Music-Language Correlations and the “Scotch Snap”

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Temperley ◽  
David Temperley
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rhythmic Pattern ◽  
British English ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Speech Corpora ◽  
Italian Songs ◽  
Musical Rhythms

in this study we examine a rhythmic pattern known as the Scotch Snap (SS): a sixteenth-note on the beat followed by a dotted eighth-note. A musical corpus analysis shows that the SS is common in both Scottish and English songs, but virtually nonexistent in German and Italian songs. We explore possible linguistic correlates for this phenomenon. Our reasoning is that languages in which stressed syllables are often short might tend to favor the SS pattern. The traditional distinction between long and short vowels correlates partly with the SS pattern across languages, but not completely. (German allows short stressed vowels, but the SS pattern is not common in German music.) We then examine the duration of stressed syllables in four modern speech corpora: one British English, one German, and two Italian. British English shows a much higher proportion of very short stressed syllables (less than 100 ms) than the other two languages. Four vowels account for a large proportion of very short stressed syllables in British English, and also constitute a large proportion of SS tokens in our English musical corpus. This is the first study known to us that establishes a correlation between speech rhythms in languages and musical rhythms in the songs of those languages.

scholarly journals Stressed Vowel Duration and Phonemic Length Contrast

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Ciszewski
Keyword(s):  
Execution Time ◽  
The Other ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
British English ◽  
Jaw Movement ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Syllable Duration ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Phonological Length ◽  
High Degree

It has been generally accepted that greater vowel/syllable duration is a reliable correlate of stress and that absolute durational differences between vowels underlie phonemic length contrasts. In this paper we shall demonstrate that duration is not an independent stress correlate, but rather it is derivative of another stress correlate, namely pitch. Phonemic contrast, on the other hand, is qualitative rather than quantitative. These findings are based on the results of an experiment in which four speakers of SBrE read 162 mono-, di- and trisyllabic target items (made of CV sequences) both in isolation and in carrier phrases. In the stressed syllables all Southern British English vowels and diphthongs were represented and each vowel was placed in 3 consonantal contexts: (a) followed by a voiced obstruent, (b) voiceless obstruent and (c) a sonorant. Then, all vowels (both stressed and unstressed) were extracted from target items and measured with PRAAT. The results indicate that stressed vowels may be longer than unstressed ones. Their durational superiority, however, is not stress-related, but follows mainly from vowelintrinsic durational characteristics and, to some extent, from the prosodic context (i.e. the number of following unstressed vowels) in which it is placed. In CV1CV2 disyllables, when V1 is phonemically short, the following word-final unstressed vowel is almost always longer. It is only when V1 is a phonemically long vowel that V2 may be shorter. As far as diphthongal V1 is concerned, the durational V1~V2 relation is variable. Interestingly, the V1~V3 relation in trisyllables follows the same durational pattern. In both types of items the rare cases when a phonemically short V1 is indeed longer than the word-final vowel involve a stressed vowel which is open, e.g. [æ,o], and whose minimal execution time is longer due to a more extensive jaw movement. These observations imply that both in acoustic and perceptual terms the realisation of word stress is not based on the durational superiority of stressed vowels over unstressed ones. When it is, it is only an epiphenomenon of intrinsic duration of the stressed vowel and extra shortness of nonfinal unstressed vowel. As far as phonemic length contrast is concerned, we observe a high degree of durational overlap between phonemically long and short vowels in monosyllabic CVC words (which is enforced by a greater pitch excursion), whereas in polysyllables the differences seem to be perceptually non-salient (>40 ms, cf. Lehiste 1970). This suggests that the differences in vowel duration are not significant enough to underlie phonological length contrasts.

Middle constructions in Romanian

2018 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
pp. 1154-1176
Author(s):  
Alice Bodoc ◽  
Mihaela Gheorghe
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Implicit Argument ◽  
Adverbial Modification ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Middle Constructions ◽  
Heterogeneous Class

Abstract The present paper aims to present an inventory of Romanian middle contructions (se‑verbal constructions), and to extend the analysis to other structures (with or without se) that were not previously investigated, but exhibit the same characteristics, and seem to allow middle reading (adjunct middles). Since Jespersen (1927), middles were attested cross-linguistically, and the focus on middles is justified if we consider the fact that this is an interesting testing ground for theories of syntax, semantics and their interaction (Fagan 1992). Starting from Grahek’s definition (2008, 44), in this paper, middles are a heterogeneous class of constructions that share formal properties of both active and passive structures: on the one hand, they have active verb forms, but, on the other hand, like passives, they have understood subjects and normally display promoted objects. The corpus analysis will focus on the particular contexts in which the middle reading is triggered: i) the adverbial modification; ii) the modal/procedural interpretation of the event; iii) the responsibility of the subject; iv) the arbitrary interpretation of the implicit argument which follows from the generic interpretation (Steinbach 2002).

Does the presence of formulaic language help or hinder second language listeners’ lower-level processing?

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Yeldham
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Text Difficulty ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
The One

This study examined the influence of formulaic language on second language (L2) listeners’ lower-level processing, in terms of their ability to accurately identify the words in texts. On the one hand, there were reasons for expecting the presence of the formulas to advantage the learners, because the learners would process these formulaic words more holistically than the surrounding non-formulaic words. On the other hand, though, because formulas are commonly uttered in more reduced fashion than their surrounding non-formulaic words – and L2 learners commonly face challenges understanding reduced speech – it was possible that the formulas would negatively impact the learners’ processing. The participants listened to four texts, which were paused intermittently for them to transcribe the final stretch of words they had heard prior to each pause. The researcher had previously categorized these words as being part of formulas or non-formulas through corpus analysis. By comparing the listeners’ identification of the formulaic and the non-formulaic language, the study found that formulaic language facilitated their lower-level listening. This degree of advantage, however, varied across text difficulty level and listener proficiency level. Based on the findings, implications for L2 listening instruction are discussed.

The structure of metrical patterns in tunes and in literary verse. Evidence from discrepancies between musical and linguistic rhythm in Italian songs

Probus ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Proto ◽  
François Dell
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Musical Rhythm ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Measured Time ◽  
Italian Songs ◽  
The One

Abstract A first exploration of acceptable and unacceptable discrepancies between linguistic and musical rhythm in Italian songs has uncovered two kinds of discrepancies which do not have counterparts in literary verse: durational discrepancies between adjacent syllables and stress-beat misalignments that involve nonadjacent syllables. The latter type is explored in greater detail than the former. Our survey suggests that analogous misalignments are in principle impossible in literary verse composed in accentual or accentual-syllabic meters, because, on the one hand, the abstract metrical templates that characterize such meters are not anchored in measured time, and, on the other hand, they do not recognize more than two degrees of metrical prominence.

Opnieuw Leren Horen

2003 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
Petra Jongmans
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Inner Ear ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
The Other ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
The One

A CI (Cochlear Implant) is a medical device that electrically stimulates the hearing nerve in the cochlea (inner ear). Combined with actively training the hearing, it allows Cl-patients to hear again. In my research, I approached the model underlying the training programme linguistically, to see which theories on speech perception could also apply to the speech perception of CI-patients. Specifically, I examined their speech perception on phoneme level using VC-word lists. With the goal of contributing to an effective hearing training, I have tried to answer the following questions: - which phonemes are particularly difficult for patients? - what kind of confusions are made between phonemes? Mainly based on the literature on hard-of-hearing and normally hearing people, some hypotheses and a research question were formulated. Data-analysis was used to further investigate these hypotheses. A number of significant differences in difficulty were found between different phoneme categories, as well as patterns in the confusion of phonemes. It was found, for example, that long vowels are easier to perceive than short vowels and that for consonants a division can be made between plosives and fricatives on the one hand and nasals and approximants on the other, the latter group causing more problems. The research results are now being used for training CI-patients in Leiden.

scholarly journals Comments on the spelling of ‘archaeopyle’, the germination aperture in dinoflagellate cysts

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Feist-Burkhardt
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dinoflagellate Cysts ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
British English ◽  
Correct Spelling ◽  
Editorial Work ◽  
English Spelling

Abstract. INTRODUCTIONDuring editorial work for the Journal of Micropalaeontology, a discussion arose between authors, reviewers and editors on the correct spelling of a technical term in palynology: ‘archeopyle’ or ‘archaeopyle’, the germination aperture in dinoflagellate cysts. One opinion was that there is only one correct spelling, namely ‘archeopyle’, with a single ‘e’ in the middle of the word, irrespective of the use of British English or American English. The other opinion was that spelling of the word should follow the language used in the rest of the text – allowing for ‘archeopyle’ with ‘e’ in American English and ‘archaeopyle’ with ‘ae’ in British English. This Notebook illustrates the reasons for this controversy and argues for the alternative spellings of the word according to American or British English spelling used.THE CAUSE OF THE ‘PROBLEM’ AND LINE OF ARGUMENTThe term ‘archeopyle’ was introduced in 1961 by William R. Evitt in one of his seminal papers on the morphology of fossil dinoflagellates, in which he recognized that many organic microfossils, then called ‘hystrichospheres’, showed a germination opening and were actually of dinoflagellate affinity. As derivation of the word he gave the following information: ‘... the presence of this opening (pyle – gate, orifice) in fossil (archeo – ancient) dinoflagellates ...’ (Evitt, 1961, p. 389). Since then, the term has become accepted and used widely by palaeontologists and biologists alike. Definitions and descriptions of the word itself and derivative terms can be looked up in the latest glossary of terminology by Williams et al. (2000). . . .

Towards a Methodology for Exploiting Specialized Target Language Corpora as Translation Resources

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Bowker
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
Analysis Tools

Specialized target language (TL) corpora constitute an extremely valuable resource for translators, and although no specialized tools have been developed for extracting translation data from such corpora, this paper argues that translators would be remiss not to consult such resources. We describe the advantages of using specialized TL corpora and outline a number of techniques that translators can use in order to extract translation data from such corpora with the aid of generic corpus analysis tools. These advantages and techniques are demonstrated with reference to two translations, one of which was done using only conventional resources and the other with the help of a corpus.

A Hypothesis on the Origin of Old Chinese Pharyngealization (上古漢語咽化聲母來源的一個假設)

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Laurent Sagart (沙加爾) ◽  
William H. Baxter (白一平)
Keyword(s):  
Type A ◽  
Statistical Correlation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Type B ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Surface Constraint ◽  
Glottal Stop ◽  
The One

It is proposed that oc pharyngealized onset consonants—that is, ‘type-A’ onset consonants—arose out of Proto-Sino-Tibetan plain consonants followed by geminate vowels separated by a pharyngeal fricative. When the first copy of the geminate vowel fell, the initial consonants formed clusters with the pharyngeal fricative, evolving into the oc pharyngealized consonants we reconstruct. In the Kuki-Chin branch of Tibeto-Burman, the pharyngeal fricative fell, and long vowels resulted. This proposal supposes a statistical correlation between Kuki-Chin long vowels and oc type-A words on the one hand, and between Kuki-Chin short vowels and oc type-B words on the other, as originally proposed by S. Starostin. A significant statistic bearing on forty-three probable Chinese-Kuki-Chin cognates supports this correlation. Thus reconstructed, a precursor language of Proto-Sino-Tibetan was aligned with Proto-Austronesian and Proto-Austroasiatic in exhibiting a surface constraint against monomoraic free words: by that constraint, the vowel of an underlying monosyllable was realized as a geminate with an intervening parasitic consonant such as a glottal stop or a pharyngeal fricative, while the vowels of a disyllable remained nongeminate. After reduction of disyllables to monosyllables, this process resulted in a pharyngealized vs. nonpharyngealized consonant distinction in oc. 論文提出對上古漢語咽化聲母（即“A類聲母”）來源的一個假設，認為咽化聲母來源於原始漢藏語的無標記輔音，並且此無標記輔音後跟隨著由咽部擦音[ʕ]分割的雙胞元音（geminate vowels）。在雙胞元音的前半部分脫落後，輔音聲母跟咽部擦音形成了複輔音。新形成的複輔音最終演變為上古漢語的咽化聲母。而在藏緬語庫基-欽（Kuki-Chin）語支中，則是咽化擦音脫落，使雙胞元音變為長元音。本文解釋了漢語與庫基-欽語中一個統計學的顯著相關性：一方面，庫基-欽語含長元音的詞與上古漢語含A類聲母的詞呈顯著相關；另一方面，庫基-欽語含短元音的詞與上古漢語含B類聲母的詞呈顯著相關，正如斯塔羅金（S. Starostin）所說。據此構擬，我們提出原始漢藏語、原始南島語與原始南亞語中的一個共同限制（constraint）：禁止在語流中出現單音拍（monomoraic）詞。在這一限制的作用下，單音節詞的單元音發生了雙胞化（germination），雙胞元音中間插入了喉塞音或咽部擦音之類的次聲輔音。而同時，雙音節詞的元音無變化。漢語經過雙音節詞的單音節化，就形成了無標記輔音與咽化輔音的音位對立。(This article is in English.)

scholarly journals The social life of emotive interjections in spoken British English

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-193
Author(s):  
Ulrike Stange
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Young Female ◽  
The Other ◽  
British English ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
The Social ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
The Individual

This paper explores the discursive use of selected emotive interjections (Ow!, Ouch!; Ugh!, Yuck!; Whoops!, Whoopsadaisy!) in spoken British English. The data (drawn from the Spoken BNC2014) are coded for age, gender, social grade and type of dyad to identify potential factors governing the discursive use of these interjections. Based on 140 relevant tokens, the results suggest that: 1) The individual interjections vary significantly regarding how frequently they are found in discursive uses (p<0.001***). 2) Whoopsadaisy! is not attested in discursive uses. 3) Young female speakers behave differently from the other speaker groups in that they use emotive interjections discursively significantly more frequently (p=0.006***). 4) Female speakers in general use a wider range of interjections discursively: Ow! and Whoops! in discursive uses were absent from male speech. 5) Socio-economic status is irrelevant, as is 6) type of speaker dyad. Thus, the social life of emotive interjections is mainly influenced by speaker gender, and if the speakers are female, also by their age.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of the Use of Pause Fillers Among British English Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 09-16
Author(s):  
Dr. Hamad Abdullah H Aldawsari
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus

Many people use pause fillers such as um, erm, and er in order to signal to the other person that they have not finished speaking yet. This paper aims to investigate pause fillers and their relationship with the two sociolinguistic variables of age and gender. The data-driven analysis is based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The results show that the sociolinguistic variables of age and gender influence the use of pause fillers among British English speakers, which is proposed to be linked to the advancement of age and an improved fluency among female speakers.

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