Robin J. Lickley

Effects of vowel length and “right context” on the alignment of Dutch nuclear accents

We measured the alignment of f0 landmarks with segmental landmarks in nuclear “pointed hat” accents in controlled speech materials in Dutch. We varied the phonological length of the stressed vowel and the “right context” (syllable membership of following consonant, presence/absence of stress clash). The nuclear accented word was always followed by an unaccented content word. Based on previous work we expected that the alignment would be substantially affected by vowel length, stress clash and syllable membership, but the only important effect was that of vowel length. We believe this can be explained by the fact that most previous studies have dealt with prenuclear accents and/or with nuclear accents in utterance-final position, whereas we are dealing with nuclear accents that are not in utterance-final position. We also explored the effects of using different quantitative definitions of our dependent and independent variables, and of using Multiple Regression rather than ANOVA, and conclude that our findings are robust regardless of the variables or analysis technique used. An important methodological conclusion from our comparative analyses is that tonal alignment is best expressed relative to a nearby segmental landmark. Proportional measures may also be useful, but need further investigation.

Articulatory evidence for feedback and competition in speech production

We report an experimental investigation of slips of the tongue using a Word Order Competition (WOC) paradigm in which context (entirely non-lexical, mixed) and competitor (whether a possible phoneme substitution would result in a word or not) were crossed. Our primary analysis uses electropalatographic (EPG) records to measure articulatory variation, and reveals that the articulation of onset phonemes is affected by two factors. First, onsets with real word competitors are articulated more similarly to the competitor onset than when the competitor would result in a non-word. Second, onsets produced in a non-lexical context vary more from the intended onset than when the context contains real words. We propose an account for these findings that incorporates feedback between phonological and lexical representations in a cascading model of speech production, and argue that measuring articulatory variation can improve our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in speech production.

Alignment of "Phrase Accent" Lows in Dutch Falling Rising Questions: Theoretical and Methodological Implications.

In the first part of this study, we measured the alignment (relative to segmental landmarks) of the low F0 turning points between the accentual fall and the final boundary rise in short Dutch falling-rising questions of the form Do you live in [place name]? produced as read speech in a laboratory setting. We found that the alignment of these turning points is affected by the location of a postaccentual secondary stressed syllable if one is present. This is consistent with the findings and analyses of Grice, Ladd, & Arvaniti, 2000 (Phonology 17, 143—185), suggesting that the low turning points are the phonetic reflex of a “phrase accent.” In the second part of this study, we measured the low turning points in falling-rising questions produced in a task-oriented dialog setting and found that their alignment is affected in the same way as in the read speech data. This suggests that read speech experiments are a valid means of investigating the phonetic details of intonation contours.

Spatial and temporal lingual coarticulation and motor control in preadolescents.

PURPOSE In this study, the authors compared coarticulation and lingual kinematics in preadolescents and adults in order to establish whether preadolescents had a greater degree of random variability in tongue posture and whether their patterns of lingual coarticulation differed from those of adults. METHOD High-speed ultrasound tongue contour data synchronized with the acoustic signal were recorded from 15 children (ages 10-12 years) and 15 adults. Tongue shape contours were analyzed at 9 normalized time points during the fricative phase of schwa-fricative-/a/ and schwa-fricative-/i/ sequences with the consonants /s/ and /ʃ/. RESULTS There was no significant age-related difference in random variability. Where a significant vowel effect occurred, the amount of coarticulation was similar in the 2 groups. However, the onset of the coarticulatory effect on preadolescent /ʃ/ was significantly later than on preadolescent /s/, and also later than on adult /s/ and /ʃ/. CONCLUSIONS Preadolescents have adult-like precision of tongue control and adult-like anticipatory lingual coarticulation with respect to spatial characteristics of tongue posture. However, there remains some immaturity in the motor programming of certain complex tongue movements.

How fluent is the fluent speech of people who stutter? A new approach to measuring kinematics with ultrasound

ABSTRACT We present a new approach to the investigation of dynamic ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI) data, applied here to analyse the subtle aspects of the fluency of people who stutter (PWS). Fluent productions of CV syllables (C = /k/; V = /ɑ, i, ə/) from three PWS and three control speakers (PNS) were analysed for duration and peak velocity relative to articulatory movement towards (onset) and away from (offset) the consonantal closure. The objective was to apply a replicable methodology for kinematic investigation to speech of PWS in order to test Wingate’s Fault-Line hypothesis. As was hypothesised, results show comparable onset behaviours for both groups. Regarding offsets, groups differ in peak velocity. Results suggest that PWS do not struggle initiating consonantal closure (onset). In transition from consonantal closure into the vowel, however, groups appear to employ different strategies expressed in increased variation (PNS) versus decreased mean peak velocity (PWS).

Recording speech articulation in dialogue: Evaluating a synchronized double Electromagnetic Articulography setup

We demonstrate the workability of an experimental facility that is geared towards the acquisition of articulatory data from a variety of speech styles common in language use, by means of two synchronized electromagnetic articulography (EMA) devices. This approach synthesizes the advantages of real dialogue settings for speech research with a detailed description of the physiological reality of speech production. We describe the facilitys method for acquiring synchronized audio streams of two speakers and the system that enables communication among control room technicians, experimenters and participants. Further, we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by evaluating problems inherent to this specific setup: The first problem is the accuracy of temporal synchronization of the two EMA machines, the second is the severity of electromagnetic interference between the two machines. Our results suggest that the synchronization method used yields an accuracy of approximately 1 ms. Electromagnetic interference was derived from the complex-valued signal amplitudes. This dependent variable was analyzed as a function of the recording status – i.e. on/off – of the interfering machines transmitters. The intermachine distance was varied between 1 m and 8.5 m. Results suggest that a distance of approximately 6.5 m is appropriate to achieve data quality comparable to that of single speaker recordings.

Some stuttering treatments are ‘possibly effective’ for some people, but more rigorous trials are required1

The article discusses a study designed to determine how effective are behavioural, cognitive, and related approaches to stuttering therapy. The study was designed as a systematic review with trial-quality assessment. Included studies involved treatment of persistent developmental stuttering in any age group. Studies included had to focus on the efficacy, effectiveness, or outcomes of nonpharmacological interventions.

The Edinburgh Speech Production Facility’s articulatory corpus of spontaneous dialogue.

The EPSRC‐funded Edinburgh Speech Production is built around two synchronized Carstens AG500 electromagnetic articulographs (EMAs) in order to capture articulatory/acoustic data from spontaneous dialogue. An initial articulatory corpus was designed with two aims. The first was to elicit a range of speech styles/registers from speakers, and therefore provide an alternative to fully scripted corpora. The second was to extend the corpus beyond monologue, by using tasks that promote natural discourse and interaction. A subsidiary driver was to use dialects from outwith North America: dialogues paired up a Scottish English and a Southern British English speaker. Tasks. Monologue: Story reading of “Comma Gets a Cure” [Honorof et al. (2000)], lexical sets [Wells (1982)], spontaneous story telling, diadochokinetic tasks. Dialogue: Map tasks [Anderson et al. (1991)], “Spot the Difference” picture tasks [Bradlow et al. (2007)], story‐recall. Shadowing of the spontaneous story telling by the second participant. Each...

Pharmacological approaches are not indicated for the treatment of stuttering1

The article discusses a study aimed to determine the effectiveness of pharmacological stuttering therapies. The study was designed as a systematic review with trial quality assessment. Included studies involved pharmacological treatment of persistent developmental stuttering in any age group and where some clinical effect was intended beyond the setting of the study itself, whether or not measurements beyond the clinic were reported.

Relative contributions of feedback and editing in language production: Behavioral & articulatory evidence

Psychologists normally attribute the surfacing of phonological speech errors to one of two factors: editing of the speech plan [Levelt (1989)] or feedback between word and phoneme levels [Dell (1986)]. This paper assesses the relative contributions of each factor, focusing on the perception and articulation of elicited speech errors. Experiments one and two measure the likelihood of phonological exchange errors as a function of phonetic similarity [Frisch (1996)], using the SLIP paradigm and a tongue‐twister task. Both experiments show that error likelihood increases with phonetic similarity between intended and actual utterance, an effect easy to account for in terms of feedback but not in terms of editing. Experiment three uses EPG to analyze the tongue‐twister utterances: many errors occur at the articulatory level but are not easily perceived in the speech signal. Preliminary analysis suggests three patterns of error: (1) substitution of segments, which may be the result of editing; (2) simultaneous d...