Acoustical analysis of English vowels produced by Chinese, Dutch and American speakers

Fonetische correlaten en communicatieve functies van linguïstische structuu

The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit as bias toward native-language phonology

Two hypotheses have been advanced in the recent literature with respect to the so-called Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB): a nonnative speaker will be better understood by a another nonnative listener than a native speaker of the target language will be (a) only when the nonnatives share the same native language (matched interlanguage) or (b) even when the nonnatives have different mother tongues (non-matched interlanguage). Based on a survey of published experimental materials, the present article will demonstrate that both the restricted (a) and the generalized (b) hypotheses are false when the ISIB effect is evaluated in terms of absolute intelligibility scores.We will then propose a simple way to compute a relative measure for the ISIB (R-ISIB), which we claim is a more insightful way of evaluating the interlanguage benefit, and test the hypotheses in relative (R-ISIB) terms on the same literature data. We then find that our R-ISIB measure only supports the more restricted hypothesis (a) while rejecting the more general hypothesis (b). This finding shows that the native language shared by the interactants biases the listener toward interpreting sounds in terms of the phonology of the shared mother tongue.Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Biochemical pathways analysis of microarray results: regulation of myogenesis in pigs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Combining microarray results and biological pathway information will add insight into biological processes. Pathway information is widely available in databases through the internet.</p> <p>Mammalian muscle formation has been previously studied using microarray technology in pigs because these animals are an interesting animal model for muscle formation due to selection for increased muscle mass. Results indicated regulation of the expression of genes involved in proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts, and energy metabolism. The aim of the present study was to analyse microarrays studying myogenesis in pigs. It was necessary to develop methods to search biochemical pathways databases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PERL scripts were developed that used the names of the genes on the microarray to search databases. Synonyms of gene names were added to the list by searching the Gene Ontology database. The KEGG database was searched for pathway information using this updated gene list. The KEGG database returned 88 pathways. Most genes were found in a single pathway, but others were found in up to seven pathways. Combining the pathways and the microarray information 21 pathways showed sufficient information content for further analysis. These pathways were related to regulation of several steps in myogenesis and energy metabolism. Pathways regulating myoblast proliferation and muscle fibre formation were described. Furthermore, two networks of pathways describing the formation of the myoblast cytoskeleton and regulation of the energy metabolism during myogenesis were presented.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Combining microarray results and pathways information available through the internet provide biological insight in how the process of porcine myogenesis is regulated.</p

Relative importance of tone and segments for the intelligibility of Mandarin and Cantonese

Interdisciplinary domains LUC

Gender effects on writing style in British English?

This study investigates the effect of gender on writing style in English. We asked to which extent male and female English writers use words and sentence structures in the same way. We collected 36 recent opinion articles in British English by male and female authors written on the same topic in matched pairs. We analyzed the token-to-type ratio, word length (number of letters), sentence length (number of words per sentence), sentence complexity (number of finite verbs or subclauses per sentence) and use of emotional (‘?’, ‘!’) versus other punctuation marks. Several textual parameters measured are correlated between male and female authors, which indicates an effect of topic. Unexpectedly, women used more subordinated clauses per sentence than men but no other significant effects of gender were found. We provisionally conclude that no gender-dependent instruction on English writing is needed in the foreign language curriculum. A tanulmány az angol nyelvű írásokban érvényesülő gender-hatást vizsgálja. Arra a kérdésre keressük a választ, hogy milyen mértékben hasonlóak az angol nyelven író női és férfi szerzők által használt szavak és mondatszerkezetek. 36 brit angol nyelvváltozatban készült, női és férfi szerzőktől származó, a közelmúltban megjelent cikket választottunk, amelyek párba állítva egyazon témáról fogalmaznak meg véleményt. Munkánk során elemeztük a szövegekben előforduló szókincs kiterjedését, a szavak terjedelmét (leütések száma), a mondatok terjedelmét (mondatonkénti szavak száma), a mondatok szerkezetét (tagmondatok vagy állítmányi szerepben használt igék száma), valamint az érzelmeket kifejező és egyéb írásjelek előfordulását. Az eredmények több szövegjellemző esetén a női és férfi írásokban egyezésre utalnak, amely a téma hatására hívja fel a figyelmet. Várakozásaink ellenére a női írók több alárendelő mondatszerkezetet alkalmaznak az írásokban mint a férfiak, azonban nemre vonatkozó egyéb szignifikáns eltérés nem azonosítható. Következtetésünk szerint az idegen nyelv oktatásában nemek szerint eltérő angol nyelvű írásfejlesztés nem szükséges

Gender effects on writing style in British English?

This study investigates the effect of gender on writing style in English. We asked to which extent male and female English writers use words and sentence structures in the same way. We collected 36 recent opinion articles in British English by male and female authors written on the same topic in matched pairs. We analyzed the token-to-type ratio, word length (number of letters), sentence length (number of words per sentence), sentence complexity (number of finite verbs or subclauses per sentence) and use of emotional (‘?’, ‘!’) versus other punctuation marks. Several textual parameters measured are correlated between male and female authors, which indicates an effect of topic. Unexpectedly, women used more subordinated clauses per sentence than men but no other significant effects of gender were found. We provisionally conclude that no gender-dependent instruction on English writing is needed in the foreign language curriculum. A tanulmány az angol nyelvű írásokban érvényesülő gender-hatást vizsgálja. Arra a kérdésre keressük a választ, hogy milyen mértékben hasonlóak az angol nyelven író női és férfi szerzők által használt szavak és mondatszerkezetek. 36 brit angol nyelvváltozatban készült, női és férfi szerzőktől származó, a közelmúltban megjelent cikket választottunk, amelyek párba állítva egyazon témáról fogalmaznak meg véleményt. Munkánk során elemeztük a szövegekben előforduló szókincs kiterjedését, a szavak terjedelmét (leütések száma), a mondatok terjedelmét (mondatonkénti szavak száma), a mondatok szerkezetét (tagmondatok vagy állítmányi szerepben használt igék száma), valamint az érzelmeket kifejező és egyéb írásjelek előfordulását. Az eredmények több szövegjellemző esetén a női és férfi írásokban egyezésre utalnak, amely a téma hatására hívja fel a figyelmet. Várakozásaink ellenére a női írók több alárendelő mondatszerkezetet alkalmaznak az írásokban mint a férfiak, azonban nemre vonatkozó egyéb szignifikáns eltérés nem azonosítható. Következtetésünk szerint az idegen nyelv oktatásában nemek szerint eltérő angol nyelvű írásfejlesztés nem szükséges

Notions and subnotions in information structure

Three dimensions can be distinguished in a cross-linguistic account of information structure. First, there is the definition of the focus constituent, the part of the linguistic expression which is subject to some focus meaning. Second and third, there are the focus meanings and the array of structural devices that encode them. In a given language, the expression of focus is facilitated as well as constrained by the grammar within which the focus devices operate. The prevalence of focus ambiguity, the structural inability to make focus distinctions, will thus vary across languages, and within a language, across focus meanings

Chance of aneurysm in patients suspected of SAH who have a ‘negative’ CT scan but a ‘positive’ lumbar puncture

In patients with sudden severe headache and a negative computed tomography (CT) scan, a lumbar puncture (LP) is performed to rule in or out a subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), but this procedure is under debate. In a hospital-based series of 30 patients with sudden headache, a negative CT scan but a positive LP (defined as detection of bilirubin >0.05 at wavelength 458 nm), we studied the chance of harbouring an aneurysm and the clinical outcome. Aneurysms were found in none of both patients who presented within 3 days, in 8 of the 18 (44%) who presented within 4–7 days and in 5 of the 10 (50%) who presented within 8–14 days. Of the 13 patients with an aneurysm, 3 (23%) had poor outcome. In patients who present late after sudden headache, the yield in terms of aneurysms is high in those who have a positive lumbar puncture. In patients with an aneurysm as cause of the positive lumbar puncture, outcome is in the same range as in SAH patients admitted in good clinical condition