La percepció de l'entonació declarativa i interrogativa per part de parlants bilingües castellà-català i monolingües castellà de Barcelona

El present treball estudia la percepció dels patrons entonatius declaratiu i interrogatiu del català i el castellà de Barcelona per part de parlants bilingües català-castellà i monolingües castellà de Barcelona. Es van realitzar tests perceptius a 65 jutges bilingües i monolingües amb estímuls prosòdics barrejats de castellà i català de Barcelona. Els resultats demostren, en primer lloc, que els parlants bilingües no discriminen codi (llengua). L’entonació, per tant, és percebuda com a aplicable a ambdues llengües. D’altra banda, els parlants monolingües distingeixen codi i modalitat (declarativa, interrogativa), però poden arribar a confondre’ls erròniament. Considerant això, podem començar a conèixer la percepció de l’entonació en casos de bilingüisme, la qual cosa ens permet descobrir el funcionament de l’entonació en situacions de contacte de llengües per poder trobar patrons generals.The present study deals with the perception that Barcelona Spanish-Catalan bilingual and Spanish monolingual speakers have of Barcelona Spanish and Catalan declarative and interrogative intonation patterns. Perceptual tests were given to 65 bilingual and monolingual judges with mixed Barcelona Spanish and Catalan stimuli. The results show, in the first place, that bilingual speakers do not discriminate code (language). Intonation is, thus, perceived as appliable to both languages. On the other hand, monolingual speakers do distinguish both code and modality (declarative, interrogative), but they can confound them in a wrong way. Taking this into account, we can get to know the perception of intonation in cases of bilingualism, which allows us to discover the way intonation works in languagecontact situations so that we can find general patterns

The next global pandemic could easily erupt in your backyard

[Extract:] We know the virus that causes COVID-19 is linked to very similar viruses in bats, possibly passed to humans via an intermediate species such as pangolins. The chance of a similar pandemic breaking out in Australia might seem far-fetched. But in fact, we tick all the boxes

Extreme weather likely behind worst recorded mangrove dieback in northern Australia

[Extract] One of the worst instances of mangrove forest dieback ever recorded globally struck Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria in the summer of 2015-16. A combination of extreme temperatures, drought and lowered sea levels likely caused this dieback, according to our investigation published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research. The dieback, which coincided with the Great Barrier Reef’s worst ever bleaching event, affected 1,000km of coastline between the Roper River in the Northern Territory and Karumba in Queensland. About 7,400 hectares, or 6%, of the gulf’s mangrove forest had died. Losses were most severe in the NT, where around 5,500ha of mangroves suffered dieback. Some of the gulf’s many catchments, such as the Robinson and McArthur rivers, lost up to 26% of their mangroves

How Indonesia’s election puts global biodiversity at stake with an impending war on palm oil

Almost overnight, Jokowi has transformed from an environmental good-guy — someone who’s battled destructive wildfires and noxious haze, tried to slow palm oil expansion and promoted several other eco-smart measures — into a nationalistic mouthpiece for the oil palm industry. Let’s hope this ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ transformation of Jokowi is temporary — a kind of fleeting election madness that overtakes many politicians in the heat of battle. If not, Indonesia’s forests and the endangered species living in them will be at even more risk

From Australia to Africa, fences are stopping Earth’s great animal migrations

Both of these enormous fences were intended to repel rabbits and other “vermin” such emus, kangaroos and dingoes that were considered threats to crops or livestock. Built over a century ago, their environmental impacts were poorly understood or disregarded at the tim

Impact of tablet computers and eBooks on learning practices of law students

Kalz, M., Specht, M., & Van Oosterzee, M. (2012). Impact of tablet computers and eBooks on learning practices of law students. In M. Specht, J. Multisilta, & M. Sharples (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning 2012 (pp. 203-208). October, 16-18, 2012, Helsinki, Finland.In this paper we present first results from an ongoing pilot study at the law faculty of the Open University of the Netherlands. Students participating in a bridging course have been given the choice between traditional study methods and the use of a tablet-computer equipped with digital learning resources and electronic textbooks. In this paper we report first qualitative findings from this pilot study. A monthly questionnaire has been administered to let students rate statements on a 7-point-likert-scale. These findings are enriched with results from a focus group session in January 2012. The results are discussed and an outlook on future work is provided

Reforestation success can be enhanced by improving tree planting methods

Successful cost-effective reforestation plantings depend substantially on maximising sapling survival from the time of planting, yet in reforestation programs remarkably little attention is given to management of saplings at the planting stage and to planting methods used. Critical determinants of sapling survival include their vigour and condition when planted, the wetness of the soil into which saplings are planted, the trauma of transplant shock from nursery to natural field soils, and the method and care taken during planting. While some determinants are outside planters' control, careful management of specific elements associated with outplanting can significantly lessen transplanting shock and improve survival rates. Results from three reforestation experiments designed to examine cost-effective planting methods in the Australian wet tropics provided the opportunity to examine the effects of specific planting treatments, including (1) watering regime prior to planting, (2) method of planting and planter technique, and (3) site preparation and maintenance, on sapling survival and establishment. Focusing on sapling root moisture and physical protection during planting improved sapling survival by at least 10% (>91% versus 81%) at 4 months. Survival rates of saplings under different planting treatments were reflected in longer-term survival of trees at 18–20 months, differing from a low of 52% up to 76–88%. This survival effect was evident more than 6 years after planting. Watering saplings immediately prior to planting, careful planting using a forester's planting spade in moist soil and suppressing grass competition using appropriate herbicides were critical to improved plant survival

Les interrogatives al tortosí i al lleidatà. Un element diferenciador de subdialectes

Aquest article forma part del projecte AMPER (Atles Multimèdia de la Prosodia de l’Espai Romànic) i se centra en el domini occidental del català. Concretament, s’hi analitza la producció de frases interrogatives absolutes de dues informants considerades representatives de dos subdialectes: el lleidatà i el tortosí. S’observa que les produccions obtingudes, tot i tractar-se d’informants del mateix diasistema dialectal, són força diferents. Aquestes diferències també es veuen avalades pels resultats obtinguts en les prospeccions de la percepció d’oracions interrogatives per part d’oients lleidatans i tortosins.This article is part of the AMPER project, which aims at creating a multimedia prosody atlas of the romance space, and focuses on Western Catalan. In particular, we analyse the production of absolute interrogative sentences by two informants representative of two subdialects: lleidatà and tortosí. We can appreciate that the data obtained are quite different between speakers, even though they belong to the same dialectal system. These differences are also supported by the results of perceptual tests in which interrogative sentences were played to listeners from Lleida and Tortosa

Les interrogatives al tortosí i al lleidatà. Un element diferenciador de dialectes

Aquest article forma part del projecte AMPER (Atles Multimèdia de la Prosodia de l'Espai Romànic) i se centra en el domini occidental del català. Concretament, s'hi analitza la producció de frases interrogatives absolutes de dues informants considerades representatives de dos subdialectes: el lleidatà i el tortosí. S'observa que les produccions obtingudes, tot i tractar-se d'informants del mateix diasistema dialectal, són força diferents. Aquestes diferències també es veuen avalades pels resultats obtinguts en les prospeccions de la percepció d'oracions interrogatives per part d'oients lleidatans i tortosins

Interrogatives absolutes al barceloní i al tarragoní (estudi contrastiu)

En el marc del projecte internacional AMPER (Atles Multimèdia de Prosòdia de l'Espai Romànic) aquest article busca reflectir el comportament dels dos tipus de frases interrogatives absolutes que es produeixen habitualment en barceloní i en tarragoní, dos dels subdialectes del bloc oriental del català. Els resultats mostren que, tot i que la línia melòdica general és força comuna, ambdós subdialectes es diferencien bastant, especialment en les interrogatives encapçalades amb la partícula "que" i acabades pel subjecte dislocat. Les dades no indiquen diferències rellevants en l'estudi de la durada i la intensitat de les vocals que componen les oracions objecte d'estudi