Provides the English-speaking student with a model of aspect use in the imperative in Russian. Examples are given in Russian without English translations. The perfective imperative is modally neutral, and the imperfected is modally marked. (Author/LMO)

Examines predictions made by two theories of the relationship between pitch accent and focus. Evidence presented suggests that listeners are sensitive to a variety of factors that may affect the focus projection ability of pitch accents on one word to mark focus on a large constituent. (Author/VWL)

Approaches prosody as one set of resources and practices among many by which participants interactively produce conversation and other talk-in interaction, examining three episodes of conversation that exemplify different orders of organization in which prosodic practices may be implicated. Reflects on what is needed for students of conversation…

This paper reports the results of an experimental phonetic study examining pitch peak alignment in production and perception of three-syllable one-word sentences with phonetic rising-falling pitch movement by speakers of Russian. The first part of the study (Experiment 1) utilizes 22 one-word three-syllable utterances read by five female speakers…

Using Mandarin Chinese, a "tone language" in which the pitch contours of syllables differentiate words, the authors examined the acoustic modifications of infant-directed speech (IDS) at the syllable level to test 2 hypotheses: (a) the overall increase in pitch and intonation contour that occurs in IDS at the phrase level would not distort…

This study of L-2 Russian interlanguage production examined the salience of phonetic, lexical and syntactical features for L-1 listener intelligibility, based on L-2 recitation of written scripts (Part I) and also unrehearsed speech (Part II). Part III of the study investigated strategies used by native-speaking teachers of Russian as a Second…

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare disorder characterized by the emergence of a perceived foreign accent following brain damage. The symptomotology, functional bases, and neural substrates of this disorder are still being elucidated. In this case study, acoustic analyses were performed on the speech of a 46-year old monolingual female who…

Three eye movement studies examined the role of punctuation in reading. In Experiment 1, although a comma at the end of a clause facilitated overall reading times for the sentence, first pass times were longer at the end of comma-marked clauses than clauses without a comma (or the same material in clause medial position). The data supported the…

To what extent does language acquisition recruit domain-general processing mechanisms? In this dissertation, evidence concerning this question is garnered from the study of individual differences in infant speech perception and their predictive value with respect to language development in early childhood. In the first experiment, variation in the…

Purpose: This investigation examined the effects of nebulized hypertonic saline, isotonic saline (IS), and sterile (hypotonic) water on phonation threshold pressure (PTP) and self-perceived phonatory effort (PPE) following a surface laryngeal dehydration challenge. Method: In a double-blind, randomized experimental trial, 60 vocally healthy women…

Lexical tone languages make up the majority of all known languages of the world, but the role of tone in lexical processing remains unclear. In the present study, four form priming experiments examined the role of Mandarin tones in constraining lexical activation and the time course of the activation. When a prime and a target were related…

The mathematical models of intonation used in speech technology are often inaccessible to linguists. By the same token, phonological descriptions of intonation are rarely used by speech technologists, as they cannot be implemented directly in applications. Consequently, these research communities do not benefit much from each other's insights. In…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intensive voice therapy on Cantonese speakers with Parkinson's disease. The effect of the treatment on lexical tone was of particular interest. Four Cantonese speakers with idiopathic Parkinson's disease received treatment based on the principles of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT).…

Purpose: The authors investigated expressive and receptive intonation abilities in children with Williams syndrome (WS) and the relation of these abilities to other linguistic abilities. Method: Fourteen children with WS, 14 typically developing children matched to the WS group for receptive language (LA), and 15 typically developing children…

Results are presented from an auditory and acoustic analysis of the speech of an adult male with impaired prosody and articulation due to brain haemorrhage. They show marked effects on phonation, speech rate and articulator velocity, and a speech rhythm disrupted by "intrusive" stresses. These effects are discussed in relation to the speaker's…