This paper lays out techniques for investing different types of phonation from acoustic data. Nearly all the world's languages distinguish between voiced and voiceless phonation. Many languages use other phonation types, such as the breathy voice--also described as speaking while sighing. Another kind of voice quality, one frequently found in…

Illustrates how Radial Basis Function (RBF) network techniques can be used to explore questions concerning authorship of historic documents. Demonstrates the utility and potential for using quantitative techniques to assist in the decision-making process in relatively subjective disciplines. Compares RBF neural network techniques with more…

Studied code-switching between Papiamento and Dutch in bilingual parent-child reading sessions in Antillian migrant families in the Netherlands. Findings reveal that intimate code-switching within a clause is characteristic of fluent bilinguals and that the type of code switching is predominantly insertional (with Papiamento as the dominant…

Asserts that humanities computing techniques and methodologies remain marginal to mainstream literary scholarship. Argues for large scale analyses of text databases that would incorporate a shift in theoretical orientation to include greater stress on intertextuality and sign theory. (CFR)

A questionnaire used to elicit from university students their uses for, attitudes about, and problem areas in French vocabulary learning is presented and discussed. In the questionnaire, a series of brief lexical exercises tests understanding of word similarities and commonalities, lexical functions, registers, antonyms, paraphrasing,…

Nine papers on Yupik Eskimo prosody systems are presented. An introductory section gives background information on the Yupik language and dialects, defines prosody, and provides notes on orthography. The papers include: "A History of the Study of Yupik Prosody" (Michael Krauss); "Siberian Yupik and Central Yupik Prosody"…

A study investigated three issues: (1) differences between two types of rhetorical organization of expository text (problem-solution pattern and collection-of-descriptions pattern) in the reading recall of second-language readers; (2) differences between the two types on reading recall of readers at two levels; and (3) relationship between the…

To be successful, a vocabulary improvement program should teach vocabulary directly but in a meaningful context, involve teachers and use vocabulary from all content areas, and represent a long term commitment. Strategies promoting an effective program include the following: (1) teaching word consciousness, (2) using materials at students'…

The encoding of Swedish syntactic information in a study of linguistic data processing is described in detail. The choice of syntactic variables and classification criteria, illustrated with examples, is also discussed. In addition, uses of the coding for contrasting languages, as in this study's comparison of Swedish, Finnish, and English word…

A collection of papers on linguistics includes: "Italian Comparatives of Inequality with 'Che' and 'Di'" (Adrian C. Battye); "A Note on Passives in GPSG [Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar]" (Robert D. Borsley); "Reduplicated Constructions in Chinese and Questions of Generative Power" (Jonathan Calder); "A Note on Subcategorization, Constituent…

In order to investigate the text structure/reading comprehension relationship, this paper reviews recent research on text representation theories. Text structure investigation--research on semantic memory as it is concerned with meaning from the word level through the inference level--follows the premise that sentences are understood in the…

A selection of the papers from a symposium on the application of linguistic concepts to teaching composition are contained in this document. The papers and authors are as follows: "Introduction: Coherence, Composition, and Text Linguistics" (Nils Erik Enkvist); "TUAP and the Teaching of Writing in Sweden" (Lennart Bjork): "Discourse-Level…

To help community college reading teachers be aware of the connectives (conjunctions that join other words, phrases, clauses, or sentences) used in textbooks, a study was undertaken to find out which connectives appeared in a sample of 18 textbooks and which were used in the textbooks for three different subject areas--social science, physical…

The curriculum guide for teachers of Spanish language arts for native Spanish-speaking primary students in the Chicago public schools' bilingual education program is introduced by a section defining the areas to be emphasized in the program: word attack, comprehension skills, study skills, literature appreciation, and writing skills. Sections…

Describes a system developed for the automatic recognition of biological concepts in titles of scientific articles; reports results of several pilot experiments which tested the system's performance; analyzes typical ambiguity problems encountered by the system; describes a disambiguation technique that was developed; and discusses future plans…