Realization Of Speech Research Articles

Discourse-level Prosody Produced by Korean Learners of English

This study investigated (1) whether Korean learners of English use discourse-level prosody in L2 production as native speakers of English do, and (2) whether discourse-level prosody is also found in the Korean language, as is evident in the prosody of native speakers of English. The study compared the production of the same 15 sentences in two types of reading materials, sentence-level and discourse-level. This study analyzed the onset pitch, sentence mean pitch and pause length to examine the paratone (intonational paragraph) realization in discourse-level speech. The results showed that in L2 discourse-level prosody, the Korean speakers were limited in displaying paratone and did not made significant difference between sentence-level and discourse-level prosody. On the other hand, in L1 discourse-level text, both English and Korean participants demonstrated paratone using pitch. However, there were differences in using prosodic cues between two groups. In using pauses, the ES group paused longer before both the orthographically marked and not marked topic sentences. The KS group paused longer only before the orthographically marked topic sentence in both L1 and L2 text reading. In the comparison of sentence-level and discourse-level prosody, the topic sentences were marked by different prosodic cues. English participants used higher sentence mean pitch, and the Korean participants used higher onset pitch.

Inappropriate Presentation of Communicative Functions in Middle School English Textbooks*

This study investigates whether model dialogues in currently available middle school English textbooks present appropriate pragmatic input in the realization of speech acts or communicative functions with a focus on the authenticity of the textbook dialogues. To attain this purpose, a total of 18 textbooks were scrutinized in terms of communicative functions. The results showed that many of the textbook dialogues are devoid of adequate treatment of speech acts or communicative functions. The poor representation was evident in a wide array of communicative functions such as requesting/favor-asking, thanking, inviting, encouraging, complaining, responding to complaints, expressing sympathy, expressing surprise, refusing and responding to refusals. The misrepresented functions were largely due to the lack of sensitivity to situational constraints, interlocutor variables, and/or formality. Some cases were ascribed to pragmatic transfer from the native language. This study will contribute to the improvement of the currently available textbooks so that they can provide authentic speech act input.

Language and Culture

This paper surveys the research methods and approaches used in the multidisciplinary field of applied language studies or language education over the last fourty years. Drawing on insights gained in psycho- and sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and linguistic anthropology with regard to language and culture, it is organized around five major questions that concern language educators. The first is: How is cultural meaning encoded in the linguistic sign? It discusses how the use of a symbolic system affects thought, how speakers of different languages think differently when speaking, and how speakers of different discourses (across language or in the same language) have different cultural worldviews. The second question is: How is cultural meaning expressed pragmatically through verbal action? It discusses the realization of speech acts across cultures, culturally-inflected conversation analysis, and the use of cultural frames. The third question is: How is culture co-constructed by participants in interaction? It discusses how applied linguistics has moved from a structuralist to a constructivist view of language and culture, from performance to performativity, and from a focus on culture to a focus on historicity and subjectivity. The fourth question is: How is research on language and culture affected by language technologies? The print culture of the book, the virtual culture of the Internet, the online culture of electronic exchanges all have their own ways of redrawing the boundaries of what may be said, written and done within a given discourse community. They are inextricably linked to issues of power and control. The last section explores the current methodological trends in the study of language and culture: the increased questioning and politicization of cultural reality, the increased interdisciplinary nature of research, the growing importance of reflexivity, and the noticeable convergence of intercultural communication studies and applied language studies in the study of language and culture.

The Notion of Quickness in Speech Dialectal Discourse

The aim of the research is study of ways of linguistic representation of one of culturally distinguished attributes of traditional folk culture – notion of quickness – in the material of Pskov regional study. The sources of information are narrative and folklore texts of different genres, which are preserved in Pskov archive of dialects, folklore and ethnography. One of the results of the research is the description of fairy tale texts, dealing with Shrovetide rite, and partly texts describing the ceremony of marriage (more than 300 units). The main method of research is component analysis of semantics of adjectival lexemes with general meaning “quick”. The work deals as well with the notion of dialectal discourse, which is considered to be the sum-total of speech realizations (separate utterances and complete texts of different volume and genre). The results of the research show that, despite the inhomogeneity of the archive text material, dialectal discourse preserves features of traditional system of values, including information on importance of quick response in different forms of rites.

Gender differences in the acoustic realization of creaky voice: Evidence from conversational data collected in Northern California

Although several sociophonetic studies report greater breathiness among female speakers, a pattern often attributed to sexual dimorphism in vocal fold physiology (Södersten and Lindestad, 1990), recent studies in North America report that young women use more creaky voice than men (Yuasa, 2011; Podesva, 2013). While these recent studies examine conversational data, they rely on auditory techniques to identify creaky phonation, leaving its acoustic realization in conversational speech largely unexplored. The present study investigates the acoustic properties of creaky voice in hour-long sociolinguistic interviews with 30 speakers (15 females, 15 males; age 18–86) from Northern California. Measures of spectral tilt were taken at the midpoint of all vowels in the corpus (N = 362,429), and data were fitted to a mixed effects linear regression model. As expected, several linguistic factors influence H1-H2 values (previous and following segment, intensity, F0, F1, vowel duration, stress, phrase position, phrase duration), alone and in interaction. With regard to social factors, H1-H2 is significantly lower for female speakers, indicating greater creak, even though the H1-H2 measure under-captures creakiness for female speakers (Simpson, 2012), and no age effect was observed. In sum, while females are generally creakier, apparent time data do not indicate that this is a recent trend.

Evaluation of prosodic juncture strength using functional data analysis

Prosodic structure has large effects on the temporal realization of speech via the shaping of articulatory events. It is important for speech scientists to be able to systematically quantify these prosodic effects on articulation in a way that is capable both of differentiating between the degree of prosodic lengthening associated with varying linguistic contexts and that is generalizable across speakers. The current paper presents a novel method to automatically quantify boundary strength from articulatory speech data based on functional data analysis (FDA). In particular, a new derived variable—the Deformation Index—is proposed, which is the area under FDA time-deformation functions. First using synthetic speech produced with the TaDA task dynamics computational model, the Deformation Index is shown to be able to capture a priori known differences in boundary strengths instantiated in the π-gesture framework. Additionally, this method accurately distinguishes between types of boundaries in non-synthetic speech produced by four speakers.

Predictability effects on vowel realization in spontaneous speech

Previous research on vowel realizations within the formant space has found effects for lexical factors such as word frequency in both laboratory settings (Wright, 2004; Munson & Solomon, 2004; and others) and in spontaneous speech (Gahl, Yao, & Johnson, 2012). In addition to lexical factors, semantic context has also been found to influence vowel realizations in laboratory settings, such as emphatic/non-emphatic contexts (Fox & Jacewicz, 2009) and whether a word is predictable from the preceding words (Clopper & Pierrehumbert, 2008). The current project looks at whether effects on vowel realization for semantic context from the laboratory can be extended to spontaneous speech. As in Gahl, Yao, and Johnson (2012), the Buckeye Corpus (Pitt et al., 2007) will be used, with the same predictors used there with the addition of a semantic predictability measure. Semantic predictability for a given word will be calculated based on relatedness of that word to words five seconds before the word or less, where relatedness will be calculated based on WordNet (Princeton University, accessed 2012). As a listener can rely more on context for disambiguation, words that are predictable from their preceding context are hypothesized to contain less distinct vowels than words that are not predictable from context.

A constructional approach to condolences

Drawing on preliminary insights in Pérez (2001), Pérez and Ruiz de Mendoza (2002), and Ruiz de Mendoza and Baicchi (2007), the present contribution presents a constructional approach to the study of illocutionary meaning. In so doing, I analyze the speech act category of condoling in order to establish the relationship between its semantic makeup and the linguistic realization procedures provided for its realization. From this perspective, illocutionary constructions are defined as pairings of the semantic conditions of the conceptual representation of a speech act category and those mechanisms which activate them linguistically. The results of the analysis allow for different degrees of implicitness in the production and understanding of illocutionary meaning, as well as for the existence of conventionalized expressions associated to the realization of speech acts.

The Realization of Apology Strategies Among Persian Males

This study investigates the realization of apology speech act by Persian male native speakers to categorize and formulate the apology strategies employed in their interactions in various social contexts. It explores the effect of power, distance and severity of offence on the realization patterns of apology speech acts to highlight Persian males' linguistic choice. The data was collected through the administration of a Discourse Completion Test and a questionnaire. The study reveals the availability of some of the universal apology strategies in Persian and a culture-specific apology strategy used by Persian men that is situation-dependent in relation to contextual variables.

Discourse Approach to Teaching Language and Communication Skills

The successful realization of speech acts is a challenge which supposes general sociocultural background knowledge about the types of speech acts and strategies that are applicable under certain circumstances and the appropriateness and relevance of the given speech act, etc. However, the necessity of such a comprehensive approach is not always understood and accepted in the process of teaching speech acts. There is a primitive tendency to identify speech acts with certain linguistic patterns. The investigation shows that discourse analysis can provide valuable material for efficient language teaching at different levels and in various spheres in courses of grammar, vocabulary, communication strategies, intercultural communication and socio-linguistics.

A Contrastive Study into the Realization of Suggestion Speech Act: Persain vs English

This study intends to conduct a contrastive analysis between English and Persian with regard to suggestion speech act. To this end, some Iranian university students were asked to complete a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) consisting of six situations in which their suggestion act was explored. The research data was analyzed using percentage and Chi-square test. The study findings were compared with the previous research carried out by Jiang (2006) exploring natives’ use of suggestion act in order to detect the similarities and variations between cultures. The results revealed the variations in almost most of the suggestion types. Furthermore, gender proved to be a significant factor in the production of suggestion strategies. Finally, pedagogical implications were discussed in the context of second language learning. Key words: Culture; Pragmatic competence; Speech act; Suggestion act Resume: Cette etude vise a effectuer une analyse contrastive entre l'anglais et le persain a l'egard de l'acte de parole suggestion. A cette fin, certains etudiants universitaires iraniens ont ete invites a remplir une tâche d'achevement du discours (DCT), compose de six situations dans lesquelles leur acte suggestion a ete exploree. les donnees de recherche a ete analysee a l'aide de pourcentage et de test du chi carre. les resultats de l'etude ont ete compares avec les recherches anterieures effectuees par Jiang (2006) explore indigenes utilisation de la suggestion agir afin de detecter les similitudes et les differences entre les deux cultures. les resultats a revele des variations dans la plupart des types presque suggestion. Par ailleurs, le genre s'est revelee etre un facteur important dans la production de strategies de suggestion. Enfin, les implications pedagogiques ont ete discutes dans le contexte de l'apprentissage des langues secondes. Mots cles: Culture; Competence pragmatique; Acte de parole; Agitationde suggestion

The realization of speech acts of refusals of an invitation among Brazilian friends

Este estudo investiga os atos de fala de recusa na fala espontânea dequatro falantes do português brasileiro (PB). Seguindo a análiseracional de Beebe et al. (1990), o conteúdo e a ordem das estratégiaspragmáticas foram analisadas. Não obstante as similaridadesencontradas entre as fórmulas semânticas de Beebe et al. e o presenteestudo (e.g., Alternativas e Promessas), na tentativa de preservaçãodas faces, os participantes usaram outras fórmulas (e.g., Digressãoe Recusas Incompletas). A falta de marcas convencionais de polidez(e.g., obrigado, me desculpe), a Troca de Perspectiva (do eu para oImpessoal), e a Continuação Pós-encerramento foram aspectosdistintos entre os participantes. A ordem das fórmulas semânticasrevelaram ser um processo elaborado (e.g., Softeners → RecusaDireta → Justificativa → Reparo Positivo → Promessa).

The prosody of early multi-word speech: word order and its intonational realization in the speech of Italian children

Le but de cette recherche etait d'etudier, chez des enfants italiens, le developpement de la capacite a utiliser les caracteristiques prosodiques pour marquer differentes structures syntaxiques d'enonces a plusieurs termes, au cours de la premiere phase d'acquisition de la syntaxe. L'accent est mis sur les realisations prosodiques des enonces multi-mots dans lesquels les enfants commencent a utiliser les structures verbales (taille du vocabulaire > 400 mots, rang de LME entre 1,3 et 3,0). Les resultats ont montre d'une part que l'ordre non-canonique n'est pas marque par un type specifique de contours d'intonation et, d'autre part que les contours ne sont pas associes a des indices temporels ou frequentiels (FO max, min, etc.) specifiques. En revanche, lorsque le sujet est exprime dans les enonces canoniques, il est tres souvent marque par l'accent primaire.

The VARSUL Database

This study introduces the Project that gave origin to one of the most important databases about oral language in Brazil. The Project on Urban Linguistic Variation in the South of Brazil (VARSUL), that started in 1990, initially comprised the three federal universities of the three States of Southern Brazil: Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). In 1993, the Project began to also rely on the Pontific Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC–RS). The VARSUL Project aims at storing samples of speech realizations by inhabitants of socio-representative urban areas from each of the three states of the South of Brazil, stratified by location, age range, gender and education.

A Comparative Analysis of the Function of Declensional Meanings

Language-speech transformation proves essential for the existence and functioning of any language system. Language was born to meet various needs of the public, namely to make verbal communication possible. The article specifies the general observation of the fundamental function of the language with linguo-philosophical investigation of the role of declensions. The research aims not only to clarify the grammatical links or the description of the syntactic and morphological functions of the declensions in a sentence, but rather their semantic analysis.The problem of declensions not only refers to language-speech mutual transformation, but gives an opportunity to observe the peculiarities of the latter. This idea is confirmed when we compare the declension system of the Armenian language (synthetic language) with the declensions of the same nature in French (analytical language).Speech realization probably calls for the presence of certain syntactic structures. The declensional system as a potential source of such structures acts as a sort of “skeleton” in the process of language – speech transformation.

Automatic speech recognition and speech variability: A review

Major progress is being recorded regularly on both the technology and exploitation of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken language systems. However, there are still technological barriers to flexible solutions and user satisfaction under some circumstances. This is related to several factors, such as the sensitivity to the environment (background noise), or the weak representation of grammatical and semantic knowledge. Current research is also emphasizing deficiencies in dealing with variation naturally present in speech. For instance, the lack of robustness to foreign accents precludes the use by specific populations. Also, some applications, like directory assistance, particularly stress the core recognition technology due to the very high active vocabulary (application perplexity). There are actually many factors affecting the speech realization: regional, sociolinguistic, or related to the environment or the speaker herself. These create a wide range of variations that may not be modeled correctly (speaker, gender, speaking rate, vocal effort, regional accent, speaking style, non-stationarity, etc.), especially when resources for system training are scarce. This paper outlines current advances related to these topics.

A Collective Interior Monologue: Sergei Parajanov and Eisenstein's Joyce-Inspired Vision of Cinema

The interior monologues of James Joyce's "Ulysses" and Lev Vygotsky's work on inner speech profoundly impacted Sergei Eisenstein's development of the concept and practice of cinema as sensual thought. This article claims that twenty years after Eisenstein's death, Sergei Parajanov achieves a new cinematic realization of inner speech in "The Colour of Pomegranates", a work profoundly influenced by Eisenstein's last films, "Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II".

Negotiating interpersonal meanings in naturalistic classroom discourse: directives in content-and-language-integrated classrooms

The aim of this paper is to explore the realization of directive speech acts in naturalistic classroom discourse as part of an overall characterization of content-and-language-integrated classrooms as discourse environments for foreign language learning. Conceptually and methodologically this study is rooted in the research practices developed in interlanguage and intercultural pragmatics. A chiefly qualitative analysis of directive speech acts in six content lessons in Austrian upper secondary schools is carried out. Contrary to expectations regarding both classrooms and non-native speakers of English, the language behavior of the participants shows considerable degrees of indirectness as well as variability in the realization of directive speech acts. It is shown that the realization of requests varies according to goal (information/action), which is itself tied to classroom register (instructional/regulative). It is furthermore argued that interactive styles of the L1 culture should also be considered as explanatory factors. The analysis underlines that CLIL classrooms are as firmly situated within the circumference of educational discourse as EFL lessons.

The Political Agnosticism of Free and Open Source Software and the Inadvertent Politics of Contrast

Free and open source software (FOSS), which is by now entrenched in the technology sector, has recently traveled far beyond this sphere in the form of artifacts, licenses, and as a broader icon for and collaboration.1 FOSS has attained a robust socio-political life as a touchstone for like-minded projects in art, law, journalism, and science-some examples being MIT's OpenCourseWare project, School Forge, and the BBC's decision to release all their archives under a Creative Commons license. One might suspect FOSS of having a deliberate agenda, but when asked, FOSS developers invariably offer a firm and unambiguous no-usually followed by a precise lexicon for discussing the proper relationship between FOSS and politics. For example, while it is perfectly acceptable and encouraged to have a panel on free software at an anti-globalization conference, FOSS developers would suggest that it is unacceptable to claim that FOSS has as one of its goals anti-globalization, or for that matter any program-a subtle but vital difference, which captures the uncanny, visceral, and minute semiotic acts by which developers divorce FOSS from a guided direction. FOSS, of course, beholds a complex life despite the lack of intention; nonetheless, I argue that the agnosticism of FOSS shapes the expressive life and force of its informal politics. FOSS gives palpable voice to the growing fault lines between expressive and intellectual property rights, especially in the context of digital technologies. While free speech and property rights are often imagined as linked and essential parts of our American liberal heritage, the social life of FOSS complicates this connection while providing a window into how liberal values such as free speech take on specific forms through cultural-based technical practice: that of computer hacking.2 Whereas, traditionally, censorship and state intervention were seen as the primary threats against the realization of free speech, the social practices of free and open software raise the idea that forms property can be antithetical to the of free speech, principles that are constantly under social revision though they might appear as timeless and obvious. Source code, the blueprint for programs that most non-technical users rarely see, is becoming an object to construct claims about vocational rights and the appropriate scope of First Amendment law;3 FOSS has not only transformed the dynamics of software development but is also shifting understandings of the appropriate of intellectual property instruments and the scope of free speech protections. I argue that the wedge placed by practitioners between FOSS and politics is significant to an anthropological assessment of the liberal underpinnings and reformulations of FOSS and the wider socio-political effect of its vast circulations. My thesis is that the denial of FOSS' formal politics enacted through a particularized cultural exercise of free speech facilitates the broad mobility of FOSS as artifacts and metaphors and thus lays the groundwork for its informal scope: its key role as a catalyst by which to rethink the assumptions of intellectual property rights through its and inversion. It works because it recalibrates some of the distinctions and associations between free speech and intellectual property-it revises intellectual property law and channels it toward the protection of free speech, instead of its conventional use of securing property rights. Christopher Kelty aptly describes this as openness through privatization, which makes it the most powerful movement on the Internet, even though most of its proponents spend all their extra energy denying that it is political (2000:6). Political intent and subjectivity are indeed noticeably absent in the constitution of the free software and open source movement, which differs from more formal endeavors and new social movements predicated on some intentionality, direction, or reflexivity or a desire to transform wider social conditions. …

Commissive speech act use in intercultural business meetings

This paper focuses on the use of commissive speech acts (CSAs) in a range of business meetings involving participants from different cultural groups, recorded at a large multinational airline corporation in Hong Kong. After a description of a simple framework for classifying commissive speech acts, the paper presents an analysis of the lexico-grammatical realization of commissive speech acts in the corpus. The paper concludes that two factors (participants' cultural predispositions and meeting-type) appear to significantly affect how and when commissive speech acts are used in business meetings in the corpus by different groups. The paper then briefly discusses the possible impact of differences between cultural groups in their patterns of commissive speech act use in multicultural group contexts.