Word Accuracy Research Articles

Communication Bridge™-2 (CB2): an NIH Stage 2 randomized control trial of a speech-language intervention for communication impairments in individuals with mild to moderate primary progressive aphasia

BackgroundPrimary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome. Impairments in language (speaking, reading, writing, and understanding) are the primary and persistent symptoms. These impairments progress insidiously and devastate communication confidence, participation, and quality of life for persons living with PPA. Currently, there are no effective disease modifying treatments for PPA. Speech-language interventions hold promise for mitigating communication challenges and language symptoms. However, evidence regarding their efficacy in PPA is of low quality and there are currently no rigorous randomized trials.MethodCommunication Bridge™-2 (CB2) is a Stage 2, superiority, single-blind, randomized, parallel group, active-control, behavioral clinical trial delivered virtually within a telehealth service delivery model to individuals with PPA. Ninety carefully characterized participants with clinically confirmed PPA will be randomized to one of two speech-language intervention arms: (1) Communication Bridge™ a dyadic intervention based in communication participation therapy models that incorporates salient training stimuli or (2) the control intervention a non-dyadic intervention based in impairment therapy models addressing word retrieval and language production that incorporates fixed stimuli. The superiority of Communication Bridge™ over the Control arm will be evaluated using primary outcomes of communication confidence and participation. Other outcomes include accuracy for trained words and scripts. Participants complete two therapy blocks over a 12-month period. Outcomes will be measured at baseline, at each therapy block, and at 12 months post enrollment.DiscussionThe CB2 trial will supply Level 2 evidence regarding the efficacy of the Communication Bridge™ intervention delivered in a telehealth service delivery model for individuals with mild to moderate PPA. An important by-product of the CB2 trial is that these data can be used to evaluate the efficacy of speech-language interventions delivered in both trial arms for persons with PPA. The impact of these data should not be overlooked as they will yield important insights examining why interventions work and for whom, which will advance effectiveness trials for speech-language interventions in PPA.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.govNCT03371706. Registered prospectively on December 13, 2017.

Борис Йоцов и българският език

The article analyzes specificities in the language practice of the famous literary critic Prof. Boris Yotsov. Тhe focus of attention is the domestic layer of words: the presence of archaic vocabulary from the Old Bulgarian period, rare and dialect words, dynamics in the word-forming variance of names; shortening the noun base of words, etc. B. Yotsov's literary criticism exemplifies the linguistic processes in the period between the Two World Wars: the time of accumulation, construction, and creativity, manifesting the tendency to combine the inevitable needs of education with identity politics, striving to establish, enrich and ever codify the academic level of the Bulgarian language.

Are different reading problems associated with different anxiety types?

AbstractThere is a reliable association between poor reading and anxiety, but we do not completely understand the specifics of this relationship. The current study included a sample of children (N = 284; Mage = 9.30, SDage = 1.31) who completed a reading (word, nonword, and text reading accuracy, word, nonword, and text reading fluency, passage reading comprehension) and anxiety (social anxiety, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, physical injury fears/phobias, panic, obsessive compulsive symptoms) assessment. Analyses included bivariate and partial correlations, principal components analysis, and hierarchical clustering. We found a very tentative suggestion in the data that there may be a specific yet weak association between reading accuracy and social anxiety. The clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Does the inter-osseous membrane fascial dysfunction exist ? An observational study comparing palpation to ultrasound measurements

BackgroundThere is a lack of evidence to support a correspondence between osteopathic palpation and anatomical findings. The concept of dysfunction could be defined using more accurate words when describing palpatory findings if they could be explained by objective measurements. The forearm Interosseous Membrane (IOM) is a fascia often evaluated by osteopaths, searching for Fascial Dysfunction (FD). We measured IOM physical characteristics, such as elasticity and thickness, with ultrasound (US) and then compared it with osteopaths’ FD assessment. MethodsHealthy subjects were recruited and their forearms were marked every centimeter. At every mark, 3 registered osteopaths assessed the potential FD (none, moderate or strong). Assessments were compared to the IOM elasticity and thickness measured by US. A mixed effect model was used to analyse the link between thickness and FD and a chi-2 test for the link between elasticity and FD. Result41 subjects were included. Mean age was 28.1, 46% were men. The average IOM length was 13.0 cm (±1.5), the average thickness was 1.29 (±0.41). The mixed model found a strong correlation between the grade of FD and the IOM thickness for all three osteopaths (p < 0.01). Moreover, correlations were found between thickness and elasticity of the IOM (p < 0.001). ConclusionManual evaluation of FD seems to be correlated to physical properties of the IOM. Our results suggest that the forearm IOM is thicker at FD locations. This study needs replications on several anatomical areas and on the IOM of symptomatic subjects to confirm these findings. Moreover, research could focus on tissue changes after osteopathic treatment.

Emotional and Attentional Regulation: Impact of Trauma and Journal Writing?

Traumatic experiences are very common and have a high lifetime prevalence rate, which a large body of research indicates negatively impact the ability to self-regulate, including emotional and attentional regulation. This study focused on traumatic experiences caused by peer victimization and aimed to examine the effects on self-regulation after exposure to artificial trauma and journaling in graduate students. A convenient sample of 9 graduate students were randomly assigned to the control or intervention group. All participants were asked to engage in a journaling activity after watching the assigned video. Three emotional Stroop tasks were administered to participants: before watching the assigned video, after watching the assigned video, and after journaling. The results suggest that after the exposure to artificial trauma, participants in the intervention group had quicker average response time (ART) across negative and neutral word types with 100% accuracy for negative words and lower average accuracy rate (AAR) for neutral and positive words. The control group had quicker ART and slightly lower AAR for negative words, slower ART, and slightly lower AAR to neutral words, and remained the same on positive words with increased AAR. The results also suggest that, after journaling, all participants had slower ART for negative words, and quicker ART for neutral and positive words; there were increases in AAR across all word types. These findings suggest that both trauma and journaling have short-term effects on attentional processing in the context of emotion and point to the potential promise of journaling in interventions to support self-regulation.

Methods of euphemistic substitution in taboo speech (based on the Yakut language)

The article deals with the problem of linguistic taboos and euphemisms in the material of the Yakut language and Sakha culture. In the traditional culture of the Yakut people, the phenomenon of taboo led to the creation of substitute words in the language system, which are secondary nominations. Studying the mechanisms of their emergence, it is possible to study the interaction of human thinking, its language and the surrounding reality. The aim of our study was the means of euphemisms formation: an extensive dictionary of euphemisms, compiled by the author on the basis of several sources, is subjected to study. The various techniques of euphemistic substitution are identified primarily in terms of semantics. The euphemism and the tabooed word are linked in most cases by a metaphor based on figurative associations. At the same time, there is a transposition, which is based not only on semantic, but also on the functional juxtaposition of the linguistic units. Euphemisms are nominations based on metonymy, synecdoche, synonymy, antonymy, foreign words, dialectal and obsolete words are used as substitutes. The principles of synonymic and hyper-hyponymic substitution are also relevant. The latter are based on the logical periphrasis, an indirect descriptive designation of the object and phenomenon of reality. In most cases, the semantic components of euphemisms are related to the background knowledge of native speakers about a given reality. The cultural and historical background surrounding each word is an integral component of the meaning of the nomination. The presence of a special term kharys tyl in the Yakut language, naming protective words, i.e. euphemisms, demonstrates a special attitude to the word performing magical functions in the human collective.

Ideographic Dialect dictionary of the Bulgarian Language

The ideographic dialect dictionary of the Bulgarian language is an epochal work of a team of dialectologists at the Department of Bulgarian Language at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". The lexical richness of the Bulgarian dialects is collected in the two volumes published so far, and dialect words and forms are presented against the lexeme in the literary language. In addition to preserving the dialectal lexical richness, the dictionary is an invaluable source of information for anyone who re-spects the Bulgarian language and its dialects.

The reading profiles of late elementary English learners with and without risk for dyslexia.

Few studies have systematically investigated the reading skill profiles of English learners (ELs) in late elementary school, a critical developmental period for language and literacy and the most common grades for initial identification with specific learning disabilities (O'Connor et al.,Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 28(3), 98-112, 2013). We investigated the reading skill profiles of 331 ELs in 3rd and 4th grades, including ELs with and without risk for dyslexia due to significant deficits in word and pseudo-word reading accuracy and fluency. We utilized latent profile analysis and factor mixture modeling to investigate (1) the nature and distribution of reading skill profiles; (2) whether these profiles were associated with differences in reading comprehension growth across one academic year; and (3) the stability of reading profiles across an academic year. We selected a two-class solution (reading disabled and typically developing) based on model fit indices, theoretical considerations, pattern of results across profile-solutions and time-points, and parameterizations, making the approach stronger and more generalizable. These classes demonstrated clear, consistent differences in performance across reading component skills, with the RD class scoring consistently below the TD class across code-based and meaning-based domains of reading. Across the year, the TD class demonstrated significantly higher patterns of growth in reading comprehension (χ2 (1) = 206.21, p < 0.001). Class membership was largely stable (97% of participants maintain class membership). These results suggest that ELs with risk for dyslexia demonstrate multiple component skill deficits that may require long-term, comprehensive, intensive interventions to remediate.

Метаэлементы в контекстах с наименованиями пищи и кухонной утвари (на материале вологодских говоров)

The article examines food tradition that exists on the territory of Vytegorsky (Megra) and Totemsky districts in Vologda Oblast (Varnitsy village, Ivoilovo village, Pyatovskaya village, Glubokoe village, Myasokombinat village, Savino village, Sovinskaya village, Tsareva village, Chernyakovo village, Pritykino village, Totma). Research data is dialect recordings of Saratov dialectological text corpus. Food tradition, represented in speech by food names and kitchen tools, is analyzed in a discursive aspect in the article: we focus on the reflectivity of dialect speech. The author studies meta-textual comments in contexts with food names and kitchen tools. The main research method is descriptive, contextual analysis of the units. The following types of meta-elements are identified in the study: meta-elements indicating specifics of lexical units and their functioning in speech (including the territory of existence, chronological marking, word origin, etc.) and meta-elements used in the contact-establishing function. The author analyzes the frequency of contexts in which the relations of motivationally related words are actualized. The article deals with the main function of lexical and structural motivational units in analyzed contexts: dialect speakers use these units to explain the meaning of dialect words. Therefore, it is considered important and necessary to study meta-linguistic statements when analyzing vocabulary that names elements of traditional culture. Meta-linguistic statements functioning in speech convey the knowledge of dialect speakers about food traditions, represent the dynamic processes occurring in the vocabulary of the subdialect. The study also shows that food tradition remains one of the important topics of dialectal communication.

Vocabulary and reading speed in the majority language are affected by maternal language proficiency and language exposure at home: a study of language minority bilingual children in Italy

ABSTRACT Environmental sources of variance in the Italian vocabulary and reading skills of bilingual primary school children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) in Italy were investigated, and the LMBC’s skill levels were compared to those of their monolingual classmates. A total of 140 children from the first, third, and fifth grades were administered standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, word reading, and nonword reading skills. LMBC’s exposure to Italian at home and their mothers’ Italian proficiency were reported by mothers. Immigrant mothers’ Italian proficiency was a significant predictor of vocabulary and word reading speed but not of word accuracy or nonword reading. High levels of Italian exposure at home in combination with low levels of maternal Italian proficiency was a negative predictor of vocabulary; high exposure to Italian at home was positively associated with word reading speed and negatively associated with nonword reading speed. LMBC had lower vocabulary scores but did not differ from monolingual children in measures of reading skill. The findings underscore the importance of the quality of language exposure for language development and replicate findings that bilingual children show decoding skills on a par with monolingual children despite smaller vocabularies.

The SATPAC Approach and Remediation of Speech Sound Errors in an RTI Context: A Replication

Purpose: This retrospective study was intended to replicate findings from Sacks et al. (2013) regarding the efficacy of using the SATPAC (Systematic Articulation Training Program Accessing Computers) approach for remediating speech sound errors in a Tier 3 response to intervention (RTI) context. Method: Nine children aged 7;7 (years;months) to 9;11 (eight boys, one girl) previously treated using the SATPAC approach within an RTI context who had exhibited consistent errors on one or two speech sounds were identified. Three others served as delayed-treatment controls. Eleven of the 12 children spoke another language in addition to English. Baseline data were available from a recording of Contextual Probes of Articulation Competence words and sentences. Treatment occurred once weekly for 15 min and was terminated either upon successful completion of the program or at the end of the school year. Each student received 1.25–7.75 total hours of treatment per speech sound target. Generalization to conversational speech was also measured. Results: Seven of nine students achieved at least 90% target accuracy in single words at the end of the treatment period. Six of the nine achieved at least 90% target accuracy in conversational speech at follow-up. The three delayed-treatment controls failed to complete the treatment program but exhibited greater and faster improvement during 8–9 weeks of treatment than during the 6-month no-treatment period. This suggested that the change observed for the majority of the participants was the result of the treatment provided. Conclusions: Consistent with Sacks et al. (2013), the SATPAC approach appeared to be efficacious for remediating single speech sound errors within an RTI context. It did so with a relatively brief amount (i.e., less than 5 hr on average) of treatment. Thus, it appears to represent a viable option for application to RTI.

Identifying segmental and prosodic errors associated with the increasing word length effect in acquired apraxia of speech

Purpose: Individuals with stroke-related apraxia of speech (AOS) plus aphasia tend to produce more speech errors with increasing word length. The Words of Increasing Length task (WIL) uses a 3-point scale to score word accuracy but penalises for error types that can arise either from language or motor impairment, reducing the test’s sensitivity and specificity. The purpose here was to identify error types explaining variance in the WIL score, and those associated with AOS and word length. Method: Speech errors were perceptually identified on the WIL task for 51 Australian English-speaking adults with stroke-related aphasia, 25 with concomitant AOS. Multiple regression and linear mixed effects modelling were applied. Result: Variance in WIL scores was best explained with four error types: consonant additions, incorrect number of syllables, false starts and consonant substitutions/distortions. False starts were significantly associated with AOS diagnosis. Incorrect number of syllables, consonant omissions, false starts, and lexical stress errors increased in frequency for longer words and, while the interaction with diagnosis did not reach significance, the effect appeared driven by the AOS group. Conclusion: Findings provide further support for using polysyllabic word production to assess apraxic speech. The WIL task has limitations that may bias patients’ performance and clinicians’ perceptual evaluation. Data provide valuable information for designing a more sensitive diagnostic protocol for AOS.

Subject-speech organisation of Vladimir Kornilov's short story “Cone Picker”

The article presents a philological analysis of the linguistic means that determine the originality of the subject-speech organisation of the story written by Vladimir Kornilov, Kostroma prose writer of the second half of the 20th century. The purpose of the study is to identify the structural-semantic and pragmatic properties ofthe language units that form the speech plans of the primary narrator and the main character acting as a storyteller. The article analyses the leading language techniques and means of colloquial speech stylization – dialogisation of a monologue word; the use of colloquial and dialect vocabulary, Russian proverbs; folk interpretations of the semantics of words. Kostroma dialect words are involved in the creation of the character's speech portrait and reflect regional cultural and linguistic features. The article examines the key metaphorical images created by the lexical and syntactic language units. It also studies the comparative figures of speech that reveal the dialectical unity of nature and human. Rhetorical questions and aphoristic phrases of the narrator serve as expressive characteristics of the events and actions of the characters. The author of the article elaborates on the fragments of the tale narration in which the main idea of the story and the author's point of view are expressed. The pragmatic potential of the language units is manifested in their active influence on the structural and content organisation offictional narration. The lexical dominants ‘deed’ and ‘concord’ unite the separate compositional parts of the story into a common narrative space and actualise the philosophical meaning of the short story. The interaction of the primary narrator’s speech and the storyteller’s speech forms a two-voiced narration, creating textual polyphony. As a result of the study of the linguistic features of Vladimir Kornilov's short story, the author of the article brings into focus a system of language means and stylisation techniques that determine the originality of the subjective organisation of the narrative, explicate the conceptual content of the text and ensure its structural and semantic unity.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Examining the Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Spoken Word Recognition in Older Adults Using Eye Tracking.

Difficulties understanding speech form one of the most prevalent complaints among older adults. Successful speech perception depends on top-down linguistic and cognitive processes that interact with the bottom-up sensory processing of the incoming acoustic information. The relative roles of these processes in age-related difficulties in speech perception, especially when listening conditions are not ideal, are still unclear. In the current study, we asked whether older adults with a larger working memory capacity process speech more efficiently than peers with lower capacity when speech is presented in noise, with another task performed in tandem. Using the Eye-tracking of Word Identification in Noise Under Memory Increased Load (E-WINDMIL) an adapted version of the “visual world” paradigm, 36 older listeners were asked to follow spoken instructions presented in background noise, while retaining digits for later recall under low (single-digit) or high (four-digits) memory load. In critical trials, instructions (e.g., “point at the candle”) directed listeners’ gaze to pictures of objects whose names shared onset or offset sounds with the name of a competitor that was displayed on the screen at the same time (e.g., candy or sandal). We compared listeners with different memory capacities on the time course for spoken word recognition under the two memory loads by testing eye-fixations on a named object, relative to fixations on an object whose name shared phonology with the named object. Results indicated two trends. (1) For older adults with lower working memory capacity, increased memory load did not affect online speech processing, however, it impaired offline word recognition accuracy. (2) The reverse pattern was observed for older adults with higher working memory capacity: increased task difficulty significantly decreases online speech processing efficiency but had no effect on offline word recognition accuracy. Results suggest that in older adults, adaptation to adverse listening conditions is at least partially supported by cognitive reserve. Therefore, additional cognitive capacity may lead to greater resilience of older listeners to adverse listening conditions. The differential effects documented by eye movements and accuracy highlight the importance of using both online and offline measures of speech processing to explore age-related changes in speech perception.

CORPUS OF RUSSIAN DIALECTS OF UDMURTIA AS A TOOL FOR STUDYING PHONETIC AND GRAMMAR DIALECT FEATURES

The possibilities of using materials and interrogative forms of the corpus of Russian dialects of Udmurtia in the study of phonetic and grammatical features of the dialect language of this territory are considered. Initially, the corpus was created for the study of dialect vocabulary, semantics and word formation, the markup is associated with the Program of the Lexical Atlas of Russian Folk Dialects. However, the availability of corpus texts, as well as the ability to search not only individual words, but also their elements, make it possible to obtain information about the specific features of vocalism, consonantism, morphological and syntactic structure of Russian dialects of Udmurtia. With the help of the corpus, linguistic data were obtained and analyzed on the spread of okanya, reflexes of the ancient ѣ , on the loss of intervocalic j, the tendency to unify verbal paradigms, the coincidence of the endings of the dative and instrumental cases of plural nouns, on the use of prepositions when specifying an object in constructions with the meaning of purpose, direction, distribution of constructions with the nominative case of nouns in the words “no”, “many”. As a result of the study of the data obtained, conclusions were drawn about the inconsistency in the manifestation of the features of the Northern Russian dialect, which traditionally includes the Russian dialects of Udmurtia, about their heterogeneity and the need for a more detailed study. In the course of the work, the expediency of using the material and interrogative forms of the corpus of Russian dialects of Udmurtia for phonetic and grammatical studies was confirmed.

Benefits of app-based speech in noise screener for children

Current hearing screening methods focus on assessing a child’s ability to hear tones in quiet. However, this isn’t reflective of real-world classroom situations. Our proposed screening test uses speech in quiet and noise to evaluate a child’s auditory comprehension and possible auditory processing abilities. In this study, we investigate whether a speech in noise screener, Hearing Assessment in Response to Noise Screener (HeARS), is sensitive to detecting possible listening difficulties. We measured responses to a four-choice task with adapting signal to noise ratios based on individual performance. Following an auditory stimulus, the child is presented with four choices that are visual images of the spoken words. The child selects the correct image they hear, and based on their performance the signal to noise ratios increase or decrease in difficulty. Scores are reported as percent correct. We hypothesized that results from the screener would capture differences between speech understanding in noise and quiet conditions. In addition, a speech in noise screener may be more sensitive to deficits in auditory comprehension than traditional screening methods. Preliminary data suggest that the accuracy of understanding words in background noise increases with age. Results have implications for identifying children with auditory comprehension and processing deficits sooner, especially in underserved populations.

Multi Task Mutual Learning for Joint Sentiment Classification and Topic Detection

Recently, advances in neural network approaches have achieved many successes in both sentiment classification and probabilistic topic modeling. On the one hand, latent topics derived from the global context of documents could be helpful in capturing more accurate word semantics and hence could potentially improve the sentiment classification accuracy. On the other hand, the word-level attention vectors obtained during the learning of sentiment classifiers could carry word-level polarity information and can be used to guide the discovery of topics in topic modeling. This paper proposes a multi-task learning framework which jointly learns a sentiment classifier and a topic model by making the word-level latent topic distributions in the topic model to be similar to the word-level attention vectors in sentiment classifiers through mutual learning. Experimental results on the Yelp and IMDB datasets verify the superior performance of the proposed framework over strong baselines on both sentiment classification and topic modeling. The proposed framework also extracts more interpretable topics compared to other conventional topic models and neural topic models.

Linguistic Expression in the Novel by Adam Mekebaev “Hiding-place in the Steppe” and the Problem of Its Transmission in Russian Translation

The genre of the historical novel, in which the historical past is reconstructed, implies a special work of the writer with language - the main means of materializing, embodying and detailing the depicted historical reality. The artistic materialization of the objective world of the historical period, recreated in the novel under study is carried out by the author of the work through a description of household items and interior, beliefs and superstitions, the way of managing, ethics and speech culture, relations between estates, etc. Expressed by phraseological units, idiomatic expressions, dialect words, including obsolete reconstruction of the surrounding reality and the spiritual and psychological sphere, the inner world of the characters requires special attention of the translator. The purpose of the article is to comprehend and describe the ethnolinguistic units (phraseological word combination, idioms, dialect words, realities) found in Adam Mekebaevs historical novel A Cache in the Steppe, and to substantiate their translation into Russian. The author of the article is the author of the translation of the novel into Russian.

Linguistic Data on the Formation of the Kazakh Literary Language

The article deals with the linguistic data that are based in the formation of the Kazakh literary language. The role of dialects, professional and borrowed words in the language is mainly considered. The main direction of research is the nature of words in these areas, their role in the formation of the literary language. When analyzing the research, they are guided by the views of scientists who analyzed and studied the Kazakh literary language, and their conclusions are considered as the main stage of the study. The volume of vocabulary of each branch is analyzed and its features are noted. It is aimed at describing the place of dialect words in the literary language, revealing that professional words are a branch of the literary language, as well as determining the role of borrowed words in our language and their place in the vocabulary. And it turns out the influence and necessity of each of them on the literary language. The internal and external structural changes of motivated words, the semantic nature of which is etymologically substantiated, the content of the stabilized form are considered. The influence of dialects, professional and borrowed words on the basis of the literary language, its enrichment and artistic expressiveness, as well as the development of vocabulary are also widely analyzed. As a result, it is noted that the words in this area have national usage, reflecting the breadth of the language, and it is argued that such words are one of the main aspects in the history of the Kazakh literary language.

Արաբական փոխառությունների հայերեն բարբառային բառաշերտը

The borrowed layer of vocabulary is an inseparable part of a language, formed at different stages of its historical development due to numerous extra-linguistic and linguistic factors. Synchronic and diachronic approaches to the study of borrowings aim at exploring the nature of the existing historical and cultural interrelations between the languages and the peoples of the given linguo-culture. The study of the dialectal words that are of Arabic origin according to “Armenian Explanatory Dictionary” compiled by St. Malkhasyants, shows that most of them have fully or partially preserved the lexical meaning that they had in the source language, for example: ¹³í³/Ç ‘trial, dispute, demand’ (Arabic: da# va), ½áõÉ³É “light, clear, bright” (Arabic: zulāl), Ñ³É³É “lawful, just” (Arabic: halāl), etc. A number of words, however, have undergone semantic changes as compared to their original variant in the source language (cf. ³ç³É “end, end of life, death – Arabic: #ajal “hurry, speed”, ½ÇμÇÉ “useless, worthless” – Arabic: zibil “garbage”). Semantic changes may be the result of the influence of a third language or a borrowed word may acquire a new meaning in the borrowing language (i.e. in dialects).