Geminal Research Articles

Templates, markers and syntactic structure in Tashlhiyt Berber

One of the puzzling aspects of the Berber languages is the nature of the construct state and the cooccurrence restrictions it undergoes with certain grammatical morphemes. In particular, the reason why the construct state marker w- never occurs with the gender marker t- remains unclear, despite of several studies mostly syntactic. This paper argues that the construct state marker w- and the feminine marker t- compete for the same templatic position. Within the standard DP projection, it is proposed that a templatic CV site hosts gender t- under the nP. When raised to D, this site has no C position available for the construct state w-, yielding forms where only the feminine marker is realized. The same reasoning holds in the causative imperfective formations. The association of the causative prefix with the templatic site under the vP explains the absence of aspect markers in the verb. Extended to the case of Classical Arabic verb conjugation, the competition hypothesis allows us to explain why reflexive n- never cooccurs with medial consonant gemination; though semantically viable, nkassara ⿿it shuttered⿿ is ruled out because reflexive n-, generated lower in the structure than intensive gemination, fills the only C position provided by the derivational CV. The advocated analysis has implications for the way syntax, morphology and phonology interact: templates are indeed argued to mediate the interaction between components of Grammar. Handled in syntactic structure, templates allow unifying standard phonological, morphological and syntactic accounts of the cooccurrence restrictions examined in this paper.

Perception of non-native consonant length in naïve English listeners

English speakers are sensitive to phonetic length [Pickett and Decker (1960)] but do not maintain a phonemic length contrast [Hayes (2002)]. This study examines English speakers’ ability to discriminate and identify intervocalic consonant length in Finnish non-words. The consonants were manipulated for length and half of the participants were given brief written instruction regarding the Finnish length contrast. In an AX discrimination task, participants responded to increasing contrast ratio gradiently; however, the instructed group performed significantly better than the uninstructed group. Proficiency in any second language aids contrast detection in those receiving no instruction. In a forced-choice identification task, participants showed no evidence of boundary effects; however, the instructed group performed significantly more like native Finnish controls. Again, second language proficiency aids in consonant length detection. The present results indicate that information about and attention to a novel contrast, along with second language experience, aid processing in novice listeners. Given that learners can eventually maintain native-like contrasts, these factors may be influential in the initial formation of L2 phonological representations and support phonetic level of processing [Werker and Tees (1984)], intermediate to non-linguistic acoustic processing and phonemic processing, at which acoustic duration becomes a phonetically relevant cue.

Is the mora rhythm of Japanese more strongly observed in infant-directed speech than in adult-directed speech?

Japanese has traditionally been called “mora-timed,” but studies have shown that this intuition is based not on durational tendencies but rather on phonological, structural factors in the language. Meanwhile, infant-directed speech (IDS) is said to “exaggerate” certain properties of adult-directed speech (ADS), including rhythm. If so, then it is possible that the mora rhythm of Japanese is more strongly observed in IDS than ADS. To investigate this possibility, the present study utilized the RIKEN Japanese Mother-Infant Conversation Corpus, which contains approximately 11 h of IDS by 22 mothers talking with their 18-to-24-month-old infants, and 3 h of ADS by the same mothers. Results from durational analyses showed that aspects of mora rhythm, such as the distinction between phonemically short and long vowels and singleton and geminate consonants, and the tendency toward isochrony of moras, were not greater in IDS than ADS. Mora duration in IDS was instead more variable, partly stemming from greater phrase-final lengthening and non-phonemic, emphatic lengthening. Results from structural analysis, however, showed that non-CV moras such as moraic nasals that characterize Japanese rhythm occurred more frequently in IDS than ADS. These results suggest that even in IDS, Japanese rhythm is manifested structurally, not durationally. [Work supported by JSPS.]

Effect of speaking rate variation on the perception of singleton and geminate consonants in Japanese by native and Korean listeners

Perception of phonemic length contrasts in Japanese is difficult for non-native listeners. To better understand the source of this difficulty, the present study investigated native Korean listeners’ perception of consonant length contrasts at different speaking rates. Stimuli were created by modifying the duration of the second consonant of a non-word /ereC:e/ along a continuum to /ereCe/, where C was /k/ or /s/. The base words were spoken by a professionally trained native Japanese speaker with a carrier sentence at three rates, fast, normal, slow. Twenty-seven native Korean and eleven native Japanese listeners participated in a perception test. They listened to one of the created stimuli and identified whether the second consonant was singleton or geminate. Results show that even though Korean listeners’ perceptual boundary location between singleton and geminate consonants shifted according to speaking rate in a similar manner as the natives, their boundary location was more variable than native listeners at all speaking rates. Korean listeners also showed greater perceptual boundary width than Japanese listeners. These results suggest that Korean listeners have ambiguous criteria for phonemic length contrasts. Results are discussed in terms of the perceptual similarity between Korean and Japanese consonants. [Work supported by JSPS.]

Improved analysis of excited state proton transfer kinetics by the combination of standard and convolution methods

We wish to report a powerful methodology for analysis and interpretation of complex fluorescence decays and other kinetic data, based on the addition of convolution analysis to standard (individual and global) analysis. The method was applied to cases involving excited state proton transfer of flavylium salts in water, in water-1,4-dioxane mixtures and in micellar solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The results clearly support the proposal of the intermediacy of a proton-base geminate pair in environments other than water.

Vowel onset marker based objective evaluation of Japanese phonemic length contrast produced by non-native speakers

Aiming at building up an objective evaluation of second language (L2) learner’s Japanese timing control characteristics, this study propose an objective measure to simulate a subjective measure of L2 speakers’ production given by Japanese native evaluators from the view point of goodness of production. The focus here is on phonemic length contrast, e.g., /kako/ “the past” versus /kakko/ “parentheses” and /kaze/ “wind” versus /kaze:/ “taxation” which is difficult for L2 learners particularly when incorporated with speaking rates. The proposed objective measure uses a vowel onset time marker as a key perceptual and psychoacoustic marker to normalize speaking rate variations. The proposed new measure reflects tempo normalization between L2 learners by dividing the proficiency of mora-timing control in production. Results show that both vowel length contrast and consonant length contrast have a significantly higher correlation with the subjective evaluation score in which the coefficient was stable than using a simple duration difference measure. These results suggest that applying the psychoacoustic parameters would be effective to build up an objective evaluation of L2 learners. [Work supported by JSPS.]

Influence of Crystallinity and Energetics on Charge Separation in Polymer–Inorganic Nanocomposite Films for Solar Cells

The dissociation of photogenerated excitons and the subsequent spatial separation of the charges are of crucial importance to the design of efficient donor-acceptor heterojunction solar cells. While huge progress has been made in understanding charge generation at all-organic junctions, the process in hybrid organic:inorganic systems has barely been addressed. Here, we explore the influence of energetic driving force and local crystallinity on the efficiency of charge pair generation at hybrid organic:inorganic semiconductor heterojunctions. We use x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence quenching, transient absorption spectroscopy, photovoltaic device and electroluminescence measurements to demonstrate that the dissociation of photogenerated polaron pairs at hybrid heterojunctions is assisted by the presence of crystalline electron acceptor domains. We propose that such domains encourage delocalization of the geminate pair state. The present findings suggest that the requirement for a large driving energy for charge separation is relaxed when a more crystalline electron acceptor is used.

Instability of children's reading errors in bisyllabic words: The role of context-sensitive spelling rules

We examined the instability of reading errors, that is whether a child reads the same word sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly, as a function of the complexity of context-sensitive spelling rules (vowel degemination and consonant gemination). Dutch bisyllabic words were read twice by typical readers in Grades 2 and 3, and reading-level matched poor readers. Grade 3 readers produced more unstable errors than Grade 2 readers. The poor readers did not differ from the typical readers in overall error instability. For typical readers, vowel degemination complicates word identification. For poor readers this effect was even stronger. Of the lexical and sublexical word characteristics, word frequency was the strongest predictor: The higher word frequency, the higher error instability. Word frequency, moreover, interacted with context-sensitive spelling rules in its effect on error instability. Error instability can be considered as an indicator of the transition from incompetence to reading competence.

Spin-Selective Reaction with a Third Radical Destroys Spin Correlation in the Surviving Radical Pairs

The goal of this work is to reveal the effect that an irreversible spin-selective reaction of a partner of the spin-correlated radical pair (SCRP) with a third paramagnetic particle has on the spin state of the surviving SCRPs in the absence of spin exchange interaction. As studied SCRPs, we used the geminate (excess electron/radical cation) pairs generated by ionizing irradiation of tetramethyl-para-phenylenediamine solutions in n-dodecane. As a spin-selective reaction, the scavenging of electrons by nitroxide radicals from the bulk of the solution was used. Both the electron scavenging reaction and the spin correlation in the surviving SCRPs were monitored by measuring the recombination fluorescence decays of the irradiated solutions under the same experimental conditions. It was found that the spin-selective electron scavenging results in the acceleration of spin correlation decay in the remaining unreacted SCRPs. In accordance with the suggested theoretical model, the rate of this additional spin correlation decay is revealed to be equal to the scavenging rate.

Improving the reading of bisyllabic words that involve context-sensitive spelling rules: focus on successes or on failures?

The effect of two training procedures on the improvement of reading accuracy in poor readers was examined in relation to their initial reading level. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 60 poor readers. Poor readers were assigned to a control group that received no training, or one of two training conditions. One training concentrated on the words the children read correctly (successes), the other on the words they read incorrectly (failures). They repeatedly read bisyllabic Dutch words, half of the training words involving context-sensitive spelling rules (vowel degemination or consonant gemination). Some children repeatedly read their successes, others their failures. The training used a computerized flashcards format. The exposure duration of the words was varied to maintain the accuracy rate at a constant level. In general, children who received training improved their reading accuracy and reading speed of trained words, and reading accuracy of untrained words, more than the control group. Which training focus is superior, depends on the reading level of the child and the type of words used. For children with a low initial reading level, to improve reading accuracy of bisyllabic words that follow context-sensitive spelling rules, a training focus on failures was superior over a training focus on successes. For children with a high initial reading level, improvement of reading speed was largest in a training on successes. Evidently, the improvement of word reading skills depends both on the children’s level of reading competence and on the type of training.

Effect of Animated Graphic Annotations and Immediate Visual Feedback in Aiding Japanese Pronunciation Learning

This study examines the effectiveness of imagery and electronic visual feedback in facilitating students' acquisition of Japanese pronunciation skills. The independent variables, animated graphic annotation (AGA) and immediate visual feedback (IVF) were integrated into a Japanese computer-assisted language learning (JCALL) program focused on the pronunciation of specific word pairs. Students enrolled in an elementary Japanese course in Malaysia were randomly divided into three groups and used three different versions of the program: (a) text + sound, (b) text + audio + AGA, and (c) text + audio + IVF. The results of the study showed that students in the text + audio + AGA group significantly outperformed students in the text + audio only group in pretest-posttest improvement in learning the pronunciation of (a) akusento 'pitch' words, (b) seion 'voiceless' and dakuon 'voiced' words and (c) tanon 'short vowel,' chouon 'long vowel,' and sokuon 'geminate consonants' words. Students in the text + audio +IVF group significantly outperformed students in the text + audio only group in learning akusento words and seion and dakuon words. There were no significant differences between the AGA and IVF groups.

A unified account of consonant gemination in external sandhi in Italian: Raddoppiamento Sintattico and related phenomena

This study proposes a unified account of consonant gemination in external sandhi in Italian, also known as Raddoppiamento phenomena. As opposed to the common interpretation of Raddoppiamento as being driven by well-formedness conditions on Italian rhymes, it argues that gemination in sandhi ought to be analysed as a fortition process driven by positional factors. Not only does this account unify all of the Italian Raddoppiamento phenomena (backwards Raddoppiamento, synchronic and idiosyncratic Raddoppiamento Sintattico) but it provides a picture of the phenomena that is consistent from a theoretical, diachronic, geographic, cross-linguistic and synchronic point of view.

Dental Gemination in a Permanent Mandibular Central Incisor: an Uncommon Dental Anomaly

La geminacion es una anomalia que afecta el tamano, forma y estructura del diente. La denticion temporal es afectada con mas frecuencia, pero puede ocurrir en la denticion permanente, generalmente en la region maxilar incisal. En los dientes geminados, el desarrollo incompleto de dos dientes desde un solo brote dentario resulta en una corona dentaria mas grande, con una sola raiz y canal. En este articulo, se presenta un caso de geminacion en un paciente de sexo masculino, de 13 anos de edad con ascendencia Aymara observada durante un control de rutina. Al examen clinico intraoral, el diente 41 se observo con una gran corona, bifurcado en el centro de la zona incisal, junto a un surco que se extendio desde la bifurcacion hasta la union amelo-cementaria. El examen radiografico revelo la presencia de una sola raiz y un canal unico. La cavidad pulpar se separo en dos, segun la division causada por la bifurcacion coronaria. Este reporte muestra un caso infrecuente de geminacion dental del incisivo central mandibular permanente en un sujeto de ascendencia Aymara, y se discute su diagnostico diferencial y las opciones de tratamiento futuras previstas para este caso en particular.

Urea Induced Denaturation of Pre-Q1 Riboswitch

Urea, a polar molecule with a large dipole moment, not only destabilizes the folded RNA structures, but can also enhance the folding rates of large ribozymes. Unlike the mechanism of urea-induced unfolding of proteins, which is well understood, the action of urea on RNA has barely been explored. We performed extensive all atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to determine the molecular underpinnings of urea-induced RNA denaturation. Urea displays its denaturing power in both secondary and tertiary motifs of the riboswitch (RS) structure. Our simulations reveal that the denaturation of RNA structures is mainly driven by the hydrogen bonds and stacking interactions of urea with the bases. Through detailed studies of the simulation trajectories, we found that geminate pairs between urea and bases due to hydrogen bonds and stacks persist only ~ (0.1-1) ns, which suggests that urea-base interaction is highly dynamic. Most importantly, the early stage of base pair disruption is triggered by penetration of water molecules into the hydrophobic domain between the RNA bases. The infiltration of water into the narrow space between base pairs is critical in increasing the accessibility of urea to transiently disrupted bases, thus allowing urea to displace inter base hydrogen bonds. This mechanism, water-induced disruption of base-pairs resulting in the formation of a "wet" destabilized RNA followed by solvation by urea, is the exact opposite of the two-stage denaturation of proteins by urea. In the latter case, initial urea penetration creates a dry-globule, which is subsequently solvated by water penetration leading to global protein unfolding. Our work shows that the ability to interact with both water and polar, non-polar components of nucleotides makes urea a powerful chemical denaturant for nucleic acids.

Reduplication of Consonant Graphemes in the Ormlum in The Light of Late Old English Scribal Evidence

Abstract As opposed to previous studies, which usually attempt to refute the traditional interpretation put on the use of double consonants in The Ormulum, and attempt to advance an alternative explanation for the abnormally frequent use of <CC> digraphs, the current study primarily focuses on the standard view, which assumes that the scribe of MS Junius 1 applied double consonant graphemes to indicate vowel shortness. However, in this study the evidence comes not from The Ormulum but from two Late Old English MSS, as the use of double consonants to indicate vowel shortness is also occasionally attested in some earlier texts (Anderson - Britton 1997: 34, 51, 1999: 305, 317-323; Smith 2007: 107; and Laing 2008: 7-8). The major aim of this study is to show that the use of reduplicated consonant graphemes as indicators of vowel shortness is not confined exclusively to The Ormulum because this practice derives directly from Old English scribal tradition, where <CC> sequences were used not only to represent geminate (or long) consonants, but sporadically also for marking short vowels.

Electromodulation of photoluminescence in vacuum-evaporated films of bathocuproine

Electric field-modulated photoluminescence (EML) was measured in vacuum-evaporated films of bathocuproine (BCP), electron-transporting material commonly used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The external electric field of 106V/cm strength decreases long-wavelength photoluminescence (PL) up to 10% but the same effect on short-wavelength PL is above one order of magnitude smaller. The distinctive difference between the EML characteristics for the short-wavelength (mono-molecular) and long-wavelength (associative species) emission of BCP films is a result of the different nature of relevant emissive states. Absorption, PL, EML and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements can be consistently explained assuming existence of dimer species in solid BCP with their population increasing during aging process of the films. Besides ground state absorption dimer states are assumed to be populated indirectly from molecular (Frenkel type) excitons diffusing to defected domains of the films where dissociate through an intermediate stage of geminate (e–h) pairs. The EML data are analyzed applying various models of (e–h) pair dissociation based on Poole–Frenkel, Braun, Onsager and Sano-Tachiya-Noolandi-Hong (STNH) theories. The Onsager theory explains satisfactorily the observed EML quenching effect for dimer-type PL. The Stark effect on fluorescence quantum yield should be possibly invoked to explain the EML characteristics of monomolecular emission of BCP.

Solvent-Dependent Photochemistry of 2,2,2-Tribromoethyl-(2′-phenylacetate)

Photolysis (254 nm) of the title compound 1 produces a variety of stable products, which vary significantly with the nature of the solvent. Solvents that serve as efficient H atom donors (methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol) favor products arising from a net reduction of one or more of the C-Br bonds. These include 2,2-dibromoethyl-(2'-phenylacetate) 2 and 2-bromoethyl-(2'-phenylacetate) 3. In the presence of nucleophiles, products such as 2-(2'-phenylacetoxy)acetic acid 5a and/or its ester derivatives are produced. Phenylacetic acid 6 is formed in some cases but under the conditions studied appears to be a minor product. The results are interpreted in terms of a general mechanism that features formation of an iso-tribromo intermediate 9 and/or a geminate radical-atom pair.

Asymmetries in the perception of non-native consonantal and vocalic length contrasts

How well can non-native length contrasts for vowels and for consonants be perceived and is one type more difficult than the other? Three listener groups (native Italian and German as well as advanced German learners of Italian) performed a speeded same–different task involving vocalic and consonantal length contrasts as well as segmental contrasts as controls. Phonologically, Italian, but not German, has a consonantal length contrast, while German, but not Italian, has a vocalic length contrast. Analysis of responses yielded a clear asymmetry: A non-native vowel length contrast was perceived just as well as the native consonantal length contrast. A non-native consonantal length contrast, however, was perceived poorly compared to the native vocalic length contrast: Italians showed higher sensitivity for consonantal length than German learners of Italian, who in turn were better than German non-learners. Reaction time analyses indicated that, despite displaying higher accuracy, the decision was just as difficult for learners as for non-learners, suggesting different types of difficulty for listeners with and without experience with a consonantal length contrast.

Discreteness and asymmetry in phonological representations of words

Lexical phonological contrasts are generally binary and abound in asymmetries. For example, vowels can contrast in nasality (oral vs. nasal), but the presence of contrastive nasal vowels implies the presence of oral vowels, and not vice versa. The occurrence of geminates in a language implies the presence of single consonants and therefore, a contrast in consonantal length. Here we address the question of how these asymmetries constrain phonological representations of WORDS in the mental lexicon, and how these constraints affect language processing and change. Various phonological contrasts will be discussed including features, length, and tone, claiming that representations are discrete and asymmetric which in turn lead to asymmetry in processing. Experimental evidence will be presented from behavioural as well as brain imaging studies in Bengali, English, and German.

Direct determination of trap density function based on the photoinduced charge carrier extraction technique

Photoinduced charge carrier extraction experiments using a linearly increasing voltage (photo-CELIV) are reported for an organic thin film device from 1.8 to 150K. This device is composed of an active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). Photo-CELIV data for a zigzag shape voltage sweep provide critical evidence that the CELIV signal reflects the evacuation of charged carriers captured by traps under a high electric field. The data are analyzed using the Poole–Frenkel model. The trap density as a function of escape energy is obtained as ρ(ε)=Dexp{-(ε-ε0)2/σ2}, with D=1.0×1024statesm−3eV−1, ε0=0.087eV, and σ=0.029eV. The carrier drift mobility is estimated to be 2.3×10−6cm2V−1s−1 at 1.8K. As inferred from the light intensity dependence of the photo-CELIV data, geminate pairs are proposed as the origin of traps. This study demonstrates that carrier evacuation from a Coulomb potential effectively plays an important role in the electrical conduction of organic thin films.