Content Of Utterance Research Articles

Using fundamental frequency of cancer survivors’ speech to investigate emotional distress in out-patient visits

ObjectiveEmotions, are in part conveyed by varying levels of fundamental frequency of voice pitch (f0). This study tests the hypothesis that patients display heightened levels of emotional arousal (f0) during Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES) cues and concerns versus during neutral statements. MethodsThe audio recordings of sixteen head and neck cancer survivors’ follow-up consultations were coded for patients’ emotional distress. Pitch (f0) of coded cues and concerns, including neutral statements was extracted. These were compared using a hierarchical linear model, nested for patient and pitch range, controlling for statement speech length. Utterance content was also explored. ResultsClustering by patient explained 30% of the variance in utterances f0. Cues and concerns were on average 13.07Hz higher than neutral statements (p=0.02). Cues and concerns in these consultations contained content with a high proportion of recurrence fears. ConclusionThe present study highlights the benefits and challenges of adding f0 and potential other prosodic features to the toolkit of coding emotional distress in the health communication setting. Practice implicationsThe assessment of f0 during clinical conversations can provide additional information for research into emotional expression.

Rethinking explicit utterance content

This paper challenges the view that interpreting an assertoric utterance of a declarative sentence requires representing the explicit content of the utterance, where this is understood to be a level of representation that is a development of its linguistically encoded meaning. Such a form, often referred to as an ‘explicature’ or ‘impliciture’, is assumed to be an output of pragmatic processing by both Sperber & Wilson's Relevance Theory and Recanati's two-system model. The paper considers a number of reasons why such a level might be posited, and concludes that none of these is sufficient to require the view that utterance interpretation processes aim at identifying a level of explicit content that is arrived at by augmenting and/or adjusting the encoded meaning of the sentence uttered. Rather, the paper argues, the distinction drawn by Jary (2013) between material and behavioural implicatures better explains certain phenomena highlighted by putative tests for explicit utterance content, and provides a principled basis for the distinction between two levels of pragmatic processing.

Human-Robot Interaction Design Using Smart Device Based Robot Partner

Nowadays, various robot partners have been developed to realize human-friendly interactions. In general, a robot system is composed of hardware modules, software modules, and application contents. It takes much time to design utterance contents and motion patterns as application contents simultaneously, but the design support systems mainly focus on the generation of robot motion patterns. Furthermore, a methodology is needed to easily change the specification of hardware and software according to diversified needs, and the developmental environment to design the application contents on verbal and nonverbal communication with people. In this paper, the authors propose robot partners with the modularized architecture of hardware and software by using smart devices, and propose a developmental environment to realize easy contents design of verbal and nonverbal communication. In order to solve the problem of difficulty in the content design, they develop a design support environment using design templates of communication application contents. Next, they apply the robot partner to navigate visitors to the robot contest of the system design forum held in Tokyo Metropolitan University. Finally, they show several examples of the interaction cases, and discuss the interaction design for smart device based robot partners.

Exploding Explicatures

Abstract‘Pragmaticist’ positions posit a three‐way division within utterance content between: (i) the standing meaning of the sentence, (ii) a somewhat pragmatically enhanced meaning which captures what the speaker explicitly conveys (following Sperber and Wilson, I label this the ‘explicature’), and (iii) further indirectly conveyed propositions which the speaker merely implies. Here I re‐examine the notion of an explicature, asking how it is defined and what work explicatures are supposed to do. I argue that explicatures get defined in three different ways and that these distinct definitions can and do pull apart. Thus the notion of an explicature turns out to be ill‐defined.

Parenteza w dyskursie lingwistycznym wielosuprematycznych wypowiedzeń oznajmujących (badania eksperymentalne)

The purpose of this publication is to detect the linguistic functions in creating multi-suprasegmental declarative utterances. In the context of the parenthesis there is an interpositional localization. It consists of at least three units: 1) supra initial of the uncompleted content, 2) parenthesis, 3) supra terminal of the completed content. The distribution of these units is normative. The supreme phoneme of a terminal unit as a phonological invariant expresses the declarative content of the entire utterance. It is characterized by a sloping course, low tone, lengthening of quantity and the decrease in the intensity level. Whereas a parenthetical unit constitutes the supplement of the declarative content. It shows a regular course, low tone, standardization of quantity and the level of intensity. The terminal parenthesis unit combines either syntax or theme-semantic structure. A supreme accent of a unit in progress is an expression of the individual subject. For this reason, the unit of the content in progress is of a variant character. Whereas the supreme accent of a unit of the completed content, is the rheme phrase. The intonation structure of a multi-suprasegmental declarative utterance with a parenthesis is created by a supreme accent of a terminal unit, representing the phoneme-specific functions, and parenthesis.

The nature of unsymbolized thinking

Using the method of Descriptive Experience Sampling, some subjects report experiences of thinking that do not involve words or any other symbols [Hurlburt, R. T., and C. L. Heavey. 2006. Exploring Inner Experience. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; Hurlburt, R. T., and S. A. Akhter. 2008. “Unsymbolized Thinking.” Consciousness and Cognition 17 (4): 1364–1374]. Even though the possibility of this unsymbolized thinking has consequences for the debate on the phenomenological status of cognitive states, the phenomenon is still insufficiently examined. This paper analyzes the main properties of unsymbolized thinking (UT) and advances an explanation of its origin. According to our analysis, unsymbolized thoughts appear as propositional states, that is, they are experienced as compositional conceptual phenomena, with semantic and syntactic features analogous to those of the contents of utterances. Based on this characterization, we hypothesize that UT is continuous with the activity of inner speech, in particular, it is a form of inner speech where the speech action is aborted even before the intention to talk is implemented by motor commands. We contend that this account provides the best explanation of the distinctive features of the phenomenon, and it helps to understand the sense of agency and ownership associated with it. Finally, we consider a possible objection arising from the experience of unworded inner speech, and we show how our account should inform the debate about cognitive phenomenology.

Para uma explicação cognitivamente plausível da conjunção em Português

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1984-8412.2016v13n1p1055O objetivo deste artigo é propor as linhas gerais de um modelo teórico para explicar a conjunção “e” de um ponto de vista semântico, pragmático e cognitivo. Se a análise contextualista proposta por Robyn Carston (2002) puder ser defendida e se mostrar como a melhor opção diante dos problemas inerentes às demais abordagens, seguir-se-á que o processo pragmático primário que Recanati (2010) chama de “modulação” é uma realidade, ao menos neste caso, na composição semântica das línguas naturais. Isto é, ficará comprovada a existência de ao menos um caso em que fatores contextuais opcionais – aqueles que, ao contrário da indexicalidade, não são demandados pelas regras estritamente linguísticas – afetam o conteúdo proposicional dos enunciados.

Editorial: Understanding Social Signals: How Do We Recognize the Intentions of Others?

Editorial: Understanding Social Signals: How Do We Recognize the Intentions of Others?

The effect of semantic memory deficits on global coherence: An analysis of the discourse of patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia

The effect of semantic memory deficits on global coherence: An analysis of the discourse of patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia

Przysłowia ludowe i ich kontekst kulturowy w odniesieniu do żywności i żywienia w arabskich dialektach Āzaẖ i Mārdīn

This draft is an attempt to group and analyze the content of maxims, expressions, utterances, phrases, aphorisms and formulations which refer – directly or indirectly – to agriculture and raising animals as well as to the widely understood traditions and the culture of feeding among the inhabitants of the two ancient Assyrian towns in southeastern Turkey: Āzaẖ and Mārdīn. This type of folk prose is very popular in the Middle East. Even though the procurement of food and the preparation of meals belong likely to the most important human cares and take most of the time particularly of the populations living in villages, the group of proverbs concerning the analyzed topic in each collection is only about 8% of the total.

The structure of utterance content in psychotherapy

The structure of utterance content in psychotherapy

Children's identification of questions from rising terminal pitch.

Young children are slow to master conventional intonation patterns in their yes/no questions, which may stem from imperfect understanding of the links between terminal pitch contours and pragmatic intentions. In Experiment 1, five- to ten-year-old children and adults were required to judge utterances as questions or statements on the basis of intonation alone. Children eight years of age or younger performed above chance levels but less accurately than adult listeners. To ascertain whether the verbal content of utterances interfered with young children's attention to the relevant acoustic cues, low-pass filtered versions of the same utterances were presented to children and adults in Experiment 2. Low-pass filtering reduced performance comparably for all age groups, perhaps because such filtering reduced the salience of critical pitch cues. Young children's difficulty in differentiating declarative questions from statements is not attributable to basic perceptual difficulties but rather to absent or unstable intonation categories.

Situation-Bound Utterances as Cultural Scripts in Spoken Discourse

This paper provides insight into the pervasive use of situation-bound utterances and their pragmatic functions in spoken discourse. It is corroborated that situation-bound utterances are socially and culturally charged communication routines used by the native speakers in actual speech. The paper analyzes the cultural content of situation-bound utterances and their role in non-native communication. We attempt to show that situation-bound utterances as cultural scripts pertain to cognitive mechanisms of spoken discourse and culture. The study shows that analysis of SBUs as cultural scripts might be used as a learning strategy in foreign language acquisition.

P3‐113: Detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older adults from content of spoken utterances

P3‐113: Detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in older adults from content of spoken utterances

Wittgenstein as a Gricean Intentionalist

According to the dominant view, the later Wittgenstein identified the meaning of an expression with its use in the language and vehemently rejected any kind of mentalism or intentionalism about linguistic meaning. I argue that the dominant view is wrong. The textual evidence, which has either been misunderstood or overlooked, indicates that at least since the Blue Book Wittgenstein thought speaker's intentions determine the contents of linguistic utterances. His remarks on use are only intended to emphasize the heterogeneity of natural language. Taking into account remarks written after he finished the Investigations, I show how Wittgenstein anticipated the basic tenets of Gricean intention-based semantics. These are, in particular, the distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘non-natural’ meaning and the distinction between what a speaker means by an utterance and what the expression uttered means in the speaker's natural language. Importantly, Wittgenstein also believed that only the meaning of the speaker determined the content of ambiguous expressions, such as ‘bank’, on a particular occasion of utterance

Are ‘informative presuppositions’ presuppositions?

AbstractPresuppositions are contents of utterances that must be mutually known by the interlocutors, i.e. the speaker and the addressees, in order for an utterance of a sentence with the presupposition trigger to be judged to be acceptable. However, a substantial subset of contents traditionally taken to be presuppositions does not exhibit this property and can instead be used to inform the addressee about the supposedly presuppositional content. Classical analyses of these so‐called ‘informative presuppositions’ nevertheless assume that they are associated with a common ground requirement but one that can be accommodated. According to an alternative characterization, ‘informative presuppositions’ are not associated with a common ground requirement but are informative like Potts' conventional implicatures; such a characterization does not need to make reference to accommodation. The debate about the characterization of ‘informative presuppositions’ has been based almost exclusively on judgments about English provided by native speaker researchers. This paper explores how results from research with theoretically untrained speakers (including one‐on‐one elicitation and experiments) as well as corpus studies can bear on this debate. I argue that such results, though tenuous, support the alternative characterization at least for some ‘informative presuppositions’ and emphasize the merit of bringing data collected through a wide range of methodologies to bear on theoretical research on meaning.

Tenses, Dates and Times

This paper presents a theory of utterance content that is neutral with respect to some of the key issues in the debate about the proper semantics of tense. Elaborating on some ideas from Korta & Perry (2011), we defend a proposal according to which utterances of both temporally specific and temporally unspecific sentences have a systematic variety of contents, from utterance-bound to incremental or referential. This analysis will shed some light on the contribution of tense to what is said by an utterance.

Perceptual Variation, Color Language, and Reference Fixing. An Objectivist Account

AbstractI offer a new objectivist theory of the contents of color language and color experience, intended especially as an account of what normal intersubjective variation in color perception and classification shows about those contents. First I explain an abstract account of the contents of (utterances of) color and other gradable adjectives; on the account, these contents are certain objective properties constituted in part by contextually intended standards of application, which are in turn values in the dimensions of variation associated with the adjectives. Then I propose an explanation of normal variations in linguistic color classification; these are postulated to be effects of differences in intended standards for the color adjectives appearing in the classifying predicates. Next, I consider a potential objection to this explanation, based on the suggestion that contextual content should be more accessible than the explanation predicts. In reply, I point out that contextual content is occasionally opaque to unsophisticated reflection. Finally, I present a companion account of the contents of color experiences on which these represent an object as lying on certain salient intervals in the chromatic dimensions, and I show how the account accommodates intersubjective variation in color perception.

Self-Representation and Korean Honorific Shifts

This study discovers the dynamic nature of an interactional hierarchy as well as an institutional hierarchy in the use of Korean honorifics. Data was collected from the conversations of two Korean female interlocutors. The interlocutors met for the first time in the U.S. and often changed their use of honorifics. The paper examines the method in which the two interlocutors negotiate hierarchies during interaction and how the negotiation is reflected in their use of honorific shifts. The paper also investigates honorific shifts in terms of self-representation to suggest that there is another hierarchy at work other than the institutional hierarchy. An examination of the data shows that the shifts occurred not randomly but strategically. The findings suggest that 1) interlocutors may negotiate interactional hierarchy during their conversation, often in the same sentence, 2) interactional hierarchy often cross the boundary of the institutional hierarchy to obtain interactional goals, in this case, intimacy, and 3) the utterance contents may play a significant role in the interlocutors`` honorific shifts.

The contribution of evidentials to utterance content: Evidence from the Basque reportative particle omen : Online Appendix

The contribution of evidentials to utterance content: Evidence from the Basque reportative particle omen : Online Appendix