Publications
Articulatory–kinematic changes in speech following surgical treatment for oral or oropharyngeal cancer: A systematic review
Abstract
Treatment for oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (O&OSCC) often leads to problems with speech articulation. Articulatory–kinematic data may be especially informative in designing new therapeutic approaches for individuals treated for these tumours.To provide a systematic review of the literature assessing the articulatory–kinematic consequences of oral and oropharyngeal cancer treatment.Five databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycInfo) were used to identify studies that used kinematic methods to characterize the speech of individuals treated for O&OSCC. Risk of bias was assessed using the critical appraisal checklist from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data were synthesized using the Synthesis Without Meta‐Analysis guidelines.In total, 29 studies with a total of 197 individuals treated for O&OSCC were …
SPRAAKLAB-mobile laboratory for speech recorded acoustically and kinematically
Abstract
Data collection in experimental linguistics is frequently conducted in laboratory rooms within a research institute, which can be difficult to reach for some participants, for example, those with mobility issues or living further away and in remote areas. This article presents SPRAAKLAB, a mobile laboratory that facilitates the collection of high-quality acoustic and articulatory data outside of university walls, thus bringing the laboratory environment closer to the participants. We present an acoustic analysis of recordings collected inside and outside of the SPRAAKLAB, including transmission loss, signal-to-noise ratio, and harmonics-to-noise ratio. All three measures reveal that the SPRAAKLAB is suitable for collecting consistent, high-quality speech data even in loud environments. Finally, we discuss how the SPRAAKLAB allows us to collect data more easily and facilitates public outreach activities.
Using electromagnetic articulography to investigate tongue, lip and jaw tremor associated with Parkinson’s disease
Abstract
Tremor in Parkinson’s disease is most frequently studied in the limbs, even though it also occurs in the vocal tract. In the current study, we assessed the presence of tongue, lip and jaw tremor in 34 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (IwPD) and 25 controls (CS). We used electromagnetic articulography sensors attached to the tongue, the lips, and the jaw to measure orolingual tremor while the participants were performing a series of tasks. Additionally, we acoustically measured frequency and amplitude tremor of the voice in a sustained phonation task. Our findings revealed that IwPD showed significantly more tongue, lip, and jaw tremor than CS. Kinematic tremor frequency and RMS amplitude did not differ between IwPD and CS. We found no group difference in voice tremor prevalence or frequency in our acoustic analysis. While intensity and power indices seemed stronger in IwPD compared to CS, these …
Speech waves: determining functionally-relevant neural oscillations for vocal tremor
Abstract
Neural oscillations are essential for effective movement patterns, and abnormalities can be observed in motor disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). While tremors in arms and legs in PD can be minimized via dopaminergic medication, vocal tremor can occur frequently and does not benefit from dopaminergic medication. Vocal tremor can cause major difficulties in communication and there is a need to identify effective therapeutic interventions.
Determining functionally relevant neural oscillations for vocal tremor
Abstract
Determining functionally relevant neural oscillations for vocal tremor – the University of
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functionally relevant neural oscillations for vocal tremor Defne Abur, Miles Wischnewski
Computational Linguistics (CL) Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster › Academic
Overview Original language English Publication status Published – 2025 Event 6th International
Brain Stimulation Conference – , Japan Duration: 23-Feb-2025 → 26-Feb-2025 Conference
Conference 6th International Brain Stimulation Conference Country/Territory Japan Period 23/02/…Semantic and morphophonological productivity in the Kîîtharaka gender system: A quantitative study
Abstract
Nominal classification systems are characterized by diverse and sometimes complex gender assignment rules that interact in dynamic ways. The specifics of how gender assignment works can vary widely from language to language. Nominal classification systems of Bantu languages in particular have been the subject of long-standing debate. Traditional accounts of gender assignment are based principally on abstract semantic features which have been found to be unreliable in at least some present-day Bantu languages. Such analyses, in addition to relying on arbitrary sets of semantic features, are problematic, since they provide no clear definition of what it means for a particular feature to be productive. Here we follow a more recent approach, using corpus data to evaluate productivity. We compiled a corpus of 2,327 Kîîtharaka nouns, each coded for a set of semantic and morphophonological features. We then used the Tolerance Principle (Yang, 2016) to measure the predicted productivity of each feature. Our results indicate that morphophonological features are highly productive in Kîîtharaka. However, of the tested semantic features, relatively few were predicted to be productive, including Human, and some evaluative features (Augmentative, Pejorative, Diminutive). The feature Human is in fact only productive for a specific subset of nouns, indicating a possible interaction between features. We discuss why this might be, and highlight the implications of this approach for Kîîtharaka, and for the study of gender assignment in Bantu more broadly.
Experimental evidence for semantic and morphophonological productivity in Kīītharaka noun classes
Abstract
Grammatical gender and noun class systems categorise nouns into classes, reflected by agreement on dependents words, such as demonstratives, adjectives and numerals (see, eg, Aikhenvald, 2006; Corbett, 1991; Hockett, 1958; Katamba & Stonham, 2006, amongst others). In these systems, nouns that trigger the same agreement patterns are sometimes referred to as sharing agreement class, or gender. Nouns that themselves share morphophonological properties are in the same form or deriflection class (Güldemann & Fiedler, 2019). 1 In some languages, these largely overlap, but in others, they can diverge. In such cases, not all nouns which share some morphophonological feature (eg, a prefix or suffix) will necessarily have the same gender. For example, in French, most nouns that end in–ette trigger feminine agreement on their dependents, but there are some (eg, squelette ‘skeleton’) which trigger masculine agreement. In Bantu languages where gender is, in principle, determined by singular-plural agreement class pairs, most nouns are marked with a nominal prefix. Those which share a prefix are in the same form class, but as in French, not necessarily the same gender. Table 1 below provides a summary description of the noun classification system of the Bantu language Kīītharaka. This table shows, for example, that some nouns with the prefix mū-are in agreement classes 1/2 (gender A), but others with the same mū-prefix (hence, same form class), are in classes 3/4 (gender B). 2In addition, there are exceptional cases when the nominal prefix is not the one typically expected given the class marked by the agreement prefix. For …
Testing speakers’ use of the social meaning potential of variable liaison in spoken French
Abstract
The relation between perception and production in social meaning is often taken to be transparent, with social meaning associations learned from observations of language use. However, recent work has suggested that this relation is often more complex than previously thought. Here, we present new data comparing the social meaning of realized variable liaison in spoken French, couched within the framework of the pragmatic sociology of critique. We recall data from a recent matched guise experiment showing that listeners associate the realization of liaison with meanings like “professionalism”, specifically in social situations where efficacy and expertise are at issue. Basing ourselves on this finding, we use a production task, presenting these same social situations to amateur and professional actors. We find that our participants do not exploit the social meaning potential of variable liaison, producing liaison at …
Enhancing Standard and Dialectal Frisian ASR: Multilingual Fine-tuning and Language Identification for Improved Low-resource Performance
Abstract
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) performance for low-resource languages is still far behind that of higher-resource languages such as English, due to a lack of sufficient labeled data. State-of-the-art methods deploy self-supervised transfer learning where a model pre-trained on large amounts of data is fine-tuned using little labeled data in a target low-resource language. In this paper, we present and examine a method for fine-tuning an SSL-based model in order to improve the performance for Frisian and its regional dialects (Clay Frisian, Wood Frisian, and South Frisian). We show that Frisian ASR performance can be improved by using multilingual (Frisian, Dutch, English and German) fine-tuning data and an auxiliary language identification task. In addition, our findings show that performance on dialectal speech suffers substantially, and, importantly, that this effect is moderated by the elicitation approach …
A cognitive geographic approach to dialectology: Cognitive distance as a predictor for perceptual dialect distance
Abstract
In dialectology, space has historically been treated for the most part as a blank canvason which linguistic (and sometimes social) information is visualised. This treatment of space has been criticised as too one-dimensional and dismissive of findings from different subdisciplines of geography (eg, Britain 2013), but as of yet only a small amount of research has been done in which a broader consideration of space in dialectology is taken. Perceptual dialectology to some degree forms an exception to this, as methods from the field of cultural geography have been adapted for dialect research by perceptual dialectologists, most notably Preston (eg, 1981, 1999). However, while cultural geography concerns itself with the spatial distribution of culture (Anderson et al. 2003) and in the case of perceptual dialectology, language and language attitudes, the ways in which space itself can influence attitudes and behaviour are not its main focus. An analysis of this relationship forms an interesting addition to the analysis of dialect variation. One field that does concern itself with this particular relationship is cognitive (as opposed to the aforementioned cultural) geography, which focuses on the mental representations of space that people have and how these influence their behaviour. This study introduces the cognitive geographic measure of cognitive distances into dialect research and investigates whether these mental representations of space can serve as an explanatory variable in dialectology. Specifically, we do this by investigating whether including cognitive distance, in addition to geographic distance, leads to better predictions of perceptual dialect …
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Speech Lab Groningen, led by prof. dr. Martijn Wieling, is a research group at the University of Groningen (Faculty of Arts).
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m.b.wieling@rug.nl
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