Speech Norms Research Articles

The multilingual digits-in-noise (DIN) test: development and evaluation

Objective To develop a methodologically uniform digits-in-noise (DIN) test in 17 different languages. Design The DIN test was developed for Android devices as an extension to the open-access Hearing Test™ app, available on the Google Play store. It utilised professionally recorded female speech, speech-shaped noise, a digit scoring method and a variable step size. The test was adaptively optimised and evaluated as the results of tests taken online by users of the app became available. Study sample Optimisation using 35,534 ears, evaluation using 6012 ears. Results Optimisation improved the slopes of the psychometric functions for all languages by an average of 6.8%/dB. Evaluation included calculation of normative speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and estimation of test-retest standard deviations. Normative values for SRTs ranged from −14.2 dB SNR (95% CI −14.3 to −14.0) for Chinese to −11.2 dB SNR (95% CI −11.3 to −11.1) for Japanese, with reliability estimates ranging from 0.48 dB (95% CI 0.36–0.64) for Portuguese to 0.91 dB (95% CI 0.73–1.21) for Romanian. Conclusions The optimisation of each language version was confirmed by the improvement in the slopes of the psychometric functions. The normative values obtained from the test evaluation were in agreement with literature data. Trial Registration Science Support Centre of Wroclaw Medical University BW-59/2020

A review of Leech and Short’s norms of speech and thought presentation

A review of Leech and Short’s norms of speech and thought presentation

Patterns of interaction in a paired speaking test: comparing L1 and L2 interactions

The shift of focus from a cognitive to social view has drawn the attention of second language assessment researchers to delve into interactional competence as an intriguing topic in paired oral tests. To fill the gap on how interactional patterns compare across L1 and L2 interactions this study was specifically set to explore and compare 45 paired interactions of L1 English speakers, L1 Persian speakers, and L2 English learners. While the findings indicated that the collaborative pattern was the most common pattern in the three groups less than half of the interactions in total were collaborative. Furthermore, not all the interactional patterns were found in all the groups. The frequency and prominence of the common patterns also varied. The findings could be explained by cultural norms of speech (e.g., in taking turns) and interlocutor effects (e.g., dominating the conversation or adopting a passive role). The findings imply challenges for fair assessment when using paired tasks as assessment tools. Furthermore, the findings call for rubric development and rater training programs to include description and discussion of interactional patterns to help raters improve their understanding and rating of paired interactions.

NURS-06. MUSIC THERAPY: AN INTEGRAL PART OF REHABILITATION FOR CEREBELLAR MUTISM SYNDROME

Abstract BACKGROUND Cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS) also known as posterior fossa syndrome (PFS), can occur in up to 25% of pediatric patients following surgical resection of posterior fossa brain tumors, particularly medulloblastoma. It is well recognized that intensive rehabilitation with physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy are essential to recovery. Music therapy can be immensely helpful during rehabilitation to stimulate brain functions involved in movement, cognition, speech, emotions, and sensory perceptions. This case-based review aims at analyzing the available evidence to support our recommendation to include music therapy in the rehabilitation plan for all patients. METHODS We report on the case of a 4-year-old male with medulloblastoma and cerebellar mutism syndrome who began talking after just a few sessions with music therapy. We include an extensive review of the literature where multiple papers were found describing the positive effects of music therapy for management of neurologic diseases. RESULTS The pathophysiology of CMS is still poorly understood however, the most likely mechanism is injury along proximal components of the efferent cerebellar pathway. Intensive inpatient rehabilitation remains the standard of care. Music therapy uses and activates many different parts of the brain at the same time, promoting neuron repair and regeneration. Some of the advantages of music therapy are: it promotes plasticity in the brain and facilitates processing of sensory information and motor function; improves stress and helps patients adapt to stressful environments; facilitates more normative speech production for patients with dysarthria. CONCLUSIONS Despite efforts to identify preventative measures for CMS, it still occurs. Intensive rehabilitation remains the cornerstone of treatment. The case study as well as the review of the literature support our recommendation to include music therapy in the rehabilitation plan for patients with CMS. More studies are necessary to explore the therapeutic efficacy of music on patients with CMS.

Practicing deliberation in challenging speech cultures: the role of metadiscourse

Abstract This qualitative research draws on language and social interaction (LSI) approaches to consider how speech culture shapes the practice of deliberation in a country presumed to be a challenging environment for deliberative practices: Israel. Our analysis examines structured deliberative forums conducted by communication students in Israel, to demonstrate how participants reference, use, and orient to both deliberative democracy discourse and Israeli speech culture in ways that enable them to overcome cultural challenges to doing deliberation. We found that participants utilize metadiscourse to take stances that frame cultural challenges of deliberation, negotiate the tensions between deliberative principles and local speech culture, and creatively integrate local speech norms with deliberation. This research contributes to LSI and Political Communication scholarship, by enhancing practical theory of deliberative democracy. The explication of the role of metadiscourse reframes the relationship between culture and deliberation thereby providing new directions for scholars, practitioners, and educators of deliberative democracy.

ASPECTS OF RAPID SPEECH IN NONSTANDARD POOR ENGLISH SPEECH FORMS: A SOCIO-PHONETIC APPROACH

This paper investigates the socio-phonetic features of English rapid speech, focusing on how non-native speakers—like Nadia Murad—manage these features in high-stakes situations like her speech at the White House. Rapid speech usually involves changes like assimilation, elision, and the use of linking and intrusive sounds, which can be difficult for non-native speakers to understand and produce. The paper uses a qualitative methodology and focuses on socio-phonetic analysis to determine how Murad's speech differs from the norms of native speech. Murad's English communication may be less natural and fluid because, according to preliminary findings, her speech shows less phonological blending typical of native speech patterns. This work attempts to improve our knowledge of the way rapid speech affects non-native speakers and tries to provide information on phonetic training that can improve their ability to communicate effectively.

Borderline content and platformised speech governance: Mapping TikTok's moderation controversies in South and Southeast Asia

AbstractContent moderation comes with trade‐offs and moral dilemmas, particularly for transnational platforms governing borderline content where the boundaries of acceptability are subject to debate. While extensive research has explored the legality and legitimacy of platformised speech governance in established democracies, few address the complexities of less‐than‐democratic developing nations. Through sociolegal analysis and controversy mapping of TikTok's localised moderation in South and Southeast Asia, the study examines how major actors negotiate the shifting boundaries of online speech. The analysis reveals that neither the platform nor regional states are well‐positioned to achieve sound governance of borderline content. Primarily, TikTok localises its moderation based on pragmatic necessity rather than moral obligations, deliberately sidestepping contentious political controversies. Governments demonstrate determined efforts to control online discourse, leveraging legal uncertainty to further political agendas. Thus, local content governance often relies on vague rationales around securitisation and morality. The contradictory motives of (de)politicising borderline moderation seemingly counterbalance each other, yet in practice lead to an accountability vacuum where legitimate interests are sidelined. Given the lack of normative common ground, ensuring procedural justice and encouraging civic participation are essential to counteract rhetoric that rationalises imposition of certain speech norms hinging on imbalanced political power.

Clinical Focus: The Development and Description of a Palette of Transmasculine Voices.

The study of gender and speech has historically excluded studies of transmasculine individuals. Consequently, generalizations about speech and gender are based on cisgender individuals. This lack of representation hinders clinical training and clinical service delivery, particularly by speech-language pathologists providing gender-affirming communication services. This letter describes a new corpus of the speech of American English-speaking transmasculine men, transmasculine nonbinary people, and cisgender men that is open and available to clinicians and researchers. Twenty masculine-presenting native English speakers from the Upper Midwestern United States (including cisgender men, transmasculine men, and transmasculine nonbinary people) were recorded, producing three sets of speech materials: Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice sentences, the Rainbow Passage, and a novel set of sentences developed for this project. Acoustic measures vowels (overall formant frequency scaling, vowel-space dispersion, fundamental frequency, breathiness), consonants (voice onset time of word-initial voiceless stops, spectral moments of word-initial /s/), and the entire sentence (rate of speech) that were made. The acoustic measures reveal a wide range for all dependent measures and low correlations among the measures. Results show that many of the voices depart considerably from the norms for men's speech in published studies. This new corpus can be used to illustrate different ways of sounding masculine by speech-language pathologists performing gender-affirming communication services and by higher education teachers as examples of diverse ways of sounding masculine.

Call-Outs and Call-Ins

Abstract The phenomena of call-outs and call-ins are fiercely debated. Are they mere instances of virtue signaling? Or can they actually perform social justice work? This paper gains purchase on these questions by focusing on how language users negotiate norms in speech. The authors contend that norm-enacting speech not only makes a norm salient in a context but also creates conversational conditions that motivate adherence to that norm. Recognizing this allows us to define call-outs and call-ins: the act of calling-out brings with it the presupposition that its target's behavior is norm-violating, whereas the act of calling-in simply presupposes its target's willingness to revise their belief. With these definitions at hand, we evaluate whether call-outs and call-ins are suitable tools for combating social injustice.

Функционально-стилистическое своеобразие нормативного речевого жанра Schulordnung der Grundschule (на материале немецкого языка)

In the article the normative speech genre Schulordnung der Grundschule (Internal Regulations for Primary School Students) is considered on the material of the German language in the aspect of the functional and stylistic approach. The hypothesis is tested that the functional and stylistic peculiarity of the genre is the result of the interaction of formal and business style and the colloquial one, which act as the environment for the functioning of the genre and the texts actualizing it in the situation of institutional communication of adult norm-senders and children norm-recipients. The empirical material is represented by 100 text units created in accordance with the genre, the main purpose of which is to regulate the behavior of young schoolchildren while they remain in the educational institution. On the example of three stylistic features of formal and business speech – impersonality, non-emotionality and accuracy – it is shown how multi-level language means of colloquial style penetrating the normative texts violates their stylistic homogeneity, modifies stylistic features, and forms the inter-style nature of texts, reflecting the intention of addressees to take into account the cognitive and psychological characteristics of the younger subjects of the norm in the process of decoding normative messages by them. It is concluded that the genre of Schulordnung der Grundschule, as a way of selecting and combining linguistic means, shows openness towards different style inclusions, giving the addressees the opportunity to freely vary the linguistic means at their discretion in accordance with the ideas of the pragmatic effectiveness of the statement.

The Speech Genre of Commentary as a Way to Realize the Social Needs of Internet Communication Participants (Based the Survey Results).

The Speech Genre of Commentary as a Way to Realize the Social Needs of Internet Communication Participants (Based the Survey Results). The article studies commenting as a speech activity for creating and reading comments and an effective way to realize the social needs of representatives of a digital society. It reveals the features of comments as a primary network genre existing in the context of network discourse. During the research, a survey of Russian-speaking Internet users was conducted. The following conclusions are made: network users create a digital discourse designed to meet their needs for social interaction on a new emotional and cognitive level, as well as the need for self-expression in the outer world. The specific speech norms of commenting are: sincerity, focus on personal experience; constructiveness; positivity; benevolence; usefulness, relevance; "the right of the speaker". The results of the work can be used as a basis for further research of network discourse, communication on the Internet, in the process of codification of communicative and ethical norms of network communication, as well as in sociological researches of digital society.

Speech norms shaping adult-child discourse in Ghana: A critical pedagogy perspective

This study investigates the speech norms shaping adult-child discourse in Ghana, focusing on three tribes: Asante, Dagbani, and Akuapem Kyerepon. The study uncovers pervasive cultural conservatism, where challenging established norms is deemed unacceptable, especially in the context of child-elderly interactions. The study reveals a profound acquiescence effect, wherein children are compelled to accept statements from adults, even if they are aware of inaccuracies. Ageism also plays a significant role, as the culture discriminates against children, restricting their ability to contest and/or oppose the knowledge and opinions of the elderly. The implications of these speech norms on critical pedagogy in schools are explored. It was found that the rare practice of critical pedagogy significantly hindered the development of students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Students found it quite challenging in question the validity of knowledge, expressing disagreement with teachers views, and initiating discussions due to deeply ingrained speech norms of the Ghanaian society. These findings underscore the need for a paradigm shift in Ghanaian education to foster critical thinking. This calls for the need for sensitization of teachers and educational policy essential for integrating critical pedagogy effectively.

Cases of violation of speech norms in the Azerbaijan language

Cases of violation of speech norms in the Azerbaijan language

An Anonymous Letter of Warning in Fiction: a Comparative analysis of Translations from English into Russian

The article deals with a letter, that doesn’t bear the name of the sender, and which is given in a work of fiction for the sake of plot development and creating suspence in particular. This kind of inserted texts so far has not been covered by either linguistic or literary scholars, which specifies the novelty in this research. The peculiarities of an anonymous letter, that bears a warning – the
 most frequent kind in both Russian and English literature – have been made clear. We have studied eight translations of a small-size text from the novel «Adventures of Huckleberry Finn» by Mark Twain into the Russian language, made from the late XIXth up to the early XXIst century. Such fiction text fragments are
 comprehensible by themselves and, therefore, ideal for comparative analysis of translations. We have determined considerable variations in translation of separate words and combinations, and relative congruity of simple sentences. The
 latter can either be explained by the same syntactical structure and observance of language and speech norms, or by the awareness of the previous works.
 Our results can be used by those, who study the rules of translaing fiction, detective and adventure fiction in particular.

Kazakh Traditional Speech Culture (Based on the Film Kyz Zhibek

The Kazakh language has undergone changes under the influence of various internal and external factors and has lost its traditional norm. Therefore, it is important to study what is the traditional norm and culture of speech in the Kazakh language. In this article, the author defines the characteristic features of speech for the Kazakhs through the diction of the characters in the film «Kyz Zhibek». The aim of the article is to find answers to the questions of what was the traditional culture of speech of the Kazakhs, what is the expression of national identity in the language and how it affects the traditional speech culture. The main direction of the article is the problems of language culture in the system of linguistics. The main idea of the scientific work is to determine what was the culture of speech in the traditional Kazakh society, to prove by examples that through the speech the character of the nation can change. The scientific significance of the article lies in the fact that, the impact on raising the level of word formation in the Kazakh language, the development of language culture, stylistics, the practical significance is to show the differentiation of the traditional culture of speech of the Kazakhs, the subordination of the traditional language laws and the definition of the preconditions for proper speech. When writing the article, the methods of scientific analysis, linguostylistic analysis, generalization, comparison and reasoning were used. The material for the study was the film «Kyz Zhibek» filmed by S. Kozhikov in 1972 based on the script by G. Musrepov. The author notes that the main results and the analysis of the article changes everything that is said in the modern Kazakh language: the structure of speech, the way words are pronounced and the sounding, in a society which understands that it is only a question of observing grammatical norms of speech, the risk of losing the specificity of the national language arises. Determines that in the conclusion there is an opportunity to influence the character, the cognition of the person through the speech, the intonation of the speech characteristic of our nation. If language loses its nature, he concludes that language will lead to the change of the nation, the destruction of the national character and finally the destruction of the nation. The value of the article lies in defining the traditional grammatical, ethical and communicative norms of the Kazakh language.

The affordances of extreme speech

New media studies invested in online political conflict, radical and antagonistic subcultures have taken an interest in the affordances that shape memes, vernaculars and online political communication. One often overlooked affordance is the ensemble of social, communication, platform and legal frameworks stipulating what users can and cannot say, which I call “speech affordances.” To explore this concept, I look at the strategic communication of 4chan, Twitter and YouTube subcultures tied to a historical meme, “Kekistan,” often perceived as a key example of the ideological cacophony of the 2015–2017 online “culture wars.” I focus on how 4chan's policy of user anonymity, YouTube's unmoderated comment sections and Twitter's more proactive moderation practices brought some influencers to alter the original connotations of the meme into “overt” messages tolerable to Twitter and YouTube out-groups and platform moderation policies. Speech affordances bear methodological implications for historical studies of speech moderation and the overall mechanisms in which problematic language adapts to spaces with distinct speech norms.

Linguistic and Didactic Potential of Working with Text in the Course of Proffessionally Oriented Teaching the Russian Language to Inophones — Future International Lawyers

Communicative and functional co-direction in the process of learning and teaching any foreign language gives the text the function of the highest unit of teaching speech communication. The article aims to study the linguistic and methodological basis of teaching foreign students professionally-oriented communication of international legal character in Russian. The aim of the study is to develop a comprehensive methodologically grounded approach to the process of teaching the language of specialty to future specialists in the field of international law and international relations. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach to the problem under study, since the formation of professional competencies in this group of foreign students takes place in the Russian language, which is primarily a means of obtaining a specialty for them. The general scientific methods of cognition used in this study include, in particular, observation of the speech behavior of foreign speakers in the educational and scientific spheres of their activity, analysis of textual and linguistic material relevant to the students, experiment as a means of approbation of the developed methodology, as well as analysis of the obtained results. The article substantiates a comprehensive approach to the study of professionally oriented text, describes grammatical, lexical and conceptual difficulties characteristic of professional non-adapted texts in the specialty “Jurisprudence. International Law”. The novelty of the approach lies in the description of the typology of pre-text, and post-text exercises and tasks that contribute to the acquisition of scientific speech norms by foreign speakers, the formation of receptive, reproductive and productive speech activity relevant for professional communication of a future international lawyer. At the same time, the lexical material, on the basis of which the above system of exercises and tasks (“ETS”) was created, has not been previously included in such studies. The final part of the article presents the results of the final testing of students, conducted for experimental purposes and confirming the effectiveness of the proposed integrated methodological approach. The methodology of working with professional texts in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language to future international lawyers presented in the article can be used by Russian and foreign methodologists in order to create a linguistic and didactic model of professionally oriented teaching for other contingents of foreign students, as well as by practicing teachers working on the creation of professionally oriented teaching tools (textbooks, teaching aids) in the context of an interdisciplinary approach to teaching Russian as a foreign language

Modulating moderation: a history of objectionability in Twitter moderation practices

Abstract With their power to shape public discourse under unprecedented scrutiny, social media platforms have revamped their speech control practices in recent years by building complex systems of content moderation. The contours of this tectonic shift are relatively clear. Yet, little work has systematically documented, examined, and theorized this process. This article uses digital methods and web history to trace the evolution of objectionable content on Twitter content moderation policies and practices between 2006 and 2022. Its conclusions suggest that, more than abandoning an Americanized view of freedom of speech, Twitter has aimed at building a crisis-resistant speech architecture that can withstand external shocks, criticisms, and shifting speech norms. This kind of modulated moderation, as we term it, hinges on a form of normative plasticity, whose goal is not necessarily adjudicating content as more or less acceptable, but moderating it on the basis of evolving and ever contingent public conceptions of objectionability.

Free speech or obedient speech? Revisiting liberal speech norms in ‘closed contexts’

AbstractQualitative researchers can usually discern the difference between obedient speech and fearless, critical, or oppositional speech. Yet the context in which speech acts are performed is necessarily uneven, such that the same people who might speak freely in one place are often quick to engage in obedient speech in another. Speech acts also depend on the speaker's positionality, meaning that some speakers may have the privilege to act as ‘truth‐tellers’ and speak freely, whereas the positionality of others does not enable this. This paper considers how these contextual factors can be overlooked when liberal speech norms are taken for granted. Engaging with Michel Foucault's writing on parrhesia, I highlight the issues of positionality and context in defining how socio‐political borders are drawn around free (‘fearless’) speech as opposed to obedient (‘performative’) speech. I show how parrhesia opens up key questions for qualitative research about the politicisation of free versus obedient speech through space and time.

Not much “I” in “Team”: Content analysis of pregame speeches in American football

Although researchers have explored the effects of coach pregame speeches, little is known about the actual content, delivery, and environmental context of the speeches themselves. This study was a descriptive analysis of 127 ( n = 77 intercollegiate, n = 37 high school, and n = 13 cinematic) American football pregame speeches. The speeches were viewed, transcribed, coded, and analyzed via the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015) software program. Actual speeches were compared with natural speech norms and speeches appearing in movies pertaining to American football. In general, the pregame speeches were characterized by use of confident, analytical, motivational, emotionally tinged language that is collectively oriented and present and future focused. The speeches delivered to high school teams were substantially similar to those delivered to intercollegiate teams. The actual speeches differed from natural speech on numerous variables and from the cinematic speeches on some descriptive variables. The findings suggest that actual American football pregame speeches are fundamentally similar to cinematic American football pregame speeches and constitute a distinct form of communication that is tailored to the unique demands of the situation.