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Processing verse and prose: intonational differences
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: Verse, Prose, Intonation, Delexicalization, EEG, Russian Does poetry have specific intonational properties? We address this debated question from a new angle, asking whether verse and prose can be distinguished on the basis of intonation alone. We used delexicalized fragments of Russian verse and prose. We conducted a behavioral and a neurophysiological (EEG) experiment to reveal perception differences on both conscious and unconscious levels.
Copyright (c) 2023 Maria Kokhova (Author)
Bridging the gap: ensuring synthetic phonics continues from kindergarten into primary school in Hong Kong
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: phonics continuity, teacher training, curriculum alignment This study investigates the continuity of phonics instruction from kindergarten to primary school in Hong Kong using a mixed-methods approach, including a survey of 114 teachers and parents alongside qualitative open-ended responses. The findings reveal a significant perceived disconnect between kindergarten and primary phonics instruction. While 46.2% of respondents believed children retained only some phonics knowledge, 42.9% reported that phonics was not taught systematically in primary school. Major challenges included a busy primary curriculum and differing teaching approaches between educational levels. Qualitative analysis identified enhanced teacher training and the development of a clear cross-level phonics curriculum as key factors supporting continuity. The findings suggest that without structured policy and collaborative planning, the benefits of early phonics instruction may be reduced during the critical early years of literacy development.
Copyright (c) 2025 Geeta Gobindram Bhavnani (Author)
Speech rate of short vs. long interrogative sentences in human-directed vs. device-directed dialectal Arabic speech
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: device-directed speech, human-directed speech, dialectal Arabic, speech rate, age differences This paper examines speech pattern adjustments made by female dialectal Arabic speakers when addressing an AI voice assistant compared to a close interlocutor and a stranger across different age groups. Participants were presented with ten interrogative sentences controlling for syllabic length (short vs. long) and directed each set towards the three addressees. Speech rate was then measured. The results showed an overall average speech rate of 5.41 syllables per second (SpS), with adults speaking slightly faster than teenagers. Speech was fastest when directed towards a familiar interlocutor (SpS = 5.54), followed by an unfamiliar interlocutor (SpS = 5.48), and slowest when directed towards the AI assistant (SpS = 5.21). Utterance length also influenced speech rate, with shorter utterances articulated more rapidly than longer ones. The findings highlight the influence of interlocutor type on speech behaviour and support further research into additional acoustic features and gender-related differences.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yahya Aldholmi (Author)
Processing flexible argument structure in Dutch, German, and English
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: permissive subjects, sentence parsing, West Germanic languages, SVO/SOV word order, self-paced reading Permissive subjects, which are non-agentive subjects combined with action verbs in the active form (e.g., ‘A few years ago a penny would buy you two or three pins’; ‘The tent sleeps four people’), are hardly found in German compared to English. For this contrast, previous research offers an explanation related to processing constraints, proposing that distinct processing strategies account for varying efficiency of processing permissive subjects. The differences in processing strategies are said to correlate with basic typological properties, specifically basic word order. In order to demonstrate cross-linguistic differences in the processing of permissive subjects, we conducted an experiment where native speakers of English, Dutch, and German performed a self-paced reading task. Based on the results, we argue that fundamental differences in processing strategies are present in English and Dutch on the one hand (look ahead parsing) and German on the other (look back parsing). However, our findings challenge the claim that different processing strategies are directly related to contrasts in the basic position of the verb. It is likely that also other contrasts in basic language properties could influence processing permissive subjects, most likely case.
A dependency prosodic grammar for Italian
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: dependency grammar, Italian, prosodic structure, intonation, Siwis corpus Research on Italian intonation is mainly based on the autosegmental-metrical framework, aiming to provide a prosodic grammar that adequately accounts for all well formed sequences of phonological prosodic events. An alternative approach to account for sequences of tone patterns, or alternatively melodic contours, is presented here, using a set of dependency rules operating on accent phrases pitch events. The resulting prosodic dependency grammar was tested on a large set of more than 2700 recorded sentences read by up to 10 speakers, allowing to detect the prosodic invariants among the realizations observed between speakers when the dependency rules are applied.
Copyright (c) 2024 Philippe Martin (Author)
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: accent phrases, silent reading, theta brain oscillations, delta brain oscillations We don’t read word by word, but instead we do read (and speak) accent phrases by accent phrases, i.e., by sequences of words containing only one (non-emphatic) stressed syllable. Only when we don’t recognize globally a string of written text or when we learn another language, more precisely when we learn to read in a language we are learning, that we proceed or may proceed syllable by syllable, to progressively reach reading word by word sequences, and finally accent phrase by accent phrase to attain reading fluency aloud or silently.
How dipping-tones evolve: a case study of Jin Chinese
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: Jìn Chinese, dipping tones, multi-dipping-tone system, tonal evolution This paper, includes a sample of 22 cases of Lǚliáng Jìn Chinese dialects, reveals that there are five types of dipping tones in Lǚliáng. Thirteen cases exhibit a three-dippingtone contrast, while nine cases demonstrate a two-dipping-tone contrast. The most common dipping-tone contrastive pattern is “low-dipping vs. back-dipping vs. mid-short low-dipping”. The two long dipping tones, T1a and T2, are neutralizing into one dipping tone, forming the two-dipping-tone contrast. The T4bs are lengthening from mid-short to long and raising the tonal head from low-dipping to back-dipping tone.
Island effects and amelioration by resumption in Hong Kong English: an auditory acceptability-judgement study
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: island effects, amelioration, resumption, Hong Kong English This study investigates island effects and amelioration by resumption in Hong Kong English, a primarily spoken language with grammatical-resumption features. To our knowledge, this is the first formal-experimental study exploring island effects in a spoken variety of English. This study presents evidence from four auditory acceptabilityjudgment studies that explore two types of syntactic dependencies and four island types, both with and without resumption. The experiments examine 16 distinct conditions, quantifying the acceptability of sentences with gaps versus those with resumption. This study carefully selects two strong islands (adjunct islands and complex-NP islands) and two weak islands (wh-islands and "whether" islands) to enhance the interpretability and generalizability of the results. The findings reveal two main sources of variation: first, variation across dependency types in the occurrence of island effects with gaps, and second, variation across island types in the amelioration of island violations by resumption. This study discusses the implications of these results for four major theories of island effects, highlighting the challenges posed by our data and suggesting possible directions for future research. Furthermore, this study explores the consequences of the variation in amelioration for theories of resumption, arguing that both base generation and movement options must be accessible to learners of Hong Kong English. The study also identifies individual variation in the availability of resumption across dependency types, which warrants further investigation. This research significantly contributes to our understanding of how resumption affects island phenomena in a non-native English variety and provides valuable insights into the formal and experimental study of syntax.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nengkai Wang (Author)
Does story-type affect the assessment of age-related differences in discourse production?
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: image, vignette, discourse analysis, story-type, cognition Assessing discourse production is essential for understanding the effects of healthy aging on language across the lifespan. The choice of task for collecting speech samples is critical, as different tasks can elicit varying types of discourse. Building on prior research (Marini, 2022), we examined potential effects of story type on age-related differences in discourse production among healthy adults. Speech samples from 143 participants across various ages were collected using both single pictures and vignettes. A multilevel discourse analysis revealed age-related differences and story-type effects on measures of productivity and discourse organization. This study is relevant for clinical practice, highlighting the importance of story type in discourse production assessment.
Copyright (c) 2024 Giulia Gasparotto (Author)
Experimental evidence on requests in English varieties from the perspective of local grammar
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: speech acts, requests, English varieties, local grammars This study investigates the speech act of requesting in British, American, and Hong Kong English through the lens of local grammars. Using an experimental design with 150 speakers, the study analysed elicited requests to identify variety-specific patterns. The results reveal that while indirectness is a common feature, its linguistic implementation varies significantly. British English speakers favor politeness markers to achieve indirectness, American English speakers use more direct forms emphasizing modal verbs, and Hong Kong English speakers employ an integrated strategy of deference and indirectness. These findings demonstrate that request-making is deeply rooted in local socio-cultural norms, challenging universalist approaches and highlighting the value of the local grammar framework in understanding intercultural communication.
Can character viewpoint gesture guide pronoun resolution in German?
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: perspective in gesture, character viewpoint gesture, pronoun resolution in German Co-speech gestures can affect ambiguous pronoun resolution (Goodrich Smith & Hudson Kam 2012). We report the findings of two forced choice studies investigating the hypothesis that performing a character viewpoint gesture from the perspective of the subject or the object influences the resolution of p- (Exp. 1) and d-pronouns (Exp. 2) in German. The results, however, do not corroborate our hypothesis.
Copyright (c) 2024 Noémi Ecsedi (Author)
Vocabulary diversity of reading materials at the beginning of primary school
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: obligatory reading books, textbooks, Croatian language, reading, lexicon Vocabulary represents the most dynamic aspect of language development, continuously changing, expanding, and being acquired throughout life. Lexical diversity serves as a predictor of academic achievement and is a hallmark of competent communication in adulthood. Increasingly, there is concern regarding the limited understanding of word meanings among younger school-aged children, while less attention is given to how vocabulary development and lexical diversity can be systematically monitored. This paper therefore analyses all mandatory reading materials for first- and second-grade primary school students to calculate lexical density and diversity, defined as the ratio of the number of variants to the total number of occurrences. It is hypothesized that unfamiliar and archaic words appear frequently, and that sentence structures may be more complex than expected for this age group. The data gathered yield a frequency dictionary that may be applied in constructing tests for assessing lexical diversity and competence in early school-age children.
Copyright (c) 2025 Katarina Aladrovic Svlacek (Author)
Language, cognition, and poetics of solitude in Dylan Thomas
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: stylistics, cognitive poetics, Dylan Thomas, isolation, metaphor This paper presents a stylistic and cognitive-poetic analysis of Dylan Thomas’s poem “Ears in the Turrets Hear”, with particular attention to how linguistic form and literary imagination converge to represent artistic isolation and existential dilemma. The central aim is to investigate how cohesion, repetition, and parallelism interact with embodied metaphors and conceptual mappings to dramatize the poet’s oscillation between solitude and social contact. Drawing on stylistics and cognitive poetics—especially Text World Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory—the paper shows how linguistic patterning functions as both a textual and cognitive network, foregrounding recursive thought, hesitation, and the gradual negotiation of artistic identity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jaya Shrivastava (Author)
Word perception errors of children and adults in noise and quiet
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: speech perception, noise, word errors, children, adults Accurate speech perception is vital for spoken language comprehension and effective communication. Especially for children, spoken word recognition is crucial for vocabulary, language, and knowledge acquisition in general. However, listening conditions in the classroom are often adverse, due to poor classroom acoustics. The present study investigates word perception errors made by adults and children in noise and quiet. Besides performance (word recognition score), word misconceptions are also analysed in relation to phonological, semantic and other lexical properties, i.e. word familiarity and frequency as well as phonological neighbourhood density metrics. This type of error analysis can be more informative of the nature of difficulties encountered by the listener during speech recognition in adverse conditions, and provide insights into the relationship between linguistic knowledge and speech perception in noise.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Sfakianaki (Author)
Prayers as forms of speech act modification in Saudi Hijazi Arabic
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: Speech acts, prayers, Saudi, Arabic, politeness Prayers (God invocations) are fixed religious terms that are highly frequent and multifunctional in casual and formal conversations among native speakers of Arabic. Examples such as ‘Inshallah’ (God Willing) and ‘Jazak Allah khair (may Allah reward you) are specific to Arabic in a way that makes them difficult to translate into other languages (Shammas, 2005). Muslim societies, even the ones whose first language is not Arabic, use them in their everyday speech. They are also found to be used by non-Muslim native Arabic speakers, suggesting that such phrases are widely used among Arabs regardless of their religious affiliations (Clift & Helani, 2010). Such expressions were identified by different names in the literature; examples include “Allah lexicon” (Morrow, 2006), “God-wishes” (Ferguson, 1983), “Arabic God-phrases” (Welji, 2012), and “religious formulas” (Migdadi & Badarneh, 2013). They will be referred to as prayers in this paper. In addition to their typical function as religious expressions, prayers have been demonstrated in pragmatic studies (Al-Khalifa, 2024; Alqahtani, 2024; Al-Rojaie, 2021; Al-Saeedi, 2019) to be strategically employed as linguistic tactics to achieve politeness. Drawing its theoretical background from Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987) and Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962), this study aims to determine whether these prayers are used in some or all of the speech act types created by Searle (1969). These are classified as “Assertives” (e.g., statements, conclusions, claims, reports); “Directives” (e.g., requests, commands, suggestions, giving advice); “Commissives” (e.g., promises, offers, vows, guarantees); “Expressives” (e.g., thanks, apologies, congratulations, compliments, praises, curses); and “Declarations” (e.g., “I now pronounce you husband and wife”). The study will also investigate the main pragmatic functions/illocutionary roles of prayers within various speech act sets in the speech of Arabic native speakers, particularly in Saudi Hijazi Arabic.
Improving intelligibility of time-scale compressed speech for visually impaired and sighted listeners
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: speech, transformations, intelligibility, visual-impairment, perception Time-scale compression enables faster speech playback but often reduces intelligibility, especially under high compression rates where non-stationary speech components are distorted. This work investigates improving intelligibility for visually impaired and sighted listeners by protecting non-stationary regions during time-compression. Using Waveform Similarity Overlap Add (WSOLA), we propose a protection method that adapts scale factors based on three non-stationarity criteria derived from Root-Mean-Square (RMS) energy and Line Spectrum Frequencies. Experiments with visually impaired and control participants evaluate intelligibility and listener preference across uniform and protected WSOLA variants. Results show that RMS-based-protected WSOLA improves intelligibility, while equal word per minute comparisons reveal smaller perceptual differences. Findings highlight the importance of preserving transient information for accessible high-speed speech.
Copyright (c) 2025 Panagiotis Pantalos, George P. Katzentzis, Anna Sfakianaki, Yiannis Stylianou (Author)
Linguistic differences in humour: a feature-based comparison between human and AI-generated jokes
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: computational humour, quantitative linguistics, stylometric, machine learning Humour is one of the most creative and socially embedded forms of human communication. With the rise of large language models (LLMs), questions about whether artificial intelligence can identify and generate jokes have become central to computational humour studies. This paper conducts a systematic comparison of humanand AI-generated jokes across multiple linguistic dimensions: lexical, syntactic, affective, semantic, and prosodic. To this end, we first constructed a parallel joke corpus by instructing LLMs to extract meta-information from human-authored texts and generate comparable jokes. By applying Elastic Net logistic regression on our parallel corpus of human and AI humour, we found that AI-generated jokes relied on connectives and retrospective narration. In contrast, human humour was characterised by greater lexical density, conditional subordination, emotive language, and semantic incongruity, as well as an increased use of nouns, interrogative words, social references, and intentional rhythmic devices. These findings highlight the gap between human and AI humour in terms of creativity, emotional depth, and prosodic design. The study contributes both to the theoretical validation of humour mechanisms and to the practical advancement of explainable and human-like humour generation in LLMs.
The development of growth mindset in the Japanese EFL discussion task
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: growth mindset, group dynamics, communicative competence, multimodal discourse analysis, CALL The concept of Group Mindset (Dweck, 2006) is examined through the lens of group dynamics (Dörnyei & Murphey, 2003) in a Japanese EFL setting. The study aimed to explore how learners’ beliefs and their English expression change through peer interaction in a CALL classroom. 60 Japanese undergraduates took part in a weekly 15minute spoken discussion over a semester. The mixed-method approach revealed that group dynamics scaffolded English conversation and fostered a growth mindset. However, despite its benefits, using technology during spoken communication decreased opportunities for communicative risk-taking and peer bonding. These findings highlight the need for teaching strategies that balance technology use in class to help learners develop a growth mindset and the skills necessary for practical English communication.
Copyright (c) 2025 Momoko Okazaki (Author)
Language attitudes and child-directed speech in Bangladeshi Bangla
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: Bangla, Bangladesh, child directed speech, language attitudes This study examines morphological variation in child-directed speech (CDS) of native Bangla-speaking families from Bangladesh by analysing the style-shift between standard and non-standard Bangla with a focus on present-tense verb forms: e.g., korchi do.1sg.pres (standard) vs kortesi do.1sg.pres (non-standard). Style shifting has been found to occur variably in CDS depending on the age and gender of the addressee as well as language attitudes of the addresser. Proceeding from an initial analysis of the variable use of standard and non-standard verbforms, we focus on quantitatively analysing language attitudes of potential relevance for patterns of style shift. The aim of this is to gain an understanding of the motivation behind interlocuters’ style shifting choices in CDS.
Copyright (c) 2025 Poroma Subha Mostafiz, Michael Ramsammy (Author)
The role of linguistic input in language development among children with hearing loss: a narrative review
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: hearing loss, language input, outcomes Linguistic input is critical for language development, yet children with hearing loss (HL) often experience reduced auditory access. This narrative review, using a Flexible, Rigorous, and Practical (FRP) framework, synthesized studies (2014–2024) examining how input characteristics affect spoken language in children using hearing aids (HAs) or cochlear implants (CIs). From 234 records screened, seven studies met inclusion criteria. Findings indicate that high-quality, responsive input—especially caregiver behaviours like expansions and open-ended questions—supports language growth more than input quantity. Socioeconomic and contextual factors further shape outcomes, while passive input (e.g., electronic media) relates negatively to development. Early enriched environments foster cumulative, non-linear progress, underscoring the need for contextsensitive interventions and continued research on input–outcome dynamics in children with HL.
Copyright (c) 2025 Chiarikleia Nicolaidou, Paris Binos (Author)
Digital vitality assessment: a comparative study of Brajbhasha and Kumaoni
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: digital vitality, Indo-Aryan languages, DLVS (Digital Language Vitality Scale), Brajbhasha, Kumaoni Traditional language vitality metrics are insufficient in the digital era, necessitating new ways to measure digital vitality. This study examines Brajbhasha and Kumaoni, two lessresourced Indo-Aryan languages from North India, through the Digital Language Vitality Scale (DLVS) methodology. This study attempts to adapt the DLVS by prioritizing local government/welfare digital services over global platforms. A hybrid methodology – combining community surveys, fieldwork, and objective verification – was utilized to counteract subjective bias and capture functional support. The study validates the utility of the adapted DLVS in understanding how community resilience and collective identity influence digital action, despite technical limitations, and offers actionable insights for future assessments in similar communities worldwide.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anurag Mittal (Author)
The role of deixis in multi-verb sequences in English
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: multi-verb sequence, deixis, fully syntactic structure, reduced structure This paper explores the role of deixis observed in multi-verb sequences in English. It deals with four types of multi-verb sequences: V-and-V, V-to-V, V-V, and V-Ving. Multiverb sequences are divided into two types: regular and irregular. Only the deictic verbs come and go can occur in all four types of irregular multi-verb sequences. This paper shows that irregular multi-verb sequences have a reduced structure that does not include two verb phrases despite the presence of two verbs, and that there are two constraints on irregular multi-verb sequences: the integrity constraint and the subject constraint. Consequently, one conclusion can be drawn: the deictic verbs come and go play a vital role in forming irregular multi-verb sequences.
Copyright (c) 2025 Noriko Matsumoto (Author)
Exploring the impact of CLIL on high school learners’ Spanish L1 vocabulary production
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL), multilingualism, Spanish (L1), vocabulary production The present paper attempts to explore the effects that further exposure to English (L2) through CLIL programmes can have on learners’ productive vocabulary in Spanish (L1). To this end, a comparative study of 21 CLIL and traditional EFL learners’ Spanish L1 vocabulary production was conducted by means of a lexical availability task (LAT). The results showed no statistically significant differences in terms of vocabulary size. However, CLIL learners outperformed their non-CLIL peers in token production within the four prompts. Additionally, both learner cohorts produced similar lexical items. Nonetheless, CLIL learners elicited some exclusive words related to the English culture in Spanish. These findings go along with previous studies that denied any potential menace of CLIL on learners’ L1.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
Copyright (c) 2025 Marina González de San Pedro Jiménez (Author)
An experiment on ‘cute’ vowels in Japanese
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: babyishness, cuteness, familiarity, sound symbolism, vowels This study experimentally examined which vowels can be associated with cuteness, or kawaii, in Japanese, from the perspective of sound symbolism. The results showed that /a, i/ were more likely to be perceived as ‘cuter’ than /u, e, o/ (when the surrounding consonants are all obstruents). To explain this result, I presented the babyishness and familiarity hypotheses.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gakuji Kumagai (Author)
Women leading linguistic change: sociolinguistic reflexes of modernization in multilingual societies
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: gender, sociophonetics, Arabic, multilingualism, language change This paper examines gendered patterns of linguistic variation and change in a multilingual society, focusing on Arabic speakers in the Israeli-Palestinian city of Taibeh. Drawing on sociophonetic data from 30 stratified interviews, reading tasks, and spontaneous speech recordings, the study analyzes how women and men differently negotiate phonological variation under conditions of modernization and sustained contact with Hebrew and English. Particular attention is given to the realization of /q/ and /ʕ/, as well as patterns of code-switching and lexical borrowing. The findings show that younger, educated women lead the adoption of urban prestige variants and engage in strategic crosslinguistic practices associated with mobility and professional identity, while older male speakers favor conservative forms linked to local solidarity. These results highlight gender as a central driver of language change in multilingual settings.
On the multifunctionality of literally in American English youth speech
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: literally, grammaticalization, subjectification, American English, youth language The aim of this study is to investigate, from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective, the multifunctionality of the adverb literally in present-day American English youth speech, in order to better understand the ongoing semantic change involving this adverb. Drawing from authentic spoken data taken from a teenage podcast, the analysis explores how literally is used beyond its prototypical literal meaning (i.e. ‘in a literal sense’) and develops a wide range of new functions, supporting the hypothesis of an ongoing grammaticalization process along with increasing subjectification.
Copyright (c) 2025 Martina Busetta, Castenze Nigrelli (Author)
Disagreement as an interactional resource for affiliation in South Korean conversation
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: disagreement, South Korean conversation, conversation analysis, preference organization This study investigates how South Korean speakers employ expressions of disagreement to promote social solidarity and convey affiliation. Using a conversation-analytic (CA) approach, it examines expressions of disagreement in naturally occurring Korean conversation drawn from the LDC CallFriend Korean telephone corpus. Prior CA research has generally treated disagreement as a dispreferred action, typically associated with resistance, opposition, or rejection in conflictual contexts. The present study explores how disagreement can be interactionally mobilized as a preferred action in South Korean conversation. By foregrounding the affiliative uses of disagreement in a specific cultural context, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of disagreement as a culturally variable and socially adaptive interactional resource.
Spatial analysis of hand positions in French cued speech (LfPC)
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: cued speech, deaf, hand position, vowels Speech production relies on both acoustic and visual cues. While lip movements convey valuable information, many phonemes remain visually ambiguous. Cued Speech is a visual coding system that complements lipreading by combining mouth shapes with hand cues—specific handshapes and positions around the face—that encode consonants and vowels. It provides full visual access to spoken language and supports phonological awareness, literacy development, and oral language acquisition in deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals. This study investigates the spatial distribution of vowel-related hand positions in French Cued Speech (LfPC), which uses eight handshapes for consonants and five distinct positions for vowels.
Copyright (c) 2025 Brigitte Bigi (Author)
AI vs. human (automatic) speech recognition: silence-replacement paradigm as a diagnostic
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: vowel importance, consonant importance, ASR, English, silence-replacement paradigm This study tests how vowels and consonants contribute to sentence-level word recognition in automatic speech recognition (ASR), using a silence-replacement paradigm modeled on classic human-perception research. I recorded 48 English sentences divided into two sets: 24 with a symmetrical ratio and 24 with an asymmetrical ratio. For each sentence I created two processed versions: CO (consonant-only; vowels replaced by silence) and VO (vowel-only; consonants replaced by silence). I then submitted all stimuli to two state-of-the-art ASR systems, TurboScribe and Whisper, and quantified word recognition as the percentage of original words correctly transcribed. When the material was symmetrical, VO speech outperformed CO speech, mirroring human patterns. However, with asymmetrical material, this advantage reversed dramatically, showing a strong interaction between segment type and stimulus structure.
Unraveling bilingual identity construction in different contexts
Section: Proceedings Papers Keywords: bilingual identity, code-switching, community attitudes, identity construction, integrated identities This study explores how bilingual speakers construct and negotiate their identities across different linguistic and cultural contexts. It addresses the following questions: How do bilingual individuals perceive their sense of self in each language, and what social or contextual factors shape these perceptions? Six bilingual participants with diverse language backgrounds participated in semi-structured interviews. The data were audiorecorded, transcribed, and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that bilingual identity is shaped by access to linguistic communities, patterns of language separation or integration, and attitudes of the second language community. The study highlights bilingual identity as a dynamic and evolving process influenced by both social interaction and personal experience.
Copyright (c) 2025 Esma Kot Artunc, Seyma Kokcu (Author)