Showing papers on "Phrase published in 1979"

The acquisition of prenominal modifier sequences

Abstract: This paper presents a study of children's interpretations of prenominal modifier sequences like the one in ‘the second green ball’. In such phrases the modifier ‘second’ has scope over the rest of the phrase. It is shown that children misinterpret these phrases in such a way that it appears that they give ‘second’ scope only over the head noun of the phrase. A series of six experiments, all designed to test various hypotheses about the motivating factors behind this misinterpretation is described. Experiments 1 and 2 constitute a replication and extension of the work in this area originally done by Roeper (1972). Experiment 3 tests a set of hypotheses about the influence of certain syntactic variables in conditioning the children's misinterpretations. Experiment 4 is an attempt to check an hypothesis about the semantic complexity of phrases like ‘the second green ball’. Experiments 5 and 6 test the children's sensitivity to ordering constraints in different kinds of prenominal modifier sequences. The results are presented in Section 3 and discussed in Section 4. It is argued that the children's misinterpretations of the phrases come about because of their tendency to be conservative about the amount of hierarchically organized structure they will postulate in the absence of evidence that such structure is needed.

Experiments on spectrogram reading

Abstract: This paper presents the results of several spectrogram reading experiments that were designed to determine the amount of phonetic information that is contained in the speech signal. The task involved identifying the phonetic content of an unknown utterance only from a visual examination of the spectrogram. In the first experiment, one of the authors attempted to phonetically label spectrograms of normal and anomalous English utterances as well as words in a known carrier phrase. The results, when compared with the transcriptions of three phoneticians who listened to the utterances, indicated an overall agreement of better than 85% on the sentences, and 93% for words in a carrier phrase. In the second and third experiments, we investigated the speed at which spectrogram reading can be accomplished. In the final experiment, five students read spectrograms of normal English sentences after a 13-week course in acoustic phonetics. Working as a group, the class agreed with the transcribers on over 80% of the segments. Implications for speech recognition and aids for the deaf are discussed.

Review Lecture The perception of music

Abstract: A common but none the less remarkable human faculty is the ability to recognize and reproduce familiar pieces of music. No two performances of a given piece will ever be acoustically identical, but a listener can perceive, in both, the same rhythmic and tonal relationships, and can judge whether a particular note or phrase was played out of time or out of tune. The problem considered in this lecture is that of describing the conceptual structures by which we represent Western classical music, and the processes by which these structures are created. Some new hypotheses about the perception of rhythm and tonality have been cast in the form of a computer program which will transcribe a live keyboard performance of a classical melody into the equivalent of standard musical notation.

Security document and method for making same using an alternating dot pattern

Abstract: An improved copy-proof document is disclosed having a cancellation phrase with an alternating dot pattern which enhances both the detail rendition and protection of such documents. The method of making such a document by preprinting the cancellation phrase in a single tone pattern of alternating dot sizes is also disclosed.

Phrase-Level Timing Patterns in English: Effects of Emphatic Stress Location and Speaking Rate

Abstract: Phrase-level timing patterns in the utterance Bob hit the big dog were studied as a function of emphatic-stress location at two speaking rates. Five emphatic-stress conditions were defined: emphasi...

Structure in a Manual Communication System Developed Without a Conventional Language Model: Language Without a Helping Hand

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents the human language learning flexibility with respect to one particular learning condition found in all natural language learning situations but in none of the feral situations: the role of linguistic input. The role of linguistic input in accounting for language acquisition has been minimized on the grounds that the speech the child hears, as it resembles adult-to-adult talk, is too unruly for the young child to abstract language organization from it. This chapter examines the ways in which semantic relations are conveyed in the communication systems developed by six deaf children of hearing parents. These children use different signs for communication. Deictic signs are typically pointing gestures. These pointings maintained a constant kinesic form in all contexts and are used to single out objects, people, places, and the like in the surroundings. In contrast, characterizing signs are stylized pantomimes whose iconic forms vary with the intended meaning of each sign. This chapter investigates the particular semantic relations the deaf child conveys in his spontaneously generated communication system. In principle, semantic relations can be conveyed in a single sign or word unit. Children who can't hear produce two basic classes of phrase types: actions and attributes. An action phrase is used to request the execution of an action, or to comment on an action that is being, has been, will be, or can be executed. In contrast, an attribute phrase is one which is used to comment on the perceptual characteristics of an object.

Top-down Syntax Analysis

Abstract: The most difficult task when writing a top-down syntax analyser is that of preparing a grammar which is suitable for top-down analysis. Once you have manipulated the grammar so that it possesses certain simple properties, which I describe below, it is trivially easy to write a syntax analyser as a collection of mutually recursive procedures, one for each non-terminal symbol in the grammar. Each procedure has the task of recognising and analysing a section of the input which represents a phrase described by its particular non-terminal symbol. It does so by checking the output of the lexical analyser, and by calling procedures associated with the non-terminals of the grammar, in the sequence defined by the production on which it is based.

Syntactic Decision Rules for Recognition of Spoken Words and Phrases Using a Stochastic Automaton

Abstract: This study deals with the design of a syntactic decision rule for recognizing an unknown utterance from a set X. The decision rule is expressed as a function of the character string (CS) derived from the test utterance. To obtain the CS, the waveform of the utterance is divided into a large number of frames of roughly equal duration numbered 1, 2,...,n. The ith symbol in the CS is the phonemic symbol obtained by subjecting the ith frame of the waveform to a relatively simple phoneme decision rule, the number of symbols in the CS being n. All the available nonacoustic information such as the lexicon of words in the set X, the possibility of confusion between different phonemes as seen by the phoneme decision rule, etc. is used in the design of the decision rule. The syntactic decision rule can be implemented by a stochastic finite state automaton involving limited memory and computation. The decision rule can also be interpreted as yielding the phrase x which minimizes a distance measure D(x, z) between the phrase x X and the observed CS z. We wili compare this approach with the other approaches such as the Viterbi methods, the distance approaches involving various types of distances, etc.

The Effects of Observational Activities on Student Writing

Abstract: ion In this study, detail was defined as a phrase or sentence which conveyed a mental image of particular sensory impressions For example, the following sentence uses such details in a post predicate position: "The city of Chicago is dotted with neighborhood parks, many with their own playground facilities: concrete sewer pipes set at strange angles for climbing, tall slides whose shiny steel beds slip children over two or three waves to the ground, as well as the more mundane swings, teeter-totters, and monkey bars" The phrase "concrete sewer pipes set at strange angles for climbing," is an example of what was designated a detail A catalogue of items (swings, teeter-totters, and monkey bars) was also considered to be a detail In addition, statistics (60%, four out of five, etc) and direct quotations were considered to be details The most specific papers also contained elaborated details, such as the phrase about the slides in the sentence above Ultimately, although an analytical approach could not be used in scoring the papers, the analysis of detail outlined above was invaluable in enabling raters to focus on detail rather than on other qualities in the writing Thus, a paper containing a great many details would receive a high score regardless of serious flaws in organization, sentence structure, or mechanics Scores were assigned to papers if the density of their detail matched that of the model in the scale Analysis was used only when a decision was difficult When ambiguity remained, the ground rule was to assign the lower score Score 1: These papers included no, or possibly one, detail They were composed largely of generalizations and cliches without any attempt to deal with the topic in concrete ways Score 2: These papers were likely to include one or two details and/or to convey a fairly clear, though not particularly detailed, account of some person, place, or event Cliches were fairly frequent at this level Score 3: These papers were likely to include two or three details with some elaboration and a clear account of the subject Details and generalizations irrelevant to the central focus might be included Some cliches are apparent Score 4: These papers have a relatively high density of detail, four, five, or more with considerable elaboration Few cliches appear However, the central focus is not clearly defined The impact of the piece is marred by tangential material Score 5: These papers are characterized by a high density of detail with considerable elaboration Cliches are almost nonexistent at this level The focus is sharp, tangential material has been excluded, and the impact is strong Although there was a tendency for papers which scored 4 and 5 to be longer, some 4's and 5's were very short and concise At the same time, some papers which were scored 1 and 2 were very, very long Raters made every attempt to exclude problems of usage, mechanics, and bad hand-writing from consideration In preparation for scoring the compositions, assistants removed names and This content downloaded from 157553918 on Sun, 07 Aug 2016 05:12:44 UTC All use subject to http://aboutjstororg/terms 28 RESEARCH IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH dates from all papers after assigning them random code numbers Graders were unable to determine which classes, teachers, methods, or test periods a given paper represented Four reliability checks yielded Pearson product moment correlations of 85, 86, 89, and 93 RESULTS For the following analyses, the two pre-test scores for each student as well as the two post-test scores were summed For one part of the statistical analysis these sums (or combined scores) were treated as single measures on a scale of 2 to 10 The summary statistics for the combined scores appear in Table 1 A glance at that table prompts a number of observations First, very few students in the sample wrote specifically prior to the instruction A given student's score must be at least 2 A class mean of 32 for two papers, for example, indicates that nearly half the students received a combined score of 3 or 2 Second, the means of pre-test scores for the two groups of eleventh graders (school B) are not much higher

Orthographic Regularities in English Words

Abstract: The feature that most clearly distinguishes present day investigation of visual word recognition from studies of the same phenomenon done at the turn of the century is the current emphasis on within-word familiarity. Beginning with the sequential probability notions formalized by Claude Shannon in the late 1940s, a variety of different and often contradictory descriptions of within-word familiarity have been utilized in psychological studies. All such descriptions can be divided into two major classes: a statistical redundancy class which consists of quantitative approximations based on random samples of text words (word tokens), and a rule-governed regularity class consisting of rulebased approximations generalized from dictionary lists (word types). In the redundancy class are sequential probabilities, single-letter positional frequencies, and bigram and trigram counts. In the structure class are letter-sound rules and orthographic structure rules. Analysis of the differences within and across descriptions, especially as they relate to the generation of pseudowords, yields testable hypotheses for building information processing models of visual word recognition. Included in the purview of the paper will be those descriptions of English regularity which are based on the identity, as opposed to the graphic shape, of letters or letter sequences. This excludes, for example, descriptions based on word shape or on the graphic forms of particular letters. What remains will be labeled orthographic regularity, a phrase which is etymologically suited to the subject, but nevertheless ambiguous in its present day applications. Central to all descriptions of orthographic regularity is the assumption that through repeated exposure to printed words, readers acquire expectations for letters or letter sequences which normally occur at different word positions. Descriptions differ in the manner in which these expectations are defined, and often, by implication, the role they play in word recognition.

As in a looking-glass: perceptual acquaintance in eighteenth-century Britain.

Abstract: Anyone working within the history of thought appreciates the importance of small phrases, even single words, for illuminating the context of arguments and claims. The presence in a particular author of some phrase taken from a prior tradition does not, of course, necessarily mean that the author has accepted that earlier doctrine or theory, certainly not without modifications. But such words and phrases do serve as signals to us of reverberations of some doctrine which it behooves us to track down.

Modifying echolalic speech in preschool children: training and generalization.

Abstract: An operant-conditioning technique was used to teach three handicapped children exhibiting echolalia to respond appropriately to a series of questions. The technique included punishment of echolalic responses and reinforcement of appropriate responses that were cued by a tape recording of the appropriate response. Frequencies of correct responses to the questions increased for each child following a within-subject multiple baseline design. Echolalic responding eliminated in response to trained questions. Generalization of training to several functional responses was found in addition to increased spontaneous use of a functional phrase. Generalization of trained responses across settings and stimuli was also suggested. A 12-month follow-up of two of the subjects revealed no increase in echolalic responding and moderate maintenance of the trained responses. The subjects also showed notable response generalization to untrained questions at the time of the follow-up probe.

Sexism in the Media

Abstract: A request for a contribution to this collection on sexism in the media presents certain difficulties. The phrase itself has come to suggest a view of the representation of women, indeed of representation in general, now widely debated within the left and the women’s movement. To make a virtue of necessity, then, this article takes as its subject a brief review of that debate and an investigation of its implications for feminist analysis.

Machine translation and artificial intelligence

Abstract: In this paper I want to explore some of the connexions between machine translation (MT) and artificial intelligence (AI). We all feel we understand the first phrase, and the second will be explained as we go along: for the moment, I ask the reader to accept some such working definition as – the use of computational methods for the simulation of distinctively human intellectual behaviour, by means of complex knowledge structures and their manipulation.

Observations on elicited language imitation with the severely retarded.

Abstract: Word, phrase, and sentence imitation responses by 42 institutionalized, severely retarded adolescents were examined with a view to validity of imitation in language assessment with the retarded, and for developmental characteristics of language processing by retarded speakers. High response consistency in imitation, and semantic and syntactic substitutions were interpreted as evidence of internalized control of grammar by these speakers. A mental-age but not chronological-age correlation with imitation ability was found. One third of the speakers did not produce good imitations for three-word, Subject-Verb-Object phrases; speakers who did produce good imitations of such phrases could also imitate longer phrases and sentences. Evidence of metalinguistic awareness was presented, and results and teaching implications were discussed in terms of speakers' ability to process basic semantic relationships.

Verbal pollution

Abstract: Pretentious, wordy writing occurs because written English is different from spoken English and because writers have developed bad habits. Four specific varieties of verbal pollution are (1) the smothered verb, (2) the freight-train adjectival phrase, (3) the indiscriminate use of jargon, and (4) the habitual hedge. Once their causes and symptoms are understood, these faults are easy to detect and eliminate.

Belief, Reference and Quantification

Abstract: For the purposes of this paper I shall assume that some definite singular terms for individual particulars are sometimes used purely referentially or, as I shall say, with the function of direct reference; and that they sometimes oc cur, so used, in the belief-specifying clauses of belief-attributing sentences. Direct reference can be characterised semantically, or in terms of truth conditions, as follows: When a direct reference is made, by some term, to a particular individual, in an utterance in which that term is coupled with a predicate, then there is uttered a proposition which is true if that individual satisfies that predicate, false if it does not. A full account of the pragmatics of direct reference would be a much more complicated matter; I shall refer briefly to just one aspect of the matter towards the end of the paper. To say that some definite singular terms are sometimes used purely referentially is not to say that all are sometimes so used or that any are always so used. Especially in the case of definite descriptions, something like the Russellian model of analysis may often be nearer the mark. For those who accept my starting assumption this will be one reason, though not the only reason, for agreeing that we do not know the logical form of a given English utterance if all we know is that it consists of, say: the phrase 'Philip believes that' (or 'Philip does not believe that'); followed by some definite singular term or other which is such that it might, in some suitable context, apply to some one individual particular; followed by some predicate of par ticulars. To all who accept the starting assumption it will be common ground that there are at least three types of case falling under this general description of a class of English utterances. (There are indeed more, but I shall not con sider further cases till later.) First is the case in which the definite singular term is being used to make a direct reference. We may provisionally represent its form by:

The effect of unattended visual and auditory words on cross-modal naming

Abstract: Language represents a system in which distinct sensory-specific inputs converge upon a highly overlearned common correspondence. This paper examines the influence of unattended visual and auditory words upon naming latencies. Subjects were asked to name a single auditory or visual target word that occurred at the end of a meaningful aurally presented phrase. Experiment 1 indicated redundancy gains when the same word appeared on both modalities. The redundancy gains were of about the same size for both modalities. In Experiment 1 interference was found when the unattended message was visual. Experiment 2 showed that the interference effects found in the first experiment resulted mainly from a violation of the modality-specific expectancies induced by the auditory priming phrase rather than from the unattended visual item. This result suggests that expectancies created by the auditory phrase are modality specific.

Rose-Fingered Dawn and the Idea of Time

Abstract: A common view among scholars is that Homer's verse, ‘When the early-born ( ērigeneia ), rose-fingered ( rhododaktylos ) dawn appeared’, is a conventional standard phrase used by Homer to say ‘when the day broke out’. In this they of course follow Milman Parry who illustrated with this very phrase his famous definition of formula. This implies that we have here a mere piece of compositional technique. The poetic value of the phrase is either disregarded or taken for granted. It is seen, at best, as a good instance of artistic craft—as one of those countless formulas which make up Homeric verse. It is my contention that the phrase reflects a mode of perception and thought. Technique, compositional device, style are but the outcome of a way in which things are visualized and expressed. The phrase must thus be explained on the strength of a deeper poetic reason, it must be appreciated both in its intrinsic value and in its relation to the context. In order to do this, let us look at its occurrences, and then at what these occurrences imply as regards the conception of the poems as a whole.

Sentence construction and arithmetic teaching aid - uses jigsaw type parts which can only interlock to form sentences and correct sums

Abstract: A teaching aid for young children adopts the jig-saw idea to demonstrate sentence construction and simple arithmetic. The system uses a large number of small jig-saw pieces of paper, wood, plastics or metal that are uniquely interlocking. Each piece contains a noun, verb, etc., relating to a specific sentence or phrase. The child has to locate the appropriate pieces to form a correct sentence. A similar process can be provided for arithmetic.

The Semantic Conception of Truth in the Methodology of Empirical Sciences

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the problems of logical semantics, more precisely, with the truth theory. It brings an attempt to give an extension of this theory. The definition of the phrase ‘is a true sentence’ which was given by Tarski seems to supply us with a notion whose usefulness for the methodology of empirical sciences is limited. To put it more exactly let us give a rough outline of Tarski’s conceptions.1