Search

This edited collection presents papers relating to the state of the art in Perceptual Dialectology research. The authors take an international view of the field of Perceptual Dialectology, broadly defined, to assess the similarities and contrasts in non-linguists'perceptions of the dialect landscape. The volume is global in focus, and chapters discuss data gathered in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, and South Korea. The common methods used by many of the contributors means that readers will be able to draw comparisons from the breadth of the volume. The primary focus of this volume is geared toward an examination of dialect perceptions in and of cities, with an additional goal of presenting empirical, theoretical, and methodological advancements in Perceptual Dialectology. Authors'contributions to the collection examine how the urban setting influences perceptions of linguistic variation and, in the course of examining the connections between place and perceptions, explore several interrelated themes of linguistic variation, including the differences in the perception of rural and urban areas, processes of perception and language change, and the relationship between perception and ‘reality'.

The 16 papers contained in this volume address a variety of phonological topics from different theoretical perspectives. Combined, they provide an excellent showcase for the diversity of the field. Topics considered include the place of allomorphy in grammar; Dutch clippings; the status of recursion in phonology; the role of contrast preservation in the Grimm-Verner push chain; the phonological specification of Dutch ‘tense'and ‘lax'monophthongs; the distribution of English vowels in a Strict CV framework; a dependency-based analysis of Germanic vowel shifts; a Radical CV Phonology approach to vowel harmony; emergentist vs. universalist perspectives on frequency effects in vowel harmony; the representation of Limburgian tonal accents; durational enhancement in Maastricht Limburguish high vowels; constraint conjunction in Mandarin Chinese; lexical tone association in Harmonic Serialism; a constraint-based account of the McGurk effect; a case study of the acquisition of liquids in early L1 Dutch; and the learnability of segmentation in Tibetan numerals.

A wide-ranging and authoritative volume exploring contemporary perceptual research on speech, updated with new original essays by leading researchers Speech perception is a dynamic area of study that encompasses a wide variety of disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, phonetics, linguistics, physiology and biophysics, auditory and speech science, and experimental psychology. The Handbook of Speech Perception, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of technical and theoretical developments in perceptual research on human speech. Offering a variety of perspectives on the perception of spoken language, this volume provides original essays by leading researchers on the major issues and most recent findings in the field. Each chapter provides an informed and critical survey, including a summary of current research and debate, clear examples and research findings, and discussion of anticipated advances and potential research directions. The timely second edition of this valuable resource: Discusses a uniquely broad range of both foundational and emerging issues in the field Surveys the major areas of the field of human speech perception Features newly commissioned essays on the relation between speech perception and reading, features in speech perception and lexical access, perceptual identification of individual talkers, and perceptual learning of accented speech Includes essential revisions of many chapters original to the first edition Offers critical introductions to recent research literature and leading field developments Encourages the development of multidisciplinary research on speech perception Provides readers with clear understanding of the aims, methods, challenges, and prospects for advances in the field The Handbook of Speech Perception, Second Edition, is ideal for both specialists and non-specialists throughout the research community looking for a comprehensive view of the latest technical and theoretical accomplishments in the field.

In this book, some of today's leading neurolinguists and psycholinguists provide insight into the nature of phonological processing using behavioural measures, computational modeling, EEG and fMRI. The essays cover a range of topics including categorization, acoustic variability and invariance, underspecification, talker-specificity and machine learning, focusing on the acoustics, perception, acquisition and neural representation of speech.

This book presents an overview of speaker recognition technologies with an emphasis on dealing with robustness issues. Firstly, the book gives an overview of speaker recognition, such as the basic system framework, categories under different criteria, performance evaluation and its development history. Secondly, with regard to robustness issues, the book presents three categories, including environment-related issues, speaker-related issues and application-oriented issues. For each category, the book describes the current hot topics, existing technologies, and potential research focuses in the future. The book is a useful reference book and self-learning guide for early researchers working in the field of robust speech recognition.

This book analyses and challenges the metatheoretical framework which supports information-processing models of human speech perception. The first part consists of a review of speech perception research in the information-processing paradigm; an overview of the cognitivist philosophy from which this approach takes its justification; and an introduction to some relevant themes of phenomenological philosophy. The second half uses the phenomenological insights discussed to demonstrate some inadequacies of cognitivism; to show how these inadequacies underlie problems with the information-processing theory; and suggests an alternative framework with significant change of focus.

Nasality, whether part of a consonant or vowel, has certain phonetic and phonological characteristics that lead to outcomes seen time and again in languages with and without common ancestries. Spanish and Portuguese constitute a particularly fruitful language pairing for studying phonological aspects of synchronic and diachronic variation, given their intimate relationship as well as the array of dialectal variation in each. This research monograph offers a comprehensive exploration of nasals and nasalization in Spanish and Portuguese with a special focus on the role of perception in order to provide insight into how perception informs models of phonetics, phonology and language change. Of interest to researchers and advanced students alike, this volume integrates phonetic and phonological models of speech perception and production, and discusses these with regards to original empirical research on the perception of nasal place features and vowel nasalization by listeners of Peninsular Spanish, Cuban Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

This book is about responses to language variety — their variability, shape, and content, as well as the variable cognitive and neural pathways underlying them. The chapters explore access to, processing of, and outcomes of that diversity and complexity. Many traditions are represented: from social psychology come classic experimental methods as well as more current discourse-based analyses; anthropology is represented in indexicality, iconization, recursivity, erasure, enregisterment, and ideologies; the sociolinguistic focus on specific rather than global elements that trigger responses is highlighted. The individual chapters address a variety of questions concerning language attitude, belief, and ideology, in some cases singly, in others with a more general focus, including attempts to relate one style of research to another. If we accept the fact that individuals house great variability in the underlying cognitive structures that inform responses, it follows that no single way of eliciting and studying them will do. This book provides a tour of the emerging tools that have been productive in such investigations.

Written in a lively style, Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind applies a scientific approach to the study of various aspects of speech, using everyday examples to introduce the beginning student to the world of language and cognition. An accessible introduction to the fundamentals of speech production, speech perception, word-formation, language acquisition and speech disorders Considers how the informational content of the speech signal relates to phonological units – connecting the three areas of speech, words, and mind Focuses on speech production and recognition at the word-level and below, and includes sign languages Written in a highly accessible style for students with no background in linguistics or psychology Packed with numerous student-friendly features, including engaging examples, illustrations, and sidebars for further discussion; further online exercises and data also available at http://www.discoveringspeech.wiley.com/

Wo liegen die Schnittstellen von Sprache und Musik? Kann Gesang prosodische Merkmale der Sprache transportieren? Ist er ein wichtiger Faktor für Kinder im frühen Spracherwerb? Diese Fragen stehen im Mittelpunkt dieses Buches, das erstmals die Prosodie alltäglicher gesungener Sprache untersucht. Im Vergleich der Sprachen Deutsch, Französisch und Russisch zeigt die Autorin, dass im kindgerichteten Singen sprachspezifische prosodische Merkmale vorhanden sind, die den Erwerbsverlauf innerhalb des ersten Lebensjahres fördern könnten. Umfangreiche Feldaufnahmen bilden die Grundlage von fünf exemplarischen Untersuchungen, die phonologische und phonetische Aspekte des kindgerichteten Singens beleuchten: Vokalartikulation, Silbenstruktur, Betonungskorrelate, Phrasenstrukturen und die kommunikative Funktion tonaler Konturen. Methodisch bietet das Buch neue Wege an, um mit gesungener Sprache umzugehen, gleichzeitig werden Erkenntnisse aus Studien zur Motherese integriert. Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Relevanz gesungener Sprache für die Linguistik, für Sprachtypologie, Spracherwerbsforschung und -therapie. Das Buch vertieft die Frage nach den Gemeinsamkeiten von Sprache und Musik und ist daher auch interdisziplinär von Interesse. Editorial board Dr. habil. Kai Alter (Newcastle University Medical School) Prof. Dr. Thomas Pechmann (Universität Leipzig) Prof. em. Dr. Anita Steube (Universität Leipzig)

This book takes contrast, an issue that has been central to phonological theory since Saussure, as its central theme, making explicit its importance to phonological theory, perception, and acquisition. The volume brings together a number of different contemporary approaches to the theory of contrast, including chapters set within more abstract representation-based theories, as well as chapters that focus on functional phonetic theories and perceptual constraints. This book will be of interest to phonologists, phoneticians, psycholinguists, researchers in first and second language acquisition, and cognitive scientists interested in current thinking on this exciting topic.

This book explores the interface between speech perception and production through a longitudinal acoustic analysis of the speech of postlingually deaf adults with cochlear implants (electrode and computer prostheses for the inner ear in cases of nerve deafness). The methodology is based on the work of Joseph Perkell at MIT, replicating and extending analysis to subjects with modern digital cochlear implants and processor technology. Lowenstein also examines how cochlear implants are portrayed in dramatic and documentary television programs, the scientific accuracy of those portrayals, and what expectations might be taken away by viewers, particularly given modern society's view that technology can overcome the frailties of the human body.

This stimulating collection of articles from leading international researchers provides a state-of-the-art overview of core issues in second language speech perception and production. Aimed at phoneticians, speech scientists, psycholinguists, applied linguists, and pedagogical specialists, it presents engaging discussions of fundamental problems and controversies within the field, as well as new empirical findings arising from a variety of methodological approaches. Its twenty chapters, inspired by the ground-breaking work of James E. Flege, address such topics as the theoretical underpinnings of second language speech learning; the nature and etiology of foreign accents; the effects of age, experience, and training; speech intelligibility; and the acquisition of vowels, consonants, tone, and prosody. This volume will serve as a valuable resource, not only for researchers, but for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of an area of linguistics that is rapidly growing in importance.

The human species is largely defined by its use of spoken language, so integral is speech communication to behavior and social interaction. Despite its importance in everyday life, comparatively little is known about the auditory mechanisms that underlie the ability to understand language. The current volume examines the perception and processing of speech from the perspective of the hearing system. The chapters in this book describe a comprehensive set of approaches to the scientific study of speech and hearing, ranging from anatomy and physiology, to psychophysics and perception, and computational modeling. The auditory basis of speech is examined within a biological and an evolutionary context, and its relevance to applied domains such as communication disorders and speech technology discussed in detail. This volume will be of interest to scientists, engineers, and clinicians whose professional work pertains to any aspect of spoken language or hearing science.

This book aims to develop a framework for a fully explanatory theory of speech production and speech perception. It emphasises the difference between static models (primarily descriptive) and dynamic models that attempt to show how the basic linguistics and phonetics are related in an actual human speaker/listener.

Die Arbeit ist im Bereich der perzeptiven Phonetik angesiedelt und hat die Wahrnehmung von Sprachlauten zum Gegenstand. Der theoretische Teil beinhaltet einen historischen Überblick über die Geschichte der perzeptiven Phonetik und eine Überarbeitung der Definition des Gegenstandsbereichs der Phonetik. Für die experimentelle Untersuchung wurden Experimente zur kategorialen Wahrnehmung synthetisierter Silben entwickelt und die Ableitung unbewusster Reaktionen des autonomen Nervensystems sowie akustisch evozierter Potenziale mit einbezogen. Insgesamt belegt die Untersuchung, dass die Konstituierung von Sprachlauten auf einer Interaktion von aktueller Verarbeitung und Aktivierung langzeitgespeicherter Repräsentationen beruht und diese in verschiedenen Varianten auftritt. Konkret liefern die Ergebnisse Indizien für die Existenz eines speziellen zentralnervösen Sprachprozessors neben dem allgemein auditorischen Mechanismus, die beide für die Sprachlauterkennung herangezogen werden können.

The Handbook of Speech Perception is a collection of forward-looking articles that offer a summary of the technical and theoretical accomplishments in this vital area of research on language. Now available in paperback, this uniquely comprehensive companion brings together in one volume the latest research conducted in speech perception Contains original contributions by leading researchers in the field Illustrates technical and theoretical accomplishments and challenges across the field of research and language Adds to a growing understanding of the far-reaching relevance of speech perception in the fields of phonetics, audiology and speech science, cognitive science, experimental psychology, behavioral neuroscience, computer science, and electrical engineering, among others.

This book explores effects of speech perception strategies upon morphological structure. Using connectionist modeling, perception and production experiments, and calculations over lexica, Jennifer Hay investigates the role of two factors known to be relevant to speech perception: phonotactics and lexical frequency. Hay demonstrates that low probability phoneme transitions across morpheme boundaries exert a considerable force toward the maintenance of complex words, and argues that the relative frequency of the derived form and the base significantly affects the decomposability of complex words. While many have claimed that high frequency forms do not tend to be decomposed, Hay asserts that this follows only when such forms are more frequent than the bases they contain. The results of Hay's experiments illustrate the tight connection between speech processing, lexical representations, and aspects of linguistic competence. The likelihood that a form will be parsed during speech perception has profound consequences, from its grammaticality as a base of affixation, through to fine details of its implementation in the phonetics.

Perceptual dialectology investigates what ordinary people (as opposed to professional linguists) believe about the distribution of language varieties in their own and surrounding speech communities and how they have arrived at and implement those beliefs. It studies the beliefs of the common folk about which dialects exist and, indeed, about what attitudes they have to these varieties. Some of this leads to discussion of what they believe about language in general, or'folk linguistics'. Surprising divergences from professional results can be found. For the professional, it is intriguing to f.

Poets, academics, and those who simply speak a language are subject to mysterious intuitions about the perceptual qualities and emotional symbolism of the sounds of speech. Such intuitions are Reuven Tsur's point of departure in this investigation into the expressive effect of sound patterns, addressing questions of great concern for literary theorists and critics as well as for linguists and psychologists.Research in recent decades has established two distinct types of aural perception: a nonspeech mode, in which the acoustic signals are received in the manner of musical sounds or natural noises; and a speech mode, in which acoustic signals are excluded from awareness and only an abstract phonetic category is perceived. Here, Tsur proposes a third type of speech perception, a poetic mode in which some part of the acoustic signal becomes accessible, however faintly, to consciousness.Using Roman Jakobson's model of childhood acquisition of the phonological system, Tsur shows how the nonreferential babbling sounds made by infants form a basis for aesthetic valuation of language. He tests the intersubjective and intercultural validity of various spatial and tactile metaphors for certain sounds. Illustrating his insights with reference to particular literary texts, Tsur considers the relative merits of cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches to the emotional symbolism of speech sounds.

Die Buchreihe Linguistische Arbeiten hat mit über 500 Bänden zur linguistischen Theoriebildung der letzten Jahrzehnte in Deutschland und international wesentlich beigetragen. Die Reihe wird auch weiterhin neue Impulse für die Forschung setzen und die zentrale Einsicht der Sprachwissenschaft präsentieren, dass Fortschritt in der Erforschung der menschlichen Sprachen nur durch die enge Verbindung von empirischen und theoretischen Analysen sowohl diachron wie synchron möglich ist. Daher laden wir hochwertige linguistische Arbeiten aus allen zentralen Teilgebieten der allgemeinen und einzelsprachlichen Linguistik ein, die aktuelle Fragestellungen bearbeiten, neue Daten diskutieren und die Theorieentwicklung vorantreiben.