Notion of an accent in linguistic studies

2021 ◽  
Vol IX(257) (75) ◽  
pp. 54-56
Author(s):  
N. O. Petrochuk
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Structural Organisation ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
The Given

The given article introduces the main areas of studying an accent. Particular attention is given to the field of linguistics, phonetics, and phonological research where an accent is not only a characteristic of an individual but also a bearer of distinctive features of the foreign speech. These features include differences on various language levels such as phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactical. The linguistic and non-linguistic phonetic features are illustrated. The peculiarities in pronunciation, which include melodic arrangements of utterances, rhythmical and structural organisation of the sentence, pausation, articulations in addition to vowels' and consonants' production and their interaction in speech are described as related to linguistic features. Non-linguistic features are connected with the personality of a speaker, the listener, the situation of speech and the context. The article presents a short outline of the criteria to measure a foreign-accented speech.

scholarly journals Linguistic structures and functions of thesis and dissertation titles in Dentistry

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Alberto Morales ◽  
Bexi Perdomo ◽  
Daniel Cassany ◽  
Rosa María Tovar ◽  
Élix Izarra
Keyword(s):  
Single Unit ◽  
English Language ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Structures

AbstractTitles play an important role in genre analysis. Cross-genre studies show that research paper and thesis titles have distinctive features. However, thesis and dissertation titles in the field of dentistry have thus far received little attention. Objective: To analyze the syntactic structures and their functions in English-language thesis and dissertation titles in dentistry. Methodology: We randomly chose 413 titles of English-language dentistry theses or dissertations presented at universities in 12 countries between January 2000 and June 2019. The resulting corpus of 5,540 running words was then analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, the two complementary focuses being grammatical structures and their functions. Results: The average title length was 13.4 words. Over half of the titles did not include any punctuation marks. For compound titles, we found that colons, dashes, commas, and question marks were used to separate the different components, colons being the most frequent. Four syntactic structures (nominal phrase, gerund phrase, full-sentence, and prepositional phrase) were identified for single-unit titles. Single-unit nominal phrase titles constituted the most frequent structure in the corpus, followed by compound titles. Four particular rhetorical combinations of compound title components were found to be present throughout the corpus. Conclusions: Titles of dentistry theses and dissertation in English echo the content of the text body and make an important contribution to fulfilling the text’s communicative purposes. Thus, teaching research students about the linguistic features of thesis titles would be beneficial to help them write effective titles and also facilitate assessment by teachers.

scholarly journals Continuity or Discontinuity – the Case of Macedonian Phonetics

2015 ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
Irena Sawicka
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
East European ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Phonetic Convergence ◽  
Phonetic Features

Continuity or Discontinuity – the Case of Macedonian PhoneticsThe article presents its principal topic of the continuity of linguistic phenomena based on the material of Macedonian phonetics, treated as a constituent of south-east European phonetics, and not as an element of the Slavic world. It provides, firstly, a static perspective, produced by enumerating typologically relevant features. Seen from this perspective, Macedonian phonetics is a component of the Central Balkanic area. Secondly, emphasis has been put on processes of phonetic convergence and their differences from those of grammatical convergence. These difference account for the instability of phonetic features, or in any case their generally lesser stability compared to morphosyntactic features, but on the other hand also for the possibility for some phenomena to survive in small areas, in a few dialects, and the possibility for linguistic features to reappear, which stems from alternating cross-dialectal interference. The Macedonian language territory abounds in such situations due to its multi-ethnicity, which is greater here than anywhere else in the Balkans. Particular in this respect is the area of Aegean Macedonia, where Slavic dialects are “protected” from the influence of the literary norm – albeit in the case of Macedonian even the realisation of the literary norm is not entirely stable in terms of phonetics.Ciągłość czy jej brak – casus macedońskiej fonetykiNadrzędny temat dotyczący ciągłości zjawisk przedstawiony został na materiale macedońskiej fonetyki. Fonetyka macedońska została rozpatrzona jako składnik fonetyki Europy południowo-wschodniej, a nie jako element świata słowiańskiego. Przedstawiono, po pierwsze, obraz statyczny, wynikający z wyliczania relewantnych typologicznie cech. Ten obraz klasyfikuje fonetykę macedońską jako składnik centralnego obszaru bałkańskiego. Po drugie, położono akcent na przebieg procesów konwergencyjnych w zakresie fonetyki i na różnice w stosunku do takich procesów w zakresie gramatyki. Wynika z nich: nietrwałość cech fonetycznych, a w każdym razie ogólnie mniejsza trwałość cech fonetycznych niż cech morfo-składniowych, ale też możliwość przetrwania pewnych zjawisk na małych obszarach, w paru gwarach, możliwość powracania cech fonetycznych, co wynika z naprzemiennej interferencji międzydialektalnej. Terytorium języka macedońskiego obfituje w takie sytuacje ze względu na większą multietniczność niż gdziekolwiek indziej na Bałkanach. Szczególny pod tym względem jest obszar Macedonii Egejskiej, gdzie dialekty słowiańskie są „zabezpieczone” przed działaniem normy literackiej. Chociaż w wypadku języka macedońskiego nawet realizacja normy literackiej pod względem fonetycznym nie jest całkiem stabilna.

scholarly journals Areal-typological complexity of Lithuanian dialects

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Vytautas Kardelis
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Methodological Principle ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Theoretical Criterion ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
System 2 ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Stressed Position

This article deals with one of the most promising stages in Lithuanian dialectology discussed in the article “Seven stages of Lithuanian dialectology” published in the 2016 issue of the scientific electronic journal “Lietuvių kalba” (‘The Lithuanian Language’) (see Kardelis 2016). I referred to this stage as typological; however, now I think that the best term for this stage is the term areal-typological complexity (arealtypologische Komplexität) which originates from works by Alfred Lameli (2013). The concept of complexity is not associated with the attempt to classify dialects according to different “distinctive features” but rather with an idea, clearly supported by empirical facts that diatopical variation in language is highly complex. A closer look at the context of Lithuanian dialectology research reveals that the concept of complexity is still not discussed thoroughly; while specific studies are practically non-existent. The most general methodological principle which should be applied in carrying out an areal-typological study of the complexity of Lithuanian dialects could be referred to as the principle of offside. This means that studies of Lithuanian dialectology should offside from the conventionally applied research tradition and from: a) the aim to classify dialects typologically; b) all classifications of Lithuanian dialects published up to date; c) distinctive features described in the contemporary classification (as well as earlier classifications); d) the goal to specify the boundaries of dialects and subdialects. The second general theoretical criterion is related to the approach to the linguistic system. Here I rely on the concept of a diasystem introduced into the field of dialectology by Uriel Weinreich (1954; 1974). The whole area of the Lithuanian language together with its diatopical variants may be interpreted as a diasystem of Lithuanian which consists of separate systems. The most suitable, convenient and universal criteria for the analysis of empirical data established by the long-standing theory and practice of research into phonology are the following: 1) the quality of the elements of a vocalism system; 2) the quantity of the elements of a vocalism system; 3) the interrelationship between the quality and quantity of a vocalism system. Since here we are dealing with the Lithuanian language which features a complex prosodic system, we must introduce an additional criterion, i.e. 4) stress. Empirical data for the present study were collected from modern, phonological “grammars of dialects”. This article does not encompass the whole diasystem of the Lithuanian language since it only tackles the area covered by the Aukštaičiai dialect. The main phonological qualities according to which the basic vocalism model of the diasystem of the Aukštaičiai dialect can be described are the following: 1) the system of long vowels in the stressed position; 2) the shift in the level of rise of low vowels; 3) the system of short vowels in the stressed position; 4) automatic qualitative shifts; 5) vowel reduction (three degrees). The basic vocalism model described in accordance with the above criteria rather clearly indicates that the great differentiation of Lithuanian dialects postulated in the works on Lithuanian dialectology only has a phonetic and not a phonological basis and it can only be based on the differences of phonetic features. A phonological approach to the diasystem of the Aukštaičiai dialect of Lithuanian does not reveal any radical or extreme differentiation. In addition, the model also shows another significant regularity. The more features are taken into account, the lower the occurrence of individual, less significant dialectal elements distinguished on the basis of one feature (in comparison to the classification by A. Girdenis and Z. Zinkevičius). This approach thus allows solving the complexity of the puzzle of Lithuanian dialects (or, rather the complexity of the diasystem of the Aukštaičiai dialect of Lithuanian) which is summarised in Figure 10. As the matrix in Figure 9 illustrates, the diasystem of the Aukštaičiai dialect of Lithuanian so far consists of three zones represented in the matrix by three different colours.

Asymmetries in the Processing of Vowel Height

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 903-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Scharinger ◽  
Philip J. Monahan ◽  
William J. Idsardi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Source Parameters ◽  
Dipole Source ◽  
Neutral Position ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Phonetic Features

Purpose Speech perception can be described as the transformation of continuous acoustic information into discrete memory representations. Therefore, research on neural representations of speech sounds is particularly important for a better understanding of this transformation. Speech perception models make specific assumptions regarding the representation of mid vowels (e.g., [ɛ]) that are articulated with a neutral position in regard to height. One hypothesis is that their representation is less specific than the representation of vowels with a more specific position (e.g., [æ]). Method In a magnetoencephalography study, we tested the underspecification of mid vowel in American English. Using a mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, mid and low lax vowels ([ɛ]/[æ]), and high and low lax vowels ([ i ]/[æ]), were opposed, and M100/N1 dipole source parameters as well as MMN latency and amplitude were examined. Results Larger MMNs occurred when the mid vowel [ɛ] was a deviant to the standard [æ], a result consistent with less specific representations for mid vowels. MMNs of equal magnitude were elicited in the high–low comparison, consistent with more specific representations for both high and low vowels. M100 dipole locations support early vowel categorization on the basis of linguistically relevant acoustic–phonetic features. Conclusion We take our results to reflect an abstract long-term representation of vowels that do not include redundant specifications at very early stages of processing the speech signal. Moreover, the dipole locations indicate extraction of distinctive features and their mapping onto representationally faithful cortical locations (i.e., a feature map).

scholarly journals Surface Features of Code-switching in ‘The Nigerian Online Community’ Page on Facebook

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Layo Olaluwoye
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Surface Errors ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Theory Of Language

Existing studies on code-switching have mainly been carried out among English/Chinese bilinguals. Studies on English/Yoruba/Pidgin English bilinguals with emphasis on code-mixing and code-switching on the Internet have been grossly insufficient. Therefore, this study reveals the surface features of code-switching among Yoruba/English/Pidgin English bilinguals in the Nigerian Online Community on Facebook. For theoretical framework, we relied on insights from Halliday’s (1994) functional theory of language.  Five types of surface features were identified: simplified lexicon and sentences, non-adherence to the use of tones/diacritics, inconsistencies of spellings and words, unnecessary lengthening of letters, and tolerance of surface errors. The study has revealed the distinctive features of code-switching in the Nigerian Online Community page on Facebook. These linguistic features have thrown more light on the characteristics of the language use on the Facebook forum and how the posters use the codes in their speech repertoire to achieve this

scholarly journals Hand Gestures Facilitate the Acquisition of Novel Phonemic Contrasts When They Appropriately Mimic Target Phonetic Features

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 3571-3585
Author(s):  
Xiaotong Xi ◽  
Peng Li ◽  
Florence Baills ◽  
Pilar Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Hand Gesture ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Speech Output ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Multimodal Training ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
The Given ◽  
Phonemic Contrasts

Purpose Research has shown that observing hand gestures mimicking pitch movements or rhythmic patterns can improve the learning of second language (L2) suprasegmental features. However, less is known about the effects of hand gestures on the learning of novel phonemic contrasts. This study examines (a) whether hand gestures mimicking phonetic features can boost L2 segment learning by naive learners and (b) whether a mismatch between the hand gesture form and the target phonetic feature influences the learning effect. Method Fifty Catalan native speakers undertook a short multimodal training session on two types of Mandarin Chinese consonants (plosives and affricates) in either of two conditions: Gesture and No Gesture. In the Gesture condition, a fist-to-open-hand gesture was used to mimic air burst, while the No Gesture condition included no such use of gestures. Crucially, while the hand gesture appropriately mimicked the air burst produced in plosives, this was not the case for affricates. Before and after training, participants were tested on two tasks, namely, the identification task and the imitation task. Participants' speech output was rated by five Chinese native speakers. Results The perception results showed that training with or without gestures yielded similar degrees of improvement for the identification of aspiration contrasts. By contrast, the production results showed that, while training without gestures did not help improve L2 pronunciation, training with gestures improved pronunciation, but only when the given gestures appropriately mimicked the phonetic properties they represented. Conclusions Results revealed that the efficacy of observing hand gestures on the learning of nonnative phonemes depends on the appropriateness of the form of those gestures relative to the target phonetic features. That is, hand gestures seem to be more useful when they appropriately mimic phonetic features. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13105442

scholarly journals ETHNOSPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE CONCEPT WIDOW VERBALIZATION IN THE ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN LINGUOCULTURES

2021 ◽  
pp. 110-115
Author(s):  
Tarasova V.V.
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Organization ◽  
The Given ◽  
Associative Linkage

The article is devoted to the research of ethnic peculiarities of reality conceptualization, objectified with the help of culturally marked words denoting a widow, which form the corresponding parts of the Ukrainian and English language world models. Purpose. The purpose of the research is to give a contrastive analysis of the verbalizations of the concept WIDOW in Ukrainian and English linguocultures.Methods. The paper uses a comprehensive methodology that combines the following methods: contrastive – to identify common and distinctive features of the concept of WIDOW in the languages under comparison; conceptual-semiotic analysis – to reveal the cognitive mechanisms of the embodiment of the concept; contextual-interpretive analysis – to clarify the peculiarities of the representation of the concept in paremiae.Results. In the highlight of contrastive ethnolinguistic studies and theory of conceptual analysis, is there performed and revealed a structure-semantic reconstruction of the concept of WIDOW, as well as the principles of its semantic-conceptual organization in the English and Ukrainian language pictures of the world. The set of the conceptual and semantic marks is determined, due to the concept structure constituents (conceptual proper, imagery-associative and value), the main ideographic conceptual domains are revealed, the analyzed concept being axiologically marked and its associative linkage, due to the scope of its conceptual correlates are determined.Factors that influence on the conceptualization of the objective reality by the given ethnic groups are determined. Certain ethnocultural and ethnolinguistic peculiarities and general characteristics of verbalization of the concept WIDOW peculiar to both languages are found out. Conclusions. The analyses of widow nominations showed the allomorphism of national peculiarities of reality conceptualization, which are influenced by archetype types, historical and cultural actuality. It is shown that WIDOW in Ukrainian culture can be viewed as a taboo concept which content is marked by negative axiological status due to the socio-cultural views formed in the period predetermining the inadmissibility of its direct naming in relevant social situations.Key words: culturally marked words, language world model, taboo concept, ethnic mentality, widow’s image, conceptual mark. Стаття присвячена вивченню етнічних особливостей концептуалізації дійсності, об’єктивованих у культурно маркованих лексичних одиницях на позначення жінки-вдови, що утворюють відповідні фрагменти української та англійської національно-мовних картин світу. Метою роботи є зіставний аналіз засобів вербалізації концепту ВДОВА/WIDOWв англійській та українській лінгвокультурах.Методи. У роботі застосовується комплексна методика, яка поєднує такі методи: зіставний – для виявлення спільних і відмінних рис концепту ВДОВА/WIDOW у зіставлюваних мовах; концептуально-семіотичний аналіз – для розкриття когнітивних механізмів утілення концепту; контекстуально-інтерпретаційний аналіз – для з’ясування особливостей репрезентації концепту у пареміях.Результати. Крізь призму зіставної лінгвокультурології та теорії концептуального аналізу здійснено структурно-семан-тичну реконструкцію концепту ВДОВА/WIDOW та виявлено принципи його семантико-концептуальної організації в англійській та українській мовних картинах світу. Визначено набір концептуальних та семантичних ознак аналізованого концепту з урахуванням складників його структури (понятійної, асоціативно-образної, ціннісної), виявлено основні семантико-ідеографічні сфери концепту ВДОВА; з’ясовано аксіологічну маркованість та визначено асоціативні зв’язки досліджуваного концеп-ту з урахуванням його концептуальних корелятів; проаналізовано взаємозв’язок оцінного, культурного й інших компонентів конотації у семантиці фразеологічних одиниць; розглянуто семіотичні механізми стереотипізації уявлень українського етносу про вдову, виявлено їхню детермінацію культурними та психоментальними чинниками, Висновки. Аналіз особливостей об’єктивації концепту ВДОВА/WIDOW в англійській та українській лінгвокультурах дав змогу зробити висновок про стереотипність сприйняття жінки-вдови відповідними лінгвосоціумами та показав аломорфізм національних особливостей концептуалізації дійсності, на які впливають історичні та культурні реалії. Доведено, що в українській культурі концепт ВДОВА є табуйованим, зміст якого відзначається негативним аксіологічним статусом.Ключові слова: національно маркована лексика, табу, етнічна ментальність, образ вдови, концептуальна ознака.

scholarly journals Specifics of using foreign language loanwords in chinese and russian advertising

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (24) ◽  
pp. 128-136
Author(s):  
Li Xiaotao ◽  
◽  
Svetlana A. Koloda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Brand Advertising ◽  
Significant Phenomenon ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Chinese Advertising ◽  
The Given

The article presents the main research on the problem of using borrowings of world famous brands in chinese and russian. The author of the article analyzes the features of penetration and functioning of borrowings in the structure of advertising text, since it is advertising that has become a significant phenomenon of modern culture, reflecting not only typical visual images and mental stereotypes, but also representing the linguistic habits of different language speakers. Advertising demonstrates not only linguistic, but also social, cultural and linguistic processes taking place in different languages. The study provides a comparative analysis of borrowings, describes their main linguistic features. Particular attention is paid to examining the ways of penetration of borrowings into the chinese language. Both a brief description of the lexical base of borrowings in the chinese language and a diachronic analysis of borrowings are given. The article provides certain data on the dynamics of the appearance of foreign words in the modern chinese language. The given synchronous analysis of foreign lexical units in chinese and russian advertising has made it possible to demonstrate how various factors influence the frequency of the use of borrowings in different languages: from linguistic to social and cultural. The thematic classification of borrowings describes various methods of penetration of foreign vocabulary into chinese and russian advertising. The analysis is based on the names of world famous brands. The classification of the main types of borrowings in russian and chinese advertising is given. The study notes that the number of borrowings in chinese advertising is equal to their number in russian one. In many cases, brand advertising in chinese uses duplication, a method that best preserves the words of the recipient language in the new lexical format. The authors come to the conclusion that the specificity of using borrowings in these languages has both specific intralingual factors characteristic of these languages and external, economic and social factors.

Italo-Romance: Gallo-Italic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Scala
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
The 19Th Century

Gallo-Italic dialects are spoken in northern Italy, in a wide area covering Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna and some adjacent territories of Trentino, Tuscany, Le Marche, and southern Switzerland. The term Gallo-Italic was coined by Bernardino Biondelli about the middle of the 19th century and later used in a more rigorous way by Graziadio Isaia Ascoli to identify a group of dialects sharing a significant amount of linguistic features (mainly, but not only, phonetic features). However, Gallo-Italic dialects are not demarcated by a single isogloss and represent rather a group of dialects centered on a cluster of areas defined by individual isoglosses. The highest concentration of these isoglosses (cf., e.g., lenition, loss of final vowels other than -a, labialized front vowels [ø] (or [œ]) < ŏ in stressed open syllable, and [y] < ū, the fronted outcomes [i̯t]/[ʧ] < -ct-) can be found in western Lombardy and Piedmont, whereas some of them do not reach, for example, Liguria and eastern Emilia-Romagna. Such a geographical distribution of isoglosses suggests that they must have spread in northern Italy primarily from Milan or both Milan and Turin, the two main centers of innovation in this area.

Anticipation, Simultaneity/Consecutivity and Distinctive Features in Phonology

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-17
Author(s):  
Renáta Gregová
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Phonological Processes ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Feature Geometry ◽  
Roman Jakobson ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Brain

The notion of distinctive features has had a firm position in phonology since the time of the Prague Linguistic Circle and especially that of one of its representatives, Roman Jakobson, whose well-known delimitation of a phoneme as “a bundle of distinctive features” (Jakobson, 1962, p. 421), that is, a set of simultaneous distinctive features, has inspired many scholars. Jakobson’s attempt “to analyse the distribution of distinctive features along two axes: that of simultaneity and that of successiveness” (ibid., p. 435) helped cover several phonetic and/or phonological processes and phenomena. Distinctive features, although theoretical constructs (Giegerich, 1992, p. 89), reflect phonetic, that is, articulatory and acoustic, properties of sounds. In the flow of speech, some features tend to influence the neighbouring phonemes. Sometimes speech organs produce something that the brain just ‘plans’ to produce (anticipatory speech errors). There are situations where it seems as if the successive organization of phonemes went hand in hand with the simultaneous nature of certain articulatory characteristics of those phonemes (the transgression of consonants and inherence of vowels in Romportl’s theory), or the given feature seems to be anticipated by the preceding segment. This is the case with nasalization and/or anticipatory coarticulation, as well as regressive (anticipatory) assimilation. In addition, simultaneity/consecutivity is a decisive criterion for the difference between the so-called complex segments, as specified in Feature Geometry, and simple segments (Duanmu, 2009). Moreover, the phonological opposition of simultaneity- successivity (that is, consecutivity) itself functions as a feature making a difference between segmental and suprasegmental elements in the sound system of a language, as was first mentioned by Harris (1944), later indicated by Jakobson (1962) and then fully developed by Sabol (2007, 2012).

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