<p> Listener vs. speaker-oriented speech: Studying the language of individuals with autism There are many mechanisms speakers utilize in conversation that aid a listener's understanding. However, there are also many characteristics of speech where it is unclear whether they serve listener or speaker-oriented functions. For example, speakers frequently produce disfluencies such as "um or "uh," which are helpful to listeners, indicating that the speaker is not finished speaking yet. We do not know, however, if these are used intentionally to aid listeners. In addition, the tendency to place animate items as sentential subjects may benefit either speaker or listener. Since individuals with autism engage in minimal listener-oriented behaviour, they are a useful group to differentiate these functions. Results showed that individuals with autism used fewer ums and uhs, and more silent pauses than controls, but used animacy similarly. This suggests that the use of ums and uhs is for the benefit of listeners, but the bias toward animate subjects is not.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Program checking is indisputably important, especially if originating in formal methods. VeriFIT at FIT BUT uses custom Code Listener (CL) infrastructure modularly interconnecting the front-end, typically a code parser adapter, and the back-end, typically an analyser. Our aim is to offer a former as a compact alternative to existing GCC compiler plug-in. This adapter uses linearized code mediated by sparse library for static analysis of programs in C. According to the experiments with one of the main CL analysers, Predator tool and its tests suite, our product - clsp program - is successful successful in roughly 75% of cases in comparison with the GCC plug-in. Further improvements are expected.

The purpose of the present thesis is to shed light on the role of pauses in simultaneous interpreting between French and Czech, mainly from the point of view of the listeners of the source speeches in French as well as both students of interpretation and professional interpreters and from the viewpoint of the listeners of the speeches interpreted into Czech. It is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part briefly outlines the process of simultaneous interpreting and Daniel Gile's Effort Model and then it focuses on prosody and individual prosodic (suprasegmental) features, especially pauses and their use in simultaneous interpreting. The empirical part describes the experiment and presents its results. The experiment itself examines the effect that unnaturally long or unnaturally placed pauses in the speaker's quasi-authentic source speeches have on the choice of strategy and the simultaneous interpreters' performances (students and professionnals) and on the subsequent assessment of their performances made by the listeners of the interpreted speeches. Keywords simultaneous interpreting, pause, listener, speech, speaker, interpreter, comprehensibility

Second language (L2) learners of English must learn to produce English phonemes, words, and sentences. These L2 learners make many errors when learning English; they may change the place or manner of articulation, insert vowels, or delete consonants. Obstruent sounds, such as fricatives, affricates, and stops, can be especially difficult for L2 learners. This study analyzed native English speakers<'> perception of the quality of obstruents produced by native Mandarin Chinese and Korean speakers. Target words containing obstruents had been produced in three different tasks: in a carrier phrase, in a paragraph, and in a spontaneous speech sample. Obstruents were produced in word-initial position and word-final position. Raters with differing levels of expertise listened to these words and rated the perceptual quality of the obstruents within the words. This study found that overall, English obstruent productions by native Mandarin and Korean L2 speakers learning English were rated most clear when produced in word-initial position in a carrier phrase or a paragraph. The lowest ratings given were of obstruents in word-final position in spontaneous speech. No significant differences were found for listener expertise level. Combined with future research, results from this study will help educate the field of second language instruction as to how the speech of Korean and Mandarin learners of English is perceived. It also provides additional information on the effect that listener expertise has on the judgment of L2 speech production.

Esta pesquisa investiga o elemento sonoro-musical como criador de experiências estéticas, sensoriais, mnemônicas e afetivas dentro do pensamento e prática do diretor, pesquisador e professor polonês Jerzy Grotowski, no âmbito da evolução de sua obra no domínio das artes performativas. Este estudo, que parte da observação historiográfica, comparativa e crítica do fenômeno sonoro-musical na obra do artista, visa realizar um mapeamento das diferentes fases artísticas do diretor, que compreendem uma curva de 42 anos, indo do período da Arte como Apresentação ao da Arte como Veículo, e das diferentes conotações que este elemento teve em sua trajetória de criação e pesquisa. O trabalho também observa as diferentes apropriações do elemento sonoro-musical pelos últimos colaboradores do diretor, concentrando maior atenção às atividades atuais desenvolvidas nesse território por Thomas Richards e Mario Biagini, diretores do Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. Esta fase é investigada em relação ao desenvolvimento da importância dada às questões sonológicas dentro deste centro internacional de pesquisa e criação, que tem no trabalho criativo sobre os cantos de tradição afro-diaspóricos do continente americano o seu ferramental básico, explorando-se suas propriedades geradoras de comportamento orgânico em performance. A pesquisa é realizada através de estudos de textos escritos à cerca do tema pelo próprio diretor, seus diversos parceiros e estudiosos da sua obra, além de realizar pontes com a produção musical experimental contemporânea. Também conta com a análise de espetáculos, tanto em suporte audiovisual, quanto a partir do meu contato direto com a produção atual. Nesse último aspecto a pesquisa também está relacionada à noção de autoetnografia, sendo orientada por reflexões sobre a minha experiência na condição de performer na equipe do Open Program, um dos grupos de trabalho que integram o Workcenter, entre os anos de 2013 e 2015. Além disso, esta noção autoetnográfica se dá com a recriação do meu ponto de escuta sobre a obra de Grotowski. Com esse referencial a pesquisa busca compreender como se dá a construção do encontro experiencial entre o atorsonante e o espectador-ouvinte, partindo da criação de uma presença organizada, transmitida e percebida através do fenômeno sonoro (cantos, instrumentos e outros recursos), suas estruturações (vibratórias, melódicas, harmônicas, rítmicas e timbrísticas) e suas manifestações e nuances na corrente das artes performativas, conforme a visão grotowskiana: entre o polo da arte como veículo e o da arte como apresentação. / This research investigates the sound-musical element as creator of aesthetic, sensory, mnemonic and affective experiences within the thinking and practice of the Polish director, researcher and teacher Jerzy Grotowski, in the context of the evolution of his work in the field of performing arts. This study, that part of the historiographical, comparative and critical observation of the sound-musical phenomenon in the artist\'s work, is to carry out a mapping of different artistic phases of the director, comprising a curve of 42 years, ranging from the period of the Art as Presentation to the Art as Vehicle, and the different connotations that this element was in its path of creation and research. The work also notes the different allocations of sound-musical element by the last collaborators of the director, focusing greater attention to current activities in this area by Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini, directors of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. This phase is investigated in relation to the development of the importance given to sonological issues within this international center for research and creation, which is the creative work on african-diasporic tradition songs of the American continent their basic tools by exploiting its generating properties of organic behavior in performance. The survey is conducted through studies of texts written about the theme by the director himself, his various partners and scholars of his work, and making bridges with contemporary experimental music production. It also includes the analysis of performances, both in audio-visual support, as from my direct contact with the current production. In this last aspect the research is also related to the notion of autoethnography, being guided by reflections on my experience in the performer condition in the Open Program team, one of the work groups within the Workcenter, between the years 2013 and 2015. In addition, this autoethnographic notion is given with the recreation of my listener point on the work of Grotowski. With this framework the research seeks to understand how is the construction of experiential encounter between the doer-sounder and the spectator-listener, based on the creation of an organized presence, transmitted and perceived through the acoustic phenomenon (songs, instruments and other resources), their structuring (vibrating, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and timbristic) and its manifestations and nuances in the chain of performing arts, as grotowskian view: between the pole of art as a vehicle and of art as presentation.

Esta pesquisa investiga o elemento sonoro-musical como criador de experiências estéticas, sensoriais, mnemônicas e afetivas dentro do pensamento e prática do diretor, pesquisador e professor polonês Jerzy Grotowski, no âmbito da evolução de sua obra no domínio das artes performativas. Este estudo, que parte da observação historiográfica, comparativa e crítica do fenômeno sonoro-musical na obra do artista, visa realizar um mapeamento das diferentes fases artísticas do diretor, que compreendem uma curva de 42 anos, indo do período da Arte como Apresentação ao da Arte como Veículo, e das diferentes conotações que este elemento teve em sua trajetória de criação e pesquisa. O trabalho também observa as diferentes apropriações do elemento sonoro-musical pelos últimos colaboradores do diretor, concentrando maior atenção às atividades atuais desenvolvidas nesse território por Thomas Richards e Mario Biagini, diretores do Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. Esta fase é investigada em relação ao desenvolvimento da importância dada às questões sonológicas dentro deste centro internacional de pesquisa e criação, que tem no trabalho criativo sobre os cantos de tradição afro-diaspóricos do continente americano o seu ferramental básico, explorando-se suas propriedades geradoras de comportamento orgânico em performance. A pesquisa é realizada através de estudos de textos escritos à cerca do tema pelo próprio diretor, seus diversos parceiros e estudiosos da sua obra, além de realizar pontes com a produção musical experimental contemporânea. Também conta com a análise de espetáculos, tanto em suporte audiovisual, quanto a partir do meu contato direto com a produção atual. Nesse último aspecto a pesquisa também está relacionada à noção de autoetnografia, sendo orientada por reflexões sobre a minha experiência na condição de performer na equipe do Open Program, um dos grupos de trabalho que integram o Workcenter, entre os anos de 2013 e 2015. Além disso, esta noção autoetnográfica se dá com a recriação do meu ponto de escuta sobre a obra de Grotowski. Com esse referencial a pesquisa busca compreender como se dá a construção do encontro experiencial entre o atorsonante e o espectador-ouvinte, partindo da criação de uma presença organizada, transmitida e percebida através do fenômeno sonoro (cantos, instrumentos e outros recursos), suas estruturações (vibratórias, melódicas, harmônicas, rítmicas e timbrísticas) e suas manifestações e nuances na corrente das artes performativas, conforme a visão grotowskiana: entre o polo da arte como veículo e o da arte como apresentação. / This research investigates the sound-musical element as creator of aesthetic, sensory, mnemonic and affective experiences within the thinking and practice of the Polish director, researcher and teacher Jerzy Grotowski, in the context of the evolution of his work in the field of performing arts. This study, that part of the historiographical, comparative and critical observation of the sound-musical phenomenon in the artist\'s work, is to carry out a mapping of different artistic phases of the director, comprising a curve of 42 years, ranging from the period of the Art as Presentation to the Art as Vehicle, and the different connotations that this element was in its path of creation and research. The work also notes the different allocations of sound-musical element by the last collaborators of the director, focusing greater attention to current activities in this area by Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini, directors of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards. This phase is investigated in relation to the development of the importance given to sonological issues within this international center for research and creation, which is the creative work on african-diasporic tradition songs of the American continent their basic tools by exploiting its generating properties of organic behavior in performance. The survey is conducted through studies of texts written about the theme by the director himself, his various partners and scholars of his work, and making bridges with contemporary experimental music production. It also includes the analysis of performances, both in audio-visual support, as from my direct contact with the current production. In this last aspect the research is also related to the notion of autoethnography, being guided by reflections on my experience in the performer condition in the Open Program team, one of the work groups within the Workcenter, between the years 2013 and 2015. In addition, this autoethnographic notion is given with the recreation of my listener point on the work of Grotowski. With this framework the research seeks to understand how is the construction of experiential encounter between the doer-sounder and the spectator-listener, based on the creation of an organized presence, transmitted and perceived through the acoustic phenomenon (songs, instruments and other resources), their structuring (vibrating, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and timbristic) and its manifestations and nuances in the chain of performing arts, as grotowskian view: between the pole of art as a vehicle and of art as presentation.

Children who receive cochlear implants (CIs) demonstrate considerable variability in speech sound production. Investigations focused on speech sound development in children with CIs have shown initial accelerated growth, followed by a plateau where consonant order of acquisition generally mirrors that of NH children, but is slower (Blamey, Barry, & Pascale, 2001; Serry & Blamey, 1999; Spencer & Guo, 2013). A notable exception to this pattern, /t/, has been shown to be acquired later-than normal in several investigations (Blamey et al., 2001; Chin, 2003; Ertmer, True Kloiber, Jongmin, Connell Kirleis, & Bradford, 2012). The primary purpose of this investigation was to 1) examine the accuracy of /t/ productions in children with CIs and 2) quantify subtle phonetic differences in correctly produced consonants and substituted consonants (or covert contrast). Two groups of children who had participated in a larger study that examined the influence of speech production abilities on speech perception scores of children with CI (Gonzalez, 2013) provided the speech stimuli for this investigation. The experimental group included nine congenitally deafened children with CI, ranging in age from 2;11 to 6;4 years (M=4;9), who were implanted by 3 years of age, had at least 12 months of device experience, and only used an oral mode of communication. These children were matched to typically developing children by articulation ability and gender. Recordings of the verbal responses on the OlimSpac were obtained from the Gonzalez (2013) study. Thirty-three graduate students in speech-language pathology rated the phonetic accuracy of /t/ and the phonemes that were found to be most often substituted for it, /d/ and /ʧ/ on a 7 point equal-appearing interval scale. A three-way ANOVA was performed to determine the differences in perceived consonant accuracy across: group, transcription category, and phoneme substitution. The significant interaction between group and transcription category was of particular interest. Results indicated that children with CIs did not show an unusually delayed development of /t/. When a confusion matrix was generated to depict overall OlimSpac performance, the NH group was noted to outperform the CI group across all phonemes. This would suggest that /t/ was not uniquely poorer in the CI group, but instead these children evidenced poorer phoneme accuracy in general. Finally, group differences also were apparent in substitutions of [t] for target /d/ and /ʧ/ productions (i.e., covert contrast). The clinical applications are described.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att få en grundligare kunskap om berättande. I uppsatsen kan man läsa om vad författare anser om berättandets betydelse, medias påverkan på fantasin och vilka skyldigheter pedagoger har. Jag har även intervjuat tre pedagoger, från förskolan och skolans yngre år. Pedagogerna har givit en förståelse om hur berättande kan användas i praktiken och vilken betydelse de anser att berättande har för barnen. Jag har kommit fram till att berättande används i alla dess former ute i de verksamheter jag har besökt och är uppskattat från både lärare och barn. Jag kom också fram till att berättande hjälper barn att utveckla sitt språk, minne och fantasi. Men att viss media, d.v.s. dator och television, kan göra fantasin lat och hämma den språkliga utvecklingen.</p> / <p>The purpose of the essay is to get a thorough knowledge about narration. You can read about different authors’ opinions about narration, its significance, and the influence media has on the imagination and the duties educationists have. I’ve also interviewed three different educationists, from both pre-school and the early ages of school. They have provided insights about how to use narration in school, and the importance they think narration has for the children. The results show that narration is used in many forms an appreciated by both teachers and children. I’ve also discovered that narration helps children to develop their language skills, their memory and their imagination. But some media, like the computer and the television, could make the imagination lazy and obstruct the linguistic development.</p>

Vad kännetecknar en bra röst? Denna studie syftar till att utröna huruvida det finns något i den akustiska talsignalen som kan säga något om vilken uppfattning lyssnaren bildar sig om talaren. I kommersiella sammanhang är sättet att förmedla viktigt för att ge lyssnaren rätt budskap och i detta är rösten ett viktigt redskap. Grunden till föreliggande studie var att låta en grupp lyssnare bedöma några olika röster samt att analysera rösterna akustiskt, varefter en jämförelse mellan resultat från lyssnarbedömning och akustisk analys gjordes. En kvinna och en man i grupperna professionella samt icke-professionella röstanvändare läste in en standardtext. Inspelningarna analyserades akustiskt och bedömdes perceptuellt av en lyssnargrupp, omfattande 10 individer utan röstprofessionell kompetens. En intervju genomfördes även med de två professionella röstanvändarna. Resultaten visar att olika akustiska parametrar hos de studerade kvinnornas respektive männens röster hade samband med lyssnarnas uppfattning om rösterna. Männens röster med ett lågt F0 skattades som intresseväckande och förtroendeingivande. Samma egenskaper hos kvinnorna samförekom med en stor variabilitet i F0. På grund av det begränsade urvalet kunde inga generella slutsatser om vad som kännetecknar en bra röst dras.  Intervjun gav att det i radioreklamsammanhang inte finns en ofelbar röst som kan anlitas till alla uppdrag, utan att olika rösttyper passar till olika sammanhang. / What makes a good voice? The present study seeks to determine whether there is something in the acoustic speech signal that may tell us something about how the listener perceives the speaker. In a commercial context, the way in which the message is constructed is important so the listener receives the message in the way the producer of the commercial intended. In this process the voice is an important tool. In the present study audio recordings were made of two professional and two non-professional voice users, one man and one woman in each group, reading a standard text. The recordings were analyzed acoustically and evaluated by a group of listeners. The results were summarized and compared. In addition, an interview was conducted with two professional speakers. Results of the analysis show that women's and men's voices differ in which acoustic parameters affect the listener's perception of the voice. A low mean F0 among men co-occured with the estimation of an interesting and trustful voice by the group of listeners. Among women, a high standard deviation of F0 was the parameter that co-occured with an estimate of an interesting and trustful voice. Due to the limited sample size, no general conclusions could be made. The answers from the interview indicated that there is no such thing as an infallible voice that can be hired for any assignment, but that different types of voices are suitable for different contexts.

Foreign accent can be everything from hardly detectable to rendering the second language speech unintelligible. It is assumed that certain aspects of a specific target language contribute more to making the foreign accented speech intelligible and listener friendly, than others. The present thesis examines a teaching strategy for Swedish pronunciation in second language education. The teaching strategy “Basic prosody” or BP, gives priority to temporal aspects of Swedish prosody, which means the temporal phonological contrasts word stress and quantity, as well as the durational realizations of these contrasts. BP does not prescribe any specific tonal realizations. This standpoint is based on the great regional variety in realization and distribution of Swedish word accents. The teaching strategy consists virtually of three directives: · Stress the proper word in the sentence. · Stress proper syllables in stressed words and make them longer. · Lengthen the proper segment – vowel or subsequent consonant – in the stressed syllable. These directives reflect the view that all phonological length is stress-induced, and that vowel length and consonant length are equally important as learning goals. BP is examined in the light of existing findings in the field of second language pronunciation and with respect to the phonetic correlates of Swedish stress and quantity. Five studies examine the relation between segment durations and the categorization made by native Swedish listeners. The results indicate that the postvocalic consonant duration contributes to quantity categorization as well as giving the proper duration to stressed syllables. Furthermore, native Swedish speakers are shown to apply the complementary /V: C/ - /VC:/ pattern also when speaking English and German, by lengthening postvocalic consonants. The correctness of the priority is not directly addressed but important aspects of BP are supported by earlier findings as well as the results from the present studies. / <p>För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se</p>