Imitation/self-imitation in computer-assisted prosody training for Chinese learners of L2 Italian.

Recent studies on L2 acquisition, speech synthesis and automatic identification of foreign accents argue for a major role of prosody in the perception of non-native speech. Research on the relationship between pronunciation improvement and student/teachers’ voice similarities has also shown that the better the match between the learners' and native speakers' voices in terms of f0 and articulation rate, the more positive the impact on pronunciation training. This study investigates the effects of imitation and self-imitation on the acquisition of L2 suprasegmental patterns. Degree of foreign accent, improvements in intelligibility, and effectiveness of communication were measured to determine the success of each technique. For this purpose, a prosodic transplantation technique and a computer-assisted learning methodology were used. Recent studies on L2 acquisition, speech synthesis and automatic identification of foreign accents argue for a major role of prosody in the perception of non-native speech. Research on the relationship between pronunciation improvement and student/teachers’ voice similarities has also shown that the better the match between the learners' and native speakers' voices in terms of f0 and articulation rate, the more positive the impact on pronunciation training. This study investigates the effects of imitation and self-imitation on the acquisition of L2 suprasegmental patterns. Degree of foreign accent, improvements in intelligibility, and effectiveness of communication were measured to determine the success of each technique. For this purpose, a prosodic transplantation technique and a computer-assisted learning methodology were used

Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2018

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-­‐it 2018). This edition of the conference is held in Torino. The conference is locally organised by the University of Torino and hosted into its prestigious main lecture hall “Cavallerizza Reale”. The CLiC-­‐it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after five years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges

Imitation/self-imitation in computer-assisted prosody training for Chinese learners of L2 Italian.

Recent studies on L2 acquisition, speech synthesis and automatic identification of foreign accents argue for a major role of prosody in the perception of non-native speech. Research on the relationship between pronunciation improvement and student/teachers’ voice similarities has also shown that the better the match between the learners' and native speakers' voices in terms of f0 and articulation rate, the more positive the impact on pronunciation training. This study investigates the effects of imitation and self-imitation on the acquisition of L2 suprasegmental patterns. Degree of foreign accent, improvements in intelligibility, and effectiveness of communication were measured to determine the success of each technique. For this purpose, a prosodic transplantation technique and a computer-assisted learning methodology were used. Recent studies on L2 acquisition, speech synthesis and automatic identification of foreign accents argue for a major role of prosody in the perception of non-native speech. Research on the relationship between pronunciation improvement and student/teachers’ voice similarities has also shown that the better the match between the learners' and native speakers' voices in terms of f0 and articulation rate, the more positive the impact on pronunciation training. This study investigates the effects of imitation and self-imitation on the acquisition of L2 suprasegmental patterns. Degree of foreign accent, improvements in intelligibility, and effectiveness of communication were measured to determine the success of each technique. For this purpose, a prosodic transplantation technique and a computer-assisted learning methodology were used

VoLIP: a searchable Italian spoken corpus

OLOMOUC MODERN LANGUAGE SERIES (OMLS

VOLIP: a Corpus of Spoken Italian and a Virtuous Example of Reuse of Linguistic Resources

The corpus VoLIP (The Voice of LIP) is an Italian speech resource which associates the audio signals to the orthographic transcriptions of the LIP Corpus. The LIP Corpus was designed to represent diaphasic, diatopic and diamesic variation. The Corpus was collected in the early ‘ 90s to compile a frequency lexicon of spoken Italian and its size was tailored to produce a reliable frequency lexicon for the first 3,000 lemmas. Therefore, it consists of about 500,000 word tokens for 60 hours of recording. The speech materials belong to five different text registers and they were collected in fo ur different cities. Thanks to a modern technological approach VoLIP web service allows users to search the LIP corpus using IMDI metadata, lexical or morpho-syntactic entry keys, receiving as result the audio portions aligned to the corresponding required entry. The VoLIP corpus is freely available at the URL http://www.parlaritaliano.it

Il VoLIP: una risorsa per lo studio della variazione nel parlato della lingua italiana

Nel presente contributo si descrive una nuova risorsa linguistica, il corpus VoLIP (Voce del LIP), e se ne esaminano le principali ipotesi applicative. Il VoLIP, finanziato dal Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, permette l’ascolto e l’interrogazione dei file audio del corpus LIP (De Mauro et al. 1993), secondo criteri sociolinguistici, lessicali e morfosintattici. Tale risorsa consente quindi di interrogare il corpus LIP e di ottenere come risultato la porzione di audio desiderata associata alla sua trascrizione ortografica. Il VoLIP fornisce tutti i campioni del corpus LIP in files wav (Windows PCM, 22050Hz. 16 bit) correlati con: a) i metadati in formato IMDI, b) la trascrizione ortografica originale e la sua revisione

Large trigeminal schwannoma of the infratemporal fossa: evaluation of neoangiogenesis in this rare neoplasm

Background. Trigeminal schwannomas are uncommon intracranial tumors. Extracranial trigeminal schwannomas in the infratemporal fossa are rare.Methods. We present a case with a clinical history of facial pain. MRI and CT scans showed a mass arising from the infratemporal fossa extending into the intracranial space.Results. We performed a combined neurosurgical and maxillofacial approach with preoperative endovascular embolization. Complete removal of the parasellar component was achieved with a minimal extracranial neoplastic residual. High microvessel density, reflecting intense neoangiogenesis, was detected through the immunohistochemical staining with endoglin.Conclusions. Due to the unique development pattern of trigeminal schwannoma involving multiple intracranial fossae and extracranial compartment, we chose a combined neurosurgical and maxillofacial approach with preoperative embolization of the tumor. Immunohistochemical findings suggest that the extensive growth observed may be related to an intense neoangiogenesis, opening the perspective to novel therapeutic options based on the inhibition of neoangiogenesis. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 35: E272-E276, 201

Convenient Synthesis of the Antibiotic Linezolid via an Oxazolidine-2,4-dione Intermediate Derived from the Chiral Building Block Isoserine

We describe a new synthesis of the 5-(aminomethyl)oxazolidin-3-one core of linezolid in enantiomerically pure form. The expedient cyclization of the -hydroxy amide derived from isoserine and 3-fluoro-4-morpholinoaniline to give the corresponding (aminomethyl)oxazolidine-2,4-dione, followed by its mild selective reduction at the C(4)-position, gave linezolid in almost quantitative overall yield