Dept. for Speech, Music and Hearing
Quarterly Progress and
Status Report
Bliss symbol-to-speech
conversion: ”Bliss-talk
Hunnicutt, S.
journal:
volume:
number:
year:
pages:
STL-QPSR
25
1
1984
058-077
http://www.speech.kth.se/qpsr
11. SPEECH SYNTHESIS
A. BLJSS SYMKlL-TD-SPEECH CCEWESI(=N: "BLISSTW'
Sheri Hunnicutt
Al=s tract
"Blisstalk" is an electronic communication board on which Bliss
symbols are selected by a magnet or by scanning, and their corresponding
linguistic expressions are spoken by a hilt-in speech synthesizer (or
written as text) in the chosen language.
Linguistic knowledge has been applied in a variety of ways in the
realization of this device. A special phrase structure grammar has been
written which marks clauses and phrases, referring to parts-ofspeech
information in a lexicon containing words corresponding to Bliss symbols. Phrase order is then inspected to determine sentence type. The
speechsynthesizer incorporates rules for pronunciation and prosody.
Bliss-to-speech and Bliss-t-text programs have been developed for Swedish, English and French.
This paper discusses the development of Blisstalk, its structure
and its modes of operation. The choice of natural language grammar is
motivated and differences between this grammar and "Bliss grammar"
explained and exemplified. An Appendix is included which lists possible verb phrase types in English and indicates their availability to
Blisstalk users.
Introduction
Bliss symbols were developed by the Austrian, Karl Blitz, in the
1940's. He was deeply impressed by difficulties in communication among
people who spoke different languages, or even the same language with
different intentions. While in China, Blitz
now calling himself
Charles Bliss - was inspired by the Chinese ideographs to develop his
own set of characters. He hoped they could be used as the basis of a
system of world-wide commonality of expression and understanding ( M c W
nald, 1980). This system was set forth in his nearly 1,000-page work,
Semantography (Bliss, 1965).
In 1971, a special education teacher at the Ontario Crippled Children's Centre found a description of Semantography, and obtained a copy
for a symbol mmunication project which had been instituted for nonvocal pre-reading children. The project staff, with consultation from
Charles Bliss, developed vocabularies and procedures for use of the
symbols which are now called Blissymbols. An institute for the purpose
of dwelaping the Bliss system grew out of this work, being established
in 1975. bated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it is called the Blissymbolics Communication Institute.
--
The use of Blissymbols in Sweden began in 1976 at two regional
and one in Linkijping. In 1977,
habilitation centers, one in Gothenthe Swedish Blissymbolics Resource Center was formed. Interest in
Blissymbolics grew rapidly in all of Scandinavia, and the formation of
the Nordic Bliss Communication Committee came about a year later, in
1978. According to the Swedish Institute for the Handicapped, there are
about 800 children in Sweden who use Blissymbolics in some form; with
many of them, it is their primary means of communication.
; ,
The groups concerned with speech synthesis and vocal aids for
handicapped at the Roydl Institute of Technology in Stockblm have, for
some years, been interested in implementing a "talking Bliss system."
This interest has been encouraged by the Blissymbolics Communication
Institute and others concerned withvoice output communication aids,
V O W (McNaughton, 1980). This system was realized for Swedish in early
1981, and has since been developed for English and French (Carlson,
Granstrom and l3unnicutt, 1982a). Bliss users interact with a 500-symbol
Bliss board which includes a (multi-language) text-to-speech system developed by our speech synthesis group (Carlson, Granstr6m and Hdcutt,
1982b). This system presently contains a formant speech synthesizer
implemented on a programmed signal processing chip and a powerful micomputer. The Bliss-to-speech program transforms the symbol string
indicated by the Bliss user to the corresponding well-formed sentence.
Bliss-to-text programs have been developed, as well, which perform a
similar transformation to well-formed written sentences. The user may
intermix Bliss symbols and spelled words to produce the spoken or written message.
s
?;
1
Linguistic knowledge has been applied in a variety of ways in the
realization of this device. An algorithm for producing well-formed
sentences employs a lexicon for pronunciation, part-of-speech and special feature information, a grammar to mark clauses and phrases, and
morphological rules to produce correct inflectional endings. Words
which are spelled using the board's alphabet squares are pronounced by
the speech synthesizer according to grapheme-to-phoneme rules or an
accompanying "exceptions" lexicon in the chosen language. A set of
phonetic rules controls the language-dependent sound inventory, adjusting the realization of phonemes in quality, duration and pitch according
to the linguistic context. (See Fig. 1.)
'*
w ii ! W
Y
b
B
*
1
$L;
SPEECH
Fig. 1. The carrplete text-to-speecfr system w i t h Bliss rules
Structure of Blisstalk
- Chart
and Uxicon
C u t p s i t i o n of the B l i s s Board
The B l i s s board, c a l l e d " B l i s s t a l k " (see Fig. 2), contains 504
squares, most of which a r e l e x i c a l i t e m s , arranged according t o t h e i r
part of speech. This arrangement corresponds to the standard Swedish
B l i s s chart. I t is possible to reprogram the board t o include any of the
1400 standard symbols (only 500 f o r French) by making s u b s t i t u t i o n s .
One can a l s o reprogram a square w i t h a word, such a s a name, which i s
not included i n the set of 1400 standard symbols. The standard Swedish
c h a r t contains approximately 200 nouns, 80 verbs, 70 a d j e c t i v e s and
adverts, 50 function words, 30 commonly used referents of persons (e.g.,
pronouns, "boy, " " f r i e n d , " " v i s i t o r " ) , and 10 common expressions (e.g.,
l1hello, "yes1')
Another group of symbols has a s y n t a c t i c function. A u s e r may
indicate which tense a verb is to be realized in, and may indicate that
-,
--.,
., a noun is t o be realized i n the plural. ,
'.f
f^
-. "
. '
.
h
Fig. 2.
+
.-*
"Blisstalk". Nouns and pronouns may also be marked p s s e s s i v e .
I f it is desired t o mark the part of speech of a mrd which is
spelled using the board's alphabet squares, t h i s can be acccanplished by choosing a part-of-speech symbol a f t e r the mrd.
These symbols a r e included in the 1400 (international) standard symbols, but do not appear on the standard W i s h chart.
I t is possible t o reprogram the board so that any square corresponding t o a lexical entry (one of the 1400 standard symbols) can be
placed i n any space reserved for lexical entries. One may also designate either 4 or 16 squares t o have the same value so that larger (and
fewer) symbols may be used for beginners. This design feature allows a
great deal of flexibility i n specifying the format of the board. Communication between the Bliss board and other parts of the text-tu-speech
system is accomplished via BLISSCII codes. It is possible to connect to
any type of input or output device utilizing this code.
Loudness may be controlled by knob or command sequence, as may the
speed of the speech. The speed of contact of the magnet may also be
regulated, using a knob.
.<
.
'
There are three different "grammars" which are associated w i t h the
use of Blissymbols. me is the so-called telegraphic style. The other
two are more proper grammars, one being B l i s s syntax and the m r being
natural spoken language syntax.
I
*
J
'Y*.
+ +
2 ;
i
.
The telegraphic style
. , ,
r
The telegraphic style i s employed by many Bliss users. It i s the
easiest, shortest style of Bliss communication, uinittirrg function words
and paying less attention t o word order. It is often sufficient i n
m e r s a t i o n between the Bliss user and well-known persons, and allow a
conversatim to progress much more rapidly for users who experience a
motor handicap. This style can be duplicated i n B l i s s t a l k by setthe board i n word mode. In this mode, syntactic analysis, and therefore, word inflections are omitted.
b
Bliss and natural spoken language syntax
L
I..
-
C.
.C
-
"1
. .-
There are other Bliss users, krowever, who strive for grammatical
perfection i n their linguistic expression, either via Bliss syntax or
natural languae syntax. Bliss syntax, as described by its inventor,
Charles Bliss, was meant to be simple. His symbol system was intended
for use (mainly by adults) i n situations i n which there was no common
natural language. His advice was t o choose short effective symbol
strings which gave the content of the message.
The main features of B l i s s syntax are the following:
1) The order of a message is Subject-Verbobject.
This ordering usually follows common natural language ordering for
declarative sentences i n Swedish, English and French, but not a1ways.
For example, very common Swedish declaratives beginning w i t h an adverb
or a definite pronoun cannot be expressed this way.
.'3
IC
1g&rfick jag e t t brw.
D e t kan jag inte g6ra.
~'*--i
*
e-l
:
r.,
And common French declaratives w i t h a pronoun as an object cannot be
expressed as Subject-Verbobject.
Je l e suppose.
r.
,... c , w
".
>.
There are, of course, exceptions to this ordering i n Ehglish also, such
as topicalized sentences (The m i l k I remembered, but the bread I forgot.), ht these are not especially common declaratives.
'
2)
-
The negative element i s placed before the verb.
"*-Ix.
.
.,
.It: -,-
I n this case, a l l three natural languages differ t o some extent. I n
Swedish declaratives , the negative element "intell is placed after the
f i r s t verb form i n a main clause, and follows the Bliss syntax only i n
dependent clauses
.
', . ++ L
:
;%
-".
.
Main clause:
i
I
.
.
,.
-.
,,
",i'Hankommer
J3an ska
.--&
n!i
inte.
--
. :
.
*
,
. ".. .
,
I
..
.
??\,,;. .?L ,'
:
I.. ; ~ , ,,$%
*,<)i
!.
,
.
..
- Deperdent clause:
,---.$i;,
- .
Han sager, a t t han inte kommer.
, -
P
...
:."..
..
.- !..
1 .
,...
..
:
..,
. Han sager, a t t han -inte ska komma.
.
4Jf>
,;.
!,;?'!->*:
.
,.7
*;IL
%
.? ,:, 2
-
,
:
&,qiv7...
;r
.
; t..jw.,
..J\
$-l,,,-:-
,
I*..
.Y?.:.;.?b,,:fc..
.,ta~b: fw.
6 .OW
.A k
-
,>
. '-,
,
In English, an auxiliary verb precedes the negative element "mt*'
form of the verb DO is inserted if no other auxiliary is used.
The most common Rench negative declarative places a negative element m
each side of the f i r s t verb form, and allows optional pronoun objects
between the f i r s t and second negative elements.
. - . , . ' , e,.*-*!,IS " . '
.
:,"'
t
. .l.:fi:Tj .:S?.l- -.,;
Je
ne
sais
pas.
.
,
.
.
.
.
:
..>
l'aipas vu.
.
.
i
. . ,.
!?;:.y , >
f. ;
,..
,:
-+,,
,&&
.
,.i
-- a
Jene
-
t
t
9
CC
3) Modifying elements are placed before the words they modify except i n
the case of combinations which have an alternate grammar partially
depenlent upon focus and importance.
This ordering is followed for adjectives i n English and Swedish, ht not
i n Rench.
Ad jective preceding:
He saw the red house.
Han s&g d e t rijda huset.
Adjective following:
1
I
I1 a vu la maison rouge.
The ordering f o r non-sentential adverb in all three languages is depend e n t upon whether t h e modified word is verb, a d j e c t i v e o r another adverb. In English f o r example:
,- +. :
,a .
K,.'
,,L
.
.
..
.%.,9 !. ;.
Preceding adjectives and other adverb:
. . .#
.i
They w e r e especially hungry.
They ate awfully fast.
t i
.'
., ;
,
i-
.
-
'
I
.\
a
*
Following verbs:
..
"
They a t e fast.
'
6-
11s e t a i e n t
.
'89
'
d
%.?
iculierement aff ames
1:-
a -
3'
.
And the same order is f a u d i n French:
,
* .
., ...
:.
fi F.
-
I
3
c
1.
-
-,,.
r
,
f
4) The question symbol, o r anather question word, is placed f i r s t i n a
question. The declarative order follows.
Swedish has no sentence type corresponding t o t h e i n i t i a l q u e s t l o n
symbol sentence, since all questions not beginning with a question word
begin, instead, w i t h a verb. French, lmwwer, has such a common form:
-
Est-ce que vous avez recu une l e t t r e ?
A
-I
I t could be s a i d t h a t English a l s o has such a form, i n which a form of
t h e verb DO precedes a declarative.
9
,
,
. .
1
... E ti .
Did you receive a l e t t e r ?
(
The main verb, of course, is no longer a past form. It is a l s o possible
i n a l l three languages to say a declarative sentence w i t h an intonation
which makes it understood as a question. This is perhaps the form which
best corresponds t o t h e B l i s s syntax form, even though t h e r e is no
i n i t i a l marking. I t may a l s o take the form of a declarative followed by
a tag question.
*
You know what I mean?
P
Du v e t vad jag menar?
Tu sais ce que je veux dire?
-'"<,
.-
I
,I
b.
;, ,(,
you're caning with me, aren't you?
IXI ska gs med, vad?
Vous venez avec mi, n'est-ce pas?
, .
+.&
+
.
., ..
C $
'
--..
'
3
I
I
t
t
2
,-
listener may change. Frcan the listener's (or reader's) standpoint, his
&erstanding may be inhibited by the presentation of stimuli m
m
priate to the medium of perception. F'rom the symbol user's standpoint,
he may have to listen to inferior expressions of his thoughts, a rather
frustrating experience.
These considerations point to a clear need for a programmed grammar. W l t what sort of grammar? Should it be a grammar which minimizes
input? Such a grammar would minimize physical effort, and that is
certainly desirable in many instances, Mt it would be quite restrictive
in output capability.
One might, for example, have a l i s t of sentences i n which one or
two words are l e f t blank, and could be f i l l e d i n by the user after
choosing the desired sentence. Such a grammar would give access t o
quick correct speech and would cover certain cases. I t may be seen,
however, that it is quite restricted. Consider the possibility of making
a l l unspecified nouns definite so that one less symbol needs t o be
chosen. To get "a car," one would indicate "a" and "car;" t o get "the
car," one would indicate only "car." This solution appears, a t f i r s t
glance, t o be useful, but would, i n fact, make the unspecified noun
impossible. The sentence "Bread i s the staff of life.", for example,
would read "The bread is the staff of the life." That is, some sentences
would sound very strange, or produce an unintended meaning.
Assume, then, that we want t o provide for a range of types of
simple declarative sentences. A simple declarative sentence w i t h only a
determiner ard noun or prorloun subject a d object and three verb tenses
would require 48 sentence types. Allowing an optional adjective i n
either the subject or the object noun phrase raises the required number
of sentences t o 192. With so many possible sentence types t o choose
from, the task of finding the desired sentence type becomes much more
time-consuming than selectmore squares on the board, even i f special
selection algorithms are employed. W
e see, then, that t h i s type of
grammar would allow l i t t l e flexibility i n sentence type, altlmugh the
vocalxlary need not be especially limited.
y
.i: A
Another possible avenue t o flexibility i s the use of transformations from one sentence type t o another. I t is possible, using these
transformations, t o construct a variety of syntactic forms w i t h approxiately the same meaning. Each syntactic form is derived from a base
form using a t least one of the stipulated transformations. Beginning
w i t h a base form "He sold the farmer a horse.", we could derive over
twenty syntactic f o m such as "He sold the horse to a farmer.", "for a
horse t o be sold t o a farmer by him" and "there being a horse sold t o a
farmer". W
e would, perhaps be content w i t h only one t h i r d of these
possibilities, Mt, even so, seven numbers would have to be referenced
for the transformational possibilities i n addition t o whatever was
necessary t o generate the original sentence "deep structure," that is,
the original base form.
I t seems better, therefore, t o choose a grammar i n which most of
the words and the word order are specified by the user. This method
3,,%r
provides maximum flexibility for a sophisticated user without requiring
reference to, or a knowledge of, anything except the vocabulary and
grammatical symbols on the board i t s e l f . I n particular, the user can
rely on his or her (possibly passive) knowledge of order i n the language, and need not refer to the rules of Bliss syntax.
The grammar of Blisstalk
+.
r .P
-.
* t i ,
,
I
* r
:vfJ
The option that has been m e n for Blisstalk is to follow natural
spoken language ordering. This ordering requirement promotes flexibilit y i n use, not forcing input into prescribed sentence structures and
permitting the m o s t natural sounding speech output. A s for less sophisticated users who may not require such flexibility, Eugene McDonald
states i n his book Teaching and Using Blissymblics,
. ..-ypl)
~
$1
,
.
..*
3 .
2
'
*, *
-
t-
f
.
or mentally retarded children, the symbol instructor w i l l probably find that the word order of
English w i l l be easier for the children t o learn
and to use than the word order of Bliss syntax."
,.
.
F.
I
'
-.
<
.
young
"When teaching sentence construction to
z b
.r
dp-<.
,,
,
,.+I.-
:
.
I
*
&$
.'.
The grammar of Blisstalk can be described as a determinate finite
state phrase structure grammar. I t allows unrestricted input from the
Blissymbol lexicon (1400 symbols) and from the text-mpeech system for
spelled words. The grammar proceeds by f i r s t introducing phrase markers, forming the input words into a single set of noun phrases and verb
phrases (i.e., no choice is made among alternate phrase structures).
1
I
. ,.
The phrase structure gramnar -
,.;-
-
5
<t
I
6
t.
,
. e
r
,
A
A
k
.:
Noun phrases and verb phrases are initially delimited by recogni. tion of which words can or must not appear i n them. Noun phrases can
then be further divided by recognition of ordering conventions within
them into double objects, subject-object pairs, or both. These constructions may occur i n declaratives, i n questions and, i n Swedish, in
adverb-initial sentences. Verb phrases are split before a marked infinitive (one introduced by "to" i n English, by "att" i n Swedish). A
prepositional phrase is considered t o be a special case of a noun
-7
,;
phrase.
The grammar's success i n delimiting phrases i s a direct consequence
of the fact that lexical part of speech is, for the most part, predeterm i n e d by the Blissymbol input. Ambiguity results only i f a Bliss user
attempts t o use a symbol i n a function other than that determined by its
,
place on the board. I t would be possible to allow a user to change the
part of speech of a word t o one of those specifiable. This f a c i l i t y
would be easy to specify i n English noun-verb conversion since
the
singular form of a noun and the infinitive form of a corresponding verb
may be the same (e.g., simple roots such as "walk" and "sleep"). Many
Order
We f i n d a d d i t i o n a l support f o r adopting n a t u r a l spoken language
order for Blisstalk i n an a r t i c l e on children's acquisition of syntax,
Roger Brown and Ursula Bellugi (1964) note t h a t when young c h i l d r e n
imitate an adult's utterance, they preserve the word order of the model
sentences. They a l s o report that a t 18 months, children are likely to
begin constructing i n t e g r a l 2-word utterances with t h e prosodies of
normdl speech. A l l the major varieties of English simple sentences up
t o a length of 10 o r 11 words a r e produced by t h e age of 36 months. We
may assume that the sentences may nat be morphologically standard, e.g.,
s t r o n g p a s t t e n s e v e r b forms may not a l l be present. But, given t h e
correct word order and a grammar, many inflectional endings and function
words can be supplied by t h e l i s t e n e r . And i n t h e case of symbol-tospeech conversion, grammatically redundant forms can be supplied by
rule. This conversion takes advantage of the child's a b i l i t y to supply
a rather advanced concept of order i n his/her internal grammar to p m
duce speech output.
There are, of course, many expressions which cannot be exparded by
r u l e because of p o s s i b l e ambiguity. The expression "boy book," f o r
example, might mean "The boy wants his book," o r "Give the b y a book,"
and t h e r e a r e a number of o t h e r p o s s i b i l i t i e s as w e l l . The Brown and
Bellugi study showed that the m o t h e r s of the children they reported an
responded t o t h e i r children's speech w i t h expansions about 30%of t h e
t i m e . That is, t h e c h i l d might s a y "boy book," and t h e mother would
expand w i t h something l i k e "we'll g i v e t h e boy h i s book back." I t w a s
noted that the mothers' expansions, l i k e the ones abwe, preserved the
word order of t h e children's speech. W e may t h e r e f o r e assume t h a t i n
cases of reduced o r incomplete expressions, t h e preservation of word
order w i l l aid communication i n a natural way.
One might say that this approach is not f a i t h f u l to the principles
of B l i s s y m b l i c s - that the goal of international communicatim is mt
being k e p t i n mind. Perhaps t h i s is true. But spoken and w r i t t e n , as
opposed t o pointed language, has o t h e r requirements. Is it not more
important that the individual user of a Bliss-to-speech or a Bliss-tot e x t device be able to communicate naturally with those who speak his
own language? This seems t o p r e s e n t a problem: should a user then
learn two grammars, one for non-spoken Blissymbols and one for spoken
Blissymbols? It is certainly possible to write "translation" programs
for a limited grammar and with the limited vocahlary of ~ ~ S C 1 I - c o d e d
words.
I would l i k e to argue, however, that even though this might be
an i n t e r e s t i n g p r o j e c t f o r multi-lingual use, it is unnecessary f o r a
s i n g l e language. Some B l i s s users a r e taught only n a t u r a l spoken language order. And those who l e a r n B l i s s syntax a r e c e r t a i n l y learning
bath grammars
one f o r Blissymbols and one t h a t is internalized from
l i s t e n i n g t o speaking users of h i s own n a t i v e language. I t has been
noted by teachers w b e students are using synthetic speech that these
students' language capabilities are greatly enhanced by using synthetic
-
speech. We can expect that many B l i s s users w i l l go on to learn to read
and w r i t e t h e i r own native language. Supporting t h i s development is
certainly important.
To add a further assurance that learning two grammars is not prohib i t i v e , it can be noticed t h a t a s i m i l a r s i t u a t i o n e x i s t s i n t h e deaf
community where two grammars are used, one for deaf sign 1
e
among
s i g n language users themselves, and one f o r signed language which is
normally spoken, i.e., signed Swedish, signed English, etc. There a r e
sane similarities i n deaf sign language syntax and B l i s s syntax, eq.,
marking time of occurrence f i r s t and then dispensing with verb tense
, markers, leaving out articles, placement of modifiers (includirrg nega, tion).
The building of compound symbols/signs a l s o has some s i m i l a r
principles. In addition, t h e basic symbols, arrows and baselines of
Blissymbols could be likened t o t h e "dez", "sig" and "tab" of s i g n
language
There are, of course, many d i s s i m i l a r i t i e s also, and d i f f e r e n t
.
levels of development i n various areas of the two communication systems.
Since B l i s s symbols have only been used f o r a l i t t l e over t e n years by
non-speaking users, it is s t i l l i n an e a r l y developmental s t a g e f o r
, ,-; actual use. It is quite clear, I-mwever, that to intellectually rnrmal
. non-speaking persons, learning two grammars f o r t h e same symbols o r
signs is quite feasible.
.-...
..
.. -= I.
.
lrlA-
A
+.-
t.3
.
,
f,
--,
:4
.
O o n ~ l u d b=ks
s . .
-
s.
-
,' I '
-a
t.3~;:~~. *.r,:h*.,
+
f
1
be3
,.
.>I+
I
-fc:
'2
',
>
A
I ,
.
%
"\:2C-:.
.
xi >3C&KZ
,i
7
+?
f
tleii*
<
This paper has been -ed
w i t h B l i s s t a l k , a speaking electronic
Ellissymbol board. Blisstalk expects symbols to be chosen in the order
of natural spoken language, and allows a user t o compose many wellformed sentences w i t h flexibility of expression. As a symbol b a r d with
a "voice," it makes its users heard
communication is not s o highly
dependent upon the willingness of a "listener" to watch, and to interpret the symbols for himself.
A system similar to and contemporary with Blisstalk is the Sahara
11, developed i n France for the French language (Emerard, Graillot, Cyne
and Lucas, 1979/1980). I t a l s o uses a 500-symbol B l i s s chart, and
allows output i n either speech o r print. Sahara 11's lexicon contains
mot morphs i n phcnetic or orthographic form, their lexical category a d
reference to rules applying to conjugations. Permitted syntactic struct u r e s a r e defined by a "precedence grammar" t h a t controls which cons t r u c t i o n s can precede, follow, o r be i n t h e same construction with
other constructions. I t a l s o allows co-ordination a t t h e l e v e l of
nouns, v e r b , phrases (which Blisstalk does not yet accanplish) and relatives. Synthesis is based on ( a b u t one thousand) diphones (Emerard,
1977).
:6
--
References
Bliss, C.K. ( 1965): Semantography, Semantography Blissymbolics P u b
lications. 2rrd Edition. Sydney, Australia.
m l s o n , R, Granstrom, a, and Hmnicutt, S. (1982a): "~lissCommunicatim with Speech or Text Output," Conference Wrd, 1982 IEEE-I-,
Paris, France.
.+
>y
Carlson, R., Granstrom, B., and Hunnicutt, S. (1982b): "A MultiLanguage Text--Speech
Module, " Conference Record, 1982 IEEE-ICASSP,
Paris, France.
Emerard, F., Graillot, P., Cyne. G., and Lucas, J.J. (1979/1980): "Protheses de Parole Destinees a la Communication des Handicaps Moteurs
Deficients de la Parole," Recherches Acous tique, VI, CNET Lannion,
France.
Emerard, F. (1977): "Synthese par diphones et traitement de la prosodie," These, Grenoble, France.
5,i
; 1J
McDonald, E. ( 1980) : Teaching and Using Blissymbolics, Blissymbolics
Canmunicatim Institute, Tbmnto.
McNaughton, S. ( 1980): "Blissymbolics a d Voice Output Cormnunicatim
Aids," Presentation at VOCA Conference, May 22-23, Berkeley, California.
Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S. (1973): A Concise Grammar of Cmtemparary Bqlish, Harcourt Brace Jwanovich, Inc., New York.
(4) present participle
(-a
fom)
(a) progressive aspect
EX: ~ e i s s w i m n i n g a t t h e g y m t o d a y .
(bl in Dartici~leclauses
.
-
*
Ex: S w h n h g early, I have the gym to myself.
(5) past participle (-ed
- form)
'
(a) perfective aspect (HAVE + verb + -ed)
EJC:
3
4
'
,, ..
Theboyhasdrunkthewater.
-
(b) passive voice (BE + verb + 4)
1
:
We were surprised.
(c) in participle clauses
the n- , he dropped his tiread
Surprised 2 ---
B. Auxiliary Verb F
o
m
Auxiliary verb forms are used together with another verb
in a verb phrase. (The verb phrase may be split by a noun
phrase in a question. These forms are available for the
user of Blisstalk except for the contracted negative.
(1) Primary auxiliaries: DO, HAVE, BE .,
(a) mn-negative
-V
Ex: Did yw guess?
'-
.\,,.
,
PA
-
,
(b) uncontracted negative
-
Ex: You did mt guess.
*
>
.,
(c) contracted negative
*
Ex: ~idn't you guess?
( 2 ) Modal auxiliaries: CAN. MUST. W I I L , WOULD, COULD,
*SHOULD,
etc.
-,>,
"*
Ex: Must yw go nod'
( 3 ) Marginal modal auxiliaries: NEED, *USEI *MIetc.
Ex: Theyneedtogorrow.
-