Models of lexical retrieval for both perception and production have contributed significantly to our understanding of the relationship between the brain and language. They give insight into how the lexicon is structured in terms of where words are stored. They show the most effective (quickest) pathways that lead from stimulus (audio or visual speech input) to target (the intended word being … [Read more...]
Lexical Retrieval and Models of Speech Perception
Have you ever considered the why people who speak with a foreign accent are sometimes quite difficult to understand? Or why one might mistake a young child’s whining for a cat’s meow? Maybe you have been surprised to realize that the lyrics to one of your favorite songs were not at all what you thought you had been hearing for years? The process of recognizing speech is fascinating, … [Read more...]
Morphology—Word Construction and Compositionality
This tutorial will introduce you to the basic concept of how a certain class of words are constructed in Standard English. What is a Morpheme? A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. It can be expressed in three different ways: as a word, whether monosyllabic, e.g., coat, love, or polysyllabic, e.g., pillow, avocado, as a syllable, e.g., un- as in unforgiving, or re- as in refocus, or … [Read more...]
Phonetics: The Basics About Acoustic Features of Consonants in Standard English
When analyzing speech segments on a spectrograph, you will notice a significant difference in their respective sound patterns. In this tutorial, we will note the more salient patterns of obstruents and sonorants. Consonants are formed by the constriction of passive and active articulators in the vocal tract. The movement of articulators towards or away from each other creates differing degrees … [Read more...]
The Basics About Acoustic Phonetics
Acoustic phonetics is the study of the acoustic (physical) properties of sounds, which are determined by measuring pitch (formants and frequencies), loudness (amplitude), and quality (timbre). Sounds are measured in terms of sound waves, which are composed of harmonics, frequencies, and formants that show air pressure patterns created during phonation. The physical process of speech production can … [Read more...]
Semantics: Thematic Roles
This is an introductory level tutorial, which only addresses the relationship between a verb and its NP arguments, including those found as object of an obligatory prepositional phrase. The explanations of the examples apply to Standard English. Semantics: Thematic Roles Intuition Human beings possess an innate ability to determine whether or not a sentence or phrase is grammatical. These … [Read more...]
Syntactic Constituency
Although language seems to be spoken linearly, since the only way we can do language is by having one word follow another, sentences and phrases are actually formed by attaching constituents to each other in a hierarchical construct. Consider the following sentence. (1) Harriet mistakenly went home with her cousin’s jacket. We know intuitively who did what. Furthermore, we know that … [Read more...]
Minimal Distinctions
Phonemes can be thought of as a bundle of features. Any sound you know, can be described by a list of distinctive features they bear such that if one feature is altered, the sound is altered. For instance, /s/ is a voiceless, alveolar fricative. By changing the voicing feature to ‘voiced’ we change the sound to /z/. Distinctive features enable us to: -classify phonemes into … [Read more...]
The Basics on Syllabic Structure
A syllable (σ) is a phonological unit of sonority. Sonority can be described by the degree of airflow obstruction and voicing that occurs during phonation. Sonority is inversely correlated with constriction of the articulators in the oral cavity. Sonorous sounds have a more ‘sing-able’ quality, that is they are more prominent in amplitude and length than less sonorous sounds. Sonority shows the … [Read more...]
The Basics of Syntax
Syntax is the study of grammatical relationships between words and how they are combined to form phrases and sentences. The word ‘syntax’ has its roots in the Greek word syntaxis, which means ‘arrangement’. Syntacticians study patterns of sentence formation in order to better understand universal principles (those that apply to all languages) and those that apply to specific languages … [Read more...]
