Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Key words: acoustic speech analysis, speech synthesis, speech perception, copulative queclarative, linguistics, psycho linguistics, human language technology This study investigates the notion of interrogativity in Xhosa as expressed in the form of Queclaratives. Queclaratives, or statements which are question-like in function, have been studied in many languages of the world. Unfortunately with regard to the Bantu languages, studies relating to interrogativity in general have largely been impressionistic in nature. This research comprised two aspects of analysis. These included an acoustic and a perceptual analysis of data. The reason for this approach is that, without this combination the results could have been considered to be suspect and lacking in authenticity. The acoustic analysis was conducted on 858 words in statement and queclarative pairs. Significant parameters were extracted and these were then statistically analyzed. The results revealed that duration on the penultimate vowel, pitch on the penultimate vowel and the overall raised pitch of queclaratives as opposed to statements were indeed the acoustically significant parameters differentiating statements from queclaratives. However as is well known, there is no one-to-one relationship between the acoustic signal and its perception and, therefore, it is imperative that such findings also be perceptually tested. The perceptual testing of these parameters was conducted in an attempt to elicit whether they were perceptually significant and also at what point in the utterance listeners could differentiate between queclaratives and statements. The next progression was the compilation of carefully designed perception tests on the acoustically significant parameters. Two experiments were compiled using stimuli that were manipulations of the original signal of one of the selected informant's utterances. These tests were administered on multimedia computers in the Language Laboratory at the University of Stellenbosch using 64 subjects for the first experiment and 63 for the second. The results of the perception tests showed that duration and pitch on the penultimate syllable are perceptually highly significant in differentiating statements from queclaratives. However the results also indicated very early recognition of the different forms with minimal speech segments from which the penultimate vowels were absent altogether. This then suggests that the perceptual judgements made earlier in the utterance may be either reinforced or overridden by the duration and pitch on the penultimate vowel. These results have assisted in the validation of some impressionistic claims made within the Bantu and other languages, while refuting others. However, as this corpus of data has included research on copulative queclaratives, it appeals for further research on this subject using any other linguistic markers. The results have also been evaluated in terms of their possible contribution to the related disciplines of psycholinguistics, linguistics and human language technologies. In so doing, the thesis makes an urgent appeal to researchers to pursue this experimental approach to language research. Another appeal is made for an awareness campaign as to the importance of this approach in harnessing the power of language for the development of language and society as a whole. The fertility of the South African society lies in its richness of multilingualism and the necessity for the improvement of the dissemination of information to all people of all languages and the improvement of communication between people in general, including those less fortunate in terms of literacy skills. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sleutelwoorde: akoestiese spraakanalise, spraaksintese, spraakpersepsie, kopulatiewe stelvraag, linguistiek, psigolinguistiek, taal-en-spraaktegnologie In hierdie projek word die aard van vraagstelling in Xhosa ondersoek met betrekking tot die stelvraag-vorm. Stelvrae, of stellings wat ook as vrae kan funksioneer, is reeds bestudeer vir heelwat wêreldtale. Oor die algemeen was studies oor vraagstelling in die Afrikatale egter grootliks impressionisties van aard. Hierdie navorsingsprojek het uit twee analisekomponente bestaan, naamlik 'n akoestiese analise van die data en 'n reeks persepsueie eksperimente. Sonder die kombinasie van die twee tipes analise sou die resultate van die navorsing minder kredietwaardig gewees het. Die akoestiese analise is gedoen op 858 woordpare bestaande uit stellings en stelvrae. Die data is statisties ontleed en die relevante parameters is onttrek. Die resultate het daarop gedui dat die duur en toonhoogte van die voorlaaste vokaal sowel as die register van die hele woord belangrike parameters is in die onderskeid tussen stellings en stelvrae. Aangesien dit wel bekend is dat daar nie 'n een-tot-een verwantskap tussen die akoestiese klanksein en die persepsie daarvan is nie, is dit noodsaaklik om ook 'n persepsueie eksperiment uit te voer. Die persepsueie toetse is so opgestel dat bepaal kon word watter akoestiese parameters ook persepsueel relevant is en om die vroegste sillabie te vind waar luisteraars reeds die onderskeid tussen die twee vorme kan maak. Die volgende stap was om stimuli vir die persepsietoetse op te stel wat inderdaad bogenoemde resultate sou lewer. Stimuli is geskep deur die spraakdata van een spreker te manipuleer. Die persepsietoetse is toe uitgevoer op multimedia-rekenaars in die Taallaboratorium van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Die resultate van die persepsietoetse het gewys dat die duur en toonhoogte van die voorlaaste sillabe ook persepsueel belangrik is in die ondersekeid tussen die verskillende vorme. Dit was ook duidelik dat proefpersone die vorme van mekaar kon onderskei met minimale hoeveelhede inligting waar die voorlaaste en laaste sillabes heeltemal afwesig was. Dit dui daarop dat luisteraars persepsuele besluite baie vroeg in die woord neem, maar dat hierdie besluite óf versterk óf omgekeer kan word deur die duur en toonhoogte van die voorlaaste sillabe. Die resultate van die navorsing het sekere impressionistiese stellings ten opsigte van Afrikatale ondersteun terwyl ander stellings as foutief bewys is. Een van die belangrike bevindings was dat die impressionistiese standpunt dat stellings 'n dalende intonasiekontoer en vrae 'n stygende intonasiekontoer tydens die afloop van die uiting het, 'n oorvereenvondiging is. Hierdie werk is gedoen op enkelwoord-kopulatief stelvrae en leen dit daartoe om uitgebrei te word na frases en sinne vir toekomstige navorsmg. Verder is die navorsingsresultate in verband gebring met verwante dissiplines soos psigolinguistiek, linguistiek en taal- en spraaktegnologie. 'n Pleidooi is gelewer vir 'n bewusmakingsveldtog om die belangrikheid van hierdie tipe navorsing te beklemtoon om die potensiaal van taal te benut vir die ontwikkeling van Suider-Afrikaanse tale en gemeenskappe. Die rykheid van ons gemeenskap lê in die veeltaligheid daarvan en bied besondere uitdagings om die verspreiding van inligting na alle mense van alle tale te verbeter en om die kommunikasie tussen mense in die algemeen, maar ook spesifiek vir diegene met laer vlakke van geletterdheid.

The present thesis deals with the psychological aspects of interrogative suggestibility of witnesses, victims and offenders involved in criminal investigation. The first part of the work offers a theoretical and literary overview of important theoretical findings on suggestibility in the field of psychology which underly the teoretici model of interrogative suggestibility by Gudjonsson and Clark. Their model is introduced in relation to selected psychological characteristics with an emphasis on practical overlap in forensic psychology and criminal practice. The theoretical part is concluded with a detailed introduction into the Gudjonsson scales of suggestibility - GSS 1 and GSS 2. In the empirical part of the thesis, the author focuses on adaptation and validation of GSS 1 in the Czech environment. The outcome of this work are the psychometric characteristics of the Czech version of the GSS 1, including detailed instruction for administration and evaluation and statistical norms for the czech population. Currently Czech criminalist dispose of no suitable psychodiagnostic assessment method to evaluate the interrogative suggestibility. Key words: interrogative suggestibility, GSS 1, Gudjonsson, psychodiagnostics

by Chen Jianping. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986 / Bibliography: leaves 130-140.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

How is the logical form of a sentence expressed in natural language? This thesis examines in detail wh-questions and negative polarity items in Japanese and English in an effort to pin down a number of issues related to this question. / Chapter one introduces some of the basic notions of current syntactic theory within which the discussion in this thesis takes place. The chapter also contains basic syntactic properties of wh-questions and negative polarity items in English and Japanese. / Chapter two advances a cooccurence restriction condition on wh-questions and negative polarity items. The condition to be introduced is referred to as the Linear Crossing Constraint (LCC). Assuming with Saito (1992) that scrambling can be undone at the level of logical form, it is argued that the LCC applies to the surface form of a sentence. Various consequences that follow from the LCC are also discussed. / Chapter three argues that wh-phrases and negative polarity items undergo movement in the logical form component of grammar. The discussion in this chapter is dependent on the scope facts involving these grammatical constructions. / Chapter four is concerned with the Subjacency Condition. Nishigauchi (1992) proposes that movement in the logical form component is constrained by the Subjacency Condition in much the same way as movement is in the overt component. It is shown that the relevant sentences pointed out by Nishigauchi should be accounted for by a condition on logical form representations. / Chapter five deals with why certain instances of scrambling can be undone in the logical form component but others cannot, as observed by Takahashi (1993). / The aim of Chapter six is to develop an account of the distribution of adjunct wh-phrases, such as why and naze. It is pointed out that naze shares a number of characteristics in common with negative polarity items and floating quantifiers. I argue that there is only one specifier position per functional head. / Chapter Seven extends the theory developed in Chapter six to another set of data. It is argued that the distribution of floating quantifiers can naturally be captured under the proposed theory. / The final chapter concludes this thesis by pointing out some consequences of this theory.

Traditional Japanese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are taught to respond to negative questions (e.g. Do you not like English?) with yes for positive answers (e.g. Yes, I do) and no for negative answers (e.g. No, I don't). However, this is subject to variation in native speaker usage. This study aimed to determine the conditions under which native English speakers actually respond to negative questions with yes vs. no, and to compare the usage with that of Japanese EFL learners. To this end, 22 native English speakers and 22 Japanese students were individually shown 21 TV and movie video clips containing negative questions of varied form and discourse function. After each clip, the subjects were asked to imagine whether the addressee in the video would respond with yes or no, and to fill in the blank accordingly on an answer sheet. Contrary to the traditional EFL rule, variation was found when negative questions conveyed a negative assumption, and when the pragmatic functions were 1) testing a new negative assumption or 2) seeking agreement on a negative assumption. The results also indicate that no to disagree with a negative assumption was much more common than yes to agree with a negative assumption. The Japanese group's answers followed the EFL rule significantly more often than the American group's on the same video task. This indicates that knowing the EEL rule influenced the Japanese group's performance and contributed to the gap between the two groups. Except for one instance of possible negative influence from the cross-cultural differences in politeness norms, the Japanese group showed variation from the EFL rule only where the American group did. Finally, high-advanced subjects and/or those residing in the U.S. over four years, sometimes departed from the traditional EFL rule in favor of more natural English usage. I conclude that this cannot be attributed to native language influence. / Department of English

Interrogative suggestibility refers to the extent to which an individual internally accepts messages communicated during a formal questioning situation, as indicated by an external response. Research indicates low intelligence, poor memory and weak inhibitory control is associated with heightened suggestibility. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) may also display deficits in these key areas, indicating a potential vulnerability to suggestion. The present study compared levels of suggestibility among alcohol exposed and typical children. The findings indicate that children with FASD may be at heightened risk to suggestion following negative feedback or pressure. In addition, a large amount of the suggested material was elicited and internalized as truth by all children, dependent on question format. These findings have important consequences for future interrogative interactions with children with and without FASD, to ensure information is not presented and thus elicited in a suggestive manner. / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates how politeness may be employed in requests in Xhosa. While numerous studies on speech act have been conducted in different languages, the investigation of speech acts in African Languages, particularly Xhosa, shows no such progress. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the notions of politeness in requests as perceived among the Xhosas. With the study of speech acts, two instances of meaning have been identified. In the first meaning a speaker utters a sentence and means exactly and literally what he says. In the second meaning the speaker utters a sentence with an additional illocution with a different prepositional content. It has been established that various meanings playa role in the understanding of indirect requests. This finding is based on the theory of Brown and Levinson's (1987) face work of politeness. Scholars like Clark and Schunk (1980) argue that the politeness of response is governed by the attentiveness hypothesis which states that the more attentive the hearer is to all aspects of the speaker's request, within reason, the more polite he is. One of the most common motivations for politeness is a request. Brown and Levinson (1987) define politeness as the manifestation of respect for and recognition of another's face. They delineate face into two components: negative face and positive face. Positive face is the way a person wants to be regarded, admired, or approved by others and to be treated as a friend. On the other hand, negative face is the person's desire not to be imposed on by other people. A request threatens face in the sense that it imposes on the hearer, that is why in some cases requests call for mitigation, so as to compensate for their impositive effect on the hearer. Various subcategories of requests within which negative politeness may appear have been established, as well as the various ways in which these subcategories of requests may be linguistically expressed in Xhosa. Three distribution types of request categories with negative politeness have been found: high frequency, No very regular and negligible. Requests with the highest frequency may be divided into three subcategories: compliance; information; and action. These subcategories demand non-threatening strategies: compliance demands obedience, action demand doing things with a desired result, and information demands knowledge from a person. These three are thus face-threatening acts, which demand respect for the hearer's antonomy. Such requests may seriously threaten the hearer's negative face. If no politeness strategy is attempted, these requests will be viewed as most threatening acts. The ten negative politeness strategies of Brown and Levinson did not apply to Xhosa because they have been developed for a Western language. In the place of these strategies, it has been found that negative politeness may be expressed in Xhosa through certain subcategories as above, but also through certain pragmatic functions by means of which negative politeness may be applied to avert a face-threatening act. Brown and Levinson (1987) list fifteen positive politeness strategies. In the case of the four Xhosa books, which were analyzed, only eight strategies for positive politeness were found. These strategies can be divided into two groups: high frequency and negligible. The most regular strategies are: seek agreement, give or ask for reasons, address forms, presupposition, and those, which include both speaker and hearer. An explanation for the high frequency of these strategies is to be found within positive politeness. Positive politeness forms emphasize closeness between speaker and hearer and it can be seen as a solidarity strategy. Thus, a face saving act, which is concerned with the person's positive face, will show solidarity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek hoe beleeftheid aangewend kan word in Xhosa versoeke. Daar is verskeie studies oor spraakhandelinge in verskillende tale, maar die ondersoek na spraakhandelinge in die Afrikatale, veral Xhosa, toon nie sodanige vooruitgang nie. Hierdie studie poog om hierdie gaping te vul deur die begrip beleefdheid in versoeke by die Xhosa te ondersoek. In die studie van spraakhandelinge is twee instansies van betekenis geïdentifiseer. In die eerste betekenis uiter 'n spreker 'n sin en die betekenis is presies wat gesê word. In die tweede betekenis uiter die spreker 'n sin met 'n bykomende illokusie met 'n verskillende proposisionele indruk. Daar is vasgestel dat verskeie betekenisse 'n rol speel in die verstaan van indirekte versoeke. Hierdie bevinding is gebaseer op die teorie van Brown en Levinson (1987) se werk oor gesig in beleefdheid. Onder andere Clark en Schunk (1980) is van mening dat die beleefdheid van 'n respons op 'n versoek beheer word deur die attentheid hipotese waardeur aangedui word dat hoe meer aandagtig 'n hoorder is op alle aspekte van die spreker se versoek, hoe meer beleefd hy is. Een van die algemeenste motiverings vir beleefdheid is versoeke. Brown en Levinson (1987) definieer beleefdheid as die manifestasie van respek en erkenning van 'n ander se gesig. Hulle grens gesig af in twee dele: negatiewe gesig en positiewe gesig. Positiewe gesig is die wyse waarop 'n persoon beskou, bewonder of waardeer word deur ander en om soos 'n vriend behandel te word. Aan die ander kant, negatiewe gesig is 'n persoon se begeerte om nie bedrieg te word deur ander mense. 'n Versoek bedreig gesig in die sin dat dit misbruik maak van die hoorder. Dit is waarom in sommige gevalle daar versagting vir versoeke is om te vergoed vir die misbruikmaking op die hoorder. Verskeie subkategorieë van versoeke waarin negatiewe beleefdheid voorkom is onderskei, asook die verskillende wyses waarin hierdie subkategorieë van versoeke linguisties uitgedruk kan word in Xhosa. Drie spreidingstipes van versoek kategorieë met negatiewe beleefdheid is gevind: hoë frekwensie, nie baie reëlmatig en onbeduidend. Versoeke met die hoogste frekwensie kan verdeel word in drie subkategorieë: inskiklikheid, inligting en handeling. Hierdie subkategorieë vereis strategieë wat nie bedreiging inhou: inskiklikheid vereis gehoorsaamheid, handeling vereis dat iets gedoen moet word met 'n sekere resultaat, en inligting vereis kennis van 'n persoon. Hierdie drie is dus handelinge wat 'n bedreiging inhou vir gesig en wat respek vereis vir die hoorder se outonomie. Sulke versoeke kan 'n ernstige bedreiging inhou vir die hoorder se negatiewe gesig. As geen beleefdheidsstrategie gevolg word, kan hierdie versoeke beskou word as handelinge wat geweldig bedreigend is. Die tien negatiewe beleefdheidsstrategieë van Brown en Levinson (1987) is nie van toepassing in Xhosa nie, omdat dit ontwikkel is vir 'n Westerse taal. In die plek van hierdie strategieë is gevind dat negatiewe beleefdheid in Xhosa uitgedruk kan word deur sekere subkategorieë soos hierbo, maar ook deur sekere pragmatiese funksies waardeur negatiewe beleefdheid aangewend kan word om in handeling wat gesig bedreig af te weer. Brown en Levinson (1987) gee 15 strategieë vir positiewe beleefdheid. In die geval van Xhosa is agt (8) van hierdie strategieë gevind in die boeke wat geanaliseer is. Hierdie strategieë kan in twee groepe verdeel word: hoë frekwensie en onbeduidend. Die strategieë met die hoogste frekwensie is: soek ooreenstemming; gee of vra redes; aanspreekvorme, presupposisieen die wat beide spreker en hoorder insluit. 'n Verklaring vir die hoë frekwensie van hierdie strategieë kan gevind word in positiewe beleefdheid. Positiewe beleefdheid benadruk nabyheid tussen spreker en hoorder en dit kan gesien word as 'n solidariteitsstrategie. Dus, 'n handeling wat gesig red wat betrokke is by'n persoon se positiewe gesig sal solidariteit toon.