Many scholars have proposed concepts relevant to spatial reference. Herskovits (1982) proposed that the topological concepts support, contiguity and containment are basic in English, while Levinson et al.'s (2003) examination of nine unrelated languages revealed that the concept attachment is primary. Neither of these proposals is confirmed in…

While there has been considerable success in isolating the dimensions of acoustic information that are important in perceiving and identifying speech sounds, very little is known about how the information from the various acoustic dimensions is put together in order to actually accomplish identification. Proposes and tests a model of these…

Work sponsored by the National Science Foundation under a series of grants for research on Oregon Indian languages. (VM)

An experimental phonetic investigation is described whose goal it was to develop a test which could be used to establish norms in the perception of vowels by native speakers of German. Particular emphasis is placed upon the design of the experiment. The test procedure and the results are discussed. Available from Albert J. Phiebig, Inc., P.O. Box…

Demonstrates the value of quantitative analysis of discourse options by focusing on two discourse options for the representation of cause and effect. (HTH)

Research supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health. (DD)

The back-propagation neural network learning procedure was applied to the analysis and recognition of speech. Because this learning procedure requires only examples of input-output pairs, it is not necessary to provide it with any initial description of speech features. Rather, the network develops on its own set of representational features…

Of the approximately 40 languages in Uganda, some are very similar to one another and may be to some extent mutually intelligible. Because no one knows how to measure degrees of mutual intelligibility, the authors are attempting to establish reliable techniques which would be not only of practical value for the study of language problems in…

Presents an analysis of some aspects of conversational phonology by examining the general phonetic resources that are used by speakers of Tyneside (a nonstandard variety of English). This phonological analysis of the interaction of turn-completion takes into account pitch, loudness, and tempo, as well as segmental features. (TR)

Microresearch of the type performed by W. Loban and K. Hunt was used to describe two functions of macroresearch methodology--reporting and classifying--of the type conducted by J. Britton. This was done by contrasting the use of nine linguistic features of writing produced by four groups of students in each of the functions. The features were…

This book seeks to point out the difficulties which remain in phonetic theory because of a legacy from prephonemic days when phonetics and phonemics were one. Sounds were shown to have been chosen for description because of their use in speech rather than because of their articulatory or acoustic nature; many sounds were ignored because they were…

Examines strategies of native and non-native listeners of French in phoneme-monitoring experiments requiring subjects to detect the presence of word-initial /t/ in liaison and non-liaison phrases. The performance of natives suggests the segmentation routine is based on identification of the critical word; non-natives rely on guessing strategies.…

Illustrates how Radial Basis Function (RBF) network techniques can be used to explore questions concerning authorship of historic documents. Demonstrates the utility and potential for using quantitative techniques to assist in the decision-making process in relatively subjective disciplines. Compares RBF neural network techniques with more…

Assuming that a child uses a "reduced version" of the adult phonological system, as opposed to an "imperfect" version, a phonological analysis of a five-year-old child's language is conducted. Research procedures are thoroughly described; tables and diagrams are included. (DD)

The dominant trend in phonetics today--due to a large extent to generative phonology--is to discover the brain mechanisms underlying the observed behavior in speech. Among other things there is interest in attempting to find out how motor programs are stored latently, selected, activated into muscular contractions, controlled, and tailored for…