Recognizing Phonemes and Their Distinctive Features in the Brain

Recognizing Phonemes and Their Distinctive Features in the Brain PDF Author: Wang Rui
Publisher: Stanford University
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
How the human brain processes phonemes has been a subject of interest for linguists and neuroscientists for a long time. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a promising approach to observe neural activities of phoneme processing in the brain, thanks to its high temporal resolution, low cost and noninvasiveness. The studies on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) effects in EEG activities in the 1990s suggested the existence of a language-specific central phoneme representation in the brain. Recent findings using magnetoencephalograph (MEG) also suggested that the brain encodes the complex acoustic-phonetic information of speech into the representations of phonological features before the lexical information is retrieved. However, very little success has yet been reported in classifying the brain activities associated with phoneme processing. In my work, I proposed a classification framework which incorporates Principal Components Analysis (PCA), cross-validation and support vector machine (SVM) methods. The initial classification rates were not very good. Progress was made by using bootstrap aggregation (Bagging) scheme and introducing phase calculations. To calculate phase, I computed the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the original time-domain signal and kept the angles of the finite sample of frequencies. The resulting EEG spectral representation contains only the phase and frequency information and ignores the amplitudes. Using this method, the accurate rate of classifying averaged test samples of eight consonants improved from 41% to 51%. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of the similarities between the EEG representations, derived from the confusion matrices, illustrates the invariance of brain and perceptual representation of phonemes. For brain and perceptual representation of consonants, voicing is the most distinguishable feature among voicing, continuant and place of articulation. And the feature vowel-height is more robust than vowel-backness in both brain and perceptual representation of vowels. By extending and further refining these methods, it is likely significant classification of other phonemes and features can be made.

Recognizing Phonemes and Their Distinctive Features in the Brain

Recognizing Phonemes and Their Distinctive Features in the Brain PDF Author: Wang Rui
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
How the human brain processes phonemes has been a subject of interest for linguists and neuroscientists for a long time. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a promising approach to observe neural activities of phoneme processing in the brain, thanks to its high temporal resolution, low cost and noninvasiveness. The studies on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) effects in EEG activities in the 1990s suggested the existence of a language-specific central phoneme representation in the brain. Recent findings using magnetoencephalograph (MEG) also suggested that the brain encodes the complex acoustic-phonetic information of speech into the representations of phonological features before the lexical information is retrieved. However, very little success has yet been reported in classifying the brain activities associated with phoneme processing. In my work, I proposed a classification framework which incorporates Principal Components Analysis (PCA), cross-validation and support vector machine (SVM) methods. The initial classification rates were not very good. Progress was made by using bootstrap aggregation (Bagging) scheme and introducing phase calculations. To calculate phase, I computed the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the original time-domain signal and kept the angles of the finite sample of frequencies. The resulting EEG spectral representation contains only the phase and frequency information and ignores the amplitudes. Using this method, the accurate rate of classifying averaged test samples of eight consonants improved from 41% to 51%. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of the similarities between the EEG representations, derived from the confusion matrices, illustrates the invariance of brain and perceptual representation of phonemes. For brain and perceptual representation of consonants, voicing is the most distinguishable feature among voicing, continuant and place of articulation. And the feature vowel-height is more robust than vowel-backness in both brain and perceptual representation of vowels. By extending and further refining these methods, it is likely significant classification of other phonemes and features can be made.

Phonetics in Linguistics

Phonetics in Linguistics PDF Author: W. E. Jones
Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


Phoneme recognition by ear and by eve

Phoneme recognition by ear and by eve PDF Author: Hugo Wilfred Campbell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : nl
Pages : 221

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Book Description


Distinctive Feature Theory

Distinctive Feature Theory PDF Author: T. Alan Hall
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110886677
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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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.

Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults

Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults PDF Author: Susan McShane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Elementary education of adults
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description


Grundzüge Der Phonologie. English

Grundzüge Der Phonologie. English PDF Author: Nikolaj Sergeevič Trubeckoj
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520015357
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


The Phonemes of English

The Phonemes of English PDF Author: A. Cohen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401029695
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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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.

Phoneme Recognition by Ear and by Eye

Phoneme Recognition by Ear and by Eye PDF Author: Hugo Wilfred Campbell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description


Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children PDF Author: Marilyn Jager Adams
Publisher: Brookes Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781557663214
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This invaluable supplementary curriculum meets Reading First criteria and contains numerous classroom-ready activities designed to increase the phonemic awareness and preliteracy skills of preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade students.