Rightward incrementality in encoding simple phrasal forms in speech production

This article reports 7 experiments investigating whether utterances are planned in a parallel or rightward incremental fashion during language production. The experiments examined the role of linear order, length, frequency, and repetition in producing Dutch verb–particle combinations. On each trial, participants produced 1 utterance out of a set of 3 as quickly as possible. The responses shared part of their form or not. For particle-initial infinitives, facilitation was obtained when the responses shared the particle but not when they shared the verb. For verb-initial imperatives, however, facilitation was obtained for the verbs but not for the particles. The facilitation increased with length, decreased with frequency, and was independent of repetition. A simple rightward incremental model accounts quantitatively for the results

The Coordination of Pitch Accents with Articulatory Gestures: A Dynamical Approach

This thesis investigates the coordination of nuclear and prenuclear rising pitch accents in the acoustic and articulatory domain in German. It employs electromagnetic articulography (EMA) to examine the temporal relationship between accentual rises and oral constriction gestures in German in order to shed light on their coordination as a function of phrasal position, syllable structure and word boundary. While the alignment of accentual F0 peaks with acoustic landmarks is prone to a large amount of variability, there is a stable coordination pattern between F0 peaks and the articulatory target for the accented vowel. This coordination is modeled in terms of different coupling structures in the framework of Articulatory Phonology

Computable classifications of continuous, transducer, and regular functions

We develop a systematic algorithmic framework that unites global and local classification problems for functional separable spaces and apply it to attack classification problems concerning the Banach space C[0,1] of real-valued continuous functions on the unit interval. We prove that the classification problem for continuous (binary) regular functions among almost everywhere linear, pointwise linear-time Lipshitz functions is $\Sigma^0_2$-complete. We show that a function $f\colon [0,1] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is (binary) transducer if and only if it is continuous regular; interestingly, this peculiar and nontrivial fact was overlooked by experts in automata theory. As one of many consequences, our $\Sigma^0_2$-completeness result covers the class of transducer functions as well. Finally, we show that the Banach space $C[0,1]$ of real-valued continuous functions admits an arithmetical classification among separable Banach spaces. Our proofs combine methods of abstract computability theory, automata theory, and functional analysis.Comment: Revised argument in Section 5; results unchange

Master of Arts

thesisFingerspelling in American Sign Language (ASL) is a system in which 26 onehanded signs represent the letters of the English alphabet and are formed sequentially to spell out words borrowed from oral languages or letter sequences. Patrie and Johnson have proposed a distinction in fingerspelling styles between careful fingerspelling and rapid fingerspelling, which appear to correspond to clear speech and plain speech styles. The criteria for careful fingerspelling include indexing of fingerspelled words, completely spelled words, limited coarticulation, a slow signing rate, and even rhythm, while rapid fingerspelling involves lack of indexing, increased dropping of letters, coarticulation, a faster signing rate, and the first and last letter of the words being held longer. They further propose that careful fingerspelling is used for initial uses of all fingerspelled words in running signing, with rapid fingerspelling being used for second and further mentions of fingerspelled words. I examine the 45 fingerspelled content words in a speech given by a Deaf native signer using quantitative measures, including a Coarticulation Index that permits comparing the degree of coarticulation in different words. I find that first mentions are more hyperarticulated than second mentions but that not all first mentions are hyperarticulated to the same extent and that topicality of the words may have bearing on this. I also show that the reduction of fingerspelled words is consistent with the reduction seen in repeated words in spoken English

Multiple jet impingement heat transfer characteristic: Experimental investigation of in-line and staggered arrays with crossflow

Heat transfer characteristics were obtained for configurations designed to model the impingement cooled midchord region of air cooled gas turbine airfoils. The configurations tested were inline and staggered two-dimensional arrays of circular jets with ten spanwise rows of holes. The cooling air was constrained to exit in the chordwise direction along the channel formed by the jet orifice plate and the heat transfer surface. Tests were run for chordwise jet hole spacings of five, ten, and fifteen hole diameters; spanwise spacings of four, six, and eight diameters; and channel heights of one, two, three, and six diameters. Mean jet Reynolds numbers ranged from 5000 to 50,000. The thermal boundary condition at the heat transfer test surface was isothermal. Tests were run for sets of geometrically similar configurations of different sizes. Mean and chordwise resolved Nusselt numbers were determined utilizing a specially constructed test surface which was segmented in the chordwise direction