Word Categorization of Vowel Durational Changes in Speech-Modulated Bone-Conducted Ultrasound

Ultrasound can deliver speech information when it is amplitude-modulated with speech and presented via bone conduction. This speech-modulated bone-conducted ultrasound (SM-BCU) can also transmit prosodic information. However, there is insufficient research on the recognition of vowel duration in SM-BCU. The aim of this study was to investigate the categorization of vowel durational changes in SM-BCU using a behavioral test. Eight Japanese-speaking participants with normal hearing participated in a forced-choice behavioral task to discriminate between “hato” (pigeon) and “haato” (heart). Speech signal stimuli were presented in seven duration grades from 220 ms to 340 ms. The threshold at which 50% of responses were “haato” was calculated and compared for air-conducted audible sound (ACAS) and SM-BCU. The boundary width was also evaluated. Although the SM-BCU threshold (mean: 274.6 ms) was significantly longer than the ACAS threshold (mean: 269.6 ms), there were no differences in boundary width. These results suggest that SM-BCU can deliver prosodic information about vowel duration with a similar difference limen to that of ACAS in normal hearing.

MORPHO-PHONOLOGICAL EFFECTS IN GIKUYU LANGUAGE REDUPLICATION

This research is indispensable as it basically studies how Gikuyu language reduplication patterns can be explained using Prosodic Morphology Theory. It looks at the various types of reduplication in Gikuyu language and seeks to establish if reduplication in Gikuyu is considered morphological reduplication or phonological copying. Word classification as well as the Gikuyu vowels and consonants have extensively been discussed in this paper as a foundation for the reduplication discussion. The study tries to find out the logic worth of reduplication, how reduplication interconnect with morphological and phonological processes, linguistic units associated with this concept and draws conclusion that reduplication in Gikuyu is considered both morphological doubling and phonological copying. The study adopts Prosodic Morphology theoretical approach in reduplication patterns analysis. Gikuyu phonemic catalogue on vowels and consonants as well as the word categorization, that is, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives has been discussed as a foundation for the research. Reduplication is a morphological process in which there is repetition of a stem or a root of a word in Linguistics. Reduplication is important since it acts as a declension to bring out semantic roles such as lexical derivation, authentication and reinforcement to form new words. Qualitative sampling was done on the word categories and an outcome was established. There were various reduplication patterns in Gikuyu, several semantic patterns associated with it were listed, set out and reviewed. The findings have been scrutinized and analyzed for further recommendations. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0778/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Ideophones in Moro

This article presents a descriptive study of ideophones in Moro, addressing both their structural characteristics and usage, with data from the Thetogovela dialect. We describe their sound patterns, word categorization and placement within sentences, and discuss their meaning and conventionalization. Moro ideophones convey a wide range of sensory meanings, including sound, touch, movement and visual patterns. They are uninflected and typically appear utterance finally, most closely resembling adverbs. Ideophones are often introduced by support verbs, including ‘do’, ‘be’ and ‘eat’, the latter for visual patterns. Ideophones may exhibit reduplication, which in some cases can correspond to pluractionality. The main distinctive sound pattern of Moro ideophones is a wider distribution of obstruents, as well as a performative use of expressive duration and phonation.

The Perception of Postalveolar English Obstruents by Spanish Speakers Learning English as a Foreign Language in Mexico

The present study deals with the perception (identification and discrimination) of an English phonemic contrast (/t∫/–/∫/, as in cheat and sheet) by speakers of two Mexican varieties of Spanish who are learning English as a foreign language. Unlike English, Spanish does not contrast /t∫/ and /∫/ phonemically. Most Spanish varieties have [t∫], but not [∫]. In northwestern Mexico, [∫] and [t∫] find themselves in a situation of “free” variation—perhaps conditioned, to some extent, by social factors, but not in complementary distribution. In this variety, [∫] and [t∫] are variants of the same phoneme. The present study compares the perceptual behavior of English learners from northwestern Mexico, with that of learners from central Mexico, whose native dialect includes only [t∫]. The results of a word-categorization task show that both groups of learners find cheat and sheet difficult to identify in the context of each other, but that, relative to the other learner group, the group of learners in northwestern Mexico find this task to be particularly challenging. The results of a categorical discrimination task show that both learner groups find the members of the /t∫/–/∫/ contrast difficult to discriminate. On average, accuracy is lower for the group of learners in northwestern Mexico than it is for the central Mexicans. The findings suggest that the phonetic variants found in one’s native dialect modulate the perception of nonnative sounds and, consequently, that people who speak different regional varieties of the same language may face different obstacles when learning the sounds of their second language.

Comparative Basic-Words of Standard Arabic Palestinian and Tunisian

This paper studies comparative linguistics on the process of word-formation that occurs in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), Palestinian Arabic (PLS), and Tunisian Arabic (TNS). It is addressed to portray the process of the verb, adjective, and noun formation in three Arabic languages by using Plag’s theory and to identify sameness and contrariness of basic words by using Hock’s theory. This study used 220 of Morris Swadesh's basic vocabulary as the main guidelines for obtaining data. The criteria were adopted to analyze the data were orthographic, sound-change, phonological and morpheme contrast. This research used descriptive qualitative. The source of the data was basic-word vocabulary. The data were gathered by conducting an in-depth interview with five post-graduate students of the Arabic Department at Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta as informants to get information. The data were analyzed by using structural linguistics, especially phonology, morphology, and semantics. This investigation informed several aspects of findings such as processes of cognates, back-formation, phonological variations, prefixes, clipping, derivation, acronym, loanword, blending, and metathesis of MSA, PLS and TNS. Using the Swadesh vocabulary list, the results of this study found 207 vocabularies for each language, such as MSA, Tunisian, and Palestinian. Using word categorization, it has found that these vocabularies have categorized into five words classes, namely, nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, determiner.

Divided Attention in Perception: A Unified Analysis of Dual-Task Deficits and Congruency Effects

How well can one perceive simultaneous stimuli at two widely spaced visual locations? Are the stimuli processed independently? If not, does the dependency affect perception, disrupt signals in later stages, or both? To address these questions, we measured effects of divided attention using a dual-task paradigm with stimuli presented in noise on either side of fixation. This paradigm was applied to detecting Gabor patches and to the semantic categorization of words. We measured dual-task deficits which are a decline in mean performance for a dual task compared to a single task. There was such a deficit for categorizing two words but relatively little deficit for detecting two Gabors. We also measured congruency effects which are when performance at one location depends on whether the stimulus at the other location requires the same response. There was such a congruency effect for detecting two Gabors but relatively little congruency effect for categorizing two words. Further experiments were consistent with the dual-task deficit in word categorization being perceptual, but the congruency effect in Gabor detection being due to later processes. Results of additional experiments showed that the congruency effect was consistent with either graded selection errors or with all-or-none selection followed by graded interactive processing. To answer our opening question: for Gabor detection, perceptual processes were largely independent but later processes caused congruency effects; for word categorization, perceptual processes had capacity limits but even in combination with later processes caused relatively little congruency effects. In summary, there was evidence for two different kinds of dependency. Such complementary dependencies are inconsistent with theories of divided attention that depend on a single dependency such as a single resource or single source of interactive processing.

SUMBANGAN BAHASA INDONESIA TERHADAP PEMEKARAN KOSAKATA BAHASA BUGIS: KASUS PENGGUNAAN BAHASA BUGIS PADA MEDIA SOSIAL FACEBOOK (The Contribution of Indonesian Language on Buginese Vocabulary Development: A Case Study of the Use of Buginese on Facebook Social Media)

AbstrakThe aim of this research is: (1) to identify the forms and categories of Indonesian words that are absorbed into Buginese sentences and (2) to reveal the reasons for the use of Indonesian elements into Buginese sentences by Facebookers in the social media. Data on this qualitative research obtained from social media ‘Facebook’. The data source of this research is the Facebookers who are members of the MABBASA UUGIE KU PESBU’ group, November 2013 to April 2014 edition. Data analyzed are Buginese sentences consisting of three to five examples of Buginese sentences containing Indonesian elements in the form of words, phrases or clauses taken purposively. Furthermore, the analysis was carried out with grounded research strategies. The results of this research indicate that (1) Buginese language can survive as a means of communication within Buginese ethnic groups when writing on the social media ‘Facebook’, due to they have obtained vocabulary contributions from Indonesian in the form of the basic word, affixation word, and phrase. In word categorization, the loan words consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and conjunctions. Then, (2) the use of the Indonesian language elements has four main reasons, namely (a) filling in the blanks, (b) adding equivalence variations, (c) clarifying the meaning, and (d) interference. Reasons (a) to (c) can take the form of code-mixing and code-switching. AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan: (1) mengidentifikasi bentuk dan kategori kata bahasa Indonesia (bI) yang terserap ke dalam kalimat-kalimat bahasa Bugis (bB) dan (2) mengungkap alasan-alasan penggunaan unsur-unsur bI tersebut ke dalam kalimat bB oleh para Facebooker di media sosial. Data penelitian kualitatif ini diperoleh dari media sosial Facebook. Sumber data penelitian ini ialah para Facebooker yang menjadi anggota grup MABBASA UUGIE KU PESBU’ edisi bulan November 2013 s.d. bulan April 2014. Data yang dianalisis ialah kalimat-kalimat ber-bB yang terdiri atas tiga sampai lima contoh kalimat ber-bB yang berisi unsur-unsur bI, yang berupa kata, frasa, atau klausa, yang diambil secara purposif. Selanjutnya, analisis dilakukan dengan upaya grounded research. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa (1) bB dapat bertahan hidup sebagai sarana perhubungan intern suku Bugis dalam komunikasi tulisan sosial Facebook karena memperoleh sumbangan kosakata bI yang berbentuk kata dasar, kata berimbuhan, dan frasa atau ungkapan. Dari segi kategorisasi kata, unsur-unsur serapan tersebut terdiri atas kata benda, kata kerja, kata sifat, dan kata sambung. Kemudian, (2) penggunaan unsur-unsur bI tersebut memiliki empat alasan utama, yaitu (a) mengisi kekosongan, (b) menambah variasi kesepadanan, (c) memperjelas pemaknaan, dan (d) interferensi. Alasan (a) sampai dengan (c) dapat mengambil bentuk campur kode dan alih kode.

SEMANTIC NETWORK OF THE WORD ASSOCIATION IN THE FIELD OF LAW

Word association can be utilized for identifying semantic network and describing point of view and prior knowledge of someone. This study aims to discuss two focuses, (1) the categorization of response word and (2) language factors that form semantic networks from the response words of word association in the field of law. This research uses a qualitative approach which is a type of descriptive case study research. Data collection held by using a word association questionaire. Based on the word categorization, the results showed that the stimulus words in the form of nouns were the most responded by nouns, verbs were the most responded by nouns, while the adjectives were responded more by an adjectives. Overall, responses in the form of nouns are 64.71%, verbs are 17.70%, adjectives are 17.58%. The responses in the form of nouns are related to the semantic relations of argument and predication, while the adjective response tends to be related to other adjectives in the unity of the semantic network. The response words form semantic network based on language factors, namely (1) lexical factors that consist of meaning relationship, connotation of meaning, concreteness and abstractness and (2) grammatical factors that consist of syntagmatic-paradigmatic and predication-argument relationship. Keywords: semantic network, word association, mental lexicon