F.J. Koopmans-van Beinum

Pausing strategies in discourse in Dutch

The paper describes an experiment in which the different pausing strategies in discourse in Dutch were investigated. Spontaneous discourses were recorded from four male and four female native Dutch speakers. Silent and filled pauses were located in the speech signal, as well as lengthened words. These were subsequently related to different discourse structures, obtained independently from prosodic features. Results show that there are basically three different types of pausing: silent pauses, filled pauses, and lengthening of words. Speakers apply these means in different ways to achieve pausing, by using one specific pause type or a combination of more than one. The way of applying pausing is rather uniform within one speaker, whereas the choice of a particular strategy is largely speaker dependent.The paper describes an experiment in which the different pausing strategies in discourse in Dutch were investigated. Spontaneous discourses were recorded from four male and four female native Dutch speakers. Silent and filled pauses were located in the speech signal, as well as lengthened words. These were subsequently related to different discourse structures, obtained independently from prosodic features. Results show that there are basically three different types of pausing: silent pauses, filled pauses, and lengthening of words. Speakers apply these means in different ways to achieve pausing, by using one specific pause type or a combination of more than one. The way of applying pausing is rather uniform within one speaker, whereas the choice of a particular strategy is largely speaker dependent.

Relationship between discourse structure and dynamic speech rate

This paper regards one specific element of a larger research project on the acoustic determinants of information structure in spontaneous and read discourse in Dutch. From a previous experiment within that project it turned out that listeners used two main cues (viz. speaking rate and intonation) to differentiate between spontaneous and read speech. The aim of the present experiment is to investigate the role of one of these prosodic cues, i.e., the local variability in speaking rate, and to study the relationship between the information structure of a spoken discourse on the one hand, and dynamic speaking rate measurements of that discourse on the other hand. Results show that there is a large variability in average syllable duration over the various interpausal speech runs for each of the eight speakers. No straightforward relation is found between the number of syllables within a run and the average syllable duration. We hypothesize that, at least in spontaneous speech, variations in speaking rate are related to the (global and/or local) information structures in the discourse. Global analysis of the discourse structure in paragraphs and clauses reveals that for each of the speakers the average syllable duration of the first run of a paragraph is longer than the overall mean value per speaker in more than 60% of the cases. Inspection of the quartiles of runs with highest ASD-values and those with lowest ASD-values for each of the speakers shows quite different structures, which can be explained on the basis of partly local and partly global discourse characteristics.This paper regards one specific element of a larger research project on the acoustic determinants of information structure in spontaneous and read discourse in Dutch. From a previous experiment within that project it turned out that listeners used two main cues (viz. speaking rate and intonation) to differentiate between spontaneous and read speech. The aim of the present experiment is to investigate the role of one of these prosodic cues, i.e., the local variability in speaking rate, and to study the relationship between the information structure of a spoken discourse on the one hand, and dynamic speaking rate measurements of that discourse on the other hand. Results show that there is a large variability in average syllable duration over the various interpausal speech runs for each of the eight speakers. No straightforward relation is found between the number of syllables within a run and the average syllable duration. We hypothesize that, at least in spontaneous speech, variations in speaking rate are related to the (global and/or local) information structures in the discourse. Global analysis of the discourse structure in paragraphs and clauses reveals that for each of the speakers the average syllable duration of the first run of a paragraph is longer than the overall mean value per speaker in more than 60% of the cases. Inspection of the quartiles of runs with highest ASD-values and those with lowest ASD-values for each of the speakers shows quite different structures, which can be explained on the basis of partly local and partly global discourse characteristics.

Perceptual normalization of the vowels of a man and a child in various contexts

Abstract The topic of this study is speaker normalization. Both a man and a child rapidly produced the Dutch sentences “Matroos p V t kaas” (“Sailor p V t eats cheese”): the man imitated the childs pitch. The test words p V t were presented to listeners in their original carrier sentence, in isolation, and in the other talkers carrier sentence. Especially in the latter condition considerably more vowel confusions occurred. It is argued that listeners match unknown vowels with template vowels of “average” men, women or children: the appropriate template is chosen on the basis of pitch and timbre of the unknown vowels. The vowel confusions in the present experiment can thus be explained by a confusion of templates. This explanation accounts better for the test results than the one suggested by Joos (1948) and others, that the acoustic context provides information about the formant frequencies of the talkers vowels with which a vowel space can be constructed that serves as a reference frame for the identification of the vowels in the test words.

Acoustical characteristics of sound production of deaf and normally hearing infants

Several recent studies have shown that speech production develops in an organized way, already in the first twelve months of life. This development is determined by several factors such as anatomical growth and physiological constraints. Studying the sound production of deaf infants and comparing this with that of normally hearing infants, can give more insight into the role of auditory speech perception on sound production. So far, no systematic work has been reported on the development of sound production of deaf infants in the first months of life. The present study is intended to address this topic in a systematic and controlled way. Preliminary results indicate differences in sound production between deaf and normally hearing infants, for instance with respect to utterance duration, even within the first half year of life. These findings strongly suggest that already in this early stage of speech development sound production is not solely determined by anatomical and physical constraints, but also by auditory perception and feedback. These results may contribute to a better understanding of the current models of early speech acquisition.