Subject: personal comments From: Neil Todd <todd(at)HERA.PSY.MAN.AC.UK> Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 18:19:35 +0100Dear Edward and Larry There are many outstanding problems in hearing, speech and perception. One particular problem is that of rhythm and time perception, and more generally that of speech prosody. Indeed, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that it is prosody that actually holds or binds spoken language together since it provides a connection between segments, features, words and higher-level grammatical processes as well as giving information regarding lexical identity, syntactic structure, and semantic content. Further, it is clear that rhythm and time provide the key to a number of other important problems not least that of auditory grouping. I believe that I have made a modest contribution to the problem of rhythm and time perception, as is testified by my publications in this area. I am well aware that some people find my ideas, models and theories problematic, difficult to understand, over-speculative and possibly even plain wacky. However, I think most people would agree that science only makes progress by creativity and imagination, particularly if one is engaged the more theoretical end of science. Often, it turns out the creative ideas are indeed incorrect, but only by having them in the first place is it possible to weed out the good from the bad. If you disagree with something then by all means make a criticism, even a robust criticism. However, if you have nothing constructive to add to a discussion I think most people would prefer it if you could refrain from making unpleasant personal comments. If something really offends you that much then it only takes a few seconds to delete the offending message. Neil Todd