United Nations Regional Information Centre

Prosody – a superpower for effective communication

Languages are more than a means of communication: they define our identity and help us integrate into society. Languages are more than a means of communication: they define our identity and help us ...
PNAS

Three distinct components of pragmatic language use: Social conventions, intonation, and world knowledge–based causal reasoning

Real-life language comprehension frequently requires nonliteral interpretation and inferences about speaker intent. What is the structure of these so-called pragmatic abilities? We applied a ...
Voluntaria

Gesticulating improves comprehension in children with developmental language disorders

Gestures and speech rhythms also aid comprehension in children with language difficulties Researchers are studying whether these communication cues can also help children with autism “The results can ...
PNAS

A universal of speech timing: Intonation units form low-frequency rhythms

Intonation units (IUs) are thought to serve as a fundamental organizing principle in human speech, facilitating essential communicative functions like information pacing and turn-taking. By analyzing ...
Europe PMC

Melodic intonation therapy for non-fluent aphasia after stroke: A clinical pilot study on behavioral and DTI findings.

Music-based melodic intonation therapy (MIT) has shown promise as a treatment for non-fluent aphasia after stroke. This trial compared the efficacy of music-based MIT and speech therapy (ST) in ...
Europe PMC

Managing in Writing: Recommendations from Textual Patterns in Managers’ Email Communication

This study draws from personality psychology and linguistics of written communication to explore the characteristics of self-selected well-written email communications (N=273) solicited from Polish ...