LINGUIST List 9.179

Fri Feb 6 1998

Qs: Articulatory Synthesiser,Japanese,CL,Werth-MS

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Bart de Boer, Articulatory synthesiser
2. David Ludden, Japanese First Language Acquisition
3. Monica Sanchez, Undergraduate Programs in Computational Linguistics
4. Martin Wynne, Bibliographical Queries about Manuscript by Paul Werth

I am working on a project to investigate (emergence of) phonological
universals using computer simulations. I recently implemented an
articulatory synthesiser (based on Mermelstein's model) but I have not
been able to achieve a very satis- fying sound quality. Although the
literature on articulatory synthesis of speech is abundant,
implementation details seem to be scarce.

Can anybody help me with the following:

1) Does there exist a public domain implementation (with source code)
of an articulatory synthesiser?

2) Is there anybody that wants to cooperate in my project by sharing
their articulatory synthesiser with me?

Thanks,
Bart de Boer
bartbarti.vub.ac.be

I would like to ask for help in locating published research on
Japanese First Language Acquisition. In particular, I'm interested in
the acquisition of verb morphology, typical errors produced by
Japanese children learning the morphology, timeframe for acquisition,
and whether there is anything like the U-shaped learning curved
exhibited in the acquisition of English verb morphology. I would be
interested in research published in either English or Japanese.

Thank you in advance for your help. If there is interest, I will be
happy to publish a summary of the responses I receive.

Regards,
David Ludden
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* David Ludden			 *
*				 *
* Dept. of Linguistics *
* University of Iowa *
* Iowa City, IA 52242 *
* *
* Email: david-luddenuiowa.edu *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am involved in putting together an undergraduate program in
Computational Linguistics (CL) at my university and was wondering
about the existence of any such programs elsewhere and what their
course requirements are. While I am especially interested in BAs or
BScs in Computational Linguistics at North American Universities, I
welcome comments from people outside North America as well as from
people involved in graduate studies in CL.

Thanks. If people want a summary of the comments I receive, I'll be
happy to post it.

Monica Sanchez


*****************************************

Monica Sanchez
Department of Applied Language Studies
Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario
L2S 3A1 CANADA

E-mail: msanchezspartan.ac.brocku.ca
Fax: (905) 688-1912
Phone: (905) 688-5550 extension 3846

I am forwarding this message for a colleague who is not a Linguist
subscriber. Please reply direct to him at the address below, or to me
and I will forward messages to him. Message follows...

I am currently trying to edit up for publication the manuscript of a
book on Text Worlds which Paul Werth had more or less completed just
before he died of cancer a couple of years ago. I have some editorial
problems which I would be grateful for assistance with, all of which
revolve around texts I don't have access to:

1. In Paul Werth's (1986) article "A functional approach to
presupposition", in A. Bossuyt (ed.), 'Functional Approaches to
Linguistics (Brussels: Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles), Paul
apparently quotes a text about Ronald Reagan, which compares Reagan
with Coolidge in the intelligence stakes. The (part of the) text which
I have begins "The world still finds it hard to accept that the King
of America is an aging movie star." and ends "After all, think how
many Presidents turned out to be cowboys!"

I am desperate to know (a) who wrote the original text (was it Paul
himself, or somebody else?), (b) what the page number(s) for the
quotation is in the Werth article and (c) what the full reference to
the original text is. I would also very much like to be able to get
hold of a copy of the original, so that I can check the version I have
in Paul's Ms for accuracy. Do you have access to it?

2. I am looking for a page reference to a Charles Fillmore quotation:
". . . we treat grammatical constructions as syntactic patterns which
can fit into each other, impose conditions on each other, and inherit
properties from each other. Grammatical constructions define positions
which require or welcome fillers with certain properties, and fllers
of those positions can introduce constructions of their own and can
impose requirements of their own on positions within the constructions
which contain them."

This apparently occurs in an article "The mechanisms of 'construction'
in grammar", Berkeley Linguistic Society 14, 35-55. I would also like
to be able to check the accuracy of the quotation.

3. Finally, I am trying to find out the chapter in Grace (1987) "The
Linguistic Construction of Reality" (London: Croom Helm) in which
there is a discussion of the connection between maps and language.

- -----------

Mick Short,
Professor of English Language and Literature,
Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language,
Lancaster University,
Lancaster,
LA1 4YT
U.K.

Departmental World Wide Web Site: http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/

Telephone: (0)1524 593035 (direct dial, with electronic mailbox)
Fax: (0)1524 843085
Email: m.shortlancs.ac.uk