Phonology or not phonology? That is the question (in intonation)

The paper would like to challenge the basic tenet of Autosegmental Theory of Intonation, i.e. that in non-tonal languages it is possible to deal with intonation in phonological terms. Therefore, the traditional criteria normally adopted in phonological tradition (discreteness and distinctiveness) are tested. The empirical evidence employed is taken from some Italian varieties. On the ground of the acoustic analysis, a crucial role is given to the new parameter of scaling in Pitch Accents. The phonology of intonation is thus to be found not at the level of grammar, but rather at the sociolinguistic level, as pitch is a socio-phonetic marker for the discrimination among the different varieties of a language.The paper would like to challenge the basic tenet of Autosegmental Theory of Intonation, i.e. that in non-tonal languages it is possible to deal with intonation in phonological terms. Therefore, the traditional criteria normally adopted in phonological tradition (discreteness and distinctiveness) are tested. The empirical evidence employed is taken from some Italian varieties. On the ground of the acoustic analysis, a crucial role is given to the new parameter of scaling in Pitch Accents. The phonology of intonation is thus to be found not at the level of grammar, but rather at the sociolinguistic level, as pitch is a socio-phonetic marker for the discrimination among the different varieties of a language.Este artículo quisiera poner en discusión el principio básico de la Teoría Autosegmental de la Entonación, es decir si en las lenguas no-tonales se puede tratar la entonación en términos fonológicos. Por lo tanto, se ponen a prueba los criterios tradicionales que se suelen adoptar en la tradición fonológica (ser discreto y distintivo). Las pruebas empíricas utilizadas son tomadas de unas variedades del italiano. Sobre la base del análisis acústico, se atribuye un papel decisivo al nuevo parámetro de escalamiento en los acentos tonales. Por lo tanto la fonología de la entonación no se encuentra en el nivel de gramática, sino en el nivel sociolingüístico, ya que el tono es un indicador sociofonético de la discriminación entre las diferentes variedades de una lengua

Speech and music rhythm: A pilot study on English and Italian songs

Instrumental and vocal compositions agree with the mother tongue rhythm of the composer, proving that the same rhythmic categorization operates on both linguistic and music levels. In this study we aimed to verify how strong the mother tongue rhythm of the singers is in relation to the mother tongue rhythm of the composers, and if this is also able to influence the music rhythm of their songs. The results of the analysis of original English and Italian songs along with their foreign versions suggest that on the music level the stress-timed rhythm exerted a greater influence than the syllable-timed one, being able to influence the music rhythm of the Italian version of the English songs. On the contrary, on sung level both timing categories seem to be equally strong

Functional and spatial segregation within the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices during listening, articulation imagery, and production of vowels

Classical models of language localize speech perception in the left superior temporal and production in the inferior frontal cortex. Nonetheless, neuropsychological, structural and functional studies have questioned such subdivision, suggesting an interwoven organization of the speech function within these cortices. We tested whether sub-regions within frontal and temporal speech-related areas retain specific phonological representations during both perception and production. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivoxel pattern analysis, we showed functional and spatial segregation across the left fronto-temporal cortex during listening, imagery and production of vowels. In accordance with classical models of language and evidence from functional studies, the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices discriminated among perceived and produced vowels respectively, also engaging in the non-classical, alternative function - i.e. perception in the inferior frontal and production in the superior temporal cortex. Crucially, though, contiguous and non-overlapping sub-regions within these hubs performed either the classical or non-classical function, the latter also representing non-linguistic sounds (i.e., pure tones). Extending previous results and in line with integration theories, our findings not only demonstrate that sensitivity to speech listening exists in production-related regions and vice versa, but they also suggest that the nature of such interwoven organisation is built upon low-level perception

Prosody and Broca's Aphasia: An acoustic analysis

studio seprimentale acustico su soggetti afasici di Broc

BLIND: a set of semantic feature norms from the congenitally blind

Feature-based descriptions of concepts produced by subjects in a property generation task are widely used in cognitive science to develop empirically grounded concept representations and to study systematic trends in such repre- sentations. This article introduces BLIND, a collection of parallel semantic norms collected from a group of congenital- ly blind Italian subjects and comparable sighted subjects. The BLIND norms comprise descriptions of 50 nouns and 20 verbs. All the materials have been semantically annotated and translated into English, to make them easily accessible to the scientific community. The article also presents a pre- liminary analysis of the BLIND data that highlights both the large degree of overlap between the groups and interesting differences. The complete BLIND norms are freely available and can be downloaded from http://sesia.humnet.unipi.it/ blind_dat

Gut mesenchymal stromal cells in immunity

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), first found in bone marrow (BM), are the structural architects of all organs, participating in most biological functions. MSCs possess tissue-specific signatures that allow their discrimination according to their origin and location. Among their multiple functions, MSCs closely interact with immune cells, orchestrating their activity to maintain overall homeostasis. The phenotype of tissue MSCs residing in the bowel overlaps with myofibroblasts, lining the bottom walls of intestinal crypts (pericryptal) or interspersed within intestinal submucosa (intercryptal). In Crohn’s disease, intestinal MSCs are tightly stacked in a chronic inflammatory milieu, which causes their enforced expression of Class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The absence of Class II MHC is a hallmark for immune-modulator and tolerogenic properties of normal MSCs and, vice versa, the expression of HLA-DR is peculiar to antigen presenting cells, that is, immune-activator cells. Interferon gamma (IFN) is responsible for induction of Class II MHC expression on intestinal MSCs. The reversal of myofibroblasts/MSCs from an immune-modulator to an activator phenotype in Crohn’s disease results in the formation of a fibrotic tube subverting the intestinal structure. Epithelial metaplastic areas in this context can progress to dysplasia and cancer

CLaSSES: a New Digital Resource for Latin Epigraphy

CLaSSES (Corpus for Latin Sociolinguistic Studies on Epigraphic textS) is an annotated corpus aimed at (socio)linguistic research on Latin inscriptions. Provided with linguistic, extra- and meta-linguistic features, it can be used to perform quantitative and qualitative variationist analyses on Latin epigraphic texts. In particular, it allows the user to analyze spelling (and possibly phonetic-phonological) variants and to interpret them with reference to the dating, the provenance place, and the type of the texts. This paper presents the first macro-section of CLaSSES, focused on inscriptions of the archaic and early periods (CLaSSES I)

Functional and spatial segregation within the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices during listening, articulation imagery, and production of vowels

Abstract Classical models of language localize speech perception in the left superior temporal and production in the inferior frontal cortex. Nonetheless, neuropsychological, structural and functional studies have questioned such subdivision, suggesting an interwoven organization of the speech function within these cortices. We tested whether sub-regions within frontal and temporal speech-related areas retain specific phonological representations during both perception and production. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivoxel pattern analysis, we showed functional and spatial segregation across the left fronto-temporal cortex during listening, imagery and production of vowels. In accordance with classical models of language and evidence from functional studies, the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices discriminated among perceived and produced vowels respectively, also engaging in the non-classical, alternative function – i.e. perception in the inferior frontal and production in the superior temporal cortex. Crucially, though, contiguous and non-overlapping sub-regions within these hubs performed either the classical or non-classical function, the latter also representing non-linguistic sounds (i.e., pure tones). Extending previous results and in line with integration theories, our findings not only demonstrate that sensitivity to speech listening exists in production-related regions and vice versa, but they also suggest that the nature of such interwoven organisation is built upon low-level perception

modality independent encoding of individual concepts in the left parietal cortex

Abstract The organization of semantic information in the brain has been mainly explored through category-based models, on the assumption that categories broadly reflect the organization of conceptual knowledge. However, the analysis of concepts as individual entities, rather than as items belonging to distinct superordinate categories, may represent a significant advancement in the comprehension of how conceptual knowledge is encoded in the human brain. Here, we studied the individual representation of thirty concrete nouns from six different categories, across different sensory modalities (i.e., auditory and visual) and groups (i.e., sighted and congenitally blind individuals) in a core hub of the semantic network, the left angular gyrus, and in its neighboring regions within the lateral parietal cortex. Four models based on either perceptual or semantic features at different levels of complexity (i.e., low- or high-level) were used to predict fMRI brain activity using representational similarity encoding analysis. When controlling for the superordinate component, high-level models based on semantic and shape information led to significant encoding accuracies in the intraparietal sulcus only. This region is involved in feature binding and combination of concepts across multiple sensory modalities, suggesting its role in high-level representation of conceptual knowledge. Moreover, when the information regarding superordinate categories is retained, a large extent of parietal cortex is engaged. This result indicates the need to control for the coarse-level categorial organization when performing studies on higher-level processes related to the retrieval of semantic information