationdescribed by the sentences. The results reveal that the position of an NP’s determines itsthematic role and. There is a relevance between deep syntactic structure and the assignmentof thematic roles for every NP in the sentence.

The role of syllables in perceptual processing

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Troyer Spoehr ◽  
Edward E Smith
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Processing

scholarly journals A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on metaphor comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: Do task properties matter?

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1421-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Kalandadze ◽  
Valentina Bambini ◽  
Kari-Anne B. Næss
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Response Format ◽  
Metaphor Comprehension ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience difficulty in comprehending metaphors compared to individuals with typical development (TD). However, there is a large variation in the results across studies, possibly related to the properties of the metaphor tasks. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis (a) explored the properties of the metaphor tasks used in ASD research, and (b) investigated the group difference between individuals with ASD and TD on metaphor comprehension, as well as the relationship between the task properties and any between-study variation. A systematic search was undertaken in seven relevant databases. Fourteen studies fulfilled our predetermined inclusion criteria. Across tasks, we detected four types of response format and a great variety of metaphors in terms of familiarity, syntactic structure, and linguistic context. Individuals with TD outperformed individuals with ASD on metaphor comprehension (Hedges’ g = −0.63). Verbal explanation response format was utilized in the study showing the largest effect size in the group comparison. However, due to the sparse experimental manipulations, the role of task properties could not be established. Future studies should consider and report task properties to determine their role in metaphor comprehension, and to inform experimental paradigms as well as educational assessment.

The role of case in A-bar extraction asymmetries

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Coon ◽  
Pedro Mateo Pedro ◽  
Omer Preminger
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Data ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Special Construction ◽  
Agent Focus ◽  
Family Based ◽  
Focus Questions

Many morphologically ergative languages display asymmetries in the extraction of core arguments: while absolutive arguments (transitive objects and intransitive subjects) extract freely, ergative arguments (transitive subjects) cannot. This falls under the label “syntactic ergativity” (see, e.g. Dixon 1972, 1994; Manning 1996; Polinsky to appear(b)). These extraction asymmetries are found in many languages of the Mayan family, where in order to extract transitive subjects (for focus, questions, or relativization), a special construction known as the “Agent Focus” (AF) must be used. These AF constructions have been described as syntactically and semantically transitive because they contain two non-oblique DP arguments, but morphologically intransitive because the verb appears with only a single agreement marker and takes an intransitive status suffix (Aissen 1999; Stiebels 2006). In this paper we offer a proposal for (i) why some morphologically ergative languages exhibit extraction asymmetries, while others do not; and (ii) how the AF construction in Q’anjob’al circumvents this problem. We adopt recent accounts which argue that ergative languages vary in the locus of absolutive case assignment (Aldridge 2004, 2008a; Legate 2002, 2008), and propose that this variation is present within the Mayan family. Based primarily on comparative data from Q’anjob’al and Chol, we argue that the inability to extract ergative arguments does not reflect a problem with properties of the ergative subject itself, but rather reflects locality properties of absolutive case assignment in the clause. We show how the AF morpheme -on circumvents this problem in Q’anjob’al by assigning case to internal arguments.

Early emergence of syntactic awareness and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children’s judgments

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
French And English ◽  
Better Than

Bilingual children sometimes perform better than same-aged monolingual children on metalinguistic awareness tasks, such as a grammaticality judgment. Some of these differences can be attributed to bilinguals having to learn to control attention to language choice. This study tested the hypothesis that bilingual children, as young as preschool age, would score overall higher than monolingual children on a grammaticality judgment test. French–English bilingual preschoolers judged the acceptability of three constructions in French and English (i.e. adjective–noun ordering, obligatoriness of a determiner, and object pronoun placement). Their performance was compared with that of a group of age-matched English monolinguals. The results showed that the bilingual children scored higher than the monolingual children. These results demonstrate that syntactic awareness develops quite early for bilinguals. Additionally, the bilingual children demonstrated cross-linguistic influence of core syntactic structure in French, as their judgments were affected by English acceptability.

scholarly journals How much do visual cues help listeners in perceiving accented speech?

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
YI ZHENG ◽  
ARTHUR G. SAMUEL
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Apparent Distance ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Compressed Speech ◽  
Degraded Speech

AbstractIt has been documented that lipreading facilitates the understanding of difficult speech, such as noisy speech and time-compressed speech. However, relatively little work has addressed the role of visual information in perceiving accented speech, another type of difficult speech. In this study, we specifically focus on accented word recognition. One hundred forty-two native English speakers made lexical decision judgments on English words or nonwords produced by speakers with Mandarin Chinese accents. The stimuli were presented as either as videos that were of a relatively far speaker or as videos in which we zoomed in on the speaker’s head. Consistent with studies of degraded speech, listeners were more accurate at recognizing accented words when they saw lip movements from the closer apparent distance. The effect of apparent distance tended to be larger under nonoptimal conditions: when stimuli were nonwords than words, and when stimuli were produced by a speaker who had a relatively strong accent. However, we did not find any influence of listeners’ prior experience with Chinese accented speech, suggesting that cross-talker generalization is limited. The current study provides practical suggestions for effective communication between native and nonnative speakers: visual information is useful, and it is more useful in some circumstances than others.

Attention and Structural Choice in Sentence Production

2018 ◽  
pp. 526-546
Author(s):  
Andriy Myachykov ◽  
Mikhail Pokhoday ◽  
Russell Tomlin
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Regular Mapping ◽  
Structural Choice ◽  
Mapping Mechanism ◽  
Production Mechanisms

This chapter offers a review of experimental evidence about the role of the speaker’s attention in the choice of syntactic structure and the corresponding word order during sentence production. Here, we describe how the speaker’s syntactic choices reflect the regular mapping mechanism that reflects the features of the described event in the produced sentence. One of the most important event parameters that the speaker considers is the changing salience status of the event’s referents. This chapter summarizes current theoretical debate about the interplay between attention and sentence production mechanisms. Finally, it reviews the corresponding experimental evidence from languages with both restricted and flexible word orders.

scholarly journals VALENCE OF PREDICATES IN THE ACTIVE-PASSIVE TRANSFORMATION IN GERMAN AND UKRAINIAN

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Tsymbalista L.R.
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Method ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
Continuous Sampling ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Decisive Effect ◽  
Modern Fiction ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right

Валентність предиката має вирішальний вплив на структуру речення. Хоча активний і пасивний варіанти речення опису-ють одну й ту ж ситуацію, предикат проходить крізь трансформацію, яка тісно пов’язана з явищем валентності. У цій статті проаналізовано валентність предиката та її вплив на цю трансформацію у німецькій та українській мовах на прикладах із сучасної літератури.Мета. Метою статті є порівняння трансформації «актив – пасив» у німецькій та українській мовах та опис ролі валентності у цьому процесі.Методи. Для проведення дослідження було зібрано методом суцільної вибірки приклади пасивних конструкцій із сучас-них художніх текстів німецькою та українською мовами, які опісля було оброблено та проаналізовано з використанням типо-логічного, зіставного, описового методів, а також методу моделювання.Валентність предиката проявляється у його здатності формувати зв’язки з іншими елементами в реченні та дає змогу передбачити додаткові позиції у синтаксичній структурі речення, які можуть бути заповнені обов’язковими чи факультатив-ними компонентами. Для предиката властиві два типи валентності, які залежать від позиції поширювачів у реченні. Якщо лівобічну позицію переважно пов’язують із суб’єктом, то правобічна зазвичай стосується актантів з об’єктним, адресатним, локативним чи інструментальним значеннями.Результати. Зважаючи на те, що одна й та ж функція пасивних конструкцій у німецькій та українській мовах реалізується різними формами, валентні зміни у кожній з конструкцій мають свої особливості. Спільною рисою цих перетворень виступає зменшення облігаторних актантів на одну одиницю, яка може бути заповнена факультативно у разі комунікативної потреби у інформації про виконавця дії.Висновки. Можна зробити висновок, що валентність предиката є багатогранним феноменом, що підлягає впливу не лише формально-граматичних, а й семантико-синтаксичних чинників, а також мовленнєвої ситуації загалом. Відповідно, змін у валентності предикатів протягом трансформації з активу у пасив не можна уникнути. The valence of the predicate has a decisive effect on the structure of the sentence. Although the active and passive variant of the sentence describes the same situation, the predicate goes through a transformation that also has to do with valence. This article analyzes the valency of the predicate and its influence on such transformation in German and Ukrainian based on the examples from modern literature.Purpose. The purpose of the article is to compare the active-passive transformation in German and Ukrainian and to describe the role of valence in this process.Methods. For the research, we collected the examples of passive constructions from modern fiction in German and Ukrainian using the continuous sampling method, which were then processed and analyzed using typological, comparative, descriptive methods as well as the modelling method.The valence of the predicate verb shows in its ability to connect with other sentence elements and enables the prediction of the additional positions in the syntactic structure of the sentence, which can be supplemented by mandatory or optional components. The predicate is characterized by two types of valence, which depend on the position of the fillers in the sentence: the left-hand position is mainly connected the subject of the utterance, and the right-hand position has to do with actants which define object, addressee, location or have instrumental meaning.Results. Due to the fact that the same function of passive constructions in German and Ukrainian is realized in different forms, the valence changes in each of the constructions have their own features. A common feature of these transformations is the reduction of obligatory actants by one unit, which can be filled in optionally in case of communicative need for information about the performer of the action.Conclusions. We reach the conclusion that the valence of the predicate is a multilevel phenomenon that is influenced not only by formal grammatical but also by semantic and syntactic factors as well as the language situation in general. Accordingly, changes in the valence of predicates during the active-passive transformation are inevitable.

On the Syntactic Role of Word Order and of Prosodic Features

WORD ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hansjakob Seiler
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Prosodic Features
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