48 research outputs found
Annual of Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“ Faculty of Philosophy. Psychology. Volume 105
Get PDFАвтори в Т. 105: Ирина Зиновиева; Момчил Киряков;Анелия Петрова, Дамяна Иванова; Йоана Янкулова; Даниел Петров;Весела Кръстева-Симеонова; Антония Димитрова; Люба Маринова; Петър ВълковAuthors: Irina Zinovieva, Momchil Kiryakov, Aneliya Petrova, Damyana Ivanova, Yoana Yankulova, Daniel Petrov, Vesela Krasteva-Simeonova, Antonia Dimitrova, Lyuba Marinova, Petar Valko
Prosodic parameters in multilingual acquisition of English
No full textBilingual and multilingual research has mainly focused on segmental phonology, vocabulary and syntactic structures. The acquisition of native-like prosodic patterns has often been taken for granted. A study of prosodic features is particularly relevant since many children born into families of non-native speakers acquire English as a first or second language alongside the family or local language. Previous research has mainly identified general trends and found that children as a group are mainly accurate in their comprehension or production, but few studies have tried to go into detail and examine prosodic features in individual children.
This thesis investigates the acquisition of prosodic parameters in two multilingual children, aged 10;5 and 9;5, learning English alongside Standard Chinese and Cantonese. Their data are compared with data from monolingual native-speakers and Cantonese speakers of English (L2 learners). Controlled experiments using minimal pairs and testing both comprehension and production of prosodic phrasing (“chocolate biscuits and milk” vs. “chocolate, biscuits and milk”) and compound vs phrasal stress (“hot dog” vs. “hot dog”) were conducted with each respondent. Praat phonetic analyses of the output and acoustic measurements were combined with auditory observations and listeners’ disambiguation. Comprehension was tested in identification tasks drawing on prosodic cues only.
Results indicated that the multilingual children were less successful in using pitch movements to signal prosodic boundaries and convey compound and phrasal rhythmic patterns that the monolingual children. In terms of segmental and pause durations, and final-syllable lengthening, both multilingual children showed more consistency in their production. This supports previous monolingual research (Peeppé et al., 2000; Danbovicová et al., 2004) that temporal cues are more systematically used and more reliable disambiguating factors, which many contribute to their earlier acquisition (Vihman, 1996). In addition, the ability to accurately produce rhythmic patterns of compounds and phrases may develop at an even later stage in multilingual that in monolingual acquisition (Atkinson-King, 1973; Vogel & Raimy, 2002).
Compared to L2 learners, the multilingual children have a well-differentiated English phonology with subtle evidence for language transfer (e.g., strengthening of unstressed vowels and tone on unstressed syllables) and deceleration (e.g., less stable or consistent production of single-stressed compounds). The L2 learners, although sensitive to contrasts in pitch, duration and lengthening, many never fully develop the ability to manipulate prosodic cues in a native-like way. Comprehension tests reveal that the relationship between perception and production of the same feature is no straightforward. Good perception does not mean accurate and unambiguous production while unsuccessful perception does not imply inaccurate and ambiguous production while unsuccessful perception does not imply inaccurate and ambiguous output.
This thesis examines children’s perception and production of prosody, and contributes some detailed insights into prosodic development of monolingual, multilingual, and L2 learners. The results not only have implications for theoretical conceptualizations of language acquisition, but also provide relevant information for language instructors and testing specialists who develop assessment materials for children.published_or_final_versionLinguisticsDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Dynamic competition with customer recognition and switching costs: theory and application
Get PDFThis dissertation aims to contribute to our understanding of dynamic interaction in duopoly markets. Chapter 1 motivates the study and offers a brief overview of the results.
In Chapter 2 I study the dynamic equilibrium of a market characterized by repeat purchases. Such markets exhibit two common features: customer recognition, which allows firms to price discriminate on the basis of purchase history, and consumer switching costs. Both features have implications for the competitiveness of the market and consumer welfare but are rarely studied together. I employ a dynamic framework to model a market with customer recognition and switching costs. In contrast to earlier studies of dynamic competition with switching costs, these costs are explicitly incorporated in the demand functions. Two sets of market equilibria are characterized depending on the size of the switching cost.
For all values of the switching cost, customer recognition gives rise to a bargain-then-ripoff pattern in prices and switching costs amplify the loyalty price premium. When switching costs are low, there is incomplete customer lock-in in steady state, firm profits increase in the magnitude of the switching cost and introductory offers do not fall below cost. When switching costs are high, there is complete customer lock-in in steady state, firm profits are independent of switching costs and introductory prices may fall below cost. Under incomplete lock-in and bilateral poaching, switching costs do not affect the speed of convergence to steady state; under complete customer lock-in and no poaching from either firm, convergence to steady state occurs in just one period. The model also suggests that imperfect customer recognition leads to lower profits relative to both uniform pricing and perfect customer recognition.
In Chapter 3 I use the market framework developed in Chapter 2 to examine the perception that imperfect competition hinders information sharing among rivals in games of random matching. In contrast to previous studies of information sharing, I propose a new channel through which competition may deter information sharing. This approach reveals a key role for firm liquidity by showing that information sharing among rivals is more likely to arise in markets populated by more liquid firms. Employing a dynamic duopoly framework, in which competition intensity varies with the degree of product differentiation, consumer switching costs and consumer patience, I show that more intense market competition can weaken the disincentives associated with disclosing information to a rival. I test the model's predictions using firm-level data on the information-sharing practices of agricultural traders in Madagascar. As predicted by the model, traders operating in liquid markets are shown to be more likely to share information about delinquent customers. This result is robust to the use of two alternative measures of liquidity, of which one is credibly exogenous, and two alternative ways of defining market liquidity. Furthermore, traders who report more intense competition in their market are found to be significantly more likely to share information
Study of the Microbiological Quality of Bulgarian Bottled Water in Terms of Its Contamination with Pseudomonas Aeruginosa
No full text
Mathematical model for research and analyze relations and functions between enterprises, members of cluster
No full textA simplified mathematical model of vertical U-tube steam generator in MATLAB environment
No full textDijaloški prozni diskurs u renesansnoj književnosti 16. stoljeća
Get PDFThe dialogical prose discourse, known from the ancient philosophical discussions, experiences in humanistic literature its revival as an autonomous literary genre, fitting perfectly in the pedagogical programme of the epoch and the didactical purpose of most of the works written by the humanistic authors. Although inspired by the classical form and its rhetorical apparatus, the humanists, especially the Renaissance writers of the 16th century, have reinterpreted the literary form and exposed its inner structure to changes in order to reflect and express the didactical character of the work in the best possible way, making the reception of the didactical message easier for the reader. The dialogical communication on the character level in the work, the credibility of which the author tries to achieve by listing topoi or by complicated staging, is supplemented by communication in a wider sense between the author and the reader, and at that level the form and its inner structure are equal factors of the dialogical communication code.Dijaloški prozni diskurs, poznat još iz antičkih filozofskih rasprava, doživljava svoj preporod kao samostalni književni žanr u humanističkoj književnosti uklapajući se savršeno u pedagoški program epohe i didaktičku namjenu većine djela iz pera humanističkih autora. Iako se inspiriraju klasičnom formom i njenim retoričkim aparatom, humanisti, a posebno renesansni pisci 16. stoljeća, interpretirali su nanovo književnu formu i podvrgli njenu unutrašnju strukturu promjenama da bi na najbolji način odrazile i izrazile poučan karakter djela, olakšavajući čitaocu na taj način recepciju didaktičke poruke. Razgovorna komunikacija na nivou likova u djelu, čiju vjerodostojnost autor nastoji postići nizanjem toposa ili kompliciranim insceniranjem, dopunjuje se komunikacijom u širem smislu između autora i čitatelja, a na tom su nivou forma i njena unutrašnja struktura ravnopravni činitelji dijaloškog komunikacijskog koda
Postmodern Country, Globalization and the Deviant Behavior of Youth People
Get PDFWith this analysis the author attempts to highlight the destabilizing influence of globalization processes on the legal framework in the state and more specifically on those norms codifying the behavior of minors The idea is for students to reflect the role of globalization on the legal construction of the state and its refiection on the behavior of minors Of course the author presents only part of his vision of the catastrophic impact of this important factor on our country s legal framework regarding children and the protection of their right
