Production of Stress Retraction by Left- and Right-Hemisphere-Damaged Patients

An acoustic-perceptual investigation of a phonological phenomenon in which stress is retracted in double-stressed words (e.g., thirTEEN vs THIRteen MEN) was undertaken to identify the locus of functional impairments in speech prosody. Subjects included left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) and right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) patients and nonneurological controls. They were instructed to read sentences containing double-stressed target words in the presence of a clause boundary or its absence. Whereas all three groups of subjects were capable of manipulating the acoustic parameters that signal a shift in stress, there were some differences between the performance of the patient groups and that of the normal controls. Further, stress production deficits were more severe in LHD aphasic patients than in RHD patients. LHD speakers exhibited deficits in the control of both temporal and F0 cues. Their F0 disturbance appears to be secondary to a primary deficit in temporal control at the phase or sentence level, as an increased number of continuation rises found for the LHD patients seemed to arise from lengthy pauses within sentences. Findings are highlighted to address the nature of breakdown in speech prosody and the competing views of prosodic lateralization.     

Universality and specificity in infant-directed speech: Pitch modifications as a function of infant age and sex in a tonal and non-tonal language

The aim of this study was to investigate the prosodic characteristics of infant-directed speech (IDS) to boys and girls in a tonal (Thai) and non-tonal (Australian English) language. Speech was collected from mothers speaking to infants at birth, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, and also to another adult. Mean-F₀, pitch range, and utterance slope-F₀ were extracted, and the integrity of the tonal information in Thai investigated. The age trends across the two languages differed for each of these measures but Australian English IDS was generally more exaggerated than Thai IDS. With respect to sex differences, Australian English mothers used higher mean-F₀, pitch range, and more rising utterances for girls than boys, but Thai mothers used more subdued mean-F₀ and more falling utterances for girls than boys. Despite variations in pitch modifications by Thai and Australian English mothers, overall IDS is more exaggerated than adult-directed speech (ADS) in both languages. Furthermore, tonal information in Thai was only slightly less identifiable in Thai IDS than Thai ADS. The universal features and language-specific differences in IDS are discussed in terms of facilitating infant socialization at younger ages, and language acquisition later in infancy.     

言语产生中的韵律生成

首先描述了韵律生成的相关模型。然后以研究的问题为着眼点,回顾了言语产生中韵律生成的相关研究。发现大多数研究结果都证明,在单词产生过程中,存在一个独立于音段内容的抽象韵律结构,其中包含了词的重音模式和音节数量等信息;在短语和句子产生过程中,韵律结构和停顿模式都不是完全决定于句法结构,而具有相对的独立性;句子韵律产生的最佳单位是韵律词。语言学韵律产生的脑区激活呈左侧化趋势。     

韵律对指代歧义的解歧作用及其机制

研究了韵律特征对指代歧义的解歧作用及其机制。所选的指代歧义句先由 33名被试确定其主要意思和次要意思。歧义句由 8名发音人朗读 ,经专家和普通听者评定后选出 1人的语料为实验材料。各有 12名在校大学生参加了重音听辨实验和名词互换语义判断实验。实验 1请被试比较歧义句中切分出来的所指名词与非所指名词的重读程度。实验 2中将不同的名词组合嵌入到主要意思与次要意思的句子框架中 ,请被试判断合成句表达的是主要意思还是次要意思。实验 3对 4名发音人的语料进行了声学分析 ,测量并比较了歧义句中的所指名词和非所指名词的音高、时长和音强。结果表明 ,韵律信息对于指代歧义有较好的解歧效果 ,消解指代歧义的基本手段是在所指名词上设置重音 ,其主要的声学表现是所指名词时长的延长。     

韵律特征研究

介绍从知觉、认知和语料库分析角度对汉语韵律特征进行的一系列研究。（1）韵律特征知觉：用实验心理学和知觉标注的语料库分析方法,研究汉语语调和音高下倾与降阶问题,语句和语篇中知觉可以区分的韵律层级及相关的声学线索。研究结果支持汉语语调的双线模型理论和语句音高下倾的存在;证明语篇中知觉可以区分的韵律边界是小句、句子和段落,及其知觉相关的声学线索。（2）韵律特征与其他语言学结构的关系：在标注的语料库的基础上,用常规统计方法研究语句常规重音分布规律、语篇信息结构与重音的关系、并用决策树方法研究根据文本信息确定韵律短语边界和焦点的规则。（3）韵律特征在语篇理解中的作用：用实验心理学方法和脑电指标研究韵律对语篇信息整合和指代理解的影响,揭示其作用的认知和神经机制。讨论了这些研究结果对语音工程、语音学理论和心理语言学研究的实践和理论意义     

Guess who? Children use prosody to infer intended listeners

This study examined the relative influence of prosody and semantic content in children's inferences about intended listeners. Children (n = 72), who ranged in age from 5 to 10 years, heard greetings with prosody and content that was either infant or adult directed and chose the intended listener from amongst an infant or an adult. While content affected all children's choices, the effect of prosody was stronger (at least, for children aged 7–10 years). For conditions in which prosodic cues were suggestive of one listener, and content cues, another, children aged 7–10 years chose the listener according to prosody. In contrast, the youngest age group (5‐ to 6‐year‐olds) chose listeners at chance levels in these incongruent conditions. While prosodic cues were most influential in determining children's choices, their ratings of how certain they felt about their choices indicated that content nonetheless influenced their thinking about the intended listener. Results are the first to show the unique influence of prosody in children's thinking about appropriate speech styles. Findings add to work showing children's ability to use prosody to make inferences about speakers' communicative intentions.     

Self-Compassion and Forgiveness: Major Predictors of Marital Satisfaction in Young Couples

Abstract

This study examined self-compassion and forgiveness versus marital satisfaction in 200 couples aged 20-40?years, with a marriage history of 1-10?years. We collected the data, using the Enrich couple, self-compassion and family forgiveness scales. Pearson’s correlation and multiple regressions for women showed that marital satisfaction was associated with self-compassion; however, forgiveness predicted marital satisfaction in men. Self-compassion primarily and forgiveness, to a lesser extent, could predict marital satisfaction in the total samples. These variables were the predictors of marital satisfaction in the young couples. Family counselors should encourage couples to improve upon these attributes to enhance their marital relationships.     

外显和内隐情绪韵律加工的脑机制：近红外成像研究

准确识别言语中的情绪韵律信息对社会交往非常重要。本研究采用功能近红外成像技术, 探索外显和内隐情绪加工条件下愤怒、恐惧、快乐三种情绪韵律加工过程中的大脑皮层神经活动。结果表明, 对愤怒、恐惧、快乐韵律进行特异性加工的脑区分别为左侧额极/眶额叶、右侧缘上回、左侧额下回, 其中右侧缘上回脑区同时受到情绪和任务的调控。此外, 右侧颞中回、颞下回和颞极在情绪外显任务中的激活明显强于内隐任务。本研究的结果部分支持了情绪韵律的层次模型, 也对该模型的第三层次, 即“额区对语音情绪信息的精细加工需要外显性情绪加工任务参与”提出了质疑。     

There's more to emotion than meets the eye: A processing bias for neutral content in the domain of emotional prosody

Research on emotion processing in the visual modality suggests a processing advantage for emotionally salient stimuli, even at early sensory stages; however, results concerning the auditory correlates are inconsistent. We present two experiments that employed a gating paradigm to investigate emotional prosody. In Experiment 1, participants heard successively building segments of Jabberwocky “sentences” spoken with happy, angry, or neutral intonation. After each segment, participants indicated the emotion conveyed and rated their confidence in their decision. Participants in Experiment 2 also heard Jabberwocky “sentences” in successive increments, with half discriminating happy from neutral prosody, and half discriminating angry from neutral prosody. Participants in both experiments identified neutral prosody more rapidly and accurately than happy or angry prosody. Confidence ratings were greater for neutral sentences, and error patterns also indicated a bias for recognising neutral prosody. Taken together, results suggest that enhanced processing of emotional content may be constrained by stimulus modality.     

Bedlam or Parnassus: The Verse Idea

This essay considers some problems in philosophical approaches to poetry. Philosophers’ accounts of what poetry is are often ill informed. They tend to select, as essential, features that can also characterize prose works: conspicuous metaphoricity, imagination, fictionality, and so on. This essay considers instead a humbler term: verse. It argues that the constraints on language implied by composing in verse are not only a handicap but can also be an engine for thinking. Even philosophy has sometimes been thought in verse, rather than thought first in prose and versified later. This argument is explored through a brief consideration of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. The essay concludes by questioning a further way of distinguishing between poetry and philosophy, Peter Lamarque's claim that paraphrasability is essential to philosophy but fatal to poetry.