scholarly journals English spelling among the top priorities in pronunciation teaching: Polglish local versus global(ised) errors in the production and perception of words commonly mispronounced

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Nowacka

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire and recording-based study on production and recognition of a sample of 60 items from Sobkowiak’s (1996:294) ‘words commonly mispronounced’ by 143 first-year BA students majoring in English. 30 lexical items in each task represent 27 categories defined by Porzuczek (2015), each referring to one aspect of English phonotactics and/or spelling-phonology relations. Our aim is to provide evidence for the occurrence of local and globalised errors in Polglish speech. This experiment is intended to examine what types of errors, that is, seriously deformed words, whether avoidable, ‘either-or’ or unavoidable ones, as classified in Porzuczek (2015), are the most frequent in production and recognition of words. Our goal is to check what patterns concerning letter-to-sound relations, are not respected in the subjects’ production and recognition of an individual word and what rules should be explicitly discussed and practised in a phonetics course. The results of the study confirm the necessity for explicit instruction on the regularity rather than irregularity of English spelling in order to eradicate globalised and ‘either-or’ pronunciation errors in the speech of students. The avoidable globalised errors which have turned out to be the most numerous in a production task include such areas of English phonotactics as: the letters <-old> and <oll>, ‘mute consonant letters’, ‘isolated errors’ and two categories related to the reduction of unstressed syllables: ‘reduce the vowel in stress-adjacent syllables and in syllables following the stressed one to /ə/ or /ɪ/’ and ‘reduce <-ous>, <-age>, and <-ate> in nouns and adjectives.’ The hope is also expressed that once introducing spelling-to-sound relations becomes a routine procedure in pronunciation training, the strain on part of the students of memorizing a list of true local errors, phonetically challenging pronunciation exceptions, will be reduced to the absolute minimum.

Author(s):  
David Sansone ◽  
David Sansone ◽  
David Sansone

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Plutarch's Lives, which represent a valuable ancient source for the more interesting periods of Greek and Roman history. However, it is not as a historian, or even as a biographer in the modern sense of the word, that Plutarch has been so highly valued. Rather, those who regard Plutarch as among the greatest of ancient authors appreciate him principally as a moralist and as a purveyor of political wisdom. To understand what kind of biography Plutarch was writing (or thought he was writing), the chapter considers what the art of biography was like in Plutarch's lifetime. Plutarch is in large measure responsible for the importation of ethical concern into the biographical genre. The chapter then looks at the Lives of Aristeides and Cato. While Cato is wholly admirable for his ability to be satisfied with the absolute minimum, his virtue is somewhat tainted, as far as Plutarch is concerned, by an excessive interest in commercial enterprise and by an obsession with money. For this reason, Aristeides is more virtuous and more nearly divine.


Polar Record ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (175) ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Cooper ◽  
Nico L. Avenant ◽  
Peter W. Lafite

ABSTRACTEvidence for the disturbance of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) and other seabirds at sub-Antarctic islands by fixed-wing aircraft making airdrops is reviewed. Based on direct observations of panicking birds at king penguin colonies at Marion Island as Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft flew past, it is postulated that the incident at Macquarie Island in 1990 when many king penguins were found dead shortly after a flypast was most likely caused by panic induced by the aircraft's passage. Visits by fixed-wing aircraft to sub-Antarctic islands should be kept to a minimum and no airstrips should be built on them. Specific recommendations are given for fixed-wing aircraft visits to Marion Island, in order to reduce disturbance to king penguins and other seabirds to the absolute minimum. These recommendations should be adopted at all sub-Antarctic islands.


Author(s):  
M. S. Potapov ◽  
K. R. Nifontov ◽  
A. N. Belogurov ◽  
S. V. Fedotov

The authors argue the reindeer’s vascular morphology is not sufficiently investigated. They focus on the distal part of the thoracic and pelvic limbs, which the reindeer steps on the ground and hurts it often, as it leads to necrobacterial lesions in summer. In the postnatal period of the reindeer growth, the most intensive one in the length and diameter of the main arteries is observed in the first year, especially in the first month. During this period, the newborn deer gets into the new conditions of existence and the organs of movement become more and more functional. By the age of 3 - 3.5 years, the growth of the main arteries in length is almost over. The paper explores the features of blood supply of the thoracic limbs of a domestic reindeer, caused by the prominent growth of the second and fifth fingers. The absolute growth of arterial length in newborns and deers aged 0.5 months is 0.6 cm per day. In the following years of life, the length is reduced to 0.03 cm in the reindeers aged 3 y.o. The relative diameter of the arteries to the limb length in the postnatal period decreases from 4.4% in newborns to 3.3% in old deer. The irregularity of changes in the absolute and relative development of the thoracic limb arteries can be explained by different growth of blood vessels, bones, joints and limb muscles.


1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Goenka ◽  
J. F. Booker

The finite element formulation for regular cylindrical bearings is extended to include irregular (noncylindrical) bearing surfaces. The optimum bearing shape is sought for a specific duty cycle with a constant load and sinusoidal angular displacement. The optimization is done with a view to maximizing the minimum film thickness. For the purpose of optimization a one-dimensional cylindrical bearing is considered. The optimum among all elliptical shapes is found to combine a specifically elliptical sleeve and a perfectly circular journal. For this optimum noncylindrical bearing the absolute minimum film thickness is about a factor of 36 higher than that for the corresponding regular bearing. The absolute maximum pressure for the optimum bearing is about a factor of 5 lower than that for the regular bearing.


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