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Acoustic Cues in the Disambiguation of Polysemous Strings (Synthesis Lectures on Speech and Audio Processing)
by Maja GwóźdźThis book provides an analysis of acoustic features of polysemous strings and an implementation of a speech disambiguation program based on the phonetic information. Throughout the book, the term ‘polysemous string’ refers to idioms with plausible literal interpretations, restrictive and non–restrictive relative clauses, and the same expressions used as quotations and appearing in a non–quotational context. The author explains how, typically, context is sufficient to determine the intended meaning. But there is enough evidence in psycholinguistic and phonetic literature to suspect that these superficially identical strings exhibit different acoustic features. In the experiment presented in the book, the participants were asked to read short excerpts containing corresponding elements of polysemous strings placed in the same intonational position. The acoustic analyses of ditropic pairs and subsequent statistical tests revealed that there is almost no difference in the duration, pitch, or intensity in literal and figurative interpretations. However, the analysis of relative clauses and quotations demonstrated that speakers are more likely to use acoustic cues to differentiate between the two possible readings. The book argues that the acoustic analysis of polysemous phrases could be successfully implemented in designing automatic speech recognition systems in order to improve their performance in disambiguating polysemous phrases.Analyzes acoustic features of polysemous strings and an implementation of a speech disambiguation programIncludes evidence that superficially identical strings exhibit different acoustic featuresArgues that acoustic analysis of polysemous phrases can be successfully implemented in automatic speech recognition
The Acoustic Self in English Modernism and Beyond: Writing Musically
by Zoltan VargaDrawing on the analogy between musical meaning-making and human subjectivity, this book develops the concept of the acoustic self, exploring the ways in which musical characterization and structure are related to issues of subject-representation in the modernist English novel. The volume is framed around three musical topics—the fugue, absolute music, and Gesamtkunstwerk—arguing that these three modes of musicalization address modernist dilemmas around selfhood and identity. Varga reflects on the manifestations of the acoustic self in examples from the works of E.M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, and Virginia Woolf, and such musicians as Bach, Beethoven, Handel, and Wagner. An additional chapter on jazz and electronic music supplements these inquiries, pursuing the acoustic self beyond modernism and thereby inciting further discussion and theorization of musical intermediality, as well as recent sonic practices. Probing the analogies in the complex interrelationship between music, representation, and language in fictional texts and the nature of human subjectivity, this book will appeal to students and scholars interested in the interface of language and music, in such areas as intermediality, multimodality, literary studies, critical theory, and modernist studies.
Acoustic Sensors for Biomedical Applications (SpringerBriefs in Speech Technology)
by Nilanjan Dey Amira S. Ashour Waleed S. Mohamed Nhu Gia NguyenIn this book, application-related studies for acoustic biomedical sensors are covered in depth. The book features an array of different biomedical signals, including acoustic biomedical signals as well as the thermal biomedical signals, magnetic biomedical signals, and optical biomedical signals to support healthcare. It employs signal processing approaches, such as filtering, Fourier transform, spectral estimation, and wavelet transform. The book presents applications of acoustic biomedical sensors and bio-signal processing for prediction, detection, and monitoring of some diseases from the phonocardiogram (PCG) signal analysis. Several challenges and future perspectives related to the acoustic sensors applications are highlighted. This book supports the engineers, researchers, designers, and physicians in several interdisciplinary domains that support healthcare.
Acoustics of Bangla Speech Sounds (Signals and Communication Technology)
by Asoke Kumar DattaThis book presents the consolidated acoustic data for all phones in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), commonly known as Bangla, a Bengali language used by 350 million people in India, Bangladesh, and the Bengali diaspora. The book analyzes the real speech of selected native speakers of the Bangla dialect to ensure that a proper acoustical database is available for the development of speech technologies. The acoustic data presented consists of averages and their normal spread, represented by the standard deviations of necessary acoustic parameters including e. g. formant information for multiple native speakers of both sexes. The study employs two important speech technologies:(1) text to speech synthesis (TTS) and (2) automatic speech recognition (ASR). The procedures, particularly those related to the use of technologies, are described in sufficient detail to enable researchers to use them to create technical acoustic databases for any other Indian dialect. The book offers a unique resource for scientists and industrial practitioners who are interested in the acoustic analysis and processing of Indian dialects to develop similar dialect databases of their own.
Acquired Alterity: Migration, Identity, and Literary Nationalism (New Interventions in Japanese Studies #3)
by Edward MackA free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. This is the first book-length study in English of the Japanese-language literary activities of early Japanese migrants to Brazil. It provides a detailed history of Japanese-language bookstores, serialized newspaper fiction, original creative works, and critical apparatuses that existed in Brazil prior to World War II. This case study of the reading and writing of one diasporic population challenges the dominant mode of literary study, in which texts are often explicitly or implicitly understood through a framework of ethno-nationalism. Self-representations by writers in the diaspora reveal flaws in this prevailing framework through what Edward Mack calls "acquired alterity," in which expectations about the stability of ethnic identity are subverted in surprising ways. Acquired Alterity encourages a reconsideration of the ramifications (and motivations) of cultural analyses of texts and the constructions of peoplehood that are often the true objects of literary knowledge production.
Acquiring a Scientific Vocabulary: A Short Course for Building Lexical Literacy for Advancing AP and College Students
by Anthony M. BelmontA short course specifically designed for high school AP science students and college freshmen or sophomores in any science courses to provide an understanding of how scientific terminology is composed and to give students a 'ballpark' knowledge of terms t
Acquiring conversational competence (RLE: Discourse Analysis)
by Elinor Ochs Bambi B. SchieffelinFirst published in 1983, this book represents a substantial body of detailed research on children’s language and communication, and more generally on the nature of interactive spoken discourse. It looks at areas of competence often examined in young children’s speech have that have not been described for adults — leading to insights not only in the character of adult conversation but also the process of acquiring this competence. The authors set forward strategies for conversing at different stage of life, while also relating these strategies to, and formulating hypotheses concerning, the dynamics of language variation and change.
Acquiring Phonology
by Neil SmithChildren often mispronounce words when learning their first language. Is it because they cannot perceive the differences that adults make or is it because they can't produce the sounds involved? Neither hypothesis is sufficient on its own to explain the facts. On the basis of detailed analyses of his son's and grandson's development, Neil Smith explains the everyday miracle of one aspect of first language acquisition. Mispronunciations are now attributed to performance rather than to competence, and he argues at length that children's productions are not mentally represented. The study also highlights the constructs of current linguistic theory, arguing for distinctive features and the notion 'onset' and against some of the claims of Optimality Theory and Usage-based accounts. Smith provides an important and engaging update to his previous work, The Acquisition of Phonology, building on ideas previously developed and drawing new conclusions with the aid of fresh data.
Acquiring Pragmatics: Social and cognitive perspectives
by Sandrine ZuffereyAcquiring Pragmatics offers a comprehensive synthesis of state-of-the-art research on the acquisition of pragmatics. It introduces the current topics of research in theoretical pragmatics and explores the issues they raise for language acquisition research and the new experimental designs which have been developed to address them. While each chapter covers each topic in depth, it also places a strong emphasis on the underlying methodological aspects of each issue, which will help the reader to develop their own experimental designs. Key topics covered include: The interfaces between pragmatics and language acquisition The social aspects of pragmatic competence The cognitive aspects of pragmatic competence The acquisition of pragmatics in autistic spectrum disorders and second language acquisition Acquiring Pragmatics is key reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying pragmatics and language acquisition.
The acquisition of aspect in a second language (Elements in Second Language Acquisition)
by Stefano RastelliThe acquisition of the aspect is a central area in Second Language Acquisition research, the subject of hundreds of papers and dozens of edited volumes, monographs and special issues. This introduction provides the reader not only with a concise and plain presentation of the main hypotheses advanced in the past, but also with an overview of contemporary research. Stefano Rastelli shows how comparison of behavioural (production-comprehension), processing and statistical data is improving - and partially changing - our understanding of how learners acquire the aspectual distinctions of the target-language.
The Acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language Pronunciation: Segments and Prosody (Prosody, Phonology and Phonetics)
by Chunsheng YangThis book is the first edited book to cover a wide range of issues related to Chinese as a second language (CSL) speech, including tone and segment acquisition and processing, categorical perception of tones, CSL fluency, CSL intelligibility/comprehensibility and accentedness, and pronunciation pedagogy. Moreover, the book addresses both theoretical and pedagogical issues. It offers an essential go-to book for anyone who is interested in CSL speech, e.g. CSL speech researchers, Chinese instructors, CSL learners, and anyone interested in second language speech.
The Acquisition of Creole Languages
by Dany AdoneHow do children acquire a Creole as their first language? This relatively underexplored question is the starting point for this first book of its kind; it also asks how first language acquisition of a Creole differs from that of a non-Creole language. Dany Adone reveals that in the absence of a conventional language model, Creole children acquire language and go beyond the input they receive. This study discusses the role of input, a hotly debated issue in the field of first language acquisition, and provides support for the nativist approach in the debate between nativism and input-based models. The Acquisition of Creole Languages will be essential reading for those in the fields of first language acquisition and Creole studies. Adone takes an interdisciplinary approach, using insights from non-verbal language acquisition, which makes this of great interest to those in the field of sign linguistics.
The Acquisition of English Grammar and Phonology by Cantonese ESL Learners: Challenges, Causes and Pedagogical Insights (Routledge Research in Language Education)
by Alice Yin ChanChan’s exploration of the acquisition of English grammar and phonology by Cantonese learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) offers insights into the specific challenges that learners often encounter and posits ways to help them overcome those challenges. Possible sources of the challenges are also examined. The book covers the basic differences between English and Cantonese grammar as well as those between English and Cantonese phonology. Chan discusses the kinds of grammatical and phonological problems that Cantonese ESL learners often have in their acquisition of English. In terms of grammar, various structures are reviewed, including errors which are clearly due to L1 interference and also those which may not be directly L1-related. Learners’ common misconceptions about relevant concepts are also revealed. In terms of phonology, both speech perception and speech production problems at the segmental and suprasegmental levels are examined. For learner problems which may be the result of L1 interference, a contrastive approach is adopted in analysing the cause and nature of the errors. Chan also offers readers pedagogical insights to target common grammatical problems, including the use of an algorithmic approach, the use of a discovery-based consciousness-raising approach and the use of metalinguistic explanations. As far as the learning of English phonology is concerned, she argues that the training of speech production should go hand-in-hand with that of speech perception. Future research can experiment with the proposed teaching ideas with Cantonese ESL learners and learners of other native languages. Researchers and ESL teaching professionals will find the insights and research contained within this volume invaluable when encountering or researching Chinese ESL learners.
The Acquisition of French in Multilingual Contexts
by Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes Katrin SchmitzThis volume brings together new research from different theoretical paradigms addressing the acquisition of French. It focuses on the acquisition of French in combination with English, German, Russian or Spanish and enriches our understanding of the particularities of French and the role of language combinations in the acquisition process. The chapters examine the development of different grammatical aspects (word order phenomena, adjective placement, dislocation and cleft constructions, wh-questions, DP phenomena, argument omissions and constructions with particular word groups) and use various methodologies (such as elicitation tasks, longitudinal studies and parsing experiments) to further add to our understanding of how French is acquired in different contexts. This book will be a resource for researchers and graduate students working in the discipline of language acquisition, especially those who are interested in language contact phenomena where two typologically different languages are involved.
The Acquisition of Heritage Languages
by Montrul SilvinaHeritage speakers are native speakers of a minority language they learn at home, but due to socio-political pressure from the majority language spoken in their community, their heritage language does not fully develop. In the last decade, the acquisition of heritage languages has become a central focus of study within linguistics and applied linguistics. This work centres on the grammatical development of the heritage language and the language learning trajectory of heritage speakers, synthesizing recent experimental research. The Acquisition of Heritage Languages offers a global perspective, with a wealth of examples from heritage languages around the world. Written in an accessible style, this authoritative and up-to-date text is essential reading for professionals, students, and researchers of all levels working in the fields of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, education, language policies and language teaching.
The Acquisition of Maya Phonology: Variation in Yucatec Child Language (Routledge Library Editions: Phonetics and Phonology #21)
by H. Stephen StraightFirst published in 1976. This title presents a study of Yucatec Maya segmental phonology by children. The aim of the study is to describe the phonological systems revealed in the speech of group of children in order to determine the kinds of structural differences which exist among these pedolectal variants. This title will be of great interest to students of linguistics.
The Acquisition of Romance, With Special Reference To French: The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, Volume 1, Chapter 7
by Eve ClarkFirst published in 1986. This edition offers a grammatical sketch of French, with occasional comments on how other Romance languages diverge from this picture; a brief account of the sources available on language acquisition by children; and a summary of the overall course of development in children acquiring the major Romance languages. The remainder of the review takes up different facets of the language acquisition process in more detail.
Acquisition of Second Language Syntax
by Susan BraidiThis book deals with the questions asked about the L2 acquisition process within different research paradigms, examines the results found in each approach, and evaluates the contributions of each to our understanding of L2 acquisition of syntax and to possible implications for L2 instruction.
The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Lingua Franca Context
by Mercedes DurhamIn a world where an increasing amount of communication takes place in English among non-native speakers, this study presents data from email exchanges to provide the first examination of sociolinguistic competence and the acquisition of native-like variability in an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) context. The analysis of a range of linguistic variables (future tense, relative pronoun choice, complementizer use and adverbial placement) in the online interactions of Swiss speakers (with German, French and Italian mother tongues) allows the reader to gain a greater understanding of which linguistic features are source language-related and which are learning-related. This book will be a valuable resource for postgraduates and researchers interested in language variation and change, ELF and second language acquisition, as well as for undergraduates wanting guidance on different ways of examining sociolinguistic variables.
The Acquisition of Spanish: A Research Overview in Multilingual Learning Contexts (ISSN)
by Eve Zyzik Melissa A. BowlesAs the first text to present, in one place, a comprehensive and systematic overview of Spanish language acquisition research, The Acquisition of Spanish: A Research Overview in Multilingual Learning Contexts discusses a range of theoretical perspectives that outline issues surrounding language learning and the gaps in its research and teaching. Drawing on classic and current empirical studies on learner cohorts at different proficiency stages all over the world, the authors aim to bring bi-/multilingualism to the forefront to provide readers with a deeper conceptual understanding of the challenges faced by different groups of Spanish learners in various learning contexts.Eve Zyzik and Melissa A. Bowles expertly synthesize and analyze a range of linguistic features and factors that affect learning, connecting these insights from Spanish to key theoretical and applied questions in SLA research more broadly. The text concludes with observations about research methodology, indicating the gaps in the literature and setting an agenda for future work in Spanish second language acquisition (SLA) to move the field forward.This unique, cohesive volume will be an invaluable foundational resource to advanced students and researchers in SLA, bilingualism/multilingualism, Hispanic and Romance studies, applied linguistics, education, and related areas, who are interested in LOTEs (languages other than English) and Spanish SLA in particular. It will also be useful to those studying to become Spanish second language educators.
The Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language: Foundations and New Developments
by Kimberly L. Geeslin Avizia Y. Long Megan SolonThis volume offers an introduction to the field of second language acquisition with a particular focus on second language Spanish. It connects key issues in the acquisition of Spanish as a second language to theoretical and empirical issues in the field of second language acquisition more generally by exemplifying central concepts in second language acquisition through the exploration of the most widely researched structures and most recent developments in the field of second language Spanish. It is written for a non-specialist audience, making it suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses and readers, while its treatment of recent empirical developments also makes it of interest to researchers in second language Spanish as well as allied fields.
The Acquisition of Syntactic Structure: Animacy and Thematic Alignment
by Misha BeckerThis book explains a well-known puzzle that helped catalyze the establishment of generative syntax: how children tease apart the different syntactic structures associated with sentences like John is easy/eager to please. The answer lies in animacy: taking the premise that subjects are animate, the book argues that children can exploit the occurrence of an inanimate subject as a cue to a non-canonical structure, in which that subject is displaced (the book is easy/*eager to read). The author uses evidence from a range of linguistic subfields, including syntactic theory, typology, language processing, conceptual development, language acquisition, and computational modeling, exposing readers to these different kinds of data in an accessible way. The theoretical claims of the book expand the well-known hypotheses of Syntactic and Semantic Bootstrapping, resulting in greater coverage of the core principles of language acquisition. This is a must-read for researchers in language acquisition, syntax, psycholinguistics and computational linguistics.
The Acquisition of Syntax: Studies in Comparative Developmental Linguistics (Longman Linguistics Library)
by Marc-Ariel Friedemann;Luigi RizziThis volume contains a collection of studies that survey recent research in developmental linguistics, illustrating the fruitful interaction between comparative syntax and language acquisition. The contributors each analyse a well defined range of acquisition data, aiming to derive them from primitive differences between child and adult grammar. The book covers cross-linguistic and cross-categorial phenomena, shedding light on major developments in this novel and rapidly growing field. Extensions to second language acquisition and neuropathology are also suggested.
Across a Stream
by Stephen Cosgrove Pam Hirschfeld Karen LeonPerform this script about a family of settlers and a Native American tribe that live across the stream from each other in Montana in the early 1800s.
Across an Inland Sea: Writing in Place from Buffalo to Berlin
by Nicholas HoweHow do the places we live in and visit shape our lives and memories? What does it mean to reside in different locations across the span of a life? In richly textured portraits of places seen from within, Nicholas Howe contemplates how places create and gather their stories and how, in turn, a sense of place locates the stories of our own lives. Howe begins with one of the finest descriptions ever written of Buffalo, that city on an inland sea where he grew up. He gives us a fresh Paris, viewed from the river below. And he depicts Oklahoma as a site of open lands and dislocation--a place of coming and going. Howe then turns to Chartres, a traditional location of pilgrimage, to ask what other sites might still be capable of compelling visitors in secular time. He portrays Berlin as a scene of twentieth-century history--and a city that helped him make sense of his American life. Finally, he writes about Columbus, Ohio, as home. Vividly rendering the places he has known, Howe meditates on the weight of home, the temptations of the metropolis, the fact of dislocation, the unraveling of history, the desire to remake ourselves through voyage, and the wonder of the familiar. In ways that too often elude travel writers, it is place that holds our imagination, that inspires much of our art and literature. Across an Inland Sea evokes the various senses of place that can fill and haunt a life--and ultimately give life its form and meaning.