VLC001 - Demo Course

The examples below illustrate the synthetic character of Standard Arabic. Furthermore, it is obvious that Arabic exhibits the VSO word order in main clauses:

Phrases	Sentences
الكتاب	اررجل نا’عمون
الكتابين	المر’أتو نمط
الكتاب الكبير	اررجل يرى المر’أ.
الكتاب الكبير جيدا	... عندما را’أت المر’أتو اررجلا
فيل كتاب	اررجل يو’تي المر’أتى الكتابة.
ألا الكتاب

ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture. It uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to natural language input. ChatGPT is trained on massive amounts of text data, allowing it to understand and respond to a wide range of topics and questions. As a language model, ChatGPT can be used for a variety of tasks, such as text generation, translation, summarization, and question-answering. ChatGPT is a powerful tool for natural language processing and has the potential to be used in many applications, including chatbots, virtual assistants, and customer service automation.

(Generated by ChatGPT-3, 15 March 2023, post-edited by J. Handke)

Diphthongs are defined as centering or ingliding if a movement of the tongue from a peripheral to a central position occurs.

Diphthongs are defined as closing or upgliding if a movement of the tongue from a low or central to a high (closed) position occurs. There are two variants of closing/upgliding diphthongs:

• front closing/upgliding (2^nd element = high front vowel)
• back closing/upgliding (2^nd element = high back vowel)

The examples illustrate the synthetic fusional character of German. Furthermore, Standard German exhibits two word order patterns: SVO in main clauses and SOV in subordinate clauses:

Phrases	Sentences
das Buch	Der Mann schläft.
die Bücher	Die Frau schlief.
das große Buch	Der Mann sieht die Frau.
das sehr große Buch	... weil die Frau den Mann sieht.
in dem Buch	Der Mann gibt der Frau das Buch.
auf dem Buch

The examples below illustrate the strong agglutinating character of Japanese. Furthermore, it is obvious that Japanese exhibits a strict SOV order irrespective of the sentence type:

Phrases	Sentences
その本	その男の人は寝る。
その本	その男の人は寝た。
その大きな本	その男の人はその女の人を見る。
そのとても大きな本	その女の人が、その男の人を見る時。
その本の中に	その男の人は、その女の人にその本を与える。
その本の上に

In Canadian and many regional variants in Northeast America, the phonemes /o/ and /oh/ have merged, so that cot and caught, Don and dawn, hock and hawk, collar and caller, are all homophones.

This 'cot-caught merger' is complete in Canada, the West, Western Pennsylvania and Eastern New England.

If after the application of mapping some tones are still free, they will be linked to the last vowel to the right.

The mapping principle associates vowels with tones in a 1-to-1 fashion from left to right until we run out of vowels or of tones.

Association lines are not allowed to cross!

If after the application of mapping some vowels are still free, they will be linked to the last tone on the right.

Received Pronunciation was originally defined as a regional standard associated with the south of England. Today, however, RP is merely an artificial construct which serves as a guideline for a socially more or less accepted standard of English, for example, the kind of English used by many BBC news readers. This variety had not received consideration at the outset.

In 'rhotic' accents /r/ is overtly realized in a wide variety of phonetic contexts, including post-vocalic environments, such as farm /fahrm/ or far /fahr/. In the non-rhotic accents /r/ is excluded from post-vocalic environments, thus /fɑ:m/ and /fɑ:/.

The rhotic accents include those typical of Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Barbados, certain western parts of England, and most of the United States, including General American.
The non-rhotic accents include those typical of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, certain parts of the United States, and most of England and Wales, including RP.

The autosegments are associated vertically across the tiers. Thus, this representation is similar to music where we the tune is given on one level and the text on another.

Structural Ambiguity is basically a question of "what goes with what" in a sentence: it occurs when the constituents (i.e. the elements of sentence structure) can relate to each other in different ways, even though none of the individual words in the sentence may be ambiguous.

Here are two interpretations of the Noun Phrase [very old men and women] (pictured above, as 'interpretation 0') which can be represented using simplified constituent analysis:

NP[very old [men and women]] >> Both men and women are old.

NP[[very old men] and [women]] >> The men are old, the women can be of any age.

The Levelt-Maassen Experiment consists of a series of test where the movement of objects  across a screen has to be described verbatim.

The Test Scenarios
Test 1
Test 2
Test 3
Test 4

Select a test, click and say what you see.

Explanation:

In tests 1 to 3 well-known objects (rectangle and triangle) move across the screen: In sequential movements (test 1 and test 2) we favour coordinate sentence structures, in simultaneous movements (test 3) we use NP-coordination. If an object's denomination is difficult  to retrieve as in test in 4 (hexagon), we have to gain time and go back to sentence coordination, even if the movement occurs simultaneously. Thus, the retrieval of lexical items (i.e. phonetic planning) influences grammatical encoding.

Levelt W.J.M/Maassen B. 1981. Lexical Search and Order of Mention in Sentence Production. In W. Klein/W.J.M. Levelt. (eds.). Crossing the boundaries in Linguistics. Dordrecht: Reidel.

The examples illustrate the strong agglutinating character of Turkish. Furthermore, Turkish exhibits a strict SOV order irrespective of the sentence type:

Phrases	Sentences
kitap	Adam uyuyor.
kitaplar	Kadın uyudu.
büyük kitap	Adam kadını görüyor.
çok büyük kitap	... kadın adamı gördüğünde.
kitabın içinde	Adam kadına kitabı veriyor.
kitabın üzerinde

The examples illustrate the fusional character of Welsh. Furthermore, it is obvious that Welsh favors a VSO order but allows for other head-modifier patterns as well:

Phrases	Sentences
y llyfr	Mae'r dyn yn cysgu.
y llyfrau	Cysgodd y fenyw.
y llyfr mawr	Mae'r dyn yn gweld y fenyw.
y llyfr mawr iawn	... pan welodd y fenyw y dyn.
yn y llyfr	"Mae'r dyn yn rhoi'r llyfr i'r fenyw.
ar y llyfr