Simon David Stein – författare

Effects of morphological structure on phonetic detail present us with two challenges. The empirical challenge is that some predictors have produced inconsistent effects. The theoretical challenge is that it is unclear where morpho-phonetic effects originate from. Do speakers decompose words into morphemes? Or can such effects also originate from non-decompositional structure? This book investigates the durational properties of English derived words in four large-scale corpus studies. In the decompositional perspective, durations are modeled as a function of frequency and segmentability, prosodic structure, and affix informativeness. In the non-decompositional perspective, durations are modeled with predictors derived from linear discriminative learning networks. Results show that the decompositional predictors are far less reliable than previously thought. Meanwhile, some non-decompositional predictors model durations successfully. Discriminative learning is shown to be a promising alternative for modeling speech production. However, the book also demonstrates that many investigated predictors are conceptually interrelated. It ultimately cautions against taking the metaphors we use to describe these predictors as final explanations.

Linguists have been interested in the relation of language and gender for a long time, yet only recently has the field diversified extensively in both its research questions and its methods. However, few attempts have been made to bring together these diverse perspectives in a systematic exchange of ideas and approaches. This volume offers a collection of the latest empirical research on language and gender from a variety of linguistic perspectives. Among other questions, the studies in this volume investigate the processing of gendered forms in spoken and written language, examine their morphosyntactic properties, model their semantics and pragmatics, and engage with the discursive and orthographic patterns of gendered language. They apply a wide range of corpus linguistic, experimental, and computational methods to a diverse set of languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Georgian, German, and English. This volume is a valuable resource for all scholars interested in the current state of research on language and gender and a much-needed kick-off for interdisciplinary collaboration in this field that takes into account the bigger picture.