Speech Elements Research Articles

Qualitative Analysis of Responses in Estimating Older Adults Cognitive Functioning in Spontaneous Speech: Comparison of Questions Asked by AI Agents and Humans

Background/Objectives: Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is gaining attention for its potential in cognitive function assessment and intervention. AI robots and agents can offer continuous dialogue with the elderly, helping to prevent social isolation and support cognitive health. Speech-based evaluation methods are promising as they reduce the burden on elderly participants. AI agents could replace human questioners, offering efficient and consistent assessments. However, existing research lacks sufficient comparisons of elderly speech content when interacting with AI versus human partners, and detailed analyses of factors like cognitive function levels and dialogue partner effects on speech elements such as proper nouns and fillers. Methods: This study investigates how elderly individuals’ cognitive functions influence their communication patterns with both human and AI conversational partners. A total of 34 older people (12 men and 22 women) living in the community were selected from a silver human resource centre and day service centre in Tokyo. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and participants engaged in semi-structured daily conversations with both human and AI partners. Results: The study examined the frequency of fillers, proper nouns, and “listen back” in conversations with AI and humans. Results showed that participants used more fillers in human conversations, especially those with lower cognitive function. In contrast, proper nouns were used more in AI conversations, particularly by those with higher cognitive function. Participants also asked for explanations more often in AI conversations, especially those with lower cognitive function. These findings highlight differences in conversation patterns based on cognitive function and the conversation partner being either AI or human. Conclusions: These results suggest that there are differences in conversation patterns depending on the cognitive function of the participants and whether the conversation partner is a human or an AI. This study aims to provide new insights into the effective use of AI agents in dialogue with the elderly, contributing to the improvement of elderly welfare.

Subthalamic nucleus neurons encode syllable sequence and phonetic characteristics during speech.

Speech is a complex behavior that can be used to study unique contributions of the basal ganglia to motor control in the human brain. Computational models suggest that the basal ganglia encode either the phonetic content or the sequence of speech elements. To explore this question, we investigated the relationship between phoneme and sequence features of a spoken syllable triplet and the firing rate of subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons recorded during the implantation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes in individuals with Parkinson's disease. Patients repeated aloud a random sequence of three consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in response to audio cues. Single-unit extracellular potentials were sampled from the sensorimotor STN; a total of 227 unit recordings were obtained from the left STN of 25 subjects (4 females). Of these, 113 (50%) units showed significant task-related increased firing and 53 (23%) showed decreased firing (t test relative to inter-trial period baseline, P < 0.05). Linear regression analysis revealed that both populations of STN neurons encode phoneme and sequence features of produced speech. Maximal phoneme encoding occurred at the time of phoneme production, suggesting efference copy- or sensory-related processing, rather than speech motor planning (-50 ms and +175 ms relative to CV transition for consonant and vowel encoding, respectively). These findings demonstrate that involvement of the basal ganglia in speaking includes separate single unit representations of speech sequencing and phoneme selection in the STN.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Speech is a unique human behavior that requires dynamic execution of precisely timed and coordinated movements, resulting in intelligible vocalizations. Here, we demonstrate that activity of individual neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia encode syllable sequence order and phoneme identity during a speech production task. These findings advance our understanding of neural substrates of human speech and shed light on potential involvement of the STN in complex human behaviors.

Speech recognition in videos using features of different enhancement filters

Video Speech Recognition (VSR) is the ability of software to extract spoken text from input sources, such as offline videos and YouTube. It achieves a good recognition accuracy rate for videos with clean environments. However, with unwanted noisy elements in speech, this presents a major challenge. Depending on where the noise originates from, there are considerable differences in the impact of various noise kinds on video speech recognition, including background music, multiple speakers, microphone quality, and dialects. It is not possible to create a filter for every kind of noise because the sources of noise might differ greatly and the speech environment’s circumstances can change over time. Hence, instead of using a single filter for each type of noise, this study proposed to combine features from a small number of noise removal filters applied to the same video speech signal, resulting in a better VSR output. According to experimental results, using the proposed framework increases the accuracy of video speech recognition when evaluated on YouTube videos with different noise levels. In test experiments, the proposed framework was evaluated against state-of-the-art approaches. The accuracy mean of the relevant current approaches was improved by 16.67% and against the best accuracy of them by 7.78%. This research contributes to the video speech recognition topic as the proposed framework can facilitate the extraction of spoken phrases in millions of hours of video available online, indexing them, and then searching for them through their index.

THE SYNTACTIC MEANS OF EMPHASIS IN THE ENGLISH PROMOTIONAL DISCOURSE

The article considers the emphatic patterns of syntactic structures used for highlighting communicatively relevant elements in promotional discourse with a strong persuasive effect. The research was conducted on the material of 19 automobile promotional brochures containing valuable information about automobile brands and their manufacturers for the target audience. The aim of the research was to study emphatic structures occurring in the English promotional discourse and determine the most frequently used types of emphasis. The study found that the emphatic displacement towards the anaphoric syntactic position occurred most frequently for underlining semantically relevant speech elements. The anaphoric emphasis is intended for the rhematization of thematic parts, which, nevertheless, does not diminish the significance of the cataphoric position, being traditionally occupied by the rheme. In addition, the syntactic emphasis was actively accompanied by discursive intensifier words, which, according to the quantitative data, were used in the middle of the emphatic sentences most frequently, thus fulfilling the function of retaining attention in continuation of the emphatic beginning. Due to the rheme displacement and discursive words, the entire emphatic structure becomes in the focus of readers’ attention against the background of surrounding discourse. The most common syntactic means of emphasis, in descending order, are the following: fronting, pseudo-cleft and cleft sentences, inversion, elaborative, introductory and duplicative sentences. The results of the research can be used for teaching linguistic text analysis and applied aspects of linguistics to students specializing in linguistics and professional English to students majoring in advertising and PR.

STRUCTURE AND SEMANTICS OF THE INAUGURAL SPEECH IN THE PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE (ON THE MATERIAL IN UKRAINIAN, POLISH, SLOVAK AND SERBIAN LANGUAGES)

The article is devoted to the study of structural and semantic features of the main speech genre of presidential rhetoric — the inaugural speech. We characterized the main approaches to defining the speech genre and highlighted the structural components of the inaugural speech in political discourse. The purpose of the study is to reveal the structural and semantic features of the presidents’ inaugural speeches presented in Slavic languages (Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak and Serbian). The object of the research is the presidential discourse implemented in the speech activity of the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and Serbia. The subject of the study is the structural components and semantic features of the inaugural speeches in the presidential discourse. We analyzed the inaugural speeches of the presidents who held this position in the first half of 2024: Volodymyr Zelensky (Ukraine), Andrzej Duda (Republic of Poland), Zuzana Čaputová (Slovak Republic), Aleksandar Vučić (Republic of Serbia). The material for the analysis was the texts of the inaugural speeches delivered by the presidents in the last term. The methods of component and linguistic stylistic analysis were used to analyze the structural and semantic features of the inaugural speeches. The component analysis made it possible to consider the lexical semantics, and the linguistic stylistic analysis became the basis for determining the stylistic features of the texts. The structure of the inaugural speech covers the framework elements of the greeting, conclusion, formulation of the political creed. Speech acts of thanksgiving are the main structural elements of the inaugural speech of the presidents. At the semantic level, the inaugural speech contains a description of the political situation in the country in the context of historical events and a specification of program provisions of a priority nature. Common elements for the inaugural speeches of the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and Serbia are the presence of mandatory structural elements, the dominance of speech acts of thanksgiving, appeals to the historical past and the formulation of future political steps. Among the specific features of presidential speeches, the use of ethnonyms in the speeches of V. Zelenskyi and A. Duda was recorded; the dominance of references to ancient history in the speeches of A. Duda and O. Vuchich; V. Zelenskyi’s criticism of the previous government, in particular the country’s presidents.

Beyond musical training: Individual influences on the perception of the speech-to-song illusion

When a spoken phrase is repeated several times, listeners often report a perceptual illusion during which speech is transformed into song. The speech-to-song (STS) illusion is often attributed to prosodic elements of speech, though listeners can vary greatly in their STS experience. While previous research established robust links between music aptitude and STS, the present study asks whether other cognitive traits may also influence STS. Individual (in)sensitivity to nonverbal aspects of speech, specifically speech prosody, has been previously linked to autistic traits and emotional intelligence. We test whether the presence of autistic traits, the level of emotional intelligence and musical training, as well as syntactic complexity influence the likelihood, speed, and strength of STS among native British English listeners. The results provide evidence for the involvement of some but not all studied traits. We found sentence complexity to be interacting with a composite score of musical training, and emotional intelligence for the likelihood of STS, whereas sentence complexity influenced the strength of the transformation. These results suggest that individual listener variability may interact with the linguistic parameters of sentences in STS. Crucially, sensitivity to prosody through emotional intelligence or by the presence of autistic traits does not mediate the transformation.

Explicating the Nexus Between Language of Oppression and Injustice in Literary Texts Through Pragmatic Lens

This study focuses on a pragmatic analysis and interpretation of the language that portrays oppression and injustice against women in Flora Nwapa’s One Is Enough and Ifeoma Okoye’s Behind The Clouds. In order to attain the set objectives for this study, Acheoah’s model of pragma-crafting theory was adopted. The study focused on manifestations of the linguistic, extra-linguistic, and psychological acts and pragma-crafting features in the chosen data. It was found that all three acts (linguistic, extra-linguistic, and psychological acts), together with the pragma-crafting features were used in all the selected data and some elements of speech acts, supra-segmental features, semiotic particulars like silencing, and so on were hugely utilized in the interactants’ expressions. Also, the pragma-crafting elements manifested in context presupposition, shared macro knowledge, contextual knowledge, behavioral implicature, and operational language. The study concludes that the speakers’ choice of words was in order to perform oppressive acts against women in our society.

Disinformation and "hate speech" in the online media of Kazakhstan (results of monitoring 2022)

The article examines the problem of using the "language of hostility" and disinformation in the media texts of the Kazakh media, as well as the problem of stuffing fake news during the political events of January 2022 in Kazakhstan. The goals of disinformation are determined and the effects on the mass audience are evaluated. During the tragic events at the beginning of the year, the Internet was turned off in the country, which led to an information vacuum. After the restoration of communication, a stream of fake materials of various formats (audio, video, images and messages on social networks) began, the purpose of which was to incite fears among the population. The platforms WhatsApp, YouTube, Telegram and VKontakte were investigated. Case analysis of texts was also used as part of the analysis. The materials were selected by random sampling. Various criteria were taken into account for the selection of publications, including attendance, the toxicity of comments, the number of articles and posts in online publications and social networks, as well as genres of materials and the presence of elements of hate speech. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyze the destructive consequences of disinformation recorded in the Kazakh and Russian media during the attempt to forcibly seize power in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The following methods were used: critical analysis of scientific literature, media monitoring, discourse analysis, and the method of comparative analysis. Case analysis of texts was also used. In 2022, Kazakhstan faced new geopolitical and information challenges: armed border conflicts, disinformation and "hate speech". All these risks have led to an even greater polarization of Kazakh society, socio-political tension and a decrease in the level of trust in the official media. The key factor in changing the situation may be increasing the information literacy of the population and its promotion through cooperation with civil society institutions, the implementation of universal media education programs. Given the volume of data and the amount of information processed, it is difficult to fit the whole situation and analyze how the discourse of "hate speech" and disinformation was built. The repeatedly disseminated unreliable and contradictory information significantly increased the tension of the network media field, contributing to a greater polarization of opinions about the extraordinary event and the aggression of participants in the information exchange.

‘Men More Polite Than Women?': Gender Differences Study of Bimanese Interaction in Requesting

This study examines gender differences in request speech and politeness, focusing on how men and women use different linguistic strategies to convey requests politely. This study aims to analyze the alerter and supporting speech elements in request speech in the Bima language as spoken by male and female students. It also compares the request speech elements used by men and women. Using a qualitative approach, the data analyzed consists of request utterances in the Bima language. Data were collected through recording techniques and discourse completion tests. The data analysis involved categorizing the speech elements as units of analysis, focusing on alerter and supporting elements, and classifying them based on Blum-Kulka’s framework. The analysis revealed that male speech tended to demonstrate familiarity with the interlocutor through the varied use of alerter greetings, while female speech showed politeness by employing supporting speech. This difference indicates that men are more inclined to use positive politeness strategies, whereas women tend to use negative politeness strategies.

Short Sentences of Responsive Replies from Dialogues of ‘Hamlet’ in Russian Translations

The article explores dialogic units with responsive utterances containing brief narrative structures consisting of representing or substituting words, such as we do, it will, they are not, etc. The linguistic material is sourced from the text of Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ and its translations into Russian by N. Polev, A. Kroneberg in the 19th century, B. Pasternak, M. Lozinsky, A. Radlova in the 20th century, V. Ananyin, I. Peshkov in the 21st century. The lexical-grammatical and stylistic characteristics of concise English structures are discussed, along with the translators’ approaches to their interpretation. It is revealed that in the translation texts, representative sentences are reflected by repeating individual words of the initiating utterance (sledi [follow] — slezhu [I follow]), idiomatic expressions (chego net, togo net [what is not, that is not]), sentence-words (da, net, vernо [yes, no, correct]), combinations like (sovershenno vernо [absolutely correct], tochno tak [just like that]), imperative markers (ne somnevaytes’ [do not doubt]). The authors of Russian translations maintain the function of utterances with representative sentences in Shakespeare’s text: in terms of character interaction — as an informative or phatic speech element ensuring coherence in dialogues, in terms of audience impact — as a tool helping viewers better navigate the stage events.

Voice Synthesis Improvement by Machine Learning of Natural Prosody.

Since the advent of modern computing, researchers have striven to make the human-computer interface (HCI) as seamless as possible. Progress has been made on various fronts, e.g., the desktop metaphor (interface design) and natural language processing (input). One area receiving attention recently is voice activation and its corollary, computer-generated speech. Despite decades of research and development, most computer-generated voices remain easily identifiable as non-human. Prosody in speech has two primary components-intonation and rhythm-both often lacking in computer-generated voices. This research aims to enhance computer-generated text-to-speech algorithms by incorporating melodic and prosodic elements of human speech. This study explores a novel approach to add prosody by using machine learning, specifically an LSTM neural network, to add paralinguistic elements to a recorded or generated voice. The aim is to increase the realism of computer-generated text-to-speech algorithms, to enhance electronic reading applications, and improved artificial voices for those in need of artificial assistance to speak. A computer that is able to also convey meaning with a spoken audible announcement will also improve human-to-computer interactions. Applications for the use of such an algorithm may include improving high-definition audio codecs for telephony, renewing old recordings, and lowering barriers to the utilization of computing. This research deployed a prototype modular platform for digital speech improvement by analyzing and generalizing algorithms into a modular system through laboratory experiments to optimize combinations and performance in edge cases. The results were encouraging, with the LSTM-based encoder able to produce realistic speech. Further work will involve optimizing the algorithm and comparing its performance against other approaches.

Структура и языковая репрезентация sanctio в древнеанглийских и древнерусских грамотах

The article identifies universal and specific structural and linguistic peculiarities of the sanctio (prohibitive formula / curse), an element of the main part of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Old Russian charters. The analysis has shown that the prohibition of violating a contract or changing its terms and the punishment awaiting those who violate the contract are universal and integral components of the internal form of the sanctio of Anglo-Saxon and Old Russian charters. The motive for breach of a contract also belongs to the universal components of the sanctio but is optional and not presented in all documents. In both Anglo-Saxon and Old Russian charters, violation of the contract was identified with the commission of a sin and was prosecuted by religious sanctions. The distinctive feature of the Anglo-Saxon charters in Latin was the usage of Christian images alongside the images of ancient mythology resulting from the borrowing of ready-made formulas from Latin documents and the increasing influence of the Christian Church. Old Russian charters, apart from spiritual punishment, contained mentioning the secular punishment, either monetary or corporal. Syntactically, the sanctio were conditional constructions, characterized by prescriptive modality and reflecting some elements of colloquial speech (in Old Russian charters). The use of negatively coloured vocabulary (mainly in Anglo-Saxon charters) had to increase the emotional impact on the participants of the legal act. Appealing to the feeling of fear, which served as a means of maintaining law and order, the compilers of the charters threatened the potential transgressor with God's punishment. They called on the Lord, the Most Holy Theotokos (in Old Russian charters) and various saints to be heavenly judges. The linguistic peculiarities of sanctions are presented in their functional syncretism, blending of the spheres of legal, everyday, and religious communication.

SENI DRAMA SEBAGAI MEDIA DAKWAH PADA SANTRI PONDOK PESANTREN WALI SONGO PURWOSARI PASURUAN

&#x0D; &#x0D; Dramatic art as a medium for da'wah is a form of applying da'wah bil hal as is usually done in the&#x0D; Wali Songo strategy for spreading Islam. The Wali Songo Islamic Boarding School, Purwosari&#x0D; Pasuruan, uses dramatic arts as education and a medium to convey d&#x0D; a'wah messages. This research&#x0D; was motivated by the design and delivery of a da'wah message through dramatic art which was&#x0D; quite interesting and relevant to the students of the Wali Songo Islamic Boarding School,&#x0D; Purwosari Pasuruan. Therefore, the aim of th&#x0D; is research is, first, to find out the design of dramatic&#x0D; art as a medium for preaching to the students of the Wali Songo Islamic Boarding School,&#x0D; Purwosari Pasuruan. Second, to describe the process of conveying da'wah messages through&#x0D; dramatic art as a me&#x0D; dium for da'wah to the students of the Wali Songo Islamic Boarding School,&#x0D; Purwosari Pasuruan. The research method in this scientific work, the author uses a qualitative&#x0D; research method with a case study type. Meanwhile, this type of research uses descript&#x0D; ive&#x0D; qualitative by conducting in&#x0D; -&#x0D; depth observations and interviews with the research object. The&#x0D; design and implementation of this dramatic art is by quoting storylines or scripts from several&#x0D; books after recitation with Islamic boarding school caregivers&#x0D; and displayed at khitobah activities&#x0D; every Friday with Jamiyyah Farhaniyyah. Meanwhile, the targets of the da'wah for the dramatic&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; ...&#x0D; .......&#x0D; Vol.&#x0D; 6&#x0D; No.&#x0D; 1&#x0D; Januari 2024&#x0D; Jurnal&#x0D; Komunikasi&#x0D; &amp;&#x0D; Konseling&#x0D; Islam&#x0D; |&#x0D; 2&#x0D; arts performance activities are the students of the Wali Songo Islamic Boarding School, Purwosari&#x0D; Pasuruan, who they usually&#x0D; call performing the Koran arts. The conclusion of this research is that&#x0D; the design for preparing dramatic arts is to recite the yellow book with Islamic boarding school&#x0D; teachers and then review the material from the book that has been studied into a drama&#x0D; script by&#x0D; holding a script review with the director and the players/actors. Meanwhile, the process of&#x0D; conveying da'wah messages through the art of drama applied by the students of the Wali Songo&#x0D; Islamic Boarding School is by conveying words of wisdom in bo&#x0D; oks that have been studied and&#x0D; discussed by emphasizing the elements of speech (vocals), expressions or facial expressions, as&#x0D; well as acting. and play a role.&#x0D; &#x0D;

Linguistic and cultural nature of phraseological units with numerical components in the English and Kazakh languages

Relevance. The need to study the linguoculturological paradigm of numerical phraseology is a priority task of modern linguistics, since it is stable language patterns that best reflect the mentality of the people, their cultural preferences, social living conditions, attitude to customs and traditions, ways of thinking and behavior. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to study idiomatic expressions based on numerical components for linguocultural associative links. Methodology. For implementation of the purpose of the study, the following methods were used: linguoculturological in combination with comparative-comparative, lexico-semantic and analytical-synthetic. Results. In this work, a study was conducted of the national specifics of the English and Kazakh languages, based on the linguocultural nature of idioms, which include a numerical component. Since numerological nominations carry sacred meanings, a study was made of each individual lexeme, the frequency of its use, lexical-semantic content and stylistic shades. Based on the obtained lexicographic information, comparison of numerical nominations in English and Kazakh languages was carried out. The linguoculturological status of phrasemes was determined, positive and negative connotations, metaphor and figurativeness were evaluated, associative links were formed between the functional-semantic fields of English and Kazakh phraseology. The question of the equivalence of phraseological units and the formation of lacunae (semantic gaps) in the phraseological picture of the world was considered. Conclusions. The richness of idiomatic expressions, especially those with numerical components, reflects ancient beliefs about the world's workings. Despite stylistic and semantic differences, both English and Kazakh languages exhibit equivalents, variations, and gaps in phraseology, with numerical components playing a significant role. This study can be used in conducting comparative studies of other national languages, establishing linguocultures and the linguoculturological status of phraseological units and other structural elements of speech, using machine technologies to isolate numerical lexemes from contexts, transforming the speech flow and forming new semantic and stylistic patterns. Keywords: idiom; numerology; symbolism; sacred meaning; national traits

ИНДИВИДУАЛЬНАЯ СТРАТЕГИЯ ОСВОЕНИЯ РЕБЕНКОМ МОРФОЛОГИИ И ПЕРСОНАЛЬНОГО ДЕЙКСИСА В РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ (ПЕРВЫЙ ЯЗЫК)

Children’s acquisition of morphology in inflectional languages is of relevance in modern first language acquisition studies. It may go various ways, and the quantity of these ways depends on morphological affluence of the language. The Russian language has a developed inflectional system, which causes diversity in children’s individual strategies while acquiring the language. Various combinations of the so-called syntactic and morphologic strategies is the reason for strategic diversity among Russian-speaking children. According to the research, the optimal alternating of the two strategies benefits for quicker and more efficient acquisition of the category of person and the entire grammatical system of the language, absence of deictic and grammar mistakes. It will be the most effective to combine consistent alternation of strategies, starting with the syntactic strategy with its subsequent transition to the morphologic one. A denser interlacing of these strategies may cause chaotic acquisition of the language and incorrect usage of its elements in child speech.

Peningkatan kesadaran kritis melawan berita palsu dan ujaran kebencian melalui literasi digital

Most villages in Indonesia, such as Bugel Village, are vulnerable to the spread of hate speech and fake news online. This fake news often contains elements of hate speech against specific groups, such as ethnicity, religion, race, or class (referred to as SARA), which can trigger division and conflict within society. Therefore, it is important for the community to have a critical awareness strengthened through digital literacy, so that they can counter hate speech and fake news. The community service activity carried out by the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bugel Village, Tasikmalaya District, aimed to enhance digital literacy among the community. This activity involved 30 participants from various social strata, including village heads and farmers, focusing on digital literacy education to identify and counter the spread of fake news and hate speech online. Lecture and demonstration methods were used, and participants underwent pretests and posttests to measure improvements in understanding and application of digital literacy. The results showed significant improvement; the average pretest score for understanding increased from 55.8 to 85.8, and for application, from 65 to 86.1 in the posttest. Participants' satisfaction with the training was quite high, averaging 4.09. This activity successfully demonstrated the importance of digital literacy in the community, especially in facing digital information challenges such as fake news and hate speech, and emphasized the need for ongoing efforts to develop digital literacy in the community.

Synonymy in the Ukrainian language and the problems of surzhyk (case study of synonyms with the meaning ‘probably’)

Background. In Ukrainian, the parenthetical modifier mabut’ ‘probably’ has more than 20 synonymous constructions and thus counts among lexical units with largests sets of synonyms. At the same time, in colloquial speech, mabut’ is often replaced by navjerno, which comes from Russian. Replacement of inherited lexicon with borrowings was related to the respective language policy and political situation.Сontribution to the research field. The paper discusses the reasons that contribute to the retention of foreign elements in modern colloquial speech in the case of competition mabut’/navjerno; such studies are important from the point of view of studying the interaction between the literary language and other varieties of the national language, as well as identifying the ingredients of surzhуk.Purpose. In this paper we are going to trace the use of lexeme mabut’ in the lexicographic, literary and spoken practice of the 19–21st centuries and to clarify the reasons behind the displacement of the inherited word by a foreign one in colloquial use.Methods. Using major lexicographic works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, corpora, materials of the Atlas of the Ukrainian Language, dialect textbooks, etc., a comparative lexicographic synchronic-diachronic analysis of the meanings of lexeme mabut’ is carried out, the geography of distribution of mabut’ and its synonyms is traced.Results. The competition between mabut’ and naverno is analysed taking into consideration all the meanings of mabut’ witnessed in dictionaries of different periods, its synonyms and attestations in the Ukrainian dialects and standard-oriented written practice. The closest synonyms in the early 20th-century dictionaries are lybon’, pevne, des’, in the Soviet-era dictionaries, respectivеly, pevno and očevydno. In the dialects, the form mabut’ prevails in the southeastern dialects with numerous phonetic variants; in the southwestern dialects lexical synonyms abound. A dialect of the Masheve village of the Chernobyl districts exhibits semantically close synonyms mabut’, vidno, može, novjerno.Discussion. Discussion. Navjerno, an element of surzhyk, in many contexts is an absolute synonym of mabut’. The use of navjerno in the early 20th century texts as a stylistic means and its attestation in the Atlas of the Ukrainian language and modern dialects are arguments for an early borrowing into Ukrainian. A great variety of phonetic variants of mabut’ and limited functional sphere of the standard language precluded entrenchment of a single standard lexical unit in everyday speech. Recent texts show that the borrowing is being supplanted by the inherited Ukrainian mabut’.

Language of mothers and fathers in interaction with their autistic children

IntroductionVerbal language is one of the most immediate and significant means parents have to express affect and information to their children. Parental speech directed to children has been thoroughly examined in typical development. However, the characteristics of parental speech directed to children with neurodevelopmental disorders are far less well documented, and no recent studies have been carried out that involve autistic1 children and their fathers. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze and compare maternal and paternal speech directed to young autistic children, focusing on fathers’ elements of speech in comparison with maternal language.MethodsN = 88 dyads participated in this study. 44 autistic children (41 males and 3 females) (chronological age: M = 40.01 months; SD = 11.96) in interaction with their fathers (paternal age M = 41.84 years; SD = 7.02) and the same 44 children in interaction with their mothers (maternal age M = 37.37 years; SD = 5.45). The language was verbatim transcribed using ELAN software (ELAN Version 6.4, 2022) and coded with an observational tool (Penman) for analyzing functions and referents of speech after reaching a satisfactory level of agreement between two independent transcribers.ResultsNo differences emerged considering the affective aspects of speech. However, mothers seem to direct more informative salient statements (W = 1,259; p = 0.02) and call the child’s attention more often than fathers (W = 1,253.5; p = 0.02). Regarding referents of informative speech, fathers focused more on the child’s internal states rather than mothers (W = 727; p = 0.04).DiscussionThese results reveal that fathers seem to display a relationship-based approach focused on a non-intrusive style with few demands while talking with their children, providing a complementary role to mothers that allows complete and harmonious stimulation of all areas of child development.

Spoken Word Recognition: A Focus on Plasticity

Psycholinguists define spoken word recognition (SWR) as, roughly, the processes intervening between speech perception and sentence processing, whereby a sequence of speech elements is mapped to a phonological wordform. After reviewing points of consensus and contention in SWR, we turn to the focus of this review: considering the limitations of theoretical views that implicitly assume an idealized (neurotypical, monolingual adult) and static perceiver. In contrast to this assumption, we review evidence that SWR is plastic throughout the life span and changes as a function of cognitive and sensory changes, modulated by the language(s) someone knows. In highlighting instances of plasticity at multiple timescales, we are confronted with the question of whether these effects reflect changes in content or in processes, and we consider the possibility that the two are inseparable. We close with a brief discussion of the challenges that plasticity poses for developing comprehensive theories of spoken language processing.

A Corpus Analysis of Hate Speech in Pakistani Political Discourse on Twitter

This paper is a corpus-based quantitative study on language change that has arisen during national political events, such as the no-confidence movement against Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This event, including many others, has given rise to the hate speech in Pakistani community online. In this paper, language change is discussed in terms of hate speech, collocation patterns, frequency of words (Nouns, Adjectives), N-Grams and Urdu hate speech words. A certain political time period is selected to make a comparison of the use of language and explore whether any variations have transpired during the political upheavals. These dynamics are explored because the frequency of hate speech words may suggest that how much aggressive the online political discourse has become. Moreover, it may also suggest that what kind of image is presented to the rest of the world through such usage of words. To find out the case, a data of 50,000 tweets was gathered using Tweetarchivist.com. This data was analyzed through sketch engine. The major findings from the research, reported in this paper, show that many of the tweets, through their collocations and frequency, contain hate speech elements which convey a negative image of the country across the globe.