scholarly journals The Trini Sing-Song: Sociophonetic variation in Trinidadian English prosody and differences to other varieties

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092199840
Author(s):  
Philipp Meer ◽  
Robert Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
General Level ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Pitch Level ◽  
Local Differentiation ◽  
Sociophonetic Variation ◽  
High Degree

The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as ‘sing-song’ prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.

The portrayal of Social Evils in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Pooja Shankar ◽  
Dr. Poonam Rani
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Kamala Markandaya ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Urban People

Life is very precious for everyone. Life needs proper care and nurture. Human life depends on society. Only in a good society we can find a good life.  Life is simple, very little is needed to make it happy. But social evils insist on making it complicated. Social evils in society have become a serious concern in the present day world. It is gradually affecting roots of our culture and its blocking its rapid growth on the global chart. The aim of writing this research paper is to highlight Social Evils in rural and urban societies. This research paper will explore the meaning, reason, effect of social evils in the light of the analysis of two novels of Kamala Markandaya, an Indian English writer. The research paper entitled ‘The portrayal of Social Evils in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice.’ In this paper, the effort is made to study Kamala Markandaya’s Social Evils in Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice. We will find poverty, hunger, starvation, beggary, prostitution, crime, unemployment and many more social evils in both novels. Kamala Markandaya’s A Handful of Rice and Nectar in a Sieve nothing but an account of the suffering of the rural and urban people, and how the cruelty of social evil resulting in suffering, death and misfortune is more explicit in both novels. Poverty is the everyday reality of the characters in the both novels.  Poverty is not an abstract concept that one can really think about, it’s like wolf at the door that must constantly be staved off. Both novels are a jolt to awaken the society against social evils.  

Articulation and Stress/Juncture Production Under Oral Anesthetization and Masking

1971 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia A. Gammon ◽  
Philip J. Smith ◽  
Raymond G. Daniloff ◽  
Chin W. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Feedback Control ◽  
Oral Cavity ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Local Anesthesia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Combined Stress ◽  
Noise Masking ◽  
High Degree

Eight subjects, half of them naive and the other half aware of the purpose of the experiment, spoke 30 pairs of sentences involving the production of intricate stress/juncture patterns along with a passage containing all major consonant phonemes in English in various intraword positions. All subjects spoke all materials under: (1) normal conditions, (2) 110 dB re: 0.0002 ubar white noise masking, (3) extensive local anesthesia of the oral cavity, and (4) masking and anesthesia combined. Stress and juncture patterns were correctly produced despite all feedback disruption, and there was no difference between naive and aware subjects. Noise masking produced a decline in speech quality and a disruption of normal rhythm, both of which were even more seriously affected by anesthesia and anesthesia plus masking. There were no significant vowel misarticulations under any condition, but there was nearly a 20% rate of consonant misartiqulation under anesthesia and anesthesia and noise. Mis-articulation was most severe for fricatives and affricates in the labial and alveolar regions, presumably because these productions demand a high degree of precision of articulate shape and location and hence, intact feedback. Results are discussed in terms of feedback-control mechanisms for speech production.

Tuning Preferences in Recorded Orchestral Music

1976 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Geringer
Keyword(s):  
Speed Control ◽  
Tape Recorder ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Music Students ◽  
Mean Deviation ◽  
Variable Speed ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Orchestral Works ◽  
Pitch Level ◽  
The Mean

The purpose of this study was to investigate tuning preferences regarding recorded orchestral music. Specifically, the study was designed to test subjects' tuning preferences while investigating both the direction and magnitude of mistuning. Sixty randomly selected undergraduate and graduate music students modulated a variable speed tape recorder to preferred pitch levels. Stimuli were recorded excerpts of ten orchestral works, each representative of a different key. Subjects listened to the thirty-second excerpts and turned a linear continuous-speed control knob with a pitch range of approximately an augmented fourth. Data consisted of cent deviation scores relative to A = 440 Hz. Results indicated a marked propensity to tune these excerpts sharper than their recorded pitch level. Subjects' responses indicated the mean cent deviation for sharp tunings to be 149.29 cents (approximately 11/2 semi-tones); when tuning flat, the mean deviation was 88.43 cents.

scholarly journals The Appraisal of Commitment in Organizational Environments- Differentiating Organizational Commitment from Employee Satisfaction

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Radu Florea
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Change Management ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
General Level ◽  
Organizational Environments ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
High Degree

In order to acquire (and maintain) a high degree of commitment of a company’s staff certain conditions must be met both general – that are valid for most organizations focused on profit - and specific - depending on the particularities of each company. Commitment is very relevant in calibrating the business strategy of companies in order to develop employees but also as a central objective for change management. At a general level, building commitment is conditioned on communication with employees on effective leadership, a high degree of satisfaction and a low degree of resistance to change. Change management theorists suggest that any kind of change - both planned and critical incident related- will have negative implications on organizational commitment. Becker considers communication as one of the main factors that affect commitment, important in the growth and continuation. Communication also has implications for organizational culture calibration, transmission of messages via multiple channels and is affected by several factors including commitment (Keyton, 2010). The main difference between commitment and satisfaction is strongly related to the emotional and affective study dimensions of Meyer and Allen’s model on commitment (Keyton, 2010); although satisfaction can generate certain reactions from employees, it has a wide range of meanings from which results can be reported. Commitment may have different affective values because of the implications that it generates and because of their complexity. Accuracy is the most important feature as it helps in measuring commitment and maintaining a high degree of objectivity in data interpretation. Measuring attitudes in social sciences is a subject often problematic because the instruments used do not meet the criteria of validity - do not measure what needs to be measured. Therefore, the measurements may be inaccurate without the use of an appropriate methodology for identifying the exact coefficients of the survey indicators.

Matrimonial adverts in Indian English

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Polzenhagen ◽  
Sandra Frey
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
General Level ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Matrimonial Advertisements ◽  
Entire Text

Abstract Our paper readdresses the Kachruvian notion of ‘contextualisation’ from a cultural-linguistic/cognitive-sociolinguistic perspective. We provide an exemplary analysis along these lines, using data from a corpus of Indian-English matrimonial advertisements as our empirical basis. Taking the dimensions of contextualisation distinguished in Kachru’s original framework as a matrix, we show that instances of nativisation detected in the data can be fruitfully spelled out in terms of their underlying cultural conceptualisations and are often interrelated against this background. Furthermore, we suggest that the notion of contextualisation can be profitably applied to entire text types. At a general level, we argue that an analysis that addresses cultural cognition at group level can overcome limitations of descriptive approaches in the study of L2-varieties and provide common ground for a joint endeavour of various research paradigms and disciplines.

Pitch Effects on Vowel Roughness and Spectral Noise for Subjects in Four Musical Voice Classifications

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Newman ◽  
Floyd W. Emanuel
Keyword(s):  
Noise Level ◽  
Subject Group ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Vocal Pitch ◽  
Pitch Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Repeated Test

This study was designed to investigate the effects of vocal f o on vowel spectral noise level (SNL) and perceived vowel roughness for subjects in high- and low-pitch voice categories. The subjects were 40 adult singers (10 each sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses). Each produced the vowel /a/ in isolation at a comfortable speaking pitch, and at each of seven assigned pitches spaced at whole-tone intervals over a musical octave within his or her singing pitch range. The eight /a/ productions were repeated by each subject on a second test day. The SNL differences between repeated test samples (different days) were not statistically significant for any subject group. For the vowel samples produced at a comfortable pitch, a relatively large SNL was associated with samples phonated by the subjects of each sex who manifested the relatively low singing pitch range. Regarding the vowel samples produced at the assigned-pitch levels, it was found that both vowel SNL and perceived vowel roughness decreased as test-pitch level was raised over a range of one octave. The relationship between vocal pitch and either vowel roughness or SNL approached linearity for each of the four subject groups.

scholarly journals ¡Todo me gustó! Los niños y sus percepciones de una actividad educativa en un museo

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1 Mar-Jun) ◽  
pp. 167-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Fernanda Melgar
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
Urban Settings ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
High Degree

En este trabajo interesan los niños como público específico de los museos. En el artículo se presenta un estudio realizado en Argentina que tiene por objetivo conocer y analizar las percepciones y experiencias de niños en museos. Participaron 133 niños y niñas ubicados en la franja etaria de los 8 a los 13 años de escuelas de gestión pública y privada, rurales y urbanas. Para la recolección de datos se empleó un cuestionario con ítems que requerían respuestas abiertas y cerradas. Para el análisis de los datos se utilizó un enfoque mixto. Los resultados se presentan en tres categorías: percepciones sobre los museos, experiencias previas y valoraciones de una actividad particular. En general los niños valoraron positivamente sus experiencias en el museo, se observó un alto grado de satisfacción principalmente en sus afirmaciones referidas a aquellos aspectos que les gustaron. Los resultados del trabajo plantean numerosos desafíos para los museos y las escuelas en relación a la posibilidad de diseñar propuestas educativas contextualizadas a las características de los niños. In this paper we look at children as a specific public of museums. We present a study undertaken in Argentina. The aim of the research was to know and analyse the perceptions and experiences of children in museums. The study surveyed 133 children from different backgrounds (state and private schools and rural and urban settings) aged 8-13. For data collection, a questionnaire was used with open and closed response items. A mixed approach was used. The outcomes are presented in three categories: perceptions about museums, previous experiences and assessments of a particular activity. The children valued positively their experiences in the museum, a high degree of satisfactionwas observed mainly in their affirmations referring to those aspects that they liked. The outcomes of the study raise many challenges for museums and schools in relation to the possibility of designing educational proposals which align with the characteristics of children.

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