Approaches To Phonological Complexity

Complexity approaches, developed in physics and biology for almost two decades, show today a huge potential for investigating challenging issues in Humanities and Cognitive Sciences and obviously in the study of language(s). Theoretical approaches that integrate self-organization, emergence, non linearity, adaptive systems, information theory, etc., have already been developed to provide a unifying framework that sheds new light on the duality between linguistic diversity on the one hand and unique cognitive capacity of language processing on the other hand. Nevertheless, most of the linguistics literature written in this framework focuses on the syntactic level addressed through computational complexity or performance optimization, while other linguistic components have been somewhat neglected. In this context, the proposed volume draws on an interdisciplinary sketch of the phonetics-phonology interface in the light of complexity. Composed of several first-order contributions, it will consequently be a significant landmark at the time of the rise of several projects linking complexity and linguistics around the world.

Draws on an interdisciplinary sketch of the phonetics-phonology interface in the light of complexity.

Phonological Treatment of Speech Sound Disorders in Children: A Practical Guideprovides speech-language pathologists with a road map for implementation of selected treatment methods that can have a significant, positive impact on children's speech intelligibility and communicative effectiveness. This practical workbook is useful for speech-language pathologists who work with children with speech sound disorders in schools, private practices, or clinics. It can also be used as a supplementary text for a clinical methods course or within a speech sound disorders clinical practicum. This workbook is an easy-to-follow guide that allows clinicians to move from assessment results to treatment planning and execution. The methods included are those that demonstrate treatment efficacy and include minimal pair therapy, multiple oppositions, maximal oppositions, complexity approaches, phonotactic therapy, core vocabulary intervention, cycles approach, and using phonological/phonemic awareness within the treatment protocol for speech sound disorders. Discussion of each method includes the collection and analysis of data, the establishment of intervention targets and goals, and therapy guidelines. Case studies are used to demonstrate each treatment paradigm, and suggestions for use within a group therapy format are provided. Current references allow the clinicians to further study each of the methods presented. Key Features: Presents methods which have documented success treating children with speech sound disorders.Practically oriented so that readers can easily see the progression from the data to treatment goals and outcome measures.Utilizes case studies to further exemplify the specific phonological method.Demonstrates the use of techniques within a group therapy setting, which is the main mode of delivery for most clinicians.Supplies materials to be used in specific therapy contexts, including data collection forms, sample goals, flowcharts for target selection, and progress monitoring worksheets.Provides suggestions for which therapy methods might be better suited for individual children based on research supporting age, severity levels, and characteristics of the disorder.Includes video case studies demonstrating children of varying ages and complexity of phonological disorder. Regardless of the type or etiology of a speech sound disorder, phonological treatment methods are an important component of an effective intervention plan. For children who present with a phonological disorder as their primary impairment, one or more of these methods may form the core of their therapy program. For others, particularly those with complex needs, phonological treatment may be one piece of a much larger intervention puzzle. In recent decades, exciting developments have occurred regarding the treatment of phonological deficits. The result is therapeutic protocols that are more efficient and effective. This workbook is designed to help bridge the gap between research and application.

This wide-ranging survey of experimental methods in phonetics and phonology shows the insights and results provided by different methods of investigation, including laboratory-based, statistical, psycholinguistic, computational-modeling, corpus, and field techniques. The five chapters in the first part of the book examine the recent history and interrelations of theory and method. The remaining 18 chapters are organized into parts devoted to four key current areas of research: phonological universals; phonetic variation and phonological change; maintaining, enhancing, and modeling phonological contrasts; and phonological knowledge. The book provides fresh insights into the findings and theoretical advances that emerge from experimental investigation of phonological structure and phonological knowledge, as well as critical perspectives on experimental methods in the perception, production, and modeling of speech. This book will be a valuable asset for all researchers into the sound structure of language, including scholars and advanced students of phonetics, phonology, speech science, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics.

This book is about dynamical, social-interactional aspects of the emergence of complexity in language, explained by linguists, cognitivists, and modelers.

This collection brings together the authors' previous research with new work on the Register-Functional (RF) approach to grammatical complexity, offering a unified theoretical account for its further study. The book traces the development of the RF approach from its foundations in two major research strands of linguistics: the study of sociolinguistic variation and the text-linguistic study of register variation. Building on this foundation, the authors demonstrate the RF framework at work across a series of corpus-based research studies focused specifically on grammatical complexity in English. The volume highlights early work exploring patterns of grammatical complexity in present-day spoken and written registers as well as subsequent studies which extend this research to historical patterns of register variation and the application of RF research to the study of writing development for L1 and L2 English university students. Taken together, along with the addition of introductory chapters connecting the different studies, the volume offers readers with a comprehensive resource to better understand the RF approach to grammatical complexity and its implications for future research. The volume will appeal to students and scholars with research interests in either descriptive linguistics or applied linguistics, especially those interested in grammatical complexity and empirical, corpus-based approaches.

This book examines the question of whether languages can differ in grammatical complexity and, if so, how relative complexity differences might be measured. Chapters approach the question from the point of view of formal grammatical theory, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics, and take phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics into account.

This book provides a refreshing perspective on the description, study and representation of consonant clusters in Polish. What are the sources of phonotactic complexity? What properties or principles motivate the phonological structure of initial and final consonant clusters? In answering these questions, a necessary turning point consists in investigating sequences of consonants at their most basic level, namely in terms of phonological features. The analysis is exploratory: it leads to discovering prevalent feature patterns in clusters from which new phonotactic generalizations are derived. A recurring theme in the book is that phonological features vary in weight depending on (1) their distribution in a cluster, (2) their position in a word, and (3) language domain. Positional feature weight reflects the relative importance of place, manner and voice features (e.g. coronal, dorsal, strident, continuant) in constructing cluster inventories, minimizing cognitive effort, facilitating production and triggering specific casual speech processes. Feature weights give rise to previously unidentified positional preferences. Rankings of features and preferences are a testing ground for principles of sonority, contrast, clarity of perception and ease of articulation. This volume addresses practitioners in the field seeking new methods of phonotactic modelling and approaches to complexity, as well as students interested in an overview of current research directions in the study of consonant clusters. Sequences of consonants in Polish are certainly among the most remarkable ones that readers will ever encounter in their linguistic explorations. In this volume, they will come to realise that hundreds of unusually long, odd-looking, sonority-violating, morphologically complex and infrequent clusters are in fact well-motivated and structured according to well-defined tactic patterns of features.