The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS)


Book Description

Since the 1970s the cognitive sciences have offered multidisciplinary ways of understanding the mind and cognition. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS) is a landmark, comprehensive reference work that represents the methodological and theoretical diversity of this changing field. At the core of the encyclopedia are 471 concise entries, from Acquisition and Adaptationism to Wundt and X-bar Theory. Each article, written by a leading researcher in the field, provides an accessible introduction to an important concept in the cognitive sciences, as well as references or further readings. Six extended essays, which collectively serve as a roadmap to the articles, provide overviews of each of six major areas of cognitive science: Philosophy; Psychology; Neurosciences; Computational Intelligence; Linguistics and Language; and Culture, Cognition, and Evolution. For both students and researchers, MITECS will be an indispensable guide to the current state of the cognitive sciences.




The Sound Shape of Language


Book Description

Reading this volume transported me back to Harvard and MIT lecture halls of the 1960s, where weekly Roman Jakobson would spellbind his audience (this reviewer included), developing his vision of language through impassioned exposition, deft and devastating allusions to critical literature, anecdotes with the force of parables, metaphors of mythic imagery, and above all else overriding verbal artistry: truly in his own phrase, 'In the poetry of grammar'. The Sound Shape of Language, his collaboration with Linda R. Waugh, a scholar who has devoted considerable attention to an exposition and elaboration of Jakobsonian views, fortunately has preserved in print the authoritative lectorial voice. Michael Silverstein in Journal of Communication




Distinctive Feature Theory


Book Description

This volume consists of nine articles dealing with topics in distinctive feature theory in various typologically diverse languages, including Acehnese, Afrikaans, Basque, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Navajo, Portuguese, Tahltan, Terena, Tswana, Tuvan, and Zoque. The subjects dealt with in the book include feature geometry, underspecification (in rule-based and in Opti-mality Theoretic treatments) and the phonetic implementation of phonological features. Other topics include laryngeal features (e.g. [voice], [spread glottis], [nasal]), and place features for consonants and vowels. The volume will be of interest to all linguists and advanced students of linguistics working on feature theory and/or the phonetics-phonology interface.




Speech Acoustics and Phonetics


Book Description

This book assembles major writings in speech production and phonetics of the pioneering Gunnar Fant, along with his more recent work on speech prosody. The book reviews the stages of the speech chain, covering production, speech data analysis and speech perception. 19 selected articles are grouped in 6 chapters, including a historical outline plus Speech production and synthesis; The voice source; Speech analysis and features; Speech perception; Prosody.




The Essence of Linguistic Analysis


Book Description

In The Essence of Linguistic Analysis by R. M. W. Dixon relates together, in a clear and succinct manner, individual grammatical categories, showing their dependencies and locating each in its place within the overall tapestry of a language.




The Role of Speech Perception in Phonology


Book Description

Do human auditory perceptual abilities shape language sound structures? If so, what aspects of phonology may be driven by perception, and how should perceptually driven processes be captured in linguistic theory? These and similar questions have come to the forefront of linguistic research in the past decade because the technology used in speech perception research has become much more widely available and portable and because developments in constraint-based theories of phonology have made it possible to incorporate "perceptual constraints" into linguistic grammars. The "Role of Speech Perception in Phonology" is a collection of authoritative articles on the role of speech perception in phonology by leading phonologists, phoneticians, and cognitive psychologists. It presents a diverse range of views on the linguistic implications of speech perception research. It reports a number of new empirical research findings on speech perception. It provides definitive theoretical positions and contrasting viewpoints. It offers clearly defined implementation options.




The Notion of Syllable Across History, Theories and Analysis


Book Description

Any notion linguistically expressed, even one such as the syllable, is always the result of several different viewpoints. In order to take this into account, this book draws inspiration from the scheme of quaternion, as conceived by Sir William Rowan Hamilton and later introduced in theoretical linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure. The first term of the quaternion (The Dawn of the Syllable) is provided by historical observations. The second term (Beyond the Sound of Syllables) is composed of different descriptive analyses of the syllable carried out in some particular languages and dialects. The third term (The Body of Syllables) presents the analytical-instrumental analysis of the syllable, while the fourth (De Syllaba Ventura) proposes some theoretical considerations.




The Phonemes of English


Book Description

I gladly take this opportunity to convey my heartfelt thanks to those who have guided me on my way as an undergraduate and who have enabled me through their teachings and friendly advice to proceed to preparing for this doctorate thesis. I should like first of all to thank Prof. C. L. Wrenn, M. A., now of Pembroke College, Oxford, who has always been extremely helpful to me and who was generous enough to admit me to the Honours English Course at King's College, University of London. After moving to Oxford he still found time to show interest in my progress and on more than one occasion helped me with his wise counsels. I am also extremely grateful to his successor at King's College, Prof. G .. Bullough, M. A., who likewhise helped me whenever he could. I feel greatly indebted to Prof. D. Jones, M. A., Dr. Phil., who at the time was Professor of Phonetics at University College, London, and from whose lectures and methods of expression I greatly benefited. I am particularly thankful for the kindness shown to me by the staffs of the English department of King's College and of the Phonetics department of University College for the excellent tuition I received from them and for making me feel completely at home among my English fellow students. I am happy to acknowledge the generosity with which Prof. Dr. P. N. U.