Linguistic Rhythm And Literacy

The intersection of sound processing, speech production, and literacy is a promising and growing area of study. This volume showcases recent empirical research exploring the association between linguistic rhythm and reading. Linguistic rhythm does not easily assume a single definition, which is part of the motivation for this volume, and subsumes constructs including suprasegmental phonology, prosody, intonation and stress. The twelve papers collected here are the product of a gathering of like-minded researchers from the disciplines of linguistics, psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience and education. The resulting chapters cover topics including the following: developmental interactions between linguistic rhythm and reading and spelling, relationships between rhythm and dyslexia, and cross-linguistic variation in the relationship between lexical stress and orthography. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of linguistics, human communication, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and literacy.

In contrast to other works, the linguistic approach to rhythm presented in this book does not start from decontextualized structures but from performance data in a bottom-up fashion. Drawing on Halliday's distinction between wording, writing, and sounding, the proposed model takes account of several levels of abstraction. Important categories for data analysis are syllable rhythm and accent rhythm, which interact to establish prominence patterns (peaks and valleys) that can be observed in spontaneous and prepared speech, readings and recitals. Excluding subjective factors of analysis, the new model offers a tool to describe the rhythmic potential of prose and verse and to evaluate rhythmic performances of reading and reciting.

Literacy is an important concern of contemporary societies. This book offers a comprehensive survey of recent efforts to understand the nature of written language and its role in cognition and in social and intellectual life. The authors represent a wide range of disciplines - cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, education, history and philosophy - and address a wide range of questions. Is literacy a decisive factor in historical and cultural change? Does it alter the mental and social lives of individuals? If so how and via what mechanisms? Does learning to read and write change children's speech, thought or orientation to language? What are children and adults learning when they acquire literate skills? Are there differences - linguistic, psychological and functional - between speaking and writing? And are there differences between oral and written languages?

Focusing on expressions of popular culture among blacks in Africa, the United States, and the Carribean this collection of multidisciplinary essays takes on subjects long overdue for study. Fifteen essays cover a world of topics, from American girls' Double Dutch games to protest discourse in Ghana; from Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale to the work of Zora Neale Hurston; from South African workers to Just Another Girl on the IRT; from the history of Rasta to the evolving significance of kente clothl from rap video music to hip-hop to zouk. The contributors work through the prisms of many disciplines, including anthropology, communications, English, ethnomusicology, history, linguistics, literature, philosophy, political economy, psychology, and social work. Their interpretive approaches place the many voices of popular black cultures into a global context. It affirms that black culture everywhere functions to give meaning to people's lives by constructing identities that resist cultural, capitolist, colonial, and postcolonial domination.

The past 15 years have witnessed an increasing interest in the comparative study of language and music as cognitive systems. Language and music are uniquely human traits, so it is not surprising that this interest spans practically all branches of cognitive science, including psychology, computer science, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and education. Underlying the study of language and music is the assumption that the comparison of these two domains can shed light on the structural and functional properties of each, while also serving as a test case for theories of how the mind and, ultimately, the brain work. This book presents an interdisciplinary study of language and music, bringing together a team of leading specialists across these fields. The volume is structured around four core areas in which the study of music and language has been particularly fruitful: (i) structural comparisons, (ii) evolution, (iii) learning and processing, and (iv) neuroscience. As such it provides a snapshot of the different research strands that have focused on language and music, identifying current trends and methodologies that have been (or could be) applied to the study of both domains, and outlining future research directions. This volume is valuable in promoting the investigation of language and music by fostering interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration. With an ever increasing interest in both music cognition and language, this book will be valuable for students and researchers of psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and musicology.

Phonetics and Phonology: Volume 1, Rhythm and Meter compiles original articles by 12 linguists and literary critics who have made important contributions to current theories of phonology, verse meter, and music. This book mainly focuses on English poetry—on the meters of Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Longfellow, Hopkins, Auden, and other Renaissance dramatists. Poetry in other languages that include Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and German are also examined. This publication emphasizes metrical theory, formulating and illustrating metrical principles within the tradition of generative metrics and competing traditions. The relationships between rhythm in language and music are likewise analyzed. This volume is useful to linguists, literary critics, and specialists conducting work on rhythm and meter.