No description available.

No description available.

The study investigated the effects of noise, one of the major environmental stressors, on speech perception and spoken word comprehension. Three tasks were employed – listening span, listening comprehension, and shadowing – in order to find out to what extent different types of background noise affected speech perception and encoding into working verbal memory, as well as spoken word comprehension. Six types of maskers were used – (1) single babble masker in English, (2) single babble masker in Mandarin, (3) multi babble masker in Greek and (4) construction site noise, (5) narrow-band speech signal emulating phone effect and (6) reverberated speech signal. These could be categorized as energetic (2, 3, and 4), informational (1) and signal degradation (6 and 7) noise maskers. The study found that general speech perception and specific word comprehension are not equally affected by the different noise maskers – if shadowing is considered primarily a task relying on speech perception, with the other two tasks considered to rely on working memory, word comprehension and semantic inference. The results indicate that informational masking is most detrimental to speech perception, while energetic masking and sound degradation are most detrimental to spoken word comprehension. The results imply that masking categories must be used with caution, since not all maskers belonging to one category had the same effect on performance. Finally, introducing a noise component to any memory task, particularly to speech perception and spoken word recognition tasks, adds another cognitively stimulating real-life dimension to them. This could be beneficial to students training to become interpreters helping them to get accustomed to working in a noisy environment, an inevitable part of this profession. A final study explored the effects of noise on automatic speech recognition. The same types of noise as in the human studies were tested on two automatic speech recognition programs: Otter and Ava. This technology was originally developed as an aid for the deaf and hard of hearing. However, their application has since been extended to a broad range of fields, including education, healthcare and finance. The analysis of the transcripts created by the two programs found speech to text technology to be fairly resilient to the degradation of the speech signal, while mechanical background noise still presented a serious challenge to this technology. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The study investigated the effects of noise, one of the major environmental stressors, on speech perception and spoken word comprehension. Throughout three different tasks (listening span task, in which participants were asked to recall a certain number of items from a list; listening comprehension task, in which listeners needed to demonstrate understanding of the incoming speech; and shadowing, in which listeners were required to listen and simultaneously repeat aloud the incoming speech), various types of background noise were presented in order to find out which ones would cause more disruptions to the two cognitive processes. The study found that general speech perception and specific word comprehension are not equally affected by the different noise maskers – provided that shadowing is considered primarily a task relying on speech perception, with the other two tasks considered to rely on working memory, word comprehension and semantic inference, or the way the listener combines and synthesizes information from different parts of a text (or speech) in order to establish its meaning. The results indicate that understandable background speech is most detrimental to speech perception, while any type of noise, if loud enough, as well as degraded target speech signal are most detrimental to spoken word comprehension. Finally, introducing a noise component to these tasks, adds another cognitively stimulating real-life dimension, which could potentially be beneficial to students of interpreting by getting them accustomed to working in a noisy environment, an inevitable part of this profession. Another field of application is the optimization of speech recognition software. In the last study, the same types of noise as used in the first studies were tested on two automatic speech recognition programs. This technology was originally developed as an aid for the deaf and hard of hearing. However, its application has since been extended to a broad range of fields including education, healthcare and finance. The analysis of the transcripts created by the two programs found speech to text technology to be fairly resilient to a degraded speech signal, while mechanical background noise still presented a serious challenge to this technology.

This submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy focuses on works for large instrumental ensemble in conjunction with the voice. Instrumental ensemble and vocal mediums such as the orchestral art song, the song cycle and the opera in one act, provide platforms to explore the expressiveness of the lyrical dramatic voice and the dialectic tension between composing for the solo voice with a range of instrumental ensemble forces. The portfolio of compositions includes the orchestral song, The Woman Who Refused to Dance; the orchestral song trilogy, Spirit Songs; and the opera in one act, Queen Nanny of the Maroons. Issues of composition technique, vocal expression and operatic narrative are examined and in addition the three named works explore notions of post-colonial heroic representation of subjects that might not usually attract ideological recognition in Western European art music contexts. Methods for developing inclusive, post-modern musical language for the mixed instrumental and vocal ensemble are explored; including the employment of spoken word expression and the integration of popular music idioms within contemporary Western European art music contexts. In the writing of lyrics for the songs and libretto for the opera, increased responsibility is assumed in the completion of vocal works in addition to musical consideration to find the effects on the works when the roles of composer and writer are combined. With the opera in one act for solo voice, forming the major contribution to the portfolio, critical components that lead to effective music drama are assessed.

Ottawa’s Capital Slam poetry scene has transformed over the past decade, marking a shift in the identities, discourses and performance styles of local poets. This thesis investigates these changes and trends within the time periods of 2008-2010 and 2012- 2014. This thesis demonstrates the shift from male poets of colour in 2008-2010 to female voices in 2012-2014 at Capital Slam, through an examination of Ottawa’s history and a multimodal critical discourse analysis of online performances. In particular, the creation of local alternative poetry shows over the past five years has increased the representation of female poets and transformed the racial dynamics of the scene. During the period 2008-2010 and 2012-2014, poets used key historical elements of slam poetry such as storytelling and speaking through personal experiences to effectively demonstrate how marginalized individuals can speak counter-narratives to dominant culture. The use of storytelling allowed these poets to engage, connect and dialogue with the audience, as well as demonstrate their different identities, discourses and performance styles.

Spoken Word poetry in South Africa is understood as a genre of poetry which encompasses elements of textuality, musicality and performance, and is currently produced and frequented predominantly by a young, black public, according to Molebatsi and D’Abdon (2007). By means of ethnography, content analysis, and interviews with thirteen poets, this study demonstrates that the genre is used for expressing the life experiences of artists and their communities (Sole, 2008), as well as narrating social ills and concerns, including political, religious and other social experiences. In this sense, it is argued that Spoken Word may be termed as being a contemporary form of liberation politics (Judge, 1993) that is employed to serve a social function beyond directly political aims. This is made visible through the narratives, styles and identifications that distinguish members of this movement. This study provides a description of the scene in Pretoria and Johannesburg, drawing out various features of the movement. The social and political significance of the movement is presented by emphasising the poets’ perspectives on the Spoken Word movement, and engaging in a thematic content analysis of poems under the themes race and politics, gender and sexuality, and religion. International literature is engaged to demonstrate differences and similarities between South Africa’s Spoken Word scene and that of the USA by consulting works of scholars such as Weber (1999), Bruce & Davis (2000) and Hoffman (2001). It is demonstrated that similar to the genre in the USA, South African Spoken Word stresses performance to be an important distinguisher of this type of poetry. Also, in both contexts this art form has links to identity politics of previously marginalized groups. The study presents a similar finding to D’Abdon’s (2014) argument that the narratives presented in the post-apartheid Spoken Word movement greatly reflect Black Consciousness ideology, yet also importantly stresses that the movement also presents discontinuities with this discourse, allowing for a much broader array of narrative to permeate the performance poetry scene. This study makes an additional contribution to the existing literature through its key findings. Firstly, the study argues that although there has been a significant increase of women into the scene, Spoken Word remains a gendered space. Secondly, this study demonstrates that narratives produced by this movement contribute to experiences of community, but also play an exclusionary role to certain groups. Finally, the study illustrates that poets of the present day Spoken Word scene have begun a move towards commercialisation of the art form, subsequently also aiming for the valuation of African literature. In essence, it is argued that the present day Spoken Word poetry movement has great social and cultural value, and presents great potential of being a vehicle through which political and social consciousness can be both created and sustained. Key words: Spoken Word, poetry, South Africa, oral literature, slam, open mic, post-apartheid, literature, narratives, Black Consciousness, politics, social change, art, liberation poetry, liberation politics, culture, hip-hop, conscious art, resistant political art / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Sociology / Unrestricted

Spoken language is produced with a great deal of variability with which listeners must be able to cope. One source of variation is coarticulation, which is due to articulatory planning and transitions between segments. Recently, the temporal features of coarticulation were investigated during a picture/spoken-word matching task by using spliced stimuli carrying either congruent or incongruent subphonemic cues at the CV juncture (Archibald & Joanisse, 2011). ERPs were recorded with attention paid to the phonological mapping negativity (PMN) (Connolly & Phillips, 1994; Newman & Connolly, 2004) – a prelexical response sensitive to violations of phonological expectations. Results found that the PMN varied in response to coarticulation violations and concluded that phonetic features in spoken words influence prelexical processing during word recognition. Using a written-/spoken-word paradigm, Arbour, 2012 controlled phonological shape by using onsets that were either fricatives or stops, hypothesizing that coarticulatory information would be differentially processed due to their temporal differences. Findings supported the PMN’s sensitivity to coarticulation but also showed that temporal and physical differences between onsets modulated the effect. These results raise the question of whether acoustic distance between vowels will modulate prelexical processing of speech as reflected by the PMN amplitude: the focus of the current study. Words were organized into minimal sets such that all onset/coda combinations appeared with each vowel provided that English words resulted. Vowels were one of /i, u, æ, ɑ/, maximizing acoustic distance (height and backness). Data from 20 subjects indicate that the PMN is sensitive to the degree of difference between the original and post-splice vowels. When the number of distinctive features changing is greater, the result is an earlier, more robust PMN. This suggests that the rate of speech recognition is not static but dynamic, and is dependent on likeness of subphonemic features. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Neural responses to anticipatory coarticulatory cues were investigated across systematically varying phonological conditions. Congruent or incongruent subphonemic information was placed between an initial consonant and a vowel in a consonant-vowel- consonant (CVC) spoken word (Archibald & Joanisse, 2011). Due to physical and temporal differences across sound classes, the objective was to investigate whether coarticulatory information would be processed differently across controlled manipulations of onset (fricative vs. stop) and vowel type (height vs. backness). Event- related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a printed-word/spoken-word matching paradigm, in which participants indicated whether a visual prime stimulus and a spoken word matched/mismatched. The “Phonological Mapping Negativity” (PMN) component provides strong evidence that the use of coarticulatory information in speech recognition varies in strength and timing as a function of onset type (fricative vs. stop) and vowel height (high vs. low). Coarticulatory cues were more readily perceived in spoken word beginning with fricatives than with stops. Similarly, subphonemic variations were more easily detected in low vowels than in high vowels. Observed perceptual and temporal differences are interpreted to reflect variations in subphonemic and phonological processing.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)