Language Identification (LID) is the task of automatically identifying the language of speech signal uttered by an unknown speaker. An N language LID task is to classify an input speech utterance, spoken by an unknown speaker and of unknown text, as belonging to one of the N languages L1, L2, . . , LN. We present a new approach to spoken language modeling for language identification using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm, with which we try to overcome the limitations of n-gram stochastic models by automatically identifying the valid set of variable length patterns from the training data. However, since several patterns in a language pattern table are also shared by other language pattern tables, confusability prevailed in the LID task. To overcome this, three pruning techniques are proposed to make these pattern tables more language specific. For LID with limited training data, we present another language modeling technique, which compensates for language specific patterns missing in the language specific LZW pattern table. We develop two new discriminative measures for LID based on the LZW algorithm, viz., (i) Compression Ratio Score (LZW-CRS) and (ii) Weighted Discriminant Score (LZW-WDS). It is shown that for a 6-language LID task of the OGI-TS database, the new model (LZW-WDS) significantly outperforms the conventional bigram approach. With regard to the front end of the LID system, we develop a modified technique to model for Acoustic Sub-Word Units (ASWU) and explore its effectiveness. The segmentation of speech signal is done using an acoustic criterion (ML-segmentation). However, we believe that consistency and discriminability among speech units is the key issue for the success of ASWU based speech processing. We develop a new procedure for clustering and modeling the segments using sub-word GMMs. Because of the flexibility in choosing the labels for the sub-word units, we do an iterative re-clustering and modeling of the segments. Using a consistency measure of labeling the acoustic segments, the convergence of iterations is demonstrated. We show that the performance of new ASWU based front-end and the new LZW based back-end for LID outperforms the earlier reported PSWR based LID.

The subject of the master thesis is language attitudes. The focus is put on how language attitudes can affect the way how the language is changing, how they can be expressed and which factors play important roles in forming of language attitudes. There have been a number of sociological and sociolinguistic case studies in this field in Norway. Based on them, I compare the Norwegian and Czech attitudes to the latest trends in language change such as globalization, regionalization and others. The main questions are: how do factors forming language attitudes to language varieties differ when compared Norwegian and Czech? How are language attitudes affected by differencies in history and culture in these two lands? Hypothetical, the factors connected to contact with English would be quite similar both in Norwegian and Czech. On the other hand the relationship between standard spoken language and dialects would differ more mostly because of these varieties have a different status in Norwegian and Czech context.

Research conducted on the prevalence of behavioural adjustment in Deaf children and adolescents, in erstwhile countries, points towards an appreciably elevated percentage of emotional and behavioural problems amongst this population group when compared to hearing normative groups. Studies specify that the prevalence of behaviour and emotional problems in Deaf children and adolescents varies from 4.8% to 50.3%. From existing research conducted, it is ambiguous as to why the reported prevalence rates of maladjustment are higher amongst Deaf children and adolescents. This pioneering study is the first of its kind to research dissimilar modalities of language used as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in schools for Deaf learners and how this could possibly correlate to learner behaviour in the classroom. Taking into consideration the reported pervasiveness of maladjustment in Deaf children and adolescents; this study uses the Teacher Report Form (TRF) to investigate the types of behaviour problems displayed by Deaf learners in the classroom. It further investigates whether Deaf learners display certain types of behaviour problems when dissimilar modalities of language are used as the language of learning and teaching. The overall findings of this study suggest that teachers who use manually coded spoken language report an elevated prevalence of behaviour problems on the TRF compared to teachers who use South African Sign Language (SASL). Results further suggest that the group of teachers who use SASL report somatic complaints and attention problems as the most frequently encountered behaviour problems in their classrooms. In comparison the group of teachers who use manually coded spoken English (MCE) report social problems and attention problems as the most frequently encountered behaviour problems in their classrooms. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour objet l’identification et l’analyse des marques d’oralité présentes dans la presse italienne sur Internet à partir de l’exemple de corriere.it, version électronique du quotidien italien publié à Milan, Il Corriere della Sera. Notre étude se fonde sur deux corpus recueillis sur le site du quotidien, l’un de janvier à juin 2004, l’autre de mars à août 2011. Dans les 1356 énoncés que nous avons sélectionnés à parité à travers ces deux corpus, nous avons repéré les phénomènes que nous avons identifiés comme « traits d’oralité» précédemment reconnus comme tels par divers grammairiens et chercheurs. Nous avons classé ces traits d’oralité aux différents niveaux de l’analyse linguistique : la textualité, la morphologie, la syntaxe et le lexique, domaines auxquels correspondent respectivement les quatre chapitres de notre thèse. La méthode d’analyse, quantitative et qualitative, est illustrée par de nombreux graphiques qui visualisent le taux de fréquence des phénomènes, mais nous avons pris aussi en considération certains aspects linguistiques moins représentés dans les deux corpus. Dans la conclusion, nous procédons à une synthèse interprétative des principaux résultats obtenus et nous avançons quelques réflexions sur les aspects sociolinguistiques de la répartition des marques d’oralité et de leur place dans l’évolution de la langue. / The focus of this dissertation is to identify and analyze the traces of orality in the electronic Italian press based on the example of corriere.it, the electronic version of the daily Italian newspaper published in Milan, Il Corriere della Sera. The research project is based on two corpuses assembled from the site of the daily newspaper, one from January through June2004, and the other from March through August 2011. Though the 678 statements selected from each corpus, we highlighted the phenomena which we identified as ‘features of orality”previously recognized as such by various grammarians and scholars. We have classified these features of orality at various levels of linguistic analysis : textuality, morphology, syntax andlexis, fields which correspond to the four chapters of the dissertation respectively. The quantitative and qualitative analytical method is illustrated by numerous graphs whichvisualize the frequency rate of the phenomena, but we also took into consideration certainlinguistic aspects that are sparingly present in the two corpuses. In the conclusion, we drew upan interpretative summary of the main findings and we foregrounded certain reflections on the sociolinguistic aspects of the distribution of the traces of orality and their place in the evolution of languages.

Kalba – pagrindinis žmonių bendravimo rodiklis. Radijas ir televizija - masiškiausios viešosios informacijos priemonės, todėl labai svarbu, kad iš eterio sklindantis žodis būtų gyvas, taisyklingas, kad tvirtintų įsigalėjusias kalbos normas, o ne jas griautų. Šio magistro darbo tikslas - ištirti įvairių žmonių sakytinėje kalboje vartojamas įvardžiuotines formas ir jų funkcijas. Darbe iškelta hipotezė – sakytinėje kalboje vartojamos įvardžiuotinės formos yra retai ar visai nebevartojamos, dažniausiai skirtos tik sudėtiniams terminams ir pavadinimams apibrėžti. Į ją atsakyta pasiremiant pasirinktomis televizijos ir radijo laidomis ir suformuluotomis išvadomis. Tiriamąją medžiagą sudaro devyniolika laidų: septynios radijo laidos (Pozicija, Prie pietų stalo, Ryto garsai, Žmonės ir idėjos, Dienos tema, Druska) ir dvylika televizijos laidų (Įžvalgos, Ką manai, Kultūros namai, Spaudos klubas, Požiūris, Nepatogūs pokalbiai). Darbe pateikiama išsami įvardžiuotinių formų sakytinėje kalboje vartojimo polinkių analizė, todėl taikomas analitinis aprašomasis bei statistinis metodas. Pastebėta, kad į įvardžiuotines formas sakytinėje kalboje kreipiamas mažas kalbininkų dėmesys, šia tema trūksta platesnių tyrimų ar teorinių metmenų. Šis darbas ir yra noras paskatinti tyrinėti ir didžiuotis lietuvių kalbos įvardžiuotinėmis formomis, taip pat parodyti jų svarbą dabartinėje sakytinėje lietuvių kalboje. Atlikus tyrimą, išryškėjo šios tendencijos: įvardžiuotinės formos sakytinės kalbos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Language is the main indicator of human interaction. Radio and television are the most popular public media, therefore it is very important that the broadcast language would be lively, grammatically correct, that it would strengthen the existing language norms rather than brake them. The aim of this Master thesis is to research the forms and functions of pronominal forms used in spoken language by various groups of language users. The hypothesis formulated in this work is the following: in spoken language pronominal forms are used very rarely or no longer used; most often they are required only to construct complex definitions and names. This hypothesis is discussed in relation to the analysis of selected television and radio programs and in relation to the formulated conclusions. Research material includes nineteen programs, seven of which are radio programs (Pozicija, Prie pietų stalo, Ryto garsai, Žmonės ir idėjos, Dienos tema, Druska) and twelve television programs (Įžvalgos, Ką manai, Kultūros namai, Spaudos klubas, Požiūris, Nepatogūs pokalbiai). Full analysis of habits of use of pronominal forms in spoken language is presented in this thesis, thus analytical-descriptive and statistical methods are applied. It has been noted, that linguists pay little attention to pronominal forms in spoken language, and that there is a lack of wider research and theoretical outline of this field. This thesis also draws an intention to encourage the research and explore... [to full text]

Many positive outcomes have been documented for children with hearing loss utilizing current treatment approaches such as early identification and intervention, including appropriately fit sensory devices and communication modes that focus on listening and spoken language. However, challenges related to social-emotional development have been widely observed. The development of communication skills in children with hearing loss is impacted by many factors, including the degree of hearing loss, the child's age at onset and identification, the presence of other disabilities, and when the child receives intervention. While there are a variety of therapeutic options available for children with hearing loss to develop communication skills, listening and spoken language is of particular interest to parents with normal hearing. In addition to affecting social competence and participation, problems with social-emotional development are linked to poor academic performance. This study examined the social-emotional development of a small group of young children who communicated using listening and spoken language as measured by parent and caregiver report. Three psychosocial scales were used to evaluate the children's social-emotional development in comparison to peers. These results were analyzed within the context of other demographic variables. One of the five children was identified as facing problems with social-emotional development.

The general view by some linguists seems to be that the French simple future is often replacedby the periphrastic future in spoken language; a natural development characterized by anincrease of analytical forms at the expense of synthetic forms. However others claim that theusage of both simple and periphrastic future are still present in ordinary French, both havingdifferent implications. In this particular study, we examine the usage of simple future andperiphrastic future in the corpus ESLO2, which consist of transcripts of interviews andconversations from Orléans, France. We also examine some of the linguistic factors thatmight affect the usage of the two forms. Our hypothesis, based on previous literature andarticles treating the subject, being that the periphrastic future is used more frequently than thesimple future and that the traditional distinction between the two forms is not adequate inexplaining their usage in spoken French. The results of the study show that the periphrasticfuture is used more frequently than the simple form, and that there are linguistic factors thatcould explain their usage, however it is difficult to find unison explanations and furtherstudies are needed to conclude the factors behind the two forms.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-12T14:01:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 EdilsonSS.pdf: 597258 bytes, checksum: 79d980c19e3207e41177afaf39d3043a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-12 / The general aim of this work is to verify the occurence of variant forms of negation in spoken English with the purpose of making a comparative study between the English and the Portuguese languages. As for Portuguese, we used as a matter of reference a study already made on negation. As for English, we analized a corpus of the North American English variant organized by a university in the United States. This study is based on the North American Functional Linguistics theoretical perspective, which considers relevant the study of language used in real situations of communicative interaction. The data analisys proved that there is at least one form of negative variant in spoken English which is not allowed by prescriptive grammar. This phenomenon turns out to be similar to Portuguese, which includes three variant strategies. According to the data obtained, it was possible to verify that the variant strategy used in English, from a contrastive point of view, corresponds to a negative strategy ruled by Portuguese prescriptive grammar. Finally, we discussed about the different conceptions of language, grammar and teaching, giving suggestions to colaborate to a productive and reflexive teaching of first or second language / O objetivo geral deste trabalho ? verificar a ocorr?ncia de formas negativas variantes no ingl?s falado no intuito de realizar um estudo comparativo entre as l?nguas inglesa e portuguesa. Em rela??o ao portugu?s, tomamos como refer?ncia um estudo realizado sobre o fen?meno da nega??o. Em rela??o ao ingl?s, procedemos ? an?lise de um corpus da variante americana organizado por uma universidade nos Estados Unidos. Este estudo baseia-se na perspectiva te?rica da ling??stica funcional de vertente norte-americana, que considera relevante o estudo da l?ngua atrav?s da an?lise de situa??es reais de comunica??o interativa. A an?lise dos dados mostrou que existe na l?ngua inglesa falada pelo menos uma forma negativa n?o prevista pela gram?tica prescritiva, semelhantemente ao que acontece na l?ngua portuguesa, que disp?e de tr?s estrat?gias variantes. De acordo com os dados obtidos, foi poss?vel verificar, inclusive, que a estrat?gia de nega??o variante encontrada no corpus do ingl?s, em termos comparativos, corresponde a uma estrat?gia de nega??o prevista pela gram?tica prescritiva do portugu?s. Por fim, discorremos sobre as diferentes concep??es de l?ngua, gram?tica e ensino, fazendo sugest?es que possam colaborar para um ensino de l?ngua (tanto materna quanto estrangeira) de forma produtiva e reflexiva

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-05-06Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:39:12Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_nc_me_arafcl.pdf: 628711 bytes, checksum: 2b35068945763019c13a09d8fe5a8e3a (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre concordância verbal cujo objetivo é o de verificar se o fenômeno em questão se caracteriza como uma regra variável, bem como quais fatores linguísticos e extralinguísticos condicionam essa variação. Para tanto, o escopo do estudo se restringiu à língua falada e escrita pelos moradores da região noroeste do Estado de São Paulo. Utilizaram-se dois corpus para viabilizar a execução da pesquisa, a saber, um pertencente ao IBILCE/ UNESP sob a denominação “O português falado no interior paulista: constituição de um banco de dados anotado para o seu estudo” (PROCESSO FAPESP 03/08058-6), e outro composto por redações escolares de alunos do ensino fundamental I ao ensino médio. Como fatores linguísticos relevantes para nossa análise, destacamos a saliência fônica verbal, o paralelismo formal, a posição do sujeito e a estrutura do sujeito. Como fatores extralinguísticos, a faixa etária e o grau de escolaridade. Utilizamos o programa computacional GOLDVARB-X para realizar a análise quantitativa, cujos resultados mostraram ser a concordância verbal, tanto na escrita quanto na fala, uma regra variável, condicionada principalmente pelo grau de escolaridade dos informantes. Em ambas modalidades, temos 85% de aplicação da regra, porcentagem que consideramos alta / This study aims to ascertain whether the verbal agreement is a phenomenon which constitutes a variable rule, and therefore to track the linguistic and extralinguistic factors which would create such a variation. To do so, this scope restricts its scope to the spoken and the written language as it is used by speakers from the northwest of the São Paulo State. Two corpora have been used to make this research feasible, namely, one from IBILCE/UNESP, whose Portuguese title translates as ‘The Portuguese spoken in the São Paulo State countryside: the constitution of an annotated database for its study’, and another one consisting of pieces of writing by students at either elementary or high school levels. We pay special attention to linguistic factors such as verbal phonetic salience, formal parallelism, the position of the subject as well as to the structure of the subject, which we deem relevant for our analysis. As of extralinguistic factors, we stress the importance of the age group and also of the educational level. We conducted the quantitative analysis using the GOLDVARB-X software, the results of which lead us to figure that the verbal agreement is a variable rule created mainly by the extralinguistic factor concerning the interviewee’s level of education, in either the written or in the spoken form. In both situations, the aforementioned rule applies to 85% of cases, a percentage which we deem to be high

Submitted by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-12-11T19:59:03Z No. of bitstreams: 5 Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (1).pdf: 17610771 bytes, checksum: 00731638e2e19c4b78653bed950e9f47 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (2).pdf: 15927021 bytes, checksum: ead518310d7e6f32e733d3a1e92ed41b (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (3).pdf: 7784327 bytes, checksum: 78393ade5287f0a98f094d6700b52b9f (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (4).pdf: 19148954 bytes, checksum: ded3c26b8cad2d62a736b9d6955f9c91 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (5).pdf: 19188148 bytes, checksum: 48dfc0160bed8c2c41cdfc73fde54a6c (MD5) / Rejected by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com), reason: on 2014-12-12T17:31:50Z (GMT) / Submitted by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-12-12T19:42:03Z No. of bitstreams: 6 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (1).pdf: 17610771 bytes, checksum: 00731638e2e19c4b78653bed950e9f47 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (2).pdf: 15927021 bytes, checksum: ead518310d7e6f32e733d3a1e92ed41b (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (3).pdf: 7784327 bytes, checksum: 78393ade5287f0a98f094d6700b52b9f (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (4).pdf: 19148954 bytes, checksum: ded3c26b8cad2d62a736b9d6955f9c91 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (5).pdf: 19188148 bytes, checksum: 48dfc0160bed8c2c41cdfc73fde54a6c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2014-12-16T09:25:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 6 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (1).pdf: 17610771 bytes, checksum: 00731638e2e19c4b78653bed950e9f47 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (2).pdf: 15927021 bytes, checksum: ead518310d7e6f32e733d3a1e92ed41b (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (3).pdf: 7784327 bytes, checksum: 78393ade5287f0a98f094d6700b52b9f (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (4).pdf: 19148954 bytes, checksum: ded3c26b8cad2d62a736b9d6955f9c91 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (5).pdf: 19188148 bytes, checksum: 48dfc0160bed8c2c41cdfc73fde54a6c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-16T09:25:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 6 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (1).pdf: 17610771 bytes, checksum: 00731638e2e19c4b78653bed950e9f47 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (2).pdf: 15927021 bytes, checksum: ead518310d7e6f32e733d3a1e92ed41b (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (3).pdf: 7784327 bytes, checksum: 78393ade5287f0a98f094d6700b52b9f (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (4).pdf: 19148954 bytes, checksum: ded3c26b8cad2d62a736b9d6955f9c91 (MD5) Tese-Lisa Valéria Vieira Torres-2013 (5).pdf: 19188148 bytes, checksum: 48dfc0160bed8c2c41cdfc73fde54a6c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-18 / This thesis presents a discussion about innovation and conservation of the modern Brazilian and European Portuguese varieties, observing historical-linguistic marks in the speech of elderly people in two speech communities. The first is located in Pilar de Goiás, in the central-western region of Brazil. The choice of this city is due to geographic and social factors contained in their formation, provided by the passage of the Bandeiras. The second community is in Trás-os- -Montes, a region located at northeast of Portugal. It was decided by the guidelines of the corpus of Trás-os-Montes, because a read of José Leite de Vasconcellos (1929) that contained references to linguistic aspects of conservation in relation to the Romance languages. This paper aims to broaden the debate on issues of conservation and innovation of varieties of Portuguese, present in the speech of the residents of these places, from the theoretical perspective of the project Linguistics and History of the Colonization of Goiás, developed by the program of post graduated studies in Literature and Linguistics at the Federal University of Goiás. In this connexion we discuss the hypothesis of shared linguistic features and we rank similarities and differences, especially with regard to the state standard of the Portuguese. Two field researches, a qualitative study, were conducted between 2009 and 2011, through recorded interviews with Brazilian and Portuguese people. We selected 8 residents in Pilar de Goiás and 8 of Trás-os-Montes. The theoretical scope of this thesis revisited, given its nature, permeates areas of linguistics discussing the implications of the spoken language, namely: Sociolinguistics, Dialectology and Geolinguistics, besides considering the Ecolinguistics as a key proposal, since the conception of language advocated in this work fits into the relationship between the natural, mental and social environment, established through acts of communicative interaction. The analysis of oral records reveals that are shared features between these two communities, especially with regard to paragoge visible in the two variants of the Portuguese language .On the other hand,concerning the innovative aspects, the differences are remarkable mainly in the syntax. / Apresenta-se nesta tese uma discussão sobre a inovação e conservação do português moderno nas variedades brasileira e lusitana, observando marcas histórico-linguísticas na fala de idosos de duas comunidades de fala. A primeira se localiza em Pilar de Goiás, na região centro- -oeste do Brasil. A escolha dessa cidade se deu a fatores geográficos e sociais contidos em sua formação, proporcionados pela passagem das Bandeiras. A segunda comunidade está em Trás-os-Montes, uma região localizada a nordeste de Portugal. Decidiu-se pelo enquadramento do corpus de Trás-os-Montes devido à leitura de um opúsculo de José Leite de Vasconcelos (1929) que continha referências sobre aspectos linguísticos de conservação em relação à língua românica.O objetivo deste trabalho; pois, é ampliar o debate sobre aspectos de conservação e inovação das variedades da língua portuguesa, apontadas nas falas dos moradores destas localidades, sob os moldes do projeto A Linguística e a História da Colonização de Goiás, desenvolvido pelo departamento de Pós-Graduação em Letras e Linguística da Universidade Federal de Goiás. Nessa direção, verificam-se traços linguísticos compartilhados e elencar semelhanças e diferenças, principalmente no que se refere à norma estatal do português ( considerada padrão). Duas pesquisas de campo, de cunho qualitativo, foram realizadas entre 2009 e 2011, por meio de entrevistas gravadas com brasileiros e portugueses. Selecionou-se oito sujeitos residentes em Pilar de Goiás e 8 sujeitos de Trás-os-Montes. O escopo teórico revisitado nesta tese, dada sua natureza, perpassa por áreas da Linguística que discutem as implicações da língua falada, a saber: Sociolinguística, Dialetologia e Geolinguística, além de considerar a Ecolinguística como uma proposta fundamental, uma vez que a concepção de língua defendida neste trabalho, se insere na relação entre meio ambiente natural, mental e social, estabelecida por meio de atos de interação comunicativa. Verificou-se, pela análise dos registros orais, que há traços compartilhados entre as duas comunidades referidas, principalmente no que se refere à paragoge, visível nas duas variantes da língua portuguesa. Por outro lado, no que respeita a aspectos inovadores, as dessemelhanças são perceptíveis, principalmente, na sintaxe.