Listener's Knowledge Research Articles

Reduction of consonants and vowels in the course of discourse

There is a clear link between the discourse status of a word and the degree of reduction. For instance, Gregory [Dissertation (2002)] provided evidence that hearer knowledge affected reduction in production for discourse-old items. Lexical information, such as word frequency, also plays a crucial role in the degree of reduction [Fosler-Lussier and Morgan, Speech Commun. (1999)]. These previous studies either looked at short discourses or words isolated from context. Therefore, the current study investigates longer discourses, using the VIC Corpus [Pitt etal., Corpus (2007)]. The primary question is to what degree do repeated uses cause further reductions, and if the reductions are syllabically and segmentally uniform across a word. Many studies on reduction rely on the intuition that reductions occur when information load is light, such as when the word was repeated recently or has a high probability of occurrence, so the prediction is that unstressed syllables would show more reduction than stressed syllables, due to their lighter load of information. Likewise, as vowels vary more than consonants across dialects, the informational load of vowel quality may be less than that of consonant quality, so the prediction is that vowels would show greater reductions than consonants.

Specific previous experience affects perception of harmony and meter.

Prior knowledge shapes our experiences, but which prior knowledge shapes which experiences? This question is addressed in the domain of music perception. Three experiments were used to determine whether listeners activate specific musical memories during music listening. Each experiment provided listeners with one of two musical contexts that was presented simultaneously with a melody. After a listener was familiarized with melodies embedded in contexts, the listener heard melodies in isolation and judged the fit of a final harmonic or metrical probe event. The probe event matched either the familiar (but absent) context or an unfamiliar context. For both harmonic (Experiments 1 and 3) and metrical (Experiment 2) information, exposure to context shifted listeners' preferences toward a probe matching the context that they had been familiarized with. This suggests that listeners rapidly form specific musical memories without explicit instruction, which are then activated during music listening. These data pose an interesting challenge for models of music perception which implicitly assume that the listener's knowledge base is predominantly schematic or abstract.

Experimental Evidence for Preschoolers' Mastery of “Topic”

This study investigates the acquisition of the discourse/pragmatic notion of topic, based on an experimental task eliciting topic vs. focus subjects. In spoken French, these are obligatorily realized as dislocated vs. nondislocated noun phrases. The results provide overwhelming evidence for the early mastery of topic, even by the youngest children (2;6). The only difficulty was in the evaluation of fine-grained salience distinctions, leading to the underuse of full noun phrases in ambiguous contexts. A theory of mind test revealed that the ability to assess their listener's knowledge state is not sufficient to explain this underuse. Instead, children's overreliance on the situational context as a source of complementary information to disambiguate their utterances is argued to have a major impact on how explicit they are.

Using effective listening skills with international patrons

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review literature from the linguistics and language teaching fields on the listener's role in accent perception, and applies the findings towards recommendations for improving listening skills for library faculty and staff who interact with international patrons.Design/methodology/approachDetailed empirically‐based evidence on listening and accented speech can be gathered from the linguistics and language teaching fields, in which researchers have studied extensively the effects of foreign accent on listeners. This paper reviews literature on the role of listener attitude, experience and prior knowledge in the communication process, and outlines a training program for library staff based on evidence from the literature.FindingsThe listener's attitudes, experience, and knowledge affect his or her perception of accented speech. Comprehension of accented speech can be improved both through increasing awareness of issues related to accent, and through listening practice.Practical implicationsLibrary public service staff can improve their listening skills through training programs that include awareness raising, listening practice, and discussion of cross‐cultural communication issues.Originality/valueThis paper synthesizes research not usually found in the library literature, and makes specific recommendations for improving library service based on empirical research.

Preschoolers’ sensitivity to referential ambiguity: evidence for a dissociation between implicit understanding and explicit behavior

Four-year-olds were asked to assess an adult listener's knowledge of the location of a hidden sticker after the listener was provided an ambiguous or unambiguous description of the sticker location. When preschoolers possessed private knowledge about the sticker location, the location they chose indicated that they judged a description to be unambiguous even when the message was ambiguous from the listener's perspective. However, measures of implicit awareness (response latencies and eye movement measures) demonstrated that even when preschoolers had private knowledge about the sticker location, ambiguous messages led to more consideration of an alternative location and longer response latencies than unambiguous messages. The findings demonstrate that children show sensitivity to linguistic ambiguity earlier than previously thought and, further, that they can detect linguistic ambiguity in language directed to others even when their own knowledge clarifies the intended meaning.

The Structure and Delivery Style of Milton’s Verse: An Electronic Exercise in Vocal Performance

[True musical delight] consists onely apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and sense variously drawn out from one into another, not jingling sound of like endings. John Milton, Verse THIS PAPER EXPLORES THE DYNAMICS of rhythmical of poetry. It is about rhythmic structure of first six lines of Paradise Lost, their vocal performance, and Milton's underlying aesthetic conception. I will compare two commercially available recordings and also compare each of them to electronically manipulated versions of these lines. Psychologically, rhythmical performance of a poem is a perceptual solution to a perceptual problem: when linguistic and versification patterns conflict, they are accommodated a pattern of performance, such both are perceptible simultaneously. Before turning, however, to Milton, I will scrutinize two recordings by Sir John Gielgud, sixteen years apart, of last line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 129: (1) leads men to this hell. w s w s w s w s w s I am going to reproduce a few issues concerning segmentation from a full-length paper of mine devoted to four readings of this single verse line. (1) Then I will present my categories of convergent and divergent delivery styles. When I first listened to these two performances by Gielgud, I tried to get an over all intuitive impression of difference between them. I had an unexplained impression Gielgud 2 (see CD #00) is much more complex, artistically more sophisticated, rhythmically more satisfying. The best way to characterize my impression of Gielgud 1 (see CD #00) was, perhaps, by punning on English idioms flat-out and flat out. The former is usually used as an intensive, is, a modifier has little meaning except to intensify meaning it modifies; latter suggests in a blunt and direct manner. Later, when I analytically compared two readings' handling of complexities of verse line, this intuitive contrast was am ply ac counted for. you encounter stretch of language To leads men to this hell a prose utterance, it may be uttered as a single unit or will at most be divided into two segments, relative clause and what precedes it. But both Gielgud readings parse Shake speare's verse line into more segments than Now, when you look at wave plots and pitch plots extracted from two readings, an immediately perceived difference becomes conspicuous. In Gielgud 1 there is a huge 413-msec pause between shun and the and an even longer, 503-msec pause between heaven and that. In wave plot extracted from Gielgud 2, by contrast, no such pauses are visible. Discontinuation is achieved here by means other than straightforward pauses. Notwithstanding this, one of my associates could hardly believe there are no pauses Gielgud 2. What is more, as Figure 2 shows, Gielgud 2 words heaven and that are uttered on one falling intonation contour, effectively grouping that effectively grouping that contour backward rather than forward. It is prolongation and overarticulation of word-final /n/ bears all bur den of generating discontinuity at caesura. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Perceptually, what happens here is quite sophisticated. We have conflicting cues for continuity and discontinuity. The shared intonation contour, and lack of pause, group word that backward, but, at same time, listener's syntactic knowledge and sustained /n/ indicating a rest suggest a new start after heaven. Consequently, both a caesura after heaven and a across caesura are perceived at same time. Levin regards caesura as a metrical not a linguistic fact. The line exerts pressure for completion upon which caesura obtrudes: If caesura is regarded as syntactic pause or break, nothing is left to explain required sense of metrical impulsion across break (Levin 185). …

Analogical Reasoning in Romans 7:2-4: A Woman and the Believers in Rome

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.) At beginning of Romans 7, Paul narrates a brief story about a man who, by his death, liberates a woman from law that had governed his life. Paul uses this story to illustrate his claim that believers, through death of Jesus, are dead to Mosaic law that had governed Jesus's life. Origen calls narrative an example, Clement of Alexandria an allegory, and Augustine a similitude.1 Most contemporary exegetes identify passage as some kind of comparison. Although labels differ, interpretations generally follow tradition begun with Augustine's dictum: animadvertendum est istam similitudinem in hoc differre ab ea re propter quam adhibita est, is noteworthy how this similitude differs from very subject for which it is employed (Exp. prop. Rom. 1.36). By relating a woman who is free from law because of a man's death to Christ-believers' dying to Mosaic law, Paul apparently produced an asymmetrical figure of speech.2 If indeed this is what Paul has done, then exegetes have no choice except to find methods of analysis that account for disparity.3 In this article, I suggest an alternative interpretation: Paul's reasoning is symmetrical. The keys that unlock its symmetry are hidden within ambiguous syntax of clause ... (v. 2a) and grammar of phrase ... (v. 2b). If first phrase is understood as bound to law by way of man who is alive and second as the law that governs then w. 2ab are core of Paul's argument and clarify logic of its movement from contrasting statement (v. 1), via analogy (w. 2-4), to conclusion (w. 4-6). I will trace this trajectory from beginning to end with a brief discussion of various functions of Rom 7:1, an examination of analogy, and a short analysis of concluding verses. I. CONTRAST AND ANTICIPATION (ROMANS 7:1) Throughout Romans 6, Paul's correspondence has characteristics of a lively discussion between himself and recipients of his letter. At times he even addresses them directly (6:1-3, 15, 16). In 7:1, he continues this conversational style, crafting a bidirectional appeal to hearer's understanding:4 Are ignorant, brethren-for I speak to who know law-that law rules a person as long as she/he lives? Simultaneously confronting Roman communities with a question (Are ignorant of law?) and an assertion (You know law!), Paul contrasts ignorance with knowledge about a specific concept: law rules a person as long as she/he lives. Although concept is general enough to encompass gamut of familiar legislative systems in his day,5 Paul does not presume that his hearers have specific legal knowledge.6 Rather, he writes immediately and specifically what he wants his audience to know about law; that is, iuiio has supreme governing power over domain of life.7 It is not surprising, then, that Paul reveals neither ethnicity of law-knowers he is addressing (i.e., Jews or non-Jews) nor specific law under discussion.8 He addresses members of Roman communities as law-knowing with purpose of inviting them to follow-and understand-his argument.9 Paul places his attempt to compel his hearers to agree with his argument's conclusion strategically. His statement that the law rules living persons reinforces relationship between iuiio and Roman believers, a relationship he had already declared moot (6:14-15: you are not under law). In form, this contrast echoes Paul's bidirectional appeal to his hearer's knowledge; in function, it anticipates progressive rationale of his thoughts. He continues with an analogy that features contrasting assertions regarding authority of ... over life and proceeds to explain why Mosaic law does not rule believers. II. A SYMMETRICAL NARRATIVE (ROMANS 7:2-3) Comparing Christ-believers in Rome with a woman who is under authority of a living man, Paul creates an analogy. …

Profiling and identification in Hausa

Standard accounts of Hausa focus claim that a focused constituent is fronted before an out-of-focus clause and marked with the optional focus-marking copula nee/ cee. This paper claims that the fronting and the copula are two independent parameters with different contributions to the semantics of focus constructions. The fronting alone expresses the simple foci, i.e., one of the three profiling states of emphasis, contrast and information request (such as in wh-questions). The copula nee/cee combines with the simple foci to give the complex foci. Hence, nee/cee marks the deictic identification focus and the specific referent focus with all three profiling states. It also interacts specifically with each profiling state to mark the exhaustive listing focus (with emphasis), the restricted set focus (with contrast) and the hearer knowledge presupposition focus (with wh-questions). The paper also shows that Hausa constituent focus constructions developed from [Clause 1] + [Clause 2] constructions where [Clause 1] is a main clause profiled against [Clause 2], which is a presupposed adverbial clause.

"Oeh, Dat Is Een Koekje"

Articles and pronouns have already been extensively researched in various languages, including Dutch. Much less is known, however, about the pragmatic functions of these morphosyntactic forms during acquisition. The question to be investigated in the present research addresses the question of how Dutch children between 2;0 and 3;3 combine indefinite articles, definite/demonstrative articles and pronouns with pragmatic functions in reference. The research is located at the interface of morphosyntax and pragmatics. The choice of the form for a certain function is influenced by the child's ability to take on the listener's perspective. This ability is still developing in 2-year-olds, as is the acquisition of various morpho syntactic forms. The question is then, how do children combine forms with functions if they supposedly do not do this on the basis of the listener's knowledge of the referent. Three other possibilities are also investigated: specificity, discourse function and (visual) perceptibility. Both the form-function correspondences as well as errors in linking form to functions will be investigated for three Dutch children from the CHILDES-database. The results show that the children do not randomly distribute the morphosyntactic forms over pragmatic functions in reference. The patterns found can be explained on the basis of limited semantic use of forms and perceptual availability of the referent, followed by a growing sensitivity to discourse patterns.

The development of discourse referencing in Cantonese-speaking children

The ability to make clear reference in connected discourse was examined in children learning Cantonese, a Chinese language where noun phrase constituents, whatever their grammatical role, are omissible from sentences under discourse conditions that are not well-understood. Forty-three typically developing children aged 3 ; 0, 5 ; 0, 7 ; 0 and 12 ; 0 told 16 stories based on picture sequences. A panel of adult native Cantonese speakers was asked to judge the referential adequacy of each child's stories by identifying the character the child was talking about in 32 targeted referential acts. The targeted acts were of three sorts: MAINTENANCE of a known character, INTRODUCTION of a second new character, and REINTRODUCTION of a known character. Reference was judged to be adequate when 3 out of 4 'listeners' could successfully identify the character. Children's referential expressions were most adequate for Maintenance, less adequate for Introduction, and least adequate for Reintroduction. The twelve- and seven-year-olds approached ceiling on all three functions. The five-year-olds scored poorly on Reintroduction, and the three-year-olds failed both Introduction and Reintroduction, despite knowledge of at least one of the possible linguistic forms required for these acts as evidenced in a sentence imitation task. Viewed within the framework of Levelt's (1989) discourse model, the data improve our understanding of the developmental period during which children learn to make appropriate presuppositions about the listener's knowledge and attentional states.

Form–meaning connections in the acquisition of English articles

This paper examines the acquisition of English articles by native speakers of Serbian, a language which has no article system. Data from a translation task, performed by four proficiency groups are presented to demonstrate that, contrary to previous research, learners do not associate articles with either ‘hearer knowledge’ or ‘specificity of referent’ (Huebner 1983, Master 1990, Tarone and Parish 1989, Thomas 1989). Rather, they establish non-target form–meaning connections, where ‘the’ is associated with a discrete referent, and ‘a(n)’ with the individuation of non-discrete referents.

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS' THEORIES ON THE USE OF ENGLISH ARTICLES

Although it is well known that many second language (L2) learners have trouble using articles “properly,” the primary causes of their difficulties remain unclear. This study addresses this problem by examining the metalinguistic knowledge of the English article system that learners employ when selecting articles in a given situation. By doing this, the present study attempts to better understand the process of “making sense” of the English article system by learners who are at different stages in their interlanguage development. Eighty Japanese college students with varying levels of English proficiency participated in this study. Immediately after completing a fill-in-the-article test, a structured interview was conducted to investigate the reasons for their article choices. The quantitative and qualitative analyses reveal a number of conceptual differences with regard to their considerations of the hearer's knowledge, specific reference, and countability, which may account for learners' errors in article use across different proficiency groups.

I Know What You Know: Assumptions About Others' Knowledge and Their Effects on Message Construction

Current models of interpersonal communication assume that estimation of listener's knowledge is a basis for message formulation. By introducing methodological modifications to the Fussell and Krauss (1992) paradigm, the present study provided more definitive evidence for the use of knowledge estimation in message productions. In the first experiment, participants indicated whether they knew each of 30 landmarks (thus providing the actual distribution of knowledge) and estimated the proportion of students who would know them. Participants' estimation of the relative distribution of knowledge corresponded impressively with the actual distribution. In the second experiment, a different group of participants described each of the landmarks to an intended audience. The length of the descriptions and the frequency of naming a landmark were predicted by the estimated identifiability from Experiment 1. These results replicated previous findings in a different culture and addressed unresolved issues related to the role of knowledge estimation in communication.

Discourse management in terms of mental spaces

In this paper, we present a theory of discourse management, based on a version of Mental Space Theory, modified to accommodate dialogic discourse by incorporating a memory management system. We posit a cognitive interface between linguistic expressions and the memory-base. This interface works as a mental discourse domain in which elements are set up and relations defined in the course of a discourse. We propose to divide this mental discourse domain into two components, I-domain (intensional, indirect domain) and D-domain (deictic, direct domain). The I-domain is linked to the temporary memory and houses assumptions which are newly introduced to the discourse by linguistic description. The D-domain is linked to the permanent memory (and direct experience) and houses assumptions that are directly accessible. To demonstrate the correctness of our approach, we examine phenomena in Japanese involving reference fixing: proper nouns, third person pronouns and demonstratives, and assumption management particles: sentence final particles yo and ne. We show that our dual domain approach solves problems of mutual knowledge paradox involved in these phenomena by eliminating the need to make any reference to the hearer's knowledge assumed by the speaker in the description, thereby providing a powerful descriptive tool for some of the most recalcitrant problems in linguistic phenomena.

Presupposition and shared knowledge in it-clefts

Abstract In this paper, I present a view of the relative roles of logical presupposition and shared knowledge in it-cleft constructions. I Will argue for a view of it-clefts in which presupposition on the one hand, and indicators of shared information on the other, are understood to have separate functions: indicators of shared knowledge, including prosody, are argued to relate to a speaker's assumptions about the state of the hearer's knowledge and attention, while presuppositions generated on the basis of syntactic form are argued to indicate a speaker's requirements for what should be included within the hearer's discourse model. In the light of this view, I review three common assumptions about clefts relating in particular to the interrelationship of logical presupposition, shared knowledge and prosody, and show how the view argued for here gives an improved analysis of some previously problematic examples. Finally, I make some suggestions regarding what a strict separation between logical presupposi...

The Effects of Topic Familiarity on Second Language Listening Comprehension

The Modern Language JournalVolume 78, Issue 2 p. 179-189 The Effects of Topic Familiarity on Second Language Listening Comprehension BARBARA C. SCHMIDT-RINEHART, Corresponding Author BARBARA C. SCHMIDT-RINEHART Foreign Language Department Ashland University Ashland, OH 44805E-mail: au38@class.orgSearch for more papers by this author BARBARA C. SCHMIDT-RINEHART, Corresponding Author BARBARA C. SCHMIDT-RINEHART Foreign Language Department Ashland University Ashland, OH 44805E-mail: au38@class.orgSearch for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb02030.xCitations: 69AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume78, Issue2Summer 1994Pages 179-189 RelatedInformation

A prolog-like inference system for computing minimum-cost abductive explanations in natural-language interpretation

By determining what added assumptions would suffice to make the logical form of a sentence in natural language provable, abductive inference can be used in the interpretation of sentences to determine what information should be added to the listener's knowledge, i.e., what he should learn from the sentence. This is a comparatively new application of mechanized abduction. A new form of abduction — least specific abduction — is proposed as being more appropriate to the task of interpreting natural language than the forms that have been used in the traditional diagnostic and design-synthesis applications of abduction. The assignment of numerical costs to axioms and assumable literals permits specification of preferences on different abductive explanations. A new Prolog-like inference system that computes abductive explanations and their costs is given. To facilitate the computation of minimum-cost explanations, the inference system, unlike others such as Prolog, is designed to avoid the repeated use of the same instance of an axiom or assumption.

Binaural masking experiments using noise maskers with frequency-dependent interaural phase differences. II: Influence of frequency and interaural-phase uncertainty

This study investigates whether binaural signal detection is improved by the listener's previous knowledge about the interaural phase relations of masker and test signal. Binaural masked thresholds were measured for a 500-ms dichotic noise masker that had an interaural phase difference of 0 below 500 Hz and of pi above 500 Hz. The thresholds for two difference 20-ms test signals were determined within the same measurement using an interleaved adaptive 3-interval forced-choice (3IFC) procedure. In each 3IFC trial, both signals could occur with equal probability (uncertainty). The two signals differed in frequency and interaural phase in such a way that one signal always had a frequency above the masker edge frequency (500 Hz) and no interaural phase difference (So), whereas the other signal frequency was below 500 Hz and the interaural phase difference was pi (S pi). The frequencies of a signal pair remained fixed during the whole 3IFC track. These two signals thus lead to two different binaural conditions, i.e., NoS pi for the low-frequency signal and N pi So for the high-frequency signal. For comparison, binaural masked thresholds were measured with the same masker for fixed signal frequency and phase. The binaural masking level differences (BMLDs) resulting from the two experimental conditions show no significant difference. This indicates that the binaural system is able to apply different internal transformations or processing strategies simultaneously in different critical bands and even within the same critical band.

A predictive approach for the generation of rhetorical devices

Human discourse is fraught with rhetorical devices such as contradictions, illustrations, and analogies. These rhetorical devices carry important information which a listener uses to speed up the comprehension process. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of rhetorical devices commonly used in tutoring environment, and model the meaning of a class of rhetorical devices in terms of their anticipated effect on a listener's knowledge. These predictions are then used in planning computer‐generated discourse. As a testbed for our ideas, a system called WISHFUL is being implemented to generate commentaries in the domain of high‐school algebra within the framework of an intelligent tutoring system.

Children's Attributions of Knowledge to the Listener in a Referential Communication Task

SODIAN, BEATE. Children's Attributions of Knowledge to the Listener in a Referential Communication Task. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 378-385. 4-6-year-old children's understanding of the effects of ambiguous and informative messages on a listener's knowledge is studied in 2 experiments. Subjects, who are aware of the location of a hidden object, are asked to judge whether another person who received an informative or ambiguous message about the location of the object knows where it is hidden. In the first experiment, it is shown that 6-year-olds distinguish almost perfectly between the effects of informative and ambiguous messages on a listener's knowledge, whereas most 4-year-olds incorrectly judge that the listener knows where the object is hidden when he received an ambiguous message. 4-year-olds are shown to be good on an easier task, where they have to evaluate their own knowledge and the knowledge of a person in their own perspective as listeners in referential communication. In the second experiment, the finding that 6-year-olds are able to assess the effects of message quality on another person's knowledge is replicated, and it is shown that children who receive the knowledge-attribution task perform significantly better than a group of same-aged children who receive an analogous message-evaluation task. These findings are discussed with regard to recent research on children's understanding of the origins of knowledge in human minds.