Crosslinguistic perceptions of /s/ among English, French, and German listeners

This study reports the results of a crosslinguistic matched guise test examining /s/ and pitch variation in judgments of sexual orientation and nonnormative masculinity among English, French, and German listeners. Listeners responded to /s/ and pitch manipulations in native and other language stimuli (English, French, German, and Estonian). All listener groups rate higher pitch guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than lower pitch guises. However, only English listeners hear [s+] guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than [s] or [s−] guises for all stimuli languages. French and German listeners do not hear [s+] guises as more gay- or effeminate-sounding in any stimulus language, despite this feature's presence in native speech production. English listener results show evidence of indexical transfer, when indexical knowledge is applied to the perception of unknown languages. French and German listener results show how the enregistered status of /s/ variation affects perception, despite crosslinguistic similarities in production.

The Thematic Technique of Copland's Recent Works

Having been a prey for so long to American initiative in the sphere of popular music, the English listener to serious American music tends either to seek out recognisably ‘popular’ elements (with welcome or disdain), or to affect an indifference which savours more of chauvinism than of aesthetic judgment. Aaron Copland, though accorded a degree of recognition, has necessarily suffered from this astigmatic view since so much of hismusic has been written for films and for folk-derived ballet. Works like the dance episodes from Rodeo and the orchestral piece Quiet City represent an earnest striving towards easy comprehensibility, and an acquaintance with their style, whether we find this stimulating or unduly attenuated, is a far from adequate basis for an estimate ofthe composer. The calibre of the lesser-known works written before he sought wider communication, though pointed out by his apologists, was too easily underestimated while he was offering more easily digested music, and even his present creative phase, in which he has struck a new stylistic balance, has not as yet changed the basis of his reputation.