Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese

Given that Chinese writing conventions lack inter-word spacing, understanding whether and how readers of Chinese segment regular unspaced Chinese writing into words is an important question for theories of reading. This study examined the processing outcomes of introducing spaces to written Chinese sentences in varying positions based on native speaker consensus. The measure of consensus for every character transition in our stimuli sentences was the percent of raters who placed a word boundary in that position. The eye movements of native readers of Chinese were recorded while they silently read original unspaced sentences and their experimentally manipulated counterparts for comprehension. We introduced two types of spaced sentences: one with spaces inserted at every probable word boundary (heavily spaced), and another with spaces placed only at highly probable word boundaries (lightly spaced). Linear mixed-effects regression models showed that heavily spaced sentences took identical time to read as unspaced ones despite the shortened fixation times on individual words (Experiment 1). On the other hand, reading times for lightly spaced sentences and words were shorter than those for unspaced ones (Experiment 2). Thus, spaces proved to be advantageous but only when introduced at highly probable word boundaries. We discuss methodological and theoretical implications of these findings.

Experience Control Analysis of English Reading Software Based on Wireless Binocular Line-of-Sight Sensing

This paper proposes a segmented combined English text measurement method based on two sets of orthogonal linear image sensors and one area image sensor. This method fully combines the advantages of the linear image sensor and the area image sensor in long-distance and short-distance English text measurement and can continuously perform high-precision English text tracking within a large range of viewing distance. Based on this method, a set of segmented English text measurement system is designed and constructed. This paper presents a method for extracting English word boundaries based on semantic segmentation to solve the problem of global positioning and horizontal initialization of English reading text. The semantic segmentation method based on fully convolutional networks (FCN) is analyzed, and the target classification is defined. We used the classic FCN framework and model, fine-tuned with manually annotated data, and achieved good segmentation results. For the definition and extraction of English word boundaries in English text, a piecewise linear model is used to measure the projection confidence of each English word boundary point, and the overall observation of the English word boundary is measured. When the observation confidence is high enough, combined with the English word boundaries marked in the high-precision image, the horizontal positioning is obtained by matching the weights. This paper concludes that English reading software can help learners in English learning to a certain extent, which proves that the English reading software is an effective supplement based on blended learning classrooms. Through the analysis of learners and teaching content, an English teaching model based on English reading software blended learning is designed. Experimental studies have proved that English reading software can help learners learn English, which not only expands their vocabulary but also broadens their horizons.

Manipulating interword and interletter spacing in cursive script: An eye movements investigation of reading Persian

Persian is an Indo-Iranian language that features a derivation of Arabic cursive script, where most letters within words are connectable to adjacent letters with ligatures. Two experiments are reported where the properties of Persian script were utilized to investigate the effects of reducing interword spacing and increasing the interletter distance (ligature) within a word. Experiment 1 revealed that decreasing interword spacing while extending interletter ligature by the same amount was detrimental to reading speed. Experiment 2 largely replicated these findings. The experiments show that providing the readers with inaccurate word boundary information is detrimental to reading rate. This was achieved by reducing the interword space that follows letters that do not connect to the next letter in Experiment 1, and replacing the interword space with ligature that connected the words in Experiment 2. In both experiments, readers were able to comprehend the text read, despite the considerable costs to reading rates in the experimental conditions.

Vowel Elision in Ikhin, an Edoid Language in South-south Nigeria

In this paper, attention is on the basic factors that come into force in determining whether or not vowel will elide and which of the V1 and V2 in a sequence should disappear in any environment. This paper also examines the phonological, morphological and syntactic reasons behind vowel elision as a syllable structure process in Ikhin language. As in the case of related African languages that have been previously described by various scholars, this paper presents how vowel elision works in Ikhin and the problems arising from its analysis. In this study, the focus is on the explanation and analysis of factors such as boundary, morpheme structure and vowel quality which actually determine whether or not elision should take place in Ikhin. Apart from factors such as vowel quality and boundary, one other factor with respect to elision or glide formation is the syllable structure of the verbs and nouns in Ikhin. Ikhin nouns are either disyllabic i.e. V(C)V or trisyllabic, etc. It is argued that the operation of vowel elision is blocked in disyllabic nouns as /i/, /o/ and /u/ form glides when either of them occurs as V1 whereas vowel elision rather than glide formation takes place in trisyllabic nouns. The study concludes based on data not previously discussed in the language that elision is driven by syllable-based and syntactic-based analyses and that a major strategy of discouraging vowel cluster in Ikhin is vowel elision because the syllable structure of the language prohibits cluster of vowels within word or across word boundary.

Italian preconsonantal s-voicing is not regressive voice assimilation

In the literature of laryngeal phonology Romance languages are considered voice languages, exhibiting a binary distinction between a voiced lenis and a voiceless fortis set of obstruents. Voice languages are characterised by regressive voice assimilation (RVA) due to the phonological activity of [voice]. Italian manifests a process similar to RVA, called preconsonantal s-voicing; that is, /s/ becomes voiced before voiced consonants. Since /sC/ is the only obstruent cluster in Italian phonotactics, Italian seems to fulfil the requirements for being a prototypical voice language. However, this paper argues that s-voicing is not an instance of RVA, at least from a synchronic phonological point of view. RVA and Italian preconsonantal s-voicing essentially differ at every level of a synchronic comparison: in the input, in the trigger, in the domain of application and in the frequency of the processes. In Italian only sibilant fricatives may undergo voicing before consonants; however, other obstruents (which mostly appear in loanwords) do not assimilate for [voice]. Italian preconsonantal s-voicing does not take place at the word boundary or at morpheme boundaries, and it seems to be optional is new loanwords; thus, it is not a postlexical process like RVA. The synchronic differences between the two phenomena are analysed in Classical Optimality Theory. The laryngeal system of Italian prefers faithfulness over markedness, which means that non-/sC/ obstruent clusters surface with underlying voice values; while the voicing of /s/ before voiced consonants is seen as phonetic and not phonological.

Elision in Esahie

One of the syllable structure changes that occur in rapid speech because of sounds influencing each other is elision. This paper provides an account of elision in Esahie, also known as Sehwi, a Kwa language spoken in the Western North region of Ghana. The paper discusses the processes involved in elision, and the context within which elision occurs in the language. The paper shows that sound segments, syllables and tones are affected by the elision process. It demonstrates that elision, though purely a phonological process, is influenced by morphological factors such as vowel juxtapositioning during compounding, and at word boundary. The evidence in this paper show that there is an interface between phonology and morphology when accounting for elision in Esahie. Data for this study were gathered from primary sources using ethnographic and stimuli methods.

Phonetic Reconstruction of Tautovocalic Diphthongs as a Problem of Linguistic Textology (In Nyegoshʼs Epic “Stephen the Little”)

The author of this paper explains the interpretation of the diphthongs in the epic ”Stephen the Little” by Serbian poet Petar II Petrovich Njegos from the epoch of romanticism. They are: а) tautovocalic diphthongs in the same word, b) tautovocalic diphthongs at the word boundary and its enclitics, c) tautovocalic diphthongs at the word boundary and its proclitics, d) tautovocalic diphthongs at the boundary of two phonetic words, i.e. in sandhi. The analysis comprises the epic ”The Mountain Wreath” and the epic ”The Ray of the Microcosm”, and some of Njegos`s poems, аs well as examples from Serbian folk poems published in the first collection of folk poems ”Маlа prostonarodnya slavenо‑serbska pěsnarica” by Vuk Stefanovich Karadjich.