This study investigates whether or not instruction of English graphophonic correspondences, i.e., the link between letters and sounds, will help Chinese students in learning English vocabulary. Following other related research, I assume that Chinese students can benefit from instruction of English grapheme-phoneme correspondences in learning English words. If this assumption is true, there should be a statistically significant difference between students who have instruction of English graphophonic correspondences for learning English words and students who do not. 1. Chinese students who have been given lessons in both pronunciation and grapheme-phoneme correspondences will recall more English words on a short-term vocabulary test immediately after a vocabulary learning session than will the students who have been given only the lessons in pronunciation. 2. Chinese students who have been given lessons in both pronunciation and grapheme-phoneme correspondences will also recall more English words on a long-term vocabulary test two weeks after a vocabulary learning session than will the students who have been given ~ the lessons in pronunciation. Two groups of students who are in their second year of a junior college in Taiwan participated in this study. The control group was given the normal English course and pronunciation course which did not include the instruction of any letter-sound relationships. The experimental group was given not only the normal English course and pronunciation practice but also instruction in English graphophonic correspondences. This research examined whether or not the students given explicit instruction in English graphophonic correspondences had better performance on both short-term and long-term vocabulary recall tests after the special instruction. The experimental group recalled more words on both short-term and long-term vocabulary recall tests. Moreover, they behaved differently across time depending on which group they were in: The experimental group's performance continued to progress over time while the control group's performance fluctuated across time. The data collected during the experiment support both hypotheses.

This thesis investigates the changes in whether compound nouns were closed (written as one word), open (written as separate words) or hyphenated in Early New High German between 1550 and 1710. Due to the fact that there were no orthographic norms in the German of this time, graphematic phenomena in this period of the German language are very fruitful to examine. The study is based on a corpus of 249 sermons in 90 different postils. Since this thesis aims to show a diachronic development, the corpus texts originate from six time windows centred around the years 1550, 1570, 1600, 1620, 1660 and 1710. The results of the study show a general development from 1550, when around 80% of the occurrences of compound nouns were written as one word, to 1620, when this way of writing dominated almost entirely. In the texts from the last two time windows, the hyphenation spreads, and by 1710, nearly two thirds of the instances of compound nouns were written with a hyphen. The present study also shows that the geographical origin of a text is of lesser importance for the writing of compound nouns as one word, separate words or with a hyphen. However, the distinction between genuine compound nouns (a compound noun with the modifier in an unmarked case) and artificial ones (a compound noun with the modifier in an oblique case) seems to be of greater relevance. The artificial compound nouns are closed to a lesser extent in the period between 1550 and 1620 and hyphenated to a higher extent from 1660 onwards than the genuine compound nouns. In a second part of the study, the compound nouns of the different time windows are examined from a lexical point of view, showing that many compound noun lexemes were almost consistently written in the same way (either as one word, as separate words, or with a hyphen) in all occurrences within each time window.

Synaesthesia is a variation of normal human perception. A grapheme synaesthete, for example, can experience extra sensations, such as colours when seeing letters and/or numbers. Synaesthetic ability is commonly developed at an early age, and is linked to a genetic pre-disposition; however, there is a learnt component, as one must also learn to read and write to develop grapheme synaesthesia. To explore the extent to which synaesthesia can be learnt, a training method was employed, which was first used by Colizoli, Murre and Rouw (2012). In order to learn their own coloured letters a group of non-synaesthetic individuals read colour books, which are free eBooks reproduced to have four letters consistently appear in colour. Before and after reading, the participants completed a modified Stroop-design based on Mills (1999), which was used to measure if they had learnt the two key characteristics of synaesthesia, namely an involuntary and automatic reaction to letters. Both the colour reading (n=15) and control (n=6) groups did not have a significant involuntary reaction to letters. However, it was found that the participants had significantly more automatic reactions to letters. This included the control group, who did not read in colour, which suggests that merely completing the modified Stroop test is enough to learn the automatic characteristic of grapheme synaesthesia. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:34:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Viviane Lima de Oliveira Gama.pdf: 1008718 bytes, checksum: 8590f9eb4a8fc2722db2af5081cf7434 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-25 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This study is situated on the area of Portuguese Language Description and deals with the examination of the letters g and j , by means of verifying the existence of rules regarding the use of these letters in the orthographic system, contributing to the graphemic studies of the Portuguese Orthography. The carried out research is based on the proposal of Derrida (1967), on the studies of Nina Catash (1973) and on the research meetings carried out in France in 1973 and 1986. Thus, it is understood that the methods used by Phonology can be extended to Graphemics, as well as its theoretical models. It is justified once it is understood that the oral system presents distinct traces, different from the orthographic system in Brazil, where few studies under the prism of Graphemics had been carried out so far. It is stated as hypothesis that some rules can be described for the use of the letters g and j preceding the vowels e and i , where difficulties for the orthographic use occur. The acquired results indicate that: a) the letter g differs from the letters j as the former belongs to the Portuguese Language etymologic system and the latter to the phonetic system. Therefore, the letter g spells the poliphonologic values /g, / and the letter j , the poliphonologic value / /; b) there are commutative pairs between g and j , by means of considering them two graphemes of the Portuguese Language orthographic system: the grapheme g of the etymologic system, in complementary distribution with a , o , u and the grapheme g in complementary distribution with e , i . In this sense, the distinctive trace of the grapheme g + /a, o, u/ belongs to the Portuguese Language orthographic subsystem and g + /e, i/ to the phonetic etymologic system. The grapheme j spells the phoneme / / of the language phonetic system for new words, entries for the Portuguese Language; but j spells words of i, y etyma of origins other than Latin, for being palatal in the Portuguese Language entry; for this reason, they are the etymologic-phonetic trace; c) there is no graphemic change on word derivation, unless due to the complementary distribution, by means of spelling g for the etymologic-phonetic trace and j for the phonetic trace; d) in the Portuguese Language history, the latin etyma present a single letter to spell /g, /, depending on the vowel that follows; the grapheme j spells the palatization previous to any vowel, being it oral or nasal; e) Other considerations. Due to the existent confusion relating to the etyma of the Portuguese Language words, it was verified that there are two ways of spelling the same word, both with g and j . It is concluded, from these occurrences, that it is possible to deal with the Portuguese Language orthographic system through theoretical and methodological models of Phonology. However, due to the unawareness of etyma, specific studies in the area are necessary to guide future Orthographic Changes / Esta Dissertação está situada na área da Descrição da Língua Portuguesa e trata do exame das letras g e j , a fim de se verificar se há regras para o uso dessas letras no sistema ortográfico de forma a contribuir para os estudos grafemáticos da Ortografia Portuguesa. A pesquisa realizada está fundamentada na proposta de Derrida (1967), nos estudos realizados por Nina Catash (1973) e nos colóquios de pesquisa realizados na França em 1973 e 1986. Dessa forma, entende-se que os métodos utilizados pela Fonologia podem ser estendidos para a Grafemática, assim como seus modelos teóricos. E justifica-se na medida em que se entende que o sistema oral tem traços distintivos diferentes do sistema ortográfico no Brasil, em que poucos estudos até hoje foram realizados sob o prisma da grafemática. Tem-se por hipótese que há regras possíveis de serem descritas para o uso das letras g e j diante das vogais e e i , onde apresentam dificuldades para o uso ortográfico. Os resultados obtidos indicam que: a) a letra g difere da letra j pois a primeira pertence ao sistema etimológico da Língua Portuguesa; e a segunda, ao sistema fonético. Por esta razão, a letra g grafa valores polifonológicos /g, /; e a letra j , valor monofonológico / /; b) há pares comutativos entre g e j , de forma a considerá-los dois grafemas do sistema ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa: o grafema g do sistema etimológico, em distribuição complementar com a , o , u e o grafema g em distribuição complementar com e , i . Neste sentido, o traço distintivo do grafema g + /a, o, u/ é do subsistema ortográfico e g + /e, i/ do sistema etimológico fonético da língua portuguesa. O grafema j grafa o fonema / / do sistema fonético da língua para palavras novas, entradas para a Língua Portuguesa; mas j grafa palavras de étimos i, y de outras origens que não o latim, por serem palatais na entrada de Língua Portuguesa; por esta razão, são do traço etimológico-fonético; c) na derivação de palavras não há mudança grafemática, a não ser devido à distribuição complementar de forma a grafar g para o traço etimológico-fonético e j para o traço fonético; d) na História da Língua Portuguesa os étimos latinos apresentam uma única letra para grafar /g, / dependendo da vogal que segue; o grafema j grafa a palatização anterior a qualquer vogal, seja oral ou nasal; e) Outras considerações. Verificou-se que devido às confusões existentes, relativas aos étimos das palavras de Língua Portuguesa, que há duas formas de grafar uma mesma palavra, tanto com g quanto com j . A partir dessas ocorrências, conclui-se que é possível de se tratar o Sistema Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa por modelos teóricos e metodológicos da Fonologia. Contudo, devido ao desconhecimento de étimos, são necessários estudos específicos na área para guiar futuras Reformas Ortográficas