|
|
The just noticeable difference for English melodic prominence elicited on Czech listeners
Brabcová, Kateřina ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Tichý, Ondřej (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to ascertain whether and how the modification of pitch in the acoustic signal influences what we hear, i.e. whether we perceive a difference between the original, unmodified stimulus and the one with a modified melodic contour. The theoretical part of the thesis explains terms such as: the fundamental frequency and its contour, the just noticeable difference, intonation and the structure of intonational phrases, and the difference between English and Czech intonational structure. The practical part uses recordings of Standard British English. The contour of the fundamental frequency (F0) is changed at different places of the intonation phrase (the nuclear syllable, stressed and unstressed syllables of the head) and the pitch is either lowered or raised by 1.5 semitones with respect to the original production. The main goal is (1) to determine the influence of the melodic prominence of a syllable on the pitch manipulation detection (judged by 20 listeners of Czech origin, all students of English) and (2) to find out which other factors (such as the already mentioned direction of the change) might be significant. The results are analysed and their statistical significance is evaluated.
|
|
|
Perception of Inmates by Prison Officers
Imríšková, Romana ; Podaná, Zuzana (advisor) ; Buriánek, Jiří (referee)
Literature about prisons is dealing with issues concerning prison officers very rarely, since attention is usually paid to inmates. Therefore, this work is addressing prison officers and their perception of inmates. By means of semi-standardized interviews, key sources and kinds of information were discovered. These aspects are crucial for prison officers to develop their attitude about inmates with focus on category of guilt. Prison officer's approach and inmate's approach arose as dynamic categories changing according to the certain circumstances, which are described in individual subchapters in more detail, and also according to time. Differences were noticed not only among prisons, but also among positions of uniformed staff (escorts, wardens and guards). Since this issue is overlooked, but essential for gaining awareness, understanding and improving situation in prisons, it is crucial to do more researches on it.
|
|
|
Visual experince as example and pattern in relation to the expansion and influence into human life
Nohejl, Jiří ; Wittlich, Filip (referee)
The main theme of this dissertation is to define an image as a visual experience. The human interaction is described by the author himself as a perception of the image, which serves as an information unit that could be presented as a possibility, example and pattern for the individual. There is an emphasis on the process of perception itself and on the way of interaction of an individual emphasizing the context of social learning and imitation in this text. The analysis of the principles of this interaction leading into introduction of the partial interactive models covering these processes is formed by the essential plane. The structure of the thesis is divided into ten main chapters in which the author tries to introduce a category of perception, a definition of the image and imitation as a tool of cultural transmission, presentation of the units of this transmission, the process of the interaction itself and analogous example of the fundamental role that a person in this interaction holds. There are also three analogies of these roles, which refer to the anthropological universal interaction describing the man as a gatherer and hunter. Their main purpose is to illustrate the form of a human experience better. Finally, there are reflections on the topic above. The possibilities and results, which...
|
|
| |
|
|
Imitational Capacity of Philologically Oriented Subjects in the Domain of Speech Rhythm
Černá, Martina ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Palková, Zdena (referee)
The importance of rhythm for speech communication was recognised by ancient orators. Since the forties of the last century, this phenomenon has become more systematic subject of interest of Speech Sciences and there has been a rapid development in this research area in the last decade. Throughout the years concerned, however, this concept was somewhat hazy due to the context, in which it was used in some studies. This master thesis begins with a selective overview of approaches to given issue in the field of phonetic research, trying to identify their critical moments, noticing used methodology and applicability of outputs in particular. Special attention is paid to the rhythmic aspects of Czech and issues of their description. We also bring a message of selected studies, which have already been made in this respect. The aim of this work lies in the experimental study focused on assessment of philologically oriented students' ability to imitate speech rhythm according to given pattern in following modes - word by word, on the monotone syllable and by tapping. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the imitation accuracy depends on the type of repetition - the overall data show significant differences in terms of the lowest, higher and the highest deviations from the model, respectively. To a...
|
|
|
Local Government's Approach to D3 Highway Construction: Case Study of City of Tábor
Vrtiška, Miroslav ; Marada, Miroslav (advisor) ; Mikula, Karel (referee)
Local government's approach to D3 highway construction: case study of city of Tábor Abstract This thesis analyzes attitudes by political representatives from local administration of two biggest cities in southern Bohemia towards D3 highway. The main part of analysis focuses on district city of Tábor and partially on regional metropolis of České Budějovice. D3 Highway is supposed to become not only the important intrastate corridor but also the new connection between Czechia and Austria. Projected impacts of highway are compared with literature while the thesis concentrates on perception assessment of D3 highway by political representatives from selected city of Tábor. The main evaluation criterion is the perception of D3 highway as one of the basic requirement for general development of the region. Main research tool of analysis is half-structured interview with representatives of selected cities. Key words: D3 highway, Tábor, České Budějovice, perception, development, interview
|
|
|
Perceptual evaluation of rhythmic features in Czech English
Hanzlíková, Dagmar ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Klégr, Aleš (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of changes in speech rhythm on the perception of personality traits which are detectable in speech. The theoretical part is concerned with the description of some important theories in the field of psychology of personality, then with summarizing research done in the effects of foreign-accented speech on perception, and finally with presenting the issue of speech rhythm with a focus on representative studies of speech rhythm and its effect on speech perception. In an independently designed experiment, the changes in speech rhythm were created by manipulating the durational patterns and pitch contours. Subsequently a perceptual test was prepared. Twenty subjects were asked to evaluate individual speech samples and rate to what extent they would characterize the speaker by the given personality trait. The results from the perceptual tests were analyzed from multiple points of view: the effects of the manipulations on the perception in general, and then in relation to the nationality of the speaker (native vs. non-native speaker), to the personality trait in question, and in relation to the individual speakers and items. The results showed some tendencies for example in perception of honesty in relation to durational patterns, or in perception of...
|
|
| |
|
|
Music as an Inspiration in Art Education
Salamonová, Kristýna ; Fulková, Marie (advisor) ; Bláha, Jaroslav (referee)
This thesis is focused on an interconnection of two disciplines within the frame of art lessons given at primary school. It investigates a musical and creative context (contemporary and historical) and its interaction and influence on each other. It concentrates on changes of musical and art comprehension from a time point of view, when old opinions and perceptions penetrate from the past to the present. The scope of this thesis is based on an extensive study of classical theories data and analyses of the qualitative research. Through all the document references and research data are mentioned to underline mutual relations and coherency between individual theoretical texts. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part deals with theoretical research and possible interconnection of musical and art disciplines and it also deals with presentation of functions and changes of these disciplines. It elaborates a relative correlation of musical and art language and it also outlines their development and tendencies, including a description of outstanding artists and an explanation of important terms related to their works. In the second part the process of the research itself is described and an ambience of a primary school, where the research was done, is introduced. There is depicted a plan,...
|
|
|
Word-level pronunciation reduction in spotaneous speech and identification of speech units
Tomanová, Eliška ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
The thesis deals with the issue of word-level pronunciation reductions and with the identification of reduced word forms. The first part of the thesis focuses on the degree of the phonetic features' stability and presents an analysis of selected words from dialogues with a high degree of spontaneity. The results of this research confirm that the most stable features of speech are the fricativness of sibilants and / /ř , voice, the formant structure of vowels and the nasality of the nasal consonant. The closure of the explosives and the quality of vowels prove, on the other hand, to be relatively unstable features. The second part of the thesis focuses on perceptual tests, which are used to verify the identifiability of the selected words in relation to the degree of reduction and the type and complexity of the context. Furthemore, the thesis tries to determine the phonetic features, which are under given conditions relevant for the appropriate identification of words. The research proved, that the most often noted phonetic features correspond to the above mentioned features with high stability. Moreover, it was also confirmed, that the recognizability of words depends on the degree of their reduction and the type of the context: strongly reduced words without any context tend to be very difficult...
|
guest ::
