The smallest building blocks of languages, if we set sign languages apart, are sounds. In this chapter, you are going to discover which processes are necessary to produce speech sounds. We are going to learn about the speech organs and how they function. The chapter focuses on the anatomy of the larynx and the oral cavity. This knowledge about our anatomy is helpful when trying to understand how consonants and vowels are produced.

This chapter addresses pronunciation in second language (L2) learning, which ranges from phoneme-level pronunciation to conversation training. First, the definition of phonemes and their relationship with articulation are explained. Vowels and consonants are classified according to different dimensions. The concept of distinctive features is also described. These provide a basis to model and identify phoneme-level pronunciation errors. Suprasegmental features such as stress and rhythm are also addressed. Next, speech analysis methods are described. While formant analysis is effective for diagnosing the pronunciation of vowels, articulatory attribute detection is explored for comprehensive analysis of all phonemes. The chapter then introduces automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to detect pronunciation errors. Settings of minimal pairs of words, prompted text, and free input can be designed. ASR models are also used for pronunciation grading. The goodness of pronunciation (GOP) score is computed for each phoneme and aggregated over all phonemes in the utterance. Nonnative speech modeling is crucial for effective L2 pronunciation learning.

Heidegger says very little about language in Being and Time, but he says quite a lot about “discourse” (Rede). What is discourse, according to Heidegger, and what is its relation to language? It is, he says, the “foundation” of language, so they cannot be identical. He also says that the “spoken expression” of discourse is language, but can discourse also be unspoken, or even nonlingustic? Remaining silent and the call of conscience, he also says, are kinds of discourse. In this chapter, I argue that what Heidegger means by “discourse” is communicative expression in a broad sense, which includes but is not limited to language. Expression and communication are, however, what discourse and language have in common. I show that competing accounts in the secondary literature either understate or overstate those features, which are essential to both linguistic and nonlinguistic cases of discourse

Chapter 2 explains the phonetic and phonological background of sibilant analysis.It first establishes a definition of the phoneme and then continues to describe the sounds involved based on an articulatory point of view. These are then connected to acoustic theories of speech production that illustrate how prototypical articulatory gestures create the resulting sound waves that are perceived as phonemes. It specifically explains how source filter theory and turbulence are important to the production of sibilants. It then illustrates how the acoustic output created can be quantified and classified based on characteristics such as spectral mean, skewness, and kurtosis of the speech signal.

The chapter then moves on to suprasegmental theories and fundamentals of /str/-retraction research. It explains how exemplar models of the mental lexicon are suitable to describe the sound change at hand. It then briefly illustrates the uniqueness of triple-consonant clusters in English. As important processes in this sound change, coarticulation and assimilation are then differentiated.

The coda is essentially a supplementation of, rather than a conclusion to, what has gone before. It begins by considering the space of the page as a textual environment, and the ways in which its meanings are diversified by tabular layout. The argument moves on to the challenges of multi-perspectivalism and agglomerative looking as they weave a depth in our existential duration and ecological relating. Translation also triggers blind fields beyond the frame of the text by the use of collage and the cultivation of Erlebnis. The coda then addresses the nature of translational subjecthood, and ends with propositions about the real ecological reach of translation which is an integral part of its literariness.

After revisiting Bohm’s implicate and expliocate orders, the chapter looks into the kinship between the implicate order and both Bergsonian duration and the continuity of the reading consciousness. Articulation and form also particpate intimately in ongoing duration. But what is the nature of the time of reading and how do we apprehend it? The chapter goes on to examine and criticize Bergson’s cinematographic account of language perceived as movement. Bergsonian duration and the dynamic of translation are compared with Impressionist painting. The chapter then moves on to consider the part played by voice and rhythm in the realization of duration and of intuitional relationships with text. It finally sets itself the task of identifying a rhythm pecular to translational activity itself. The chapter includes, as illustrations, translations from Eluard, Laforgue and Leconte de Lisle.

Chapter 2 develops the idea that language operates as an inner tool, enhancing cognition. The first part focuses on inner speech, and the second on language as a way to access meaning. I describe inner speech and outline the history of the concept focusing on the traditions started by Vygotsky and Baddeley. I describe the main methods to investigate it, from questionnaires to experiments, the debate on whether inner speech involves articulation, and its functions for memory and metacognition. I then illustrate inner speech’s neural bases and evidence that different kinds of inner speech exist. In the second part, I discuss how embodied/grounded, distributional, and hybrid views intend meaning. Language might work as a shortcut to access meaning and enhance our cognition, providing an efficient way to access simulations, respond to contextual challenges, and, more generally, a new way of being in the world.

The word consonant means 'with a sonant' or vowel. Consonants are one of two main types of speech sounds, the other being vowels. In the production of consonants, the vocal tract is blocked, the vocal tract is seriously constricted, or the airflow is diverted through the nasal passage. The term articulation is used for the movements and adjustments required to produce an individual speech sound. Consonants are classified by (1) whether the vocal folds are vibrating, (2) where in the vocal tract articulation takes place, and (3) the manner of articulation (the type of articulation). Manners of articulation include plosives, nasals, fricatives, and approximants, the latter of which can be broken down into laterals and glides. Other manners of articulation include trills. Consonants may be produced with a secondary articulation in addition to the primary articulation.

In the previous chapter, I briefly illustrated the changes in citizenship and development models institutionalised by Latin American governments from the early twentieth century up to the present day. These transformations have shaped the very identities of social actors, and their modes of interaction with the state and between themselves. How have patterns of collective self-identification changed over time and how have scholars made sense of these processes? In this chapter, I focus on changes in collective identities through a critical assessment of the narratives used to describe the alternations between class and ethnicity as referents for social organisation. Indeed, as Yashar (2005) has famously demonstrated in the Latin American context, different kinds of citizenship regimes diffuse and then activate different identity cleavages. A review of the abundant literature on rural movements in Latin America clearly shows how scholarly production has been greatly influenced by intellectual fashions and political ideologies, often in a cyclical way. As a result, the same aspects of reality have been glorified in certain periods and neglected in others, and most narratives of social change have oscillated between either dichotomous or homogenising interpretations of collective identities. Here, I consciously try to remedy this imbalance as I analyse the political roles, forms of organisation and social relevance of both indigenous and peasant movements since the 1950s.

This chapter reviews collaborative argumentation, where a community of learners works together to advance the collective state of knowledge through debate, engagement, and dialogue. Engagement in collaborative argumentation can help students learn to think critically and independently about important issues and contested values. Students must externalize their ideas and metacognitively reflect on their developing understandings. This chapter summarizes the history of argumentation theory; how arguing can contribute to learning through making knowledge explicit, conceptual change, collaboration, and reasoning skills; how argumentation skill develops in childhood; and how argumentation varies in different cultural and social contexts. The chapter concludes by describing a variety of tools that scaffold effective argumentation, including through computer-mediated communication forums and argumentation maps.

Vowels are traditionally viewed as one of the two major classes of speech sound. Vowels lack contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, and they are normally voiced. Importantly, the speaker receives little proprioceptive feedback from their speech organs, meaning that it is not fully appropriate to define a vowel in terms of place and manner of articulation. Instead, tongue height and advancement are used to describe vowel quality, and auditory features play a more important role in description, e.g. with reference to the Cardinal Vowels system. Vowel categories form a continuum, and this has repercussions in terms of articulatory, auditory and acoustic overlap between contrastive categories and the special role that vowel gradience plays in dialect variation and language change. Other features of vowels stem from the general openness of vocalic articulations. For example, in principle, lip rounding can be combined with any tongue position, and nasality too demonstrates specific patterns that have both phonetic and phonological dimensions. Vowel quantity, or duration, is also used in differing ways by different languages, both phonemically and allophonically.

Chapter 2 uses a variety of investigative activities to guide readers through an exploration of the sounds and articulations of the world’s languages and the linguistic rules that govern their appearances. It begins with an overview of the acoustic characteristics of speech sounds, which are then employed in a discussion of the articulation apparatus. Throughout, students are directed to engage in their own investigations with the material via the Discover Activities. Various data from a variety of languages are provided to illustrate different phonological rules, and the techniques linguists use to discover them through analysis. These insights are then transferred to a discussion of transformations and processes that complicate phonological systems.