Prenominal bon and bonne in French liaison and enchaînement: An acoustic description

This article investigates the treatment of oronasal vowel /ↄ̃/ of the prenominal adjective bon (/bↄ̃/) in liaison, as produced by 19 speakers of Northern Metropolitan French. The oronasal vowel of this word has traditionally been identified as a denasalized vowel in liaison, which, when paired with the liaison consonant [n], is typically understood to be produced identically to the feminine form of the adjective bonne (/bↄn/). To verify this supposition, the adjective pair bon/bonne is produced in various contexts and word sequences by each speaker in a series of reading tasks. Six acoustic measures (i.e., A1−P0, A3−P0, center of gravity, F1 bandwidth, F2 and vowel duration) are taken for each token and the resulting data are analysed in a series of regression models. A brief acoustic description is given for the vowel /ↄ̃/ both in and out of liaison, and comparison is made between bon in liaison and the feminine bonne in prevocalic position (e.g., bon ami vs. bonne amie). Analyses indicate that 15 of the 19 speakers seem to produce bon in liaison distinctly from non-liaison bon, but not distinctly from pre-vocalic bonne, which may support suppletive analyses of adjectives in liaison.

Universal linguistic hierarchies are not innately wired. Evidence from multiple adjectives

Background Linguists and psychologists have explained the remarkable similarities in the orderings of linguistic elements across languages by suggesting that our inborn ability for language makes available certain innately wired primitives. Different types of adjectives, adverbs, and other elements in the functional spine are considered to occupy fixed positions via innate hierarchies that determine orderings such as A>B>C, banning other permutations (*B>C>A). The goal of this research is to tap into the nature and rigidity of such hierarchies by comparing what happens when people process orderings that either comply with them or violate them. Method N = 170 neurotypical, adult speakers completed a timed forced choice task that featured stimuli showing a combination of two adjectives and a Spelke-object (e.g., ‘I bought a square black table’). Two types of responses were collected: (i) acceptability judgments on a 3-point Likert scale that featured the options ‘correct’, ‘neither correct nor wrong’, and ‘wrong’ and (ii) reaction times. The task featured three conditions: 1. size adjective > nationality adjective, 2. color adjective > shape adjective, 3. subjective comment adjective > material adjective. Each condition had two orders. In the congruent order, the adjective pair was ordered in agreement with what is traditionally accepted as dictated by the universal hierarchy. In the incongruent order, the ordering was reversed, thus the hierarchy was violated. Results In the first experiment, the results of n = 140 monolinguals showed that across conditions, both congruent and incongruent orders were generally accepted as correct. For 2/3 conditions, the difference in acceptability ratings between congruent and incongruent orders did not reach statistical significance. Using time as a window to processing, reaction times showed that incongruent orders do not take longer to process than congruent ones, as should be the case if the former were treated as being licensed under some type of special condition (e.g., contrastive focus) that reverses the unmarked order and legitimizes the violation of the hierarchy. In the second experiment, the results of n = 30 bidialectals, tested in both language varieties, corroborated the findings of the first experiment. Conclusions Our findings do not provide evidence for an innate hierarchy for adjective ordering that imposes one rigid, unmarked order. We discuss the importance of notions such as subjectivity and inherentness, and show that for some conditions, not only is there no evidence for a hard constraint that bans incongruent orders, but even simple preferences of congruent orders over incongruent ones are hard to discern. Capturing the bigger picture, given that both the hierarchies and their legit permutations have been described as innate, our results reduce the amount of primitives that are cast as innate, eventually offering a deflationist approach to human linguistic cognition.

Paired Adjectives in the Middle Welsh Ystorya Bown o Hamtwn

One of the stylistic devices typical for Medieval Welsh literature is the usage of paired adjectives. It occurs not only in the native tales but also in the adaptations of Continental material, such as an Old French romance of chivalry Geste de Boeve de Haumtone. Predominantly, the paired adjectives in the Welsh source Ystorya Bown o Hamtwn neither have any equivalents in the French source nor correspond to “adverb mult, tut, si, plus, bien + adjective” construction. This fact is indicative of the translator’s independence in stylistic organization of the text; it also draws our attention to the emphatic nature of paired adjectives. An adjective pair usually consists of either two synonyms or two words denoting attributes of a certain character or object: cadarn-wychyr “strong and brave”. However, there can be more than two adjectives in a “pair”; this stylistic device also covers other parts of speech.

Virtual Reality as a Human Factors Design Analysis Tool for Architectural Spaces - Control Rooms to Space Stations II: Subjective Measures

The Architectural Space Questionnaire (ASQ) was developed and employed in order to assess subjects' impressions of four different environments (two real and two virtual rooms) at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The ASQ consists of 18 adjectivepairs, arrayed in a 7-point, Likert scale format. Subjects first participated in avariety of distance estimation tasks in the Spacelab Payload Control Room and the Simulation Control Room and in their virtual reality (VR) analogs. After their experience in each room, subjects responded to the ASQ, selecting one value on each adjective pair continuum which best described their impression of the room they were in. The results indicated that the ASQ is sensitive to structural differences between real rooms. Differences between virtual rooms were minimal., possibly due to the absence of visual cues such as lighting and texture in that environment. Implications for the use of VR as a design tool are explored.

A Scaling Procedure for Environmental Research

Drawing upon the scaling techniques of Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum and the factor analytic methods of Flynn, and Mehrabian and Russell, a scaling procedure is presented that will permit the researcher to evaluate the affective characteristics of the environment and various features it contains. Starting with a large number of adjective-pairs in a semantic-differential format, an analysis of variance is computed from the responses to each adjective-pair, residuals are computed, and a correlation matrix is developed. A factor analysis of the correlation matrix yields the “attributes” being measured and the weights for each adjective-pair. The scale is then re-scored using these weights and the resulting values serve as dependent variables for a conventional analysis of variance. Examples of scales for measuring thermal comfort, environmental spaciousness, efficiency, attractiveness, and overall quality will be presented as well as scales that have been developed for measuring the size, style and comfort of office chairs, the comfort characteristics of protective clothing, and the style and acceptance of mixing valves used in showers. A step-by-step procedure for the statistically unsophisticated individual is presented.

Inferential Sets and Person Perception: A Partial Replication and Extension

203 female Ss read a short case-study and a group of related questions. They were then required to complete a 12 adjective-pair semantic differential indicating their dispositional judgments of the stimulus person in the narrative. Two independent variables were manipulated, the sex of the stimulus person and the group of questions asked. One group of questions was intended to induce a situation-matching set and the other a causal-genetic set. Ss in the situation-matching group rated the male stimulus person more hard ( p < .05), more bold ( p < .01), and less emotional ( p < .05) than Ss in the causal-genetic group. In the case of the female stimulus person Ss in the situation-matching group perceived her as more bold ( p < .05). Differences due to sex alone were found only for the situation-matching groups who perceived the female stimulus person as less hard ( p < .05) and less rugged ( p < .01) than the male.