Speech Rates of Australian English-speaking Children and Adults

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Block ◽  
Deanne Killen
Keyword(s):  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English

Snapshots of tellings in interactions between adults and children aged two, three and three and a half in an Australian context

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Filipi
Keyword(s):  
Social Activity ◽  
Second Child ◽  
Object A ◽  
Birthday Party ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English

This paper examines how and by whom tellings with two young children are triggered at ages 23, 36 and 42 months. The data for the investigation is derived from a larger Australian English corpus of over 50 hours of interactions in the home, although one of the children is a bilingual Italian/ English-speaking child. The data is derived from two parent/child dyads, and in the case of the child aged 42 months, a triadic interaction between a mother, her own child and a second child. Using the micro-analytic methods of conversation analysis, the study analyses five samples of tellings. The first two describe how a child, Cassandra, aged 23 months, is invited to recount events of her day by her parents. The trigger for these tellings is the social activity of sharing everyday routine events. The next two samples focus on Rosie at 36 months who is also invited to share a telling by her parent about a birthday party celebration and one about a neighbourhood cat, Claude. The first telling is triggered by an object, a balloon from a birthday party from the day before, while the second is triggered by play involving the character of a cat, initially derived from a favourite story, Hairy Maclary. In the final sample, Cassandra, aged 42 months, initiates a telling about an experience at her grandmother’s which is trigged by a picture in a book. The analyses in each case reveal the interactional issues that arise in the action of telling and how these are dealt with by all participants. By focusing on the three ages, key features in the children’s participation in storytelling are uncovered.

Acoustic cues to coda stop voicing contrasts in Australian English-speaking children

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Julien MILLASSEAU ◽  
Ivan YUEN ◽  
Laurence BRUGGEMAN ◽  
Katherine DEMUTH
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Word Onset ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Phonological Contrasts

Abstract While voicing contrasts in word-onset position are acquired relatively early, much less is known about how and when they are acquired in word-coda position, where accurate production of these contrasts is also critical for distinguishing words (e.g., do g vs. do ck ). This study examined how the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts are realized in the speech of 4-year-old Australian English-speaking children. The results showed that children used similar acoustic cues to those of adults, including longer vowel duration and more frequent voice bar for voiced stops, and longer closure and burst durations for voiceless stops along with more frequent irregular pitch periods. This suggests that 4-year-olds have acquired productive use of the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts, though implementations are not yet fully adult-like. The findings have implications for understanding the development of phonological contrasts in populations for whom these may be challenging, such as children with hearing loss.

scholarly journals Speech Genre: A Study of Gossip in Australian English Speaking Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
Nurhadi Hamka
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Generic Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Speech Genre ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Diverse Context

A gossip as a casual conversation usually occurs in diverse context or a wide range of social situations; has distinct and various topics; and involve an irregular set of participants. The scholars scrutinize that conversation has highly structured activity of which people tacitly realize that there are some basic conventions to follow – such as when to speak or to stay silent and to listen. In this study, I specifically discuss one of the speech genre – a gossip, in Australia English speaking context. The gossip data of the study is taken from the research conducted by Thornburry, Scott, and Slade, Diana (2006). In a discussion, I focus the analysis of the generic structure of the gossip and how it establishes the social function (within) the speech members. Several findings conveyed that: 1) there is a leeway of shifting from one genre to another – e.g. narrative to gossip, within the same participants; 2) conversation can be successful if all the participants aware of and follow the basic conventions – when to talk or to listen, support to judgement or reluctant to the focus of conversation; 3) the genre, e.g. narrative or gossip, could motivate people to leave or to join the conversation which then could establish and reinforce the group membership and maintain the values of the social group.

Duration and Voice Quality of Early Infant Vocalizations

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1591-1602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Gregory ◽  
Marija Tabain ◽  
Michael Robb
Keyword(s):  
Linear Trend ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Linear Increase ◽  
Quality Properties ◽  
Infant Vocalizations ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Nonlinear Curve ◽  
Linear Nature

Purpose Infant vocal durations have been studied from a variety of perspectives, including medical, social, and linguistic. The resultant developmental profile across the first 6 months of life, however, is still far from clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the durational properties of infant vocalizations from the unique perspective of voice quality. By considering an infant's modal and nonmodal voice qualities, the developmental range of vocalizations produced by infants during the early months of life was captured. Method Four Australian English–speaking infants were recorded for approximately 1 hr per week during the first 6 months of life. A total of 6,309 vocalizations were perceptually identified and labeled according to voice quality. The duration of each vocalization was subsequently measured. Results A nonlinear curve was evident for the duration of all vocalizations combined. Duration increased significantly between Months 3 and 5. Modal voice was the only voice quality that displayed a linear increase in duration across the study. All other voice qualities displayed polynomial trends. Conclusions Based on the current results, the inconsistent pattern of vocal duration development found previously can be reconciled when voice quality properties of vocalizations are taken into account. A nonlinear curve is evident when a broad corpus of infant vocalizations is used, whereas a narrow corpus containing predominantly modal vocalizations displays a linear trend. The results demonstrate the necessity of including nonmodal voice qualities in infant duration experiments so as to not overstate the linear nature of duration increases.

The perception of Mandarin lexical tones by listeners from different linguistic backgrounds

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tsukada ◽  
Hui Ling Xu ◽  
Nan Xu Rattanasone
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Heritage Learners ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Mandarin Tones

AbstractTwo groups of non-native adult learners of Mandarin in Australia were directly compared in their ability to perceive monosyllabic Mandarin words contrasting in lexical tones. They differed in their linguistic experience (non-heritage (n=10), heritage (n=12)). A group of eight native Mandarin speakers and a group of ten functionally monolingual speakers of Australian English were included as controls. All non-native learners used English as their primary language of communication. However, the heritage learners were able to communicate in Cantonese as well as English. The primary question of interest was whether heritage learners’ knowledge of contrastive tone in Cantonese might give them an advantage over English-speaking learners in perceiving tone contrasts in Mandarin. In general, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups of learners in their response patterns. Of the six tone contrasts examined (T1-T2, T1-T3, T1-T4, T2-T3, T2-T4, T3-T4), the two groups significantly differed only on T1-T4. The heritage learners were less accurate on T1-T4 than the non-heritage learners who are monolingual speakers of Australian English. On the other hand, the non-heritage learners were more accurate than Australian English speakers with no prior experience with Mandarin on all tone contrasts. Thus, we conclude that simply having an exposure to and functional knowledge of another tonal language since early childhood does not guarantee accurate perception of Mandarin tones in comparison with adult learners without prior experience with tonal languages.

The prosodic licensing of coda consonants in early speech: interactions with vowel length

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
KELLY MILES ◽  
IVAN YUEN ◽  
FELICITY COX ◽  
KATHERINE DEMUTH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Lexical Constraints

AbstractEnglish has a word-minimality requirement that all open-class lexical items must contain at least two moras of structure, forming a bimoraic foot (Hayes, 1995).Thus, a word with either a long vowel, or a short vowel and a coda consonant, satisfies this requirement. This raises the question of when and how young children might learn this language-specific constraint, and if they would use coda consonants earlier and more reliably after short vowels compared to long vowels. To evaluate this possibility we conducted an elicited imitation experiment with 15 two-year-old Australian English-speaking children, using both perceptual and acoustic analysis. As predicted, the children produced codas more often when preceded by short vowels. The findings suggest that English-speaking two-year-olds are sensitive to language-specific lexical constraints, and are more likely to use coda consonants when prosodically required.

A Dialect Survey of the Lexicon of Australian English

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Regional Variation ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Regional Diversity ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English

The first dialect study of regional variation in the lexicon of Australian English (AusE), which has generally been thought to be regionally uniform, has found two classes of regional words, obligatory and elective, which give rise to two regional distribution patterns. Mapping the distribution of regional names for 67 items has identified four major dialect regions, two of which have sub-regions, as well as two minor sub-regions, and several local regions identified by only one or two words. A comparison with other English-speaking countries found several characteristics of regional variation unique to Australia, but also strong similarities to other previously colonised countries. The nature of regional variation in AusE has obscured the existence of previously unnoticed regional diversity within the well-known uniformity of the language.

scholarly journals Cultural Scripts and the Speech Act of Opinions in Irish English: A Study amongst Irish and Polish University Students

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-28
Author(s):  
Weronika Gąsior
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Rational Approach ◽  
Cultural Scripts ◽  
Illocutionary Acts ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Australian English

Studies in pragmatics have been limited to a handful of illocutionary acts such as requests, apologies or compliments, and opinions remain underrepresented in the existing literature. In this paper I present the results of a study of opinions in Irish English, conducted in an intercultural environment of Irish-Polish interactions. Departing from a traditional approach of speech act realisation studies, I applied the theory of cultural scripts to analyse opinions. In contrasting the Irish and Polish formulas for expressing opinions, as well as sociopragmatic attitudes towards this speech act, a difference in the cultural scripts for opinions in each culture was observable. Apart from already documented Polish frankness in opinions, the study discovered also a rational approach to presenting good arguments to support one’s assertions among the participants. In relation to the Irish script for opinions, the findings are in line with previous classifications of opinions in Australian English, showing a certain level of variational uniformity amongst the English-speaking cultures in this regard.

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