CASL
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22
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Item Why is prosody in speech-language pathology so difficult?(2009) Peppé, Sue JEAn important question for speech-language pathologists is how best to define and characterize atypical prosody, with the eventual aim of designing effective intervention for it. With a view to investigating why prosodic atypicality should be hard to define and what considerations a speech-language pathologist should keep in mind, this paper begins by setting out some established functions of prosody and the forms that convey them, and goes on to review the neurological bases of prosodic disorder and some of the conditions in which prosodic disorder is known to occur. Factors in the perception of prosodic disorder are discussed, including the relationship between prosody and other aspects of communication, to identify the problems of distinguishing between prosody and interacting factors. The relationship between phonological prosodic categories and disordered prosody is considered, i.e., the problems of assigning disordered prosody to these categories for clinicians. Current methods of assessment, transcription and approaches to treatment are briefly considered, and an evaluation is made of how much progress has been made towards answering the initial question.Item Effects of vowel length and right context- on the alignment of Dutch nuclear accents(Elsevier Ltd, 2006-01) Schepman, A.; Lickley, Robin; Ladd, D. RobertWe measured the alignment of f0 landmarks with segmental landmarks in nuclear pointed hat- accents in controlled speech materials in Dutch. We varied the phonological length of the stressed vowel and the right context- (syllable membership of following consonant, presence/absence of stress clash). The nuclear accented word was always followed by an unaccented content word. Based on previous work we expected that the alignment would be substantially affected by vowel length, stress clash and syllable membership, but the only important effect was that of vowel length. We believe this can be explained by the fact that most previous studies have dealt with prenuclear accents and/or with nuclear accents in utterance-final position, whereas we are dealing with nuclear accents that are not in utterance-final position. We also explored the effects of using different quantitative definitions of our dependent and independent variables, and of using Multiple Regression rather than ANOVA, and conclude that our findings are robust regardless of the variables or analysis technique used. An important methodological conclusion from our comparative analyses is that tonal alignment is best expressed relative to a nearby segmental landmark. Proportional measures may also be useful, but need further investigation.Item Polite appearances: How non-manual features convey politeness in British Sign Language(De Gruyter Mouton, 2014-07) Mapson, RachelThis paper explores how non-manual features are key to conveying linguistic politeness in British Sign Language (BSL). Data were collected through five semi-structured interviews incorporating the elicitation of two speech acts commonly associated with research on linguistic politeness: requests and apologies. The data from this exploratory study suggest that nonmanual features (including specific mouth gestures and movements of the head and upper body) are more crucial for linguistic politeness than manual signs. The data indicate a degree of commonality between the features used for politeness in BSL and those previously identified in American Sign Language (Roush 1999; Hoza 2001, 2007). While non-manual features convey both linguistic and paralinguistic meaning in signed language (Sandler and Lillo-Martin 2006), their use in politeness highlights the complexity of the interaction between these two functions and illuminates an aspect of politeness frequently overlooked in much research: the use of intonation. Analysis of the use of nonmanual features for politeness also problematizes the categorization of politeness strategies using existing frameworks developed on spoken languages, such as the internal modifications outlined by Blum-Kulka et al. (1989).Item Phonetic effects of focus and ''tonal crowding'' in intonation: Evidence from Greek polar questions.(Elsevier, 2006-06) Arvaniti, Amalia; Ladd, D. Robert; Mennen, InekeThis paper deals with the intonation of polar (yes/no) questions in Greek. An experiment was devised which systematically manipulated the position of the focused word in the question (and therefore of the intonation nucleus) and the position of the last stressed syllable. Our results showed that all questions had a low level stretch associated with the focused word and a final rise-fall movement, the peak of which aligned in two different ways depending on the position of the nucleus: when the nucleus was on the final word, the peak of the rise fall co-occurred with the utterance-final vowel, irrespective of whether this vowel was stressed or not; when the nucleus was on an earlier word, the peak co-occurred with the stressed vowel of the last word. In addition, our results showed finely-tuned adjustments of tonal alignment and scaling that depended on the extent to which tones were ''crowded'' by surrounding tones in the various conditions we set up. These results can best be explained within a model of intonational phonology in which a tune consists of a string of sparse tones and their association to specific elements of the segmental string. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Intonation; Focus; Tonal alignment; Phrase accent; Tonal crowdingItem Assessing prosodic skills in five European languages: Cross-linguistic differences in typical and atypical populations(2010) Peppé, Sue JE; Martinez-Castilla, P.; Coene, Martine; Hesling, Isabelle; Moen, Inger; Gibbon, FionaFollowing demand for a prosody assessment procedure, the test Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C), has been translated from English into Spanish, French, Flemish and Norwegian. This provides scope to examine receptive and expressive prosodic ability in Romance (Spanish and French) as well as Germanic (English and Flemish) languages, and includes the possibility of assessing these skills with regard to lexical tone (Norwegian). Cross-linguistic similarities and differences relevant to the translation are considered. Preliminary findings concerning 8-year-old neurotypical children speaking the five languages are reported. The appropriateness of investigating contrastive stress in Romance as well as Germanic languages is considered: results are reported for assessing this skill in Spanish and English speakers and suggest that in Spanish it is acquired much later than in English. We also examine the feasibility of assessing and comparing prosodic disorder in the five languages, using assessments of prosody in Spanish and English speakers with Williams syndrome as an example. We conclude that, with caveats, the original design of the UK test may indicate comparable stages of prosodic development in neurotypical children and is appropriate for the evaluation of prosodic skills for adults and children, both neurotypical and with impairment, in all five languages. 2009 The Speech Pathology Association of Australia Limited.