Graphone model interpolation and Arabic pronunciation generation

This paper extends n-gram graphone model pronunciation generation to use a mixture of such models. This technique is useful when pronunciation data is for a specific variant (or set of variants) of a language, such as for a dialect, and only a small amount of pronunciation dictionary training data for that specific variant is available. The performance of the interpolated n-gram graphone model is evaluated on Arabic phonetic pronunciation generation for words that can't be handled by the Buckwalter Morphological Analyser. The pronunciations produced are also used to train an Arabic broadcast audio speech recognition system. In both cases the interpolated graphone model leads to improved performance. Copyright © 2011 ISCA.

Tandem system adaptation using multiple linear feature transforms

Adaptation to speaker and environment changes is an essential part of current automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. In recent years the use of multi-layer percpetrons (MLPs) has become increasingly common in ASR systems. A standard approach to handling speaker differences when using MLPs is to apply a global speaker-specific constrained MLLR (CMLLR) transform to the features prior to training or using the MLP. This paper considers the situation when there are both speaker and channel, communication link, differences in the data. A more powerful transform, front-end CMLLR (FE-CMLLR), is applied to the inputs to the MLP to represent the channel differences. Though global, these FE-CMLLR transforms vary from time-instance to time-instance. Experiments on a channel distorted dialect Arabic conversational speech recognition task indicates the usefulness of adapting MLP features using both CMLLR and FE-CMLLR transforms. © 2013 IEEE.

RABBIT: A Compiler for SCHEME

We have developed a compiler for the lexically-scoped dialect of LISP known as SCHEME. The compiler knows relatively little about specific data manipulation primitives such as arithmetic operators, but concentrates on general issues of environment and control. Rather than having specialized knowledge about a large variety of control and environment constructs, the compiler handles only a small basis set which reflects the semantics of lambda-calculus. All of the traditional imperative constructs, such as sequencing, assignment, looping, GOTO, as well as many standard LISP constructs such as AND, OR, and COND, are expressed in macros in terms of the applicative basis set. A small number of optimization techniques, coupled with the treatment of function calls as GOTO statements, serve to produce code as good as that produced by more traditional compilers. The macro approach enables speedy implementation of new constructs as desired without sacrificing efficiency in the generated code. A fair amount of analysis is devoted to determining whether environments may be stack-allocated or must be heap-allocated. Heap-allocated environments are necessary in general because SCHEME (unlike Algol 60 and Algol 68, for example) allows procedures with free lexically scoped variables to be returned as the values of other procedures; the Algol stack-allocation environment strategy does not suffice. The methods used here indicate that a heap-allocating generalization of the "display" technique leads to an efficient implementation of such "upward funargs". Moreover, compile-time optimization and analysis can eliminate many "funargs" entirely, and so far fewer environment structures need be allocated at run time than might be expected. A subset of SCHEME (rather than triples, for example) serves as the representation intermediate between the optimized SCHEME code and the final output code; code is expressed in this subset in the so-called continuation-passing style. As a subset of SCHEME, it enjoys the same theoretical properties; one could even apply the same optimizer used on the input code to the intermediate code. However, the subset is so chosen that all temporary quantities are made manifest as variables, and no control stack is needed to evaluate it. As a result, this apparently applicative representation admits an imperative interpretation which permits easy transcription to final imperative machine code. These qualities suggest that an applicative language like SCHEME is a better candidate for an UNCOL than the more imperative candidates proposed to date.

Staging Swissness : Inter-and Intracultural Theatre Translation

Wilkinson, Jane, 'Staging Swissness: Inter- and Intracultural Theatre Translation', Language and Intercultural Communication (2005) 5(1) pp.72-85 RAE2008

Goizuetako hizkera: adinduen eta L.H.-ko 3. zikloko ikasleen arteko desberdintasunak

[EUS] Bizitza ohiturak aldatzen ari direla begi bistakoa da, eta horrek hizkuntza baten garapenean eragina izaten du. Proiektu honen bitartez, Goizuetako euskalkiak azken berrogeita hamar urte hauetan, gutxi gorabehera, izan duen garapena frogatzen saiatuko naiz. Horretarako, ikerketa bat egin dut gazte eta adinduen artean, euskalkiaren ezaugarrietan eman diren aldakuntzak zeintzuk izan diren ikusteko. Ikerketa honekin hizkuntzaren “transmisioa” nolakoa izan den ikusi ahalko da. Lan honen bidez, euskalkiak eman duen beherakada, hein batean, oraingo biztanleriak kanpo harreman gehiago dituelako eta bizi ohitura berriak hartzen ari delako eman dela ikusten da. Etorkizuneko irakasle bezala, proiektu honen bidez eskualde bakoitzeko hizkuntza garapenaren jakitun izatea ezinbestekoa dela ikusten da.

Sonic Geography, Place and Race in the Formation of Local Identity: Liverpool and Scousers

The concept of identity has attracted significant academic attention. This article unpacks what constitutes the Scouse identity, how it is constructed and its different dimensions, with particular reference to place, phonology and race. Its novelty lies in developing the underused concept of “sonic geography” to examine the extent to which sound, for example a distinctive accent and/or dialect, affects the construction of local identity. Empirically this is conducted through a detailed analysis of the Scouse, or Liverpudlian, identity. The article also deploys the concept of “sonic exclusion” to examine the role a distinguishing vernacular plays in shaping local identity and the extent to which it determines “who is in” and “who is out” as a Scouser. The conclusion is that an effective understanding of a Scouser is not only spatial – someone born in Liverpool – because the sonoric landscape of spoken Scouse, and thereby Scouse identity, extends beyond the contemporary political and geographic boundaries of the City of Liverpool.

Valved Dataflow For FPGA Memory Hierarchy Synthesis

For modern FPGA, implementation of memory intensive processing applications such as high end image and video processing systems necessitates manual design of complex multilevel memory hierarchies incorporating off-chip DDR and onchip BRAM and LUT RAM. In fact, automated synthesis of multi-level memory hierarchies is an open problem facing high level synthesis technologies for FPGA devices. In this paper we describe the first automated solution to this problem.
By exploiting a novel dataflow application modelling dialect, known as Valved Dataflow, we show for the first time how, not only can such architectures be automatically derived, but also that the resulting implementations support real-time processing for current image processing application standards such as H.264. We demonstrate the viability of this approach by reporting the performance and cost of hierarchies automatically generated for Motion Estimation, Matrix Multiplication and Sobel Edge Detection applications on Virtex-5 FPGA.

Automatic FPGA Synthesis of Memory Intensive C-based Kernels

Realising high performance image and signal processing
applications on modern FPGA presents a challenging implementation problem due to the large data frames streaming through these systems. Specifically, to meet the high bandwidth and data storage demands of these applications, complex hierarchical memory architectures must be manually specified
at the Register Transfer Level (RTL). Automated approaches which convert high-level operation descriptions, for instance in the form of C programs, to an FPGA architecture, are unable to automatically realise such architectures. This paper
presents a solution to this problem. It presents a compiler to automatically derive such memory architectures from a C program. By transforming the input C program to a unique dataflow modelling dialect, known as Valved Dataflow (VDF), a mapping and synthesis approach developed for this dialect can
be exploited to automatically create high performance image and video processing architectures. Memory intensive C kernels for Motion Estimation (CIF Frames at 30 fps), Matrix Multiplication (128x128 @ 500 iter/sec) and Sobel Edge Detection (720p @ 30 fps), which are unrealisable by current state-of-the-art C-based synthesis tools, are automatically derived from a C description of the algorithm.

From an American Plantation to Interwar Poland: How Uncle Remus Became Bam-Bo the Negro

The article opens with the introduction of Joel Chandler Harris and his literary output. As one of “local colourists,” Harris depicted American plantation life in 19th-century Georgia and included many cultural as well as folk elements in his works. The following analysis of his stories about Uncle Remus focuses on (1) the levels of narration; (2) the linguistic complexity of the text (the stories abound in slang and dialectal expressions); (3) the form; and (4) the folklore value. These four aspects guide the discussion of the only Polish translation of the Uncle Remus stories. Prepared by Wladyslawa Wielinska in 1929, it was addressed to children. Therefore, the article aims to determine the profile of the translation as a children’s book, to consider it in relation to the skopos of the source text and to establish the extent to which it preserved the peculiar character of the Uncle Remus stories.

A New Irish? Problems of communication in modern Irish media and new speakers.

While the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas of Ireland are geographically isolated from each other and relatively small in area, it is expected that the number of second language Irish speakers throughout the country should ensure the future of the language. Nevertheless, while the official standard grammar has been established for many decades, there is still a tendency in the spoken language to give precedence to regional dialectal variants in schools and the broadcast media which often raises barriers between native speakers themselves and between learners and native speakers.
All pupils in school in the Republic and many in Northern Ireland learn Irish and there has been a great increase in the number of pupils attending immersion Irish language Gaelscoileanna. But concern has been expressed about the phonetic and structural accuracy achieved in schools, all of which contributes to communication breakdown.
This paper discusses how a greater awareness of the link between phoneme and grapheme in Irish and the proposals for the Lárchanúint (Central Dialect) in the 1980s and current discussions on Caighdeán Leathan agus Caighdeán Cúng (Broad and Narrow Standard) would mitigate these concerns.

Dalla questione della lingua all’aggressione linguistica: le idee sulla lingua nei giornali italiani dell’ultimo decennio

Riassunto: L’articolo è suddiviso in tre parti. Nella prima, dall’esame di brani dalla Repubblica e dal Corriere della sera si osserva in che modo i giornali trattano questioni linguistiche. Nella seconda, si esemplifica il fenomeno della discriminazione mediante l’analisi di alcuni etnonimi (siciliano, calabrese, milanese, torinese, ecc.). Nella terza parte, si analizza un interessante strumento lessicografico del settimanale L’Espresso: Slangopedia, sui gerghi giovanili. A tenere insieme questi tre temi è il rapporto tra media e ideologia linguistica, nell’intento di stimolare la ricerca futura a investigare sull’identità linguistica degli italiani, attraverso la stampa periodica, come riflesso dell’identità culturale. Se ne ricava che la società italiana non sembra più in grado di riflettere criticamente sulla propria lingua: in molti articoli, infatti, spicca il tono aggressivo e forse discriminatorio nei confronti di chi si allontana da uno standard spesso male interpretato.

Gullah

The bulletin is an examination of the Gullah dialect, including historical background and pronunciation aids.

Implantation des futures sur un système distribué par passage de messages

Ce mémoire présente une implantation de la création paresseuse de tâches desti- née à des systèmes multiprocesseurs à mémoire distribuée. Elle offre un sous-ensemble des fonctionnalités du Message-Passing Interface et permet de paralléliser certains problèmes qui se partitionnent difficilement de manière statique grâce à un système de partitionnement dynamique et de balancement de charge. Pour ce faire, il se base sur le langage Multilisp, un dialecte de Scheme orienté vers le traitement parallèle, et implante sur ce dernier une interface semblable à MPI permettant le calcul distribué multipro- cessus. Ce système offre un langage beaucoup plus riche et expressif que le C et réduit considérablement le travail nécessaire au programmeur pour pouvoir développer des programmes équivalents à ceux en MPI. Enfin, le partitionnement dynamique permet de concevoir des programmes qui seraient très complexes à réaliser sur MPI. Des tests ont été effectués sur un système local à 16 processeurs et une grappe à 16 processeurs et il offre de bonnes accélérations en comparaison à des programmes séquentiels équiva- lents ainsi que des performances acceptables par rapport à MPI. Ce mémoire démontre que l’usage des futures comme technique de partitionnement dynamique est faisable sur des multiprocesseurs à mémoire distribuée.

La morphologie du pluriel nominal du persan d’après la théorie Whole Word Morphology

Ce mémoire présente une étude de la morphologie de ce qui est généralement appelé le pluriel nominal du persan (parler de Téhéran) dans le cadre d’une théorie de la morphologie basée sur le mot : Whole Word Morphology, développée par Ford et Singh (1991). Ce modèle lexicaliste adopte une position plus forte que les modèles proposés par Aronoff (1976) et Anderson (1992) en n’admettant aucune opération morphologique sur des unités plus petites que le mot. Selon cette théorie, une description morphologique consiste en l’énumération des Stratégies de Formation de Mots (SFM), licencées chacunes par au moins deux paires de mots ayant la même covariation formelle et sémantique. Tous les SFM suit le même schéma. Nous avons répertorié 49 SFM regroupant les pluriels et les collectifs. Nous constatons qu’il est difficile de saisir le pluriel nominal du persan en tant que catégorie syntaxique et que les différentes « marques du pluriel » présentées dans la littérature ne constituent pas un ensemble homogène : elles partagent toutes un sens de pluralité qui cependant varie d’une interprétation référentielle à une interprétation collective non-référentielle. Cette étude vise la déscription de la compétence morphologique, ce qui ne dépend d’aucune considération extralinguistique. Nous argumentons notamment contre la dichotomie arabe/persan généralement admise dans la littérature. Nous avons également fourni des explications quant à la production des pluriels doubles et avons discuté de la variation supposée du fait d’un choix multiple de « marques du pluriel ».

Loquit, ridet, et vincit : l’intégration du toscan dans la commedeja pe ‘mmuseca et sa mise en musique : une forme de résistance contre la domination étrangère

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).