Well-documented Romance-Germanic differences in the use of accent in speech to convey information-structure and focus cause problems for the assessment of prosodic skills in populations with clinical disorders. The strategies for assessing the ability to use lexical and contrastive accent in English and Spanish are reviewed, and studies in the…

This study investigated the acquisition of word initial s clusters of 3-5 year old Dutch children with phonological disorders. Within these clusters, sl was produced correctly most often, whereas sn and sx were the more difficult clusters. In cluster reductions, s+obstruent and sl clusters reduction patterns followed the Sonority Sequencing…

Pause detection thresholds and the duration of fluent and hesitation pauses as a function of syntactic complexity were studied in 12 normal young adult male speakers. (KW)

Variability is a term used to cover several types of phenomena in language sound patterns and in phonetic realization of those patterns. Variability refers to the fact that every repetition of an utterance is different, in amplitude, rate of delivery, formant frequencies, fundamental frequency or minor phase relationship changes across the sound…

This study investigated the credibility dimensions underlying standard and nonstandard speech in respect to concept-scale interaction, even though the findings suggest that the factors underlying reactions to nonstandard speech might differ from those underlying reactions to standard speech. The subjects, thirty-two college students enrolled in an…

Compares patterns of cluster realization from 47 children ranging in age from 3;4 to 6;8 with functional (nonorganic) speech disorders with those reported in the literature for normal acquisition and reveals that these patterns are essentially the same for both groups. (33 references) (GLR)

The magnitudes and patterns of two-point difference limens (DL) of the tongue were studied in children with and without articulation errors. Many children with misarticulation of /r/ had DLs that differed in magnitude and pattern from those of children with normal articulation and those with misarticulations of /s/. (NCR)

Examination of the use of short "tongue-twister" phrases in eliciting spontaneous slips of the tongue in five year olds indicated that the technique was a feasible and beneficial method for collecting spoonerism data from children. (24 references) (CB)

This work contains five papers in the area of experimental linguistics. Papers include: (1) "Units of Speech Perception," a study which deals with problems of the temporal organization of speech; (2) a study, "Manner of Articulation, Parallel Processing, and the Perception of Duration," which examines the durational patterns characterizing the…

This article, which focuses on speech differences of age groups, is part of a larger study of occupational jargon, its characteristics and underlying features and the part it plays in reflecting the workers' knowledge of their jobs and their attitudes toward jobs in general. The project incorporated a case method of research in a china factory.…

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIOLOGY AND LANGUAGE IS EXPLORED IN THIS VOLUME. THE AUTHOR BELIEVES THAT "LANGUAGE IS THE MANIFESTATION OF SPECIES-SPECIFIC COGNITIVE PROPENSITIES. IT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE BIOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES THAT MAKE A HUMAN TYPE OF COGNITION POSSIBLE." IN ATTEMPTING TO "REINSTATE THE CONCEPT OF THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF…