Prosodic Features and the Intelligibility of Accelerated Speech

1984 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Wingfield ◽  
Linda Lombardi ◽  
Scott Sokol
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Compressed Speech ◽  
Normal Speech

An experiment is reported in which subjects heard paragraph-length samples of time-compressed speech which were interrupted for intermediate reports either on a simple periodic basis or at points corresponding to sentence and major clause boundaries. The passages were spoken in a normal prosodic pattern, in list intonation, or were electronically processed to produce otherwise normal speech specifically deprived of pitch variation. Decrease in intelligibility scores with increasing speech rate was accompanied by a significant effect of place of interruption for report and of the prosodic pattern in which the passages were heard. Interactions among these variables were interpreted to suggest ways in which prosody ordinarily facilitates the determination of syntactic structure in connected speech.

Intonation and Intelligibility of Time-Compressed Speech. Supplementary Report: English vs. French

1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 708-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Wingfield ◽  
J. Buttet ◽  
A. W. Sandoval
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Compressed Speech ◽  
French And English ◽  
Supplementary Report

Comparative data are reported for the intelligibility of English and of French time-compressed speech when heard spoken either in normal intonation or in intonation patterns conflicting with underlying syntactic structure. Within an overall decrement in intelligibility with increasing compression, both French and English show similar superiority functions for sentences heard in normal intonation. Results suggest a role of prosodic features in perceptual processing of French comparable to that previously reported for English.

scholarly journals Dissociation between Frontal and Temporal-Parietal Contributions to Connected Speech in Acute Stroke

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhua Ding ◽  
Randi Martin ◽  
A. Cris Hamilton ◽  
Tatiana T. Schnur
Keyword(s):  
Acute Stroke ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Lesion Size ◽  
Acute Stage ◽  
Chronic Stroke ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke ◽  
Previous Identification

AbstractHumans are uniquely able to retrieve and combine words into syntactic structure to produce connected speech. Previous identification of focal brain regions necessary for production focused primarily on associations with the content produced by speakers with chronic stroke, where function may have shifted to other regions after reorganization occurred. Here, we relate patterns of brain damage with deficits to the content and structure of spontaneous connected speech in 52 speakers during the acute stage of a left hemisphere stroke. Multivariate lesion behavior mapping demonstrated that damage to temporal-parietal regions impacted the ability to retrieve words and produce them within increasingly complex combinations. Damage primarily to inferior frontal cortex affected the production of syntactically accurate structure. In contrast to previous work, functional-anatomical dissociations did not depend on lesion size likely because acute lesions were smaller than typically found in chronic stroke. These results are consistent with predictions from theoretical models based primarily on evidence from language comprehension and highlight the importance of investigating individual differences in brain-language relationships in speakers with acute stroke.

Evidence motivating consideration of an alternative approach

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Articulatory Phonology ◽  
Fitts Law ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Principled Explanation ◽  
Spatial Interference ◽  
Normal Speech ◽  
Speech Motor

This chapter begins to motivate the development of an alternative approach to speech production by pointing out three potential difficulties with the highly-successful Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics approach. First, it discusses the extensive nature of modifications to AP/TD default specifications required to account for the wide variety of surface phonetic forms. The need for a large number of adjustments in AP/TD raises questions about the appropriateness of the AP/TD default-adjustment approach, which would have been more appropriate if the default, non-prominent, phrase-medial, normal-speech-rate specifications could be used most of the time. Second, it discusses the lack of a principled explanation for behaviors described by Fitts’ law. While the theory can accommodate some aspects of Fitts’ law, others are not explained or accommodated. Finally, it suggests that AP/TD’s gestural score architecture raises the risk of spatial interference among overlapping, independent gestures. These three challenges taken together set the stage for the discussion of additional challenges in Chapter 4, which further motivate consideration of phonology-extrinsic-timing-based approaches to speech motor control.

scholarly journals Comparison of Controlled and Uncontrolled Normal Speech Rate

1971 ◽  
Vol 50 (1A) ◽  
pp. 116-117
Author(s):  
R. Gregorski ◽  
L. Shockey ◽  
I. Lehiste
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Normal Speech

PROSODIC TRANSFER IN LEARNER AND CONTACT VARIETIES

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Gabriel ◽  
Elena Kireva
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
First Language ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Prosodic Transfer ◽  
Variability Index ◽  
Castilian Spanish ◽  
Similar Rhythm

A remarkable example of Spanish-Italian contact is the Spanish variety spoken in Buenos Aires (Porteño), which is said to be prosodically “Italianized” due to migration-induced contact. The change in Porteño prosody has been interpreted as a result of transfer from the first language (L1) that occurred when Italian immigrants learned Spanish as a second language (L2; McMahon, 2004). This article aims to examine if and to what extent prosodic features that are typical of Italian show up in Porteño and in L2 Castilian Spanish produced by Italian native speakers. Specifically, we investigated speech rhythm and the realization of yes-no questions in Porteño and L2 Castilian Spanish in comparison to Italian and L1 Castilian Spanish. We hypothesized that Italian, Porteño, and L2 Castilian Spanish would exhibit similar rhythm patterns, showing high values for the percentage of vocalic material, the variation coefficient of vocalic intervals, and the speech-rate-normalized pairwise variability index for vowels as well as high frequencies of rising prenuclear accents, with the peak located at the end of the syllable (L+H*) and falling final contours in yes-no questions, in contrast to Castilian Spanish. The results confirm our predictions for speech rhythm but not entirely for the intonation of yes-no questions.

Syllabic Stress and the Occurrence of Stuttering

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1011-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Prins ◽  
Carol P. Hubbard ◽  
Michelle Krause
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Stress Peak ◽  
Normal Speech

The occurrence of stuttering on stress-peak and unstressed syllables in connected speech was studied in 10 young adult stutterers. Results showed a significant coincidence of stutter events and syllabic stress peaks, particularly in polysyllabic words. Stuttering on the first three words of principal clauses, however, appeared independent of syllabic stress. Similarities between the loci of stutter events and segmental errors of speech are considered in relation to explanations that regard stuttering as evidence of failure in normal speech production processes.

scholarly journals Determination of Tumour Prognosis Based on Angiogenesis-related Vascular Patterns Measured by Fractal and Syntactic Structure Analysis

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Weyn ◽  
W.A.A Tjalma ◽  
P Vermeylen ◽  
A van Daele ◽  
E Van Marck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Structure Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Tumour Prognosis ◽  
Syntactic Structure Analysis

The Effects of Syllable Structure on Diadochokinetic and Reading Rates

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 894-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Tiffany
Keyword(s):  
Repetition Rate ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Syllable Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rate Performance ◽  
Valid Measurement ◽  
Normal Reading ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
Normal Speech

Paragraphs with controlled phonetic structures were matched to similarly structured diadochokinetic (Maximum Repetition Rate) tasks in an effort to devise a more valid measurement for (1) assessing possible relationships between diadochokinesis and speech rate, and (2) evaluating the effects on articulation rates of such structural variables as number of consonants in a syllable, and alternating versus simple syllable repetitions. Highly stable results were obtained, suggesting the possibility of a sharp neurophysiological or biomechanical barrier which varies markedly among presumably normal speakers. Maximum repetition rates were poor predictors of normal reading rate performance. On the other hand, normal reading rates were found to be approximately the same as the maximum repetition rates—about 13.5 phones per second. The inference is that normal speech is not, as commonly supposed, obviously slower than maximum rates of syllable articulation, for equivalent syllables. The major source of variation in syllable rate measures was simply the number of phones in a syllable. The effects of articulatory place and manner appeared relatively trivial by comparison.

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