This status report on speech research includes 16 essays and extended reports. Included are "Perspectives in Vision: Conception of Perception?""The Perception of Speech,""The Dynamic Use of Prosody in Speech Perception,""Speech and the Problem of Perceptual Constancy,""Coperception,""Dichotic 'Masking' of Voice Onset Time,""The Number Two and the…

This report, covering the period from October 1 to January 31, 1975, is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. The manuscripts in this report discuss such topics as the complexity of a motor theory of speech perception, a systems…

The phenomenon of retroflexion is discussed, and its occurrence in about 150 selected languages is examined from a geographical and a diachronic point of view. The clustering of such languages into distinct areas has been explained through the postulation of a hypothesis regarding their development in language. After a detailed examination of four…

An experimental public school speech therapy program is described, which offers automated, programed instruction in sound production and auditory training. The experiment includes self-teaching methods, as well as utilization of paraprofessional personnel under the supervision of a qualified speech therapist. Although the automated program was…

The author presents a proposal for extracting a component of palatalization in sets of Russian phonemes and argues that it is co-occurrent, as a minimum segment, with one consonant phoneme. Morphophonemic implications concerning the entire phonemic system and variations of analysis due to this approach are specified. A rejoinder and an editorial,…

This study progressively examines fundamental principles of articulatory phonetics, French and English phonemics, and theoretical phonetics. The Parisian accent is examined at great length. Vowel charts and phonetically transcribed sample lexical items are included. For a companion document see FL 001 799. [Hard copy not available due to marginal…

To determine the effectiveness of group articulation therapy, 180 educable retarded children in special classes (average age 9, average IQ 70), all of whom had articulation problems, were rated on the Carter/Buck Prognostic Speech Test and a picture version of McDonald's deep test of articulation. Subjects were then randomly assigned to one of…

The objectives of this project were the instrumental analysis and detailed description of the phonetic features of American English and of the foreign languages most commonly taught in the United States--German, Spanish, and French. Eleven prosodic features, 13 vocalic features, and 16 consonant features of each are compared to English. A…

To investigate variables not previously studied in annual surveys of phonetic skills of teachers, the California Phonics Survey (CPS) was administered to 78 graduate students who were also elementary teachers, 252 undergraduate education majors, and 41 speech majors and speech therapy majors. Differences among groups were studied, and additional…

This paper is essentially a critical survey of different theoretical approaches to child language in general and to child phonology in particular. The author states her own conviction that language acquisition is different from language retention, that language acquisition is a non-unique process consisting of a multiplicity of devices, that…

Presented in the final report are results of a 4 1/2-month research project to test music media for improvement of speech articulation and conversational skills of 46 11- to 21-year-old trainable mentally retarded (TMR) students in New Haven (Connecticut) inner city schools. Included for study aspects are discussions on the literature; stimulus…

This paper argues that Chomsky's and Halle's restriction on the features [+high, +low] are too severe; that this restriction is inconsistent with the generative treatment of affricates, laterally-released stops, and prenasalized stops; and that the restriction is inconsistent with the notion that linguistic descriptions are abstract theories about…

This research report examines the pronunciation that children give to synthetic words containing vowel-cluster spellings and analyzes the observed pronunciations in relation to common English words containing the same vowel clusters. The pronunciations associated with vowel-cluster spellings are among the most unpredictable letter-sound…

The task of any phonetic theory is to determine the form of a phonetic component by establishing the internal and external constraints on that component. The phonetic component itself converts linguistic knowledge of the structure of the speech act into time-varying commands suitable for control of the articulatory mechanism. Performing involves…

In this second of two studies conducted with portions of the National Speech and Hearing Survey data, the investigators analyzed the phonetic variants from standard American English in the speech of two groups of nonstandard English speaking children. The study used samples of free speech and performance on the Gold-Fristoe Test of Articulation…