MAJOR versus MINOR

Minor Sounds of Major Importance

Prosody plays a big role in the human speech and is used for expressing emotions and attitudes in addition to the lexical words. This study looks at the possibility to use prosody in expressing attitudes with backchannels, such as /oh/, /m/, /uhu/ etc. In the study, two monosyllabic backchannels, /a/ and /m/, were chosen, created synthetically and manipulated systematically with regards to the ...

Speaking in Minor and Major Keys

The prosodic phenomena discussed in the foregoing chapters were all instances of linguistic prosody. Prosody, however, also involves extra-linguistic characteristics, such as emotion. In this chapter we investigate whether or not differences in emotional speech are characterized by different modalities. In music the difference between sad and cheerful melodies is often indicated as a difference...

When major trials mean minor efficacy.

Major and minor salivary glands tumours.

Malignant salivary gland tumours are rare. The most common tumour site is the parotid. Aetiologic factors are not clear. Nutrition may be a risk factor, as well as irradiation or an histologically benign tumour occurred at a young age. Painless swelling of a salivary gland should always be considered as suspicious, especially if no sign of inflammation is present. Signs and symptoms related to ...

Minor and major health: a Nietzschean reading.

This paper aims to discuss the concept of health, understood as multiple and plural. We use Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical thought as an analytical tool, allowing us to reach a typology involving minor and major health. While the first is normative and sustained by an ideal of healing, the second is an expanding strength, a condition constantly achieved. If minor health follows a preset li...