Acoustico-Physiological coordination in the Human Beatbox: A pilot study on the beatboxed Classic Kick Drum

International audienceThis paper presents a pilot study of physiological, acoustic and aerodynamic characteristics of the beatboxed classic kick drum by a single artist excerpted from our database of his beatboxing repertoire. We recorded 25 repetitions with synchronized aerodynamic (intraoral pressure, oral airflow) acoustic, electroglottographic and laryngoscopic data. Results show that the classic kick drum is produced either as a bilabial voiceless glottalic egressive plosive or as a bilabial voiceless glottalic egressive affricate. Laryngoscopic data show a glottal adduction, a slight supraglottal constriction and a laryngeal raising. We also observed an occlusion, a high amplitude burst and low frequencies in the spectrum. We discuss the coordination of the gestures involved in the classic kick production based on the multi-instrumental recording. Future analysis of the beatboxed database will help us understand beatboxing physiology and the extent of the vocal tract capacities

Issues in Borna Phonology

Denne masteroppgaven tar for seg fonologien i det Omotiske språket Borna, som snakkes i Benishangul-Gumuz-regionen i Etiopia. Oppgaven beskriver de forskjellige delene av fonologien og enkelte vanskelige temaer diskuteres mer detaljert. Blant disse er: - Den fonologiske statusen til de sentrale vokalene. Her konkluderer jeg med at den høge, urunda sentrale vokalen bør regnes som et uavhengig fonem i Borna, mens den fonolgisk forutsigbare distribusjonen til schwa tilsier at denne lyden ikke bør regnes som fonemisk. - Spørsmålet om hvorvidt Borna har to eller tre fonemiske tonenivåer. Jeg viser at sjøl om mesteparten av dataene kan gjøres rede for i en to-tone-analyse, så finnes det en god del ordformer og fonologiske fenomener som bare kan beskrives godt i en tre-tonemodell. - Analysen av noen vokaliske og konsonantiske grupper. Jeg konkluderer med at de aktuelle konsonantsekvensene bør regnes som enhetlige affrikat-fonemer, mens vokaliske gruppene kan analyseres som polyfonemiske sekvenser av vokaler og halvvokaler. Diftonger antas dermed ikke å finnes i Borna

Semantic radical consistency and character transparency effects in Chinese: an ERP study

BACKGROUND: This event-related potential (ERP) study aims to investigate the representation and temporal dynamics of Chinese orthography-to-semantics mappings by simultaneously manipulating character transparency and semantic radical consistency. Character components, referred to as radicals, make up the building blocks used dur...postprin

A Descriptive Study of Tigre Grammar.

The present work is intended as a linguistic description of the Mansa' dialect of the Tigre language. The Introduction provides a survey of previously published material in the subject. Phonetics and Phonology (§ 1). / a / is counted among the vowel-phonemes (§ 1.3). e is excluded from the phonemic inventory: its role is in conserving the syllabic structure typical of Tigre. In order to describe the accentual system and the assimilation process, a basic arbitrary unit of measurement has been established (the 'stress unit', § 1.5). Its boundaries are subject to the sandhi habits of the language. Vowel variations are to be stated in terms of stress (§ 1.4), and assimilation to other vowels (§ 1.7), but also to consonants (§ 1,7.3 (e), (f)). The Morphology of the Noun (§ 2). Morphological and syntactic features necessary to the classification and analysis of the Tigre noun (§§2.1- 2.1.4) and basic forms which underlie the various types of formation (§§ 2.2-2.2.3) are given. Semantic categories which are, morphologically, suffixed derivatives of basic forms, are dealt with in §§ 2.6-2.6.5. Verbal formations which are, morphologically, nouns are treated in §§ 2.7-2.7.4. Pronominal suffixes in conjunction with nouns (§ 2.10) and the definite article (§ 2.11) conclude the chapter. Throughout the chapter a distinction is made between countable and uncountable nouns; the former occur in the singular and are statable lexically. Pronouns (§ 3). These form a heterogeneous group of words; some of them are lexical entities which are also used as pronouns. Tigre pronouns are not mutually exclusive as qualifiers (§ 3.8(iv)). The Morphology of the Verb (§ 5). The description of verb formation necessitates the recognition of four types of inflexion according to stem. These types of inflexion are referred to in this work as A, B, C, D,where type A, qatla, is taken as representing the 'simple' stem, the other types being qattala, qatala and qatatala. Verbs of each of the four types may occur with a preformative - prefixed to the stem of the verb. Such a preformative is functional in the system where it is a derivative of another co-existing verb-form. Compounds which function as verb-class members are treated in § 5.11. The Tigre language makes wide use of pronominal suffixes in conjunction with verbs. These take various phonemic shapes, but with each person a common element is encountered in all forms (§ 5.12). Nominal Sentences are encountered in Tigre in the case of those utterances which do not contain a finite verb or verb equivalent (§ 9.3). However, the relation between subject and predicate usually has a formal expression (§ 4.1). Linguistic forms which serve in the expression of Existence and Possession are treated in §§ 4.2 et seq, where lexical and idiomatic meanings of auxiliaries in tense-compounds are also given. The Tense System. There are three morphological categories of the Tigre verb: perfect, imperfect and jussive. The perfect and imperfect constitute the temporal category of indicative, while the jussive is a modal non-temporal category. The major distinction of category be-tween the perfect and imperfect can be seen in terms of the temporal contrast past (perfect forms)/non-past (imperfect forms). A detailed discussion of the various uses of the modal categories is provided in §§ 6.2-6.8.2. More specific time relations can be expressed by means of a complex. Three major syntactical structures are to be noted: (a) the imperfect form + halla, 'ala, canta and nabra (§§ 6.9-6.12.2), (b) the perfect form + halla, 'ala and (§§ 6.14-6.15.3), and (c) the participle form + halla, `ala and (§§6.16-6.16.5). In the case of (b), two different constructions are to be considered: (1) 'endo + perfect + auxiliary; (2) perfect + ka + auxiliary. The Numerals, the ordinal numbers which are morphologically particples, and the cardinal numbers,are described in § 7

Tracking Linguistic Primitives: The Phonosemantic Realization of Fundamental Oppositional Pairs

This thesis investigates how cross-linguistic phoneme distributions of 56 fundamental oppositional concepts can reveal semantic relationships by looking into the linguistic forms of 75 genetically and areally distributed languages. Based on proposals of semantic primes (Goddard 2002), reduced Swadesh lists (Holman et al. 2008), presumed ultraconservative words (Pagel et.al. 2013), attested basic antonyms (Paradis, Willners & Jones 2009) and sense perception words, a number of semantic oppositional pairs were selected. Five different types of sound groupings were used dividing phonemes according to; the frequency of vowels' second formant and consonants' energy accumulation (Frequency), sonority (Sonority), a combination of the aformentioned two (Combination), general phonetic traits, e.g. voicing (General), and lastly incorporating all traits of the four presented groupings (All). These were analyzed by means of cluster analyses creating biplots, illustrating the phonological relatedness between the investigated concepts. Also, the phoneme distributions' over- and underrepresentation from the average was calculated defining which sounds represented and were lacking for each concept. Significant semantic groupings and relations based solely on phonological contrasts were found for most investigated concepts, including the semantic domains; Small, Intense Vision-Touch, Large, Organic, Horizontal-Vertical Distance, Deictic, Containment, Gender, Parent and Diurnal, and the sole concept OLD. The most notable relations found were; MOTHER/I vs. FATHER, a three-way deictic distinction between I, indicatory deictic concepts and THERE, and a dimensional tripartite oppositional relationship between Small and (possibly with Intense Vision-Touch), Large-Organic and Horizontal-Vertical Distance. Embodiment, benefits of oppositional thinking and evidence for more general concepts to precede complex concepts were proposed as explanations for the results

A sketch of the Kuria Muria language variety and other aspects of Modern South Arabian

This thesis discusses a number of open questions and explores various understudied and unstudied aspects of Modern South Arabian (MSA) linguistics and MSA studies at large. Namely, it contains an extensive literature review which offers a summary of the most significant works in the field, a discussion about the internal sub-grouping and the internal cohesion of Modern South Arabian within Semitic, a grammatical sketch of the Jibbali/Shehret variety spoken on al-Ḥallāniyya island in the Kuria Muria Archipelago: this description focuses on the differences between this and the better-studied mainland varieties. The syntax section, however, takes into account not only the insular variety, but also central and eastern Jibbali/Shehret, in order to present a clearer picture of the syntactic features of this language. In the chapter that follows, a discussion about the lexical interferences of Arabic and Austronesian in Modern South Arabian is presented. Furthermore, the thesis contains three appendices: the first one is a description of the Dhofar inscriptions, re-labelled South-eastern Arabian inscriptions in view of new findings in the Yemeni governorate of Mahra and the examination of epigraphic evidence from Soqotra. The second appendix contains a number of texts in Kuria Muria Jibbali/Shehret, ranging from a selection of Miranda Morris’s recordings from the 1980s to recordings proceeding from personal fieldwork made in 2017, with interlinear morpheme glossing. Finally, the third appendix contains a glossary of the above-mentioned Jibbali/Shehret variety. It is argued that Modern South Arabian studies are overall still in an incipient phase, and a research agenda is set up and proposed

IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION ABILITY USING CARTOON FILMS (A COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 KALIWIRO IN 2009/2010)

Mustika Ratna Pratiwi. K2206024. “IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION ABILITY USING CARTOON FILMS (A COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 KALIWIRO IN 2009/2010)”. A Thesis. Surakarta. Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University, 2010. This thesis is written 1) to describe whether cartoon films can improve students’ pronunciation ability and to what extent cartoon films can improve students’ pronunciation ability and 2) to identify what happens when cartoon films are used as a teaching learning media in pronunciation practice in the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Kaliwiro. The method used in this research was a collaborative action research. The research was conducted in two cycles from March 10th until May 3rd 2010 at the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 1 Kaliwiro. The research data were collected by using techniques of observation, interview, diary, document, and test (pre-test and post-test). The data were analyzed through constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. The research findings prove that cartoon films could improve the students’ pronunciation ability. The improvement of the students’ pronunciation ability included: a) the students made fewer mistakes in producing particular sounds b) They also made fewer mistakes in reading the dialogue using English stress pattern c) They were able to produce falling intonation e) The mean score is improved from 44.3 for pre-test, 73.5 for first post test, to 80.6 for second post test. The research findings also prove that cartoon films could improve classroom situation of pronunciation practice. The improvement of the classroom situation included: a) The students were active in the classroom b) They were able to answer teacher’s questions and were active to give suggestion to the teacher c) They did not refuse to read dialogue in front of the class d) They were cheerful and highly motivated in conducting the lesson e) They paid attention to the teacher, the students did not look bored or make noise. Besides the two findings above, there were other findings as follows: They practiced pronunciation and read the dialogue outside the class. The result of the research implies that English teachers need to choose the appropriate media in teaching pronunciation. The appropriate media to teach pronunciation is cartoon films