CASL
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22
Browse
6 results
Search Results
Item Standard English in Edinburgh and Glasgow: the Scottish vowel length rule revealed.(Arnold, 1999) Scobbie, James M.; Hewlett, Nigel; Turk, Alice E.Item Perceptual Strategies in Phonological Disorder: Assessment, Remediation and Evaluation(1998) Watson, Jocelynne; Hewlett, NigelEvidence is presented that immature perceptual strategies are a contributory factor to developmental phonological disorder. The findings endorse the current re-focusing of attention on the role of perception in disordered speech and language acquisition and also highlight the need for more precise assessment and remediation techniques. Technical developments working towards providing these are reviewed and implications for future clinical practice discussed.Item Vowel duration in Scottish English speaking children(1999) Hewlett, Nigel; Matthews, Ben; Scobbie, James M.Item Rural versus urban accent as an influence on the rate of speech(Cambridge University Press, 1998-06) Hewlett, Nigel; Rendall, MonicaSpeakers of rural accents have been said to speak more slowly than speakers of urban accents. However, there would appear to have been no previous empirical investigation of such a claim. In the study reported here, recordings were made of 12 Orkney English speakers and 12 Edinburgh English speakers, during a reading task and in conversation with the experimenter. Measurements, in syllables per second, were made of both the Speaking Rate and the Articulation Rate (i.e. the rate calculated after excision of pauses) of each speaker in reading mode and in conversation mode. Comparison of the results for the two groups revealed no tendency for the urban (Edinburgh) speakers to speak faster than the rural (Orkney) speakers. The claim that rural speakers speak more slowly than urban speakers therefore still awaits empirical support. Some discussion is offered concerning the possible relationships among speech tempo, lifestyle and accent.Item When is a velar an alveolar? Evidence supporting a revised psycholinguistic model of speech production in children(Wiley-Blackwell, 1998) Hewlett, Nigel; Gibbon, Fiona; Cohen-Mackenzie, WendySpeech data from a single child with a phonological impairment were analysed with a view to assessing the influence of utterance mode (spontaneous vs. confrontation naming vs. repetition), lexical status (word vs. non-word) and phonological context (voicing status and position in word) on the accuracy of production of velar targets. Under these conditions, accuracy was found to vary between 'correct' velar and 'incorrect' alveolar place of articulation. First, accuracy increased over four conditions, from spontaneous speech to confrontation naming to real word repetition to non-word repetition. Second, there was a higher incidence of correct velar targets in initial than final position in the word, and a higher incidence of correct /k/ targets than /g/ targets. These findings are discussed in relation to a proposed model of child speech production, the configuration of which borrows heavily from similar models described recently in the literature. The model attempts to explain how a child represents and processes word-forms, and over time revises their pronunciation. The explanation offered for these findings entails a claim that speech articulations are concerned directly with reproducing perceptual phenomena and that their ability to do so accurately may be constrained by processing load.Item Morphemes, Phonetics and Lexical Items: The Case of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule.(International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1999) Scobbie, James M.; Turk, Alice; Hewlett, NigelWe show that, in the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, the high vowels in the sequences /i#d/ and /##d/ are 68% longer than in the tautomorphemic /id/ and /ud/ sequences, while /ai#d/ is only 28% longer than /aid/. There is no quality difference associated with /i/ and /#/, but long and short /ai/ do differ in quality. Spectral analysis of F1 and F2 trajectories indicates that the prime difference in the vowels due to the SVLR appears to be the timing of formant movements, not the location of the targets in formant space. In the longer vowel of sighed, the rise towards a high front position starts at about 75ms-100ms into the vowel, and in the shorter vowel of side it is aligned nearer the start of the vowel. There are, moreover, genuine target differences which function as a marker of social class.