Factors in the persistence or decline of ethnic group mobilisation: a conceptual review and case study of cultural group responses among Afrikaners in post-apartheid South Africa

The candidate has two major linked interests. One is to reconcile competing explanations of ethnicity, and the other is to explore the factors underlying ethnicity in the light of a case study of the rise and decline of ethnic mobilisation among white Afrikaners in South Africa. For many observers the recent apparent "decomposition" of Afrikaner nationalist mobilisation has been surprising, and the factors associated with this trend were expected to contain insights relevant to the theoretical debate. The first part of the thesis is a review of key aspects of literature which offers alternative explanations of ethnic attachments and mobilisation. It commences with a theme-setting example of a reconciliation of alternative viewpoints. At the end of the literature review a series of propositions is offered, suggesting the utility of an integration of alternative perspectives. The case study of Afrikaner ethnic mobilisation commences with a historical overview of the emergence of Afrikaner ethnic nationalism, from the early colonial settlement up to the present. Thereafter a wide range of empirical, survey-based evidence is presented, including exploratory factor analyses, covering patterns in the cultural, racial, socio-economic and political attitudes of Afrikaners, comparing their responses with those of other South Africans. An account of recent political change and the responses of Afrikaners to the events is given. In the final chapter conclusions drawn from the evidence are presented as further propositions in a broader theoretical context. The fragmentation of Afrikaner ethnic nationalism is found to be associated with the bureaucratization of ethnicity during the period of apartheid rule, ambivalence on group boundaries, the usurpation of cultural identity by race, and a breakdown of internal coordination processes which ethnic mobilisation appears to require. At the same time a core of ethnic commitment, substantially independent of its material and political utility, is found to persist, surrounded by a wider compound of racial, cultural and political consciousness. Alternative scenarios of probable future developments are tentatively offered. The analysis appears to support the initial argument that ethnic mobilisation involves full combinations of the processes which competing theories usually pit against one another. The process of ethnic mobilisation involves a variable incorporation of elements of class, group status and honour and political activation, in which identity commitment, co-ordinating agencies and ethnic boundary-construction interact as defining and integrating elements

The phonetics phonology overlap

This is a draft of chapter entitled Interface and Overlap in Phonetics and Phonology submitted to Charles Reiss & Gillian Ranchand (eds) The Book of Interfaces. Now published in Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17-52. This series consists of unpublished working- papers. They are not final versions and may be superseded by publication in journal or book form, which should be cited in preference. All rights remain with the author(s) at this stage, and circulation of a work in progress in this series does not prejudice its later publication. Comments to authors are welcome. Now published in Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17-52.The concept of an interface in linguistics implies a connection between two distinct theoretical domains, each concerned with a distinct group of linguistic phenomena. If the domains or phenomena are very different, the purpose and nature of an interface in the theory is to state (explicitly and without redundancy) any necessary connections between what would otherwise be independent aspects of the grammar. On the other hand, if the domains or phenomena have numerous similarities, the interface is additionally characterised by theoretical competition between descriptions of and explanations for particular phenomena. In this situation, linguistic data are thought to be capable of providing evidence for particular theories of modular demarcation.caslAnderson, Stephen R. 1981 Why phonology isn't natural. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 493-539. Beckman, Mary E. 1990 Phonetic Representation. Journal of Phonetics 18 (3): 297-477. Boersma, Paul 1998 Functional Phonology. Amsterdam: HIL. Browman, Catherine P. and Louis Goldstein 1995 Gestural syllable position effects in American English. In: F Bell-Berti and Lawrence J. Raphael (eds.) Producing Speech: Contemporary Issues. For Katherine Safford Harris. 19-34. Browman, Catherine P. and Louis Goldstein 2004 Articulatory Phonology: an overview. Phonetica 9: 155-180. Burton-Roberts, Noel, Philip Carr, and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) 2000 Phonological Knowledge : Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bybee, Joan 2001 Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bybee, Joan and Paul Hopper (eds.) 2002 Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Cho, Taehong, Sun A. Jun and Peter Ladefoged 2002 Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 30: 193-228. Chomsky, Noam and Morris Halle 1968 The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. Cohn, Abigail C 1990 Phonetic and Phonological Rules of Nasalization. PhD Thesis: UCLA. Cohn, Abigail C in press Gradience and categoriality in sound patterns. Coleman, John2002 Phonetic representations in the mental lexicon. In: Jacques Durand and Bernard Lax (eds.) Phonetics, Phonology, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 96-130. Flemming, Edward 2001 Scalar and categorical phenomena in a unified model of phonetics and phonology. Phonology 18: 7-44. Fodor, J. A. 1983 The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Goldinger, Stephen D.1997 Words and voices: Perception and production in an episodic lexicon. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 33-66. Gussenhoven, C. and R. Kager 2001 Introduction: phonetics in phonology. Phonology 18: 1-6. Hale, Mark and Charles Reiss 2000a Phonology as cognition. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 161-184. Hale, Mark and Charles Reiss 2000b Substance abuse and dysfunctionalism: current trends in phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 31: 157-169. Halle, Morris 1959 The Sound Pattern of Russian. The Hague: Mouton. Hayes, Bruce, Robert Kirchner, and Donca Steriade (eds.) 2004 Phonetically Based Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hume, Elizabeth and Keith Johnson (eds.) 2001 The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology. San Diego: Academic Press. Johnson, Keith1997 Speech perception without talker normalization. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 146-165. Keating, Patricia A. 1984 Phonetic and phonological representation of stop consonant voicing. Language 60: 286-319. Keating, Patricia A. 1985 Universal phonetics and the organisation of grammars. In: Victoria Fromkin (ed.) Phonetic Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Peter Ladefoged. Orlando: Academic Press Keating, Patricia A. 1990 Phonetic representation in a generative grammar. Journal of Phonetics 18: 321-334. Kirchner, Robert 1998 An effort-based approach to consonant lenition. PhD Thesis: UCLA. Lindblom, Bjorn 1990 On the notion of 'possible speech sound'. Journal of Phonetics 18: 135-152. Manaster-Ramer, Alexis 1996a A letter from an incompletely neutral phonologist. Journal of Phonetics 24: 477-489. Manaster-Ramer, Alexis 1996b Report on Alexis' dreams - bad as well as good. Journal of Phonetics 24: 513-519. Mullenix, John W. 1997 On the nature of perceptual adjustments to voice. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 67-84. Ohala, John J. 1990 There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: a personal view. Journal of Phonetics 18: 153-171. Ohala, John J. 1995 The relation between phonetics and phonology. In: William J. Hardcastle and John Laver (eds.) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences. Cambridge: Blackwell, 674-694. Perkins, Michael R. 2005 Editorial. Clinical pragmatics: An emergentist perspective. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 19: 363-366. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 1990 Phonological and phonetic representation. Journal of Phonetics 18: 375-394. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2001 Stochastic phonology. Glot International 5: 195-2. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2002 Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In: Joan Bybee and Paul Hopper (eds.) Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 137-157. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2003 Probabilistic phonology: discrimination and robustness. In: Rens Bod, Jennifer Hay and Stefanie Jannedy (eds.) Probabilistic Linguistics. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 177-228. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. and Mary E. Beckman 1998 Japanese Tone Structure. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Pierrehumbert, Janet B., Mary E. Beckman and D. R. Ladd 2000 Conceptual foundations of phonology as a laboratory science. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 273-303. Pierrehumbert, Janet B and Paul Gross 2003 Community Phonology. Chicago Linguistics Society. Pisoni, David B. 1997 Some thoughts on normalisation in speech perception. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 9-32. Scobbie, James M. 1995 What do we do when phonology is powerful enough to imitate phonetics? Comments on Zsiga. In Bruce Connell and Amalia Arvaniti (eds.) Phonology and Phonetic Evidence. Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 303-314. Scobbie, James M. 1997 Autosegmental Representation in a Declarative Constraint-Based Framework. New York, NY: Garland Publishers Inc. Scobbie, James M. in press Flexibility in the Face of Incompatible English VOT Systems. In Louis M. Goldstein, Cathi Best and Doug Whalen (eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phonology 8: Varieties of Phonological Competence. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Scobbie, James M. in preparation Almost contrast: the quasi-phonemic nature of Scottish vowel length. Silverman, Daniel 1997 Phasing and Recoverability. New York, NY: Garland. Silverman, Daniel 2004 A critical introduction to phonology: of sound, mind, and body. Continuum: London, New York. Steriade, Donca 2004 Directional asymmetries in assimilation. In: Elizabeth Hume and Keith Johnson (eds.) The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology.San Diego: Academic Press, 219-250. Vihman, Marilyn M. and Shelley L. Velleman 2000 Phonetics and the origin of phonology. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 305-339. Zsiga, E. 1997 Features, gestures, and Igbo vowel assimilation: An approach to the phonology/phonetics mapping. Language 73: 227.pub138pu

The phonetics phonology overlap

This is a draft of chapter entitled Interface and Overlap in Phonetics and Phonology submitted to Charles Reiss & Gillian Ranchand (eds) The Book of Interfaces. Now published in Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17-52. This series consists of unpublished working- papers. They are not final versions and may be superseded by publication in journal or book form, which should be cited in preference. All rights remain with the author(s) at this stage, and circulation of a work in progress in this series does not prejudice its later publication. Comments to authors are welcome. Now published in Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17-52.The concept of an interface in linguistics implies a connection between two distinct theoretical domains, each concerned with a distinct group of linguistic phenomena. If the domains or phenomena are very different, the purpose and nature of an interface in the theory is to state (explicitly and without redundancy) any necessary connections between what would otherwise be independent aspects of the grammar. On the other hand, if the domains or phenomena have numerous similarities, the interface is additionally characterised by theoretical competition between descriptions of and explanations for particular phenomena. In this situation, linguistic data are thought to be capable of providing evidence for particular theories of modular demarcation.caslAnderson, Stephen R. 1981 Why phonology isn't natural. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 493-539. Beckman, Mary E. 1990 Phonetic Representation. Journal of Phonetics 18 (3): 297-477. Boersma, Paul 1998 Functional Phonology. Amsterdam: HIL. Browman, Catherine P. and Louis Goldstein 1995 Gestural syllable position effects in American English. In: F Bell-Berti and Lawrence J. Raphael (eds.) Producing Speech: Contemporary Issues. For Katherine Safford Harris. 19-34. Browman, Catherine P. and Louis Goldstein 2004 Articulatory Phonology: an overview. Phonetica 9: 155-180. Burton-Roberts, Noel, Philip Carr, and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) 2000 Phonological Knowledge : Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bybee, Joan 2001 Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bybee, Joan and Paul Hopper (eds.) 2002 Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Cho, Taehong, Sun A. Jun and Peter Ladefoged 2002 Acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of Korean stops and fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 30: 193-228. Chomsky, Noam and Morris Halle 1968 The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row. Cohn, Abigail C 1990 Phonetic and Phonological Rules of Nasalization. PhD Thesis: UCLA. Cohn, Abigail C in press Gradience and categoriality in sound patterns. Coleman, John2002 Phonetic representations in the mental lexicon. In: Jacques Durand and Bernard Lax (eds.) Phonetics, Phonology, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 96-130. Flemming, Edward 2001 Scalar and categorical phenomena in a unified model of phonetics and phonology. Phonology 18: 7-44. Fodor, J. A. 1983 The Modularity of Mind: An Essay on Faculty Psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Goldinger, Stephen D.1997 Words and voices: Perception and production in an episodic lexicon. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 33-66. Gussenhoven, C. and R. Kager 2001 Introduction: phonetics in phonology. Phonology 18: 1-6. Hale, Mark and Charles Reiss 2000a Phonology as cognition. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 161-184. Hale, Mark and Charles Reiss 2000b Substance abuse and dysfunctionalism: current trends in phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 31: 157-169. Halle, Morris 1959 The Sound Pattern of Russian. The Hague: Mouton. Hayes, Bruce, Robert Kirchner, and Donca Steriade (eds.) 2004 Phonetically Based Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hume, Elizabeth and Keith Johnson (eds.) 2001 The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology. San Diego: Academic Press. Johnson, Keith1997 Speech perception without talker normalization. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 146-165. Keating, Patricia A. 1984 Phonetic and phonological representation of stop consonant voicing. Language 60: 286-319. Keating, Patricia A. 1985 Universal phonetics and the organisation of grammars. In: Victoria Fromkin (ed.) Phonetic Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Peter Ladefoged. Orlando: Academic Press Keating, Patricia A. 1990 Phonetic representation in a generative grammar. Journal of Phonetics 18: 321-334. Kirchner, Robert 1998 An effort-based approach to consonant lenition. PhD Thesis: UCLA. Lindblom, Bjorn 1990 On the notion of 'possible speech sound'. Journal of Phonetics 18: 135-152. Manaster-Ramer, Alexis 1996a A letter from an incompletely neutral phonologist. Journal of Phonetics 24: 477-489. Manaster-Ramer, Alexis 1996b Report on Alexis' dreams - bad as well as good. Journal of Phonetics 24: 513-519. Mullenix, John W. 1997 On the nature of perceptual adjustments to voice. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 67-84. Ohala, John J. 1990 There is no interface between phonology and phonetics: a personal view. Journal of Phonetics 18: 153-171. Ohala, John J. 1995 The relation between phonetics and phonology. In: William J. Hardcastle and John Laver (eds.) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences. Cambridge: Blackwell, 674-694. Perkins, Michael R. 2005 Editorial. Clinical pragmatics: An emergentist perspective. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 19: 363-366. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 1990 Phonological and phonetic representation. Journal of Phonetics 18: 375-394. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2001 Stochastic phonology. Glot International 5: 195-2. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2002 Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition and contrast. In: Joan Bybee and Paul Hopper (eds.) Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 137-157. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. 2003 Probabilistic phonology: discrimination and robustness. In: Rens Bod, Jennifer Hay and Stefanie Jannedy (eds.) Probabilistic Linguistics. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 177-228. Pierrehumbert, Janet B. and Mary E. Beckman 1998 Japanese Tone Structure. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Pierrehumbert, Janet B., Mary E. Beckman and D. R. Ladd 2000 Conceptual foundations of phonology as a laboratory science. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 273-303. Pierrehumbert, Janet B and Paul Gross 2003 Community Phonology. Chicago Linguistics Society. Pisoni, David B. 1997 Some thoughts on normalisation in speech perception. In: Keith Johnson and John W. Mullenix (eds.) Talker Variability in Speech Processing. London: Academic Press, 9-32. Scobbie, James M. 1995 What do we do when phonology is powerful enough to imitate phonetics? Comments on Zsiga. In Bruce Connell and Amalia Arvaniti (eds.) Phonology and Phonetic Evidence. Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 303-314. Scobbie, James M. 1997 Autosegmental Representation in a Declarative Constraint-Based Framework. New York, NY: Garland Publishers Inc. Scobbie, James M. in press Flexibility in the Face of Incompatible English VOT Systems. In Louis M. Goldstein, Cathi Best and Doug Whalen (eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phonology 8: Varieties of Phonological Competence. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Scobbie, James M. in preparation Almost contrast: the quasi-phonemic nature of Scottish vowel length. Silverman, Daniel 1997 Phasing and Recoverability. New York, NY: Garland. Silverman, Daniel 2004 A critical introduction to phonology: of sound, mind, and body. Continuum: London, New York. Steriade, Donca 2004 Directional asymmetries in assimilation. In: Elizabeth Hume and Keith Johnson (eds.) The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology.San Diego: Academic Press, 219-250. Vihman, Marilyn M. and Shelley L. Velleman 2000 Phonetics and the origin of phonology. In: Noel Burton-Roberts, Philip Carr and Gerard J. Docherty (eds.) Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 305-339. Zsiga, E. 1997 Features, gestures, and Igbo vowel assimilation: An approach to the phonology/phonetics mapping. Language 73: 227.pub138pu

A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO PHONOLOGY: EVIDENCE FROM SIGNED LANGUAGES

This dissertation uses corpus data from ASL and Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), to investigate the distribution of a series of static and dynamic handshapes across the two languages. While traditional phonological frameworks argue handshape distribution to be a facet of well-formedness constraints and articulatory ease (Brentari, 1998), the data analyzed here suggests that the majority of handshapes cluster around schematic form-meaning mappings. Furthermore, these schematic mappings are shown to be motivated by both language-internal and language-external construals of formal articulatory properties and embodied experiential gestalts. Usage-based approaches to phonology (Bybee, 2001) and cognitively oriented constructional approaches (Langacker, 1987) have recognized that phonology is not modular. Instead, phonology is expected to interact with all levels of grammar, including semantic association. In this dissertation I begin to develop a cognitive model of phonology which views phonological content as similar in kind to other constructional units of language. I argue that, because formal units of linguistic structure emerge from the extraction of commonalities across usage events, phonological form is not immune from an accumulation of semantic associations. Finally, I demonstrate that appealing to such approaches allows one to account for both idiosyncratic, unconventionalized mappings seen in creative language use, as well as motivation in highly conventionalized form-meaning associations

The identification and function of English prosodic features

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-102).This thesis contains three sets of studies designed to explore the identification and function of prosodic features in English. The first set of studies explores the identification of prosodic features using prosodic annotation. We compared inter-rater agreement for two current prosodic annotation schemes, ToBI (Silverman, et al., 1992) and RaP (Dilley & Brown, 2005) which provide guidelines for the identification of English prosodic features. The studies described here survey inter-rater agreement for both novice and expert raters in both systems, and for both spontaneous and read speech. The results indicate high agreement for both systems on binary classification, but only moderate agreement for categories with more than two levels. The second section explores an aspect of the function of prosody in determining the propositional content of a sentence by investigating the relationship between syntactic structure and intonational phrasing. The first study tests and refines a model designed to predict the intonational phrasing of a sentence given the syntactic structure. In further analysis, we demonstrate that specific acoustic cues-word duration and the presence of silence after a word, can give rise to the perception of intonational boundaries. The final set of experiments explores the relationship between prosody and information structure, and how this relationship is realized acoustically. In a series of four experiments, we manipulated the information status of elements of declarative sentences by varying the questions that preceded those sentences. We found that all of the acoustic features we tested-duration, f0, and intensity-were utilized by speakers to indicate the location of an accented element. However, speakers did not consistently indicate differences in information status type (wide focus, new information, contrastive information) with the acoustic features we investigated.by Mara E. Breen.Ph.D

Providing and assessing intelligible explanations in autonomous driving

Intelligent vehicles with automated driving functionalities provide many benefits, but also instigate serious concerns around human safety and trust. While the automotive industry has devoted enormous resources to realising vehicle autonomy, there exist uncertainties as to whether the technology would be widely adopted by society. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are complex systems, and in challenging driving scenarios, they are likely to make decisions that could be confusing to end-users. As a way to bridge the gap between this technology and end-users, the provision of explanations is generally being put forward. While explanations are considered to be helpful, this thesis argues that explanations must also be intelligible (as obligated by the GDPR Article 12) to the intended stakeholders, and should make causal attributions in order to foster confidence and trust in end-users. Moreover, the methods for generating these explanations should be transparent for easy audit. To substantiate this argument, the thesis proceeds in four steps: First, we adopted a mixed method approach (in a user study $N=101$) to elicit passengers' requirements for effective explainability in diverse autonomous driving scenarios. Second, we explored different representations, data structures and driving data annotation schemes to facilitate intelligible explanation generation and general explainability research in autonomous driving. Third, we developed transparent algorithms for posthoc explanation generation. These algorithms were tested within a collision risk assessment case study and an AV navigation case study, using the Lyft Level5 dataset and our new SAX dataset---a dataset that we have introduced for AV explainability research. Fourth, we deployed these algorithms in an immersive physical simulation environment and assessed (in a lab study $N=39$) the impact of the generated explanations on passengers' perceived safety while varying the prediction accuracy of an AV's perception system and the specificity of the explanations. The thesis concludes by providing recommendations needed for the realisation of more effective explainable autonomous driving, and provides a future research agenda

Conceptual baggage and how to unpack it

Our interpretive resources enable us to make sense of, navigate, and communicate about our shared world. These resources not only carve the world up into categories, but also guide how we, individually and collectively, are oriented towards it. In this thesis, I examine how these resources, and the dispositions they guide, may be harmful. A vital kind of interpretive resources are frames, which equip us with unified perspectives on the world. Perspectives are suites of open-ended interpretive (inquisitive, attentional, inferential, evaluative, and affective) dispositions. Frames thereby guide how we interpret, respond to, and navigate the world. I show that these perspectives are epistemically powerful and indispensable. I argue that flawed perspectives, and the distorting frames that produce them, are deeply pernicious and I examine their relationship to oppression.   In Chapter One, I develop an account of how narrative framing may equip us with perspectives. I argue that narratives which frame the overcoming of refusal as erotic may equip viewers with perspectives which obstruct recognition of sexual violence. In Chapter two, I turn more broadly to the way in which our shared interpretive frames may lead us to misunderstand the world. I develop an analysis of these ‘mis-interpretive resources’ and how they may operate to uphold oppression. In Chapter three, I examine how attempts to communicate one’s perspective may be frustrated, analysing how mis-interpretive resources may lead to an overlooked form of communicative disablement. In Chapter four, I examine how distorting frames can be reproduced and argue that attempts to identify injustice can inadvertently replicate distorting frames. Finally, in Chapter five, I consider how we may attempt to revise and replace harmful frames. I argue that, in light of the vital epistemic role of perspective, leveraging frames is an indispensable tool for resisting oppression. "This work was supported by the Universities of St Andrews and Stirling (SASP PhD Scholarship); the Aristotelian Society (Student Bursary); and the Society for Applied Philosophy (Doctoral Scholarship)."--Fundin

Information structure and the prosodic structure of English : a probabilistic relationship

This work concerns how information structure is signalled prosodically in English, that is, how prosodic prominence and phrasing are used to indicate the salience and organisation of information in relation to a discourse model. It has been standardly held that information structure is primarily signalled by the distribution of pitch accents within syntax structure, as well as intonation event type. However, we argue that these claims underestimate the importance, and richness, of metrical prosodic structure and its role in signalling information structure. We advance a new theory, that information structure is a strong constraint on the mapping of words onto metrical prosodic structure. We show that focus (kontrast) aligns with nuclear prominence, while other accents are not usually directly 'meaningful'. Information units (theme/rheme) try to align with prosodic phrases. This mapping is probabilistic, so it is also influenced by lexical and syntactic effects, as well as rhythmical constraints and other features including emphasis. Rather than being directly signalled by the prosody, the likelihood of each information structure interpretation is mediated by all these properties. We demonstrate that this theory resolves problematic facts about accent distribution in earlier accounts and makes syntactic focus projection rules unnecessary. Previous theories have claimed that contrastive accents are marked by a categorically distinct accent type to other focal accents (e.g. L+H* v H*). We show this distinction in fact involves two separate semantic properties: contrastiveness and theme/rheme status. Contrastiveness is marked by increased prominence in general. Themes are distinguished from rhemes by relative prominence, i.e. the rheme kontrast aligns with nuclear prominence at the level of phrasing that includes both theme and rheme units. In a series of production and perception experiments, we directly test our theory against previous accounts, showing that the only consistent cue to the distinction between theme and rheme nuclear accents is relative pitch height. This height difference accords with our understanding of the marking of nuclear prominence: theme peaks are only lower than rheme peaks in rheme-theme order, consistent with post-nuclear lowering; in theme-rheme order, the last of equal peaks is perceived as nuclear. The rest of the thesis involves analysis of a portion of the Switchboard corpus which we have annotated with substantial new layers of semantic (kontrast) and prosodic features, which are described. This work is an essentially novel approach to testing discourse semantics theories in speech. Using multiple regression analysis, we demonstrate distributional properties of the corpus consistent with our claims. Plain and nuclear accents are best distinguished by phrasal features, showing the strong constraint of phrase structure on the perception of prominence. Nuclear accents can be reliably predicted by semantic/syntactic features, particularly kontrast, while other accents cannot. Plain accents can only be identified well by acoustic features, showing their appearance is linked to rhythmical and low-level semantic features. We further show that kontrast is not only more likely in nuclear position, but also if a word is more structurally or acoustically prominent than expected given its syntactic/information status properties. Consistent with our claim that nuclear accents are distinctive, we show that pre-, post- and nuclear accents have different acoustic profiles; and that the acoustic correlates of increased prominence vary by accent type, i.e. pre-nuclear or nuclear. Finally, we demonstrate the efficacy of our theory compared to previous accounts using examples from the corpus

Conceptual Baggage and How to Unpack It

Our interpretive resources enable us to make sense of, navigate, and communicate about our shared world. These resources not only carve the world up into categories, but also guide how we, individually and collectively, are oriented towards it. In this thesis, I examine how these resources, and the dispositions they guide, may be harmful. A vital kind of interpretive resources are frames, which equip us with unified perspectives on the world. Perspectives are suites of open-ended interpretive (inquisitive, attentional, inferential, evaluative, and affective) dispositions. Frames thereby guide how we interpret, respond to, and navigate the world. I show that these perspectives are epistemically powerful and indispensable. I argue that flawed perspectives, and the distorting frames that produce them, are deeply pernicious and I examine their relationship to oppression.