Individual differences in the perception of fundamental frequency scaling in American English speech

2014 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 2195-2195
Author(s):  
Nanette Veilleux ◽  
Jon Barnes ◽  
Alejna Brugos ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
American English ◽  
Frequency Scaling

scholarly journals The pitch of babies’ cries predicts their voice pitch at age 5

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 20180065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Levrero ◽  
Nicolas Mathevon ◽  
Katarzyna Pisanski ◽  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
David Reby
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Ring Finger ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Voice Pitch ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Longitudinal Study Design ◽  
The Right

Voice pitch (fundamental frequency, F 0 ) is a key dimension of our voice that varies between sexes after puberty, and also among individuals of the same sex both before and after puberty. While a recent longitudinal study indicates that inter-individual differences in voice pitch remain stable in men during adulthood and may even be determined before puberty (Fouquet et al. 2016 R. Soc. open sci. 3 , 160395. ( doi:10.1098/rsos.160395 )), whether these differences emerge in infancy remains unknown. Here, using a longitudinal study design, we investigate the hypothesis that inter-individual differences in F 0 are already present in the cries of pre-verbal babies. While based on a small sample ( n = 15), our results indicate that the F 0 of babies' cries at 4 months of age may predict the F 0 of their speech utterances at 5 years of age, explaining 41% of the inter-individual variance in voice pitch at that age in our sample. We also found that the right-hand ratio of the length of their index to ring finger (2D : 4D digit ratio), which has been proposed to constitute an index of prenatal testosterone exposure, was positively correlated with F 0 at both 4 months and 5 years of age. These findings suggest that a substantial proportion of between-individual differences in voice pitch, which convey important biosocial information about speakers, may partly originate in utero and thus already be present soon after birth.

First words and prosodic structures

2019 ◽  
pp. 93-121
Author(s):  
Marilyn May Vihman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
American English ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
British English ◽  
Ambient Language ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Prosodic Structures ◽  
Language Influence ◽  
First Words

This chapter presents data from four to eight children each learning one of six languages, British English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Italian, and Welsh. As a basis for cross-linguistic comparison the chapter first considers similarities and differences in the target forms of the first words of these children. It then presents the children’s later prosodic structures, including American English in the comparison. The chapter considers the development changes apparent from comparing the first words with the later structures and quantifies the extent of variegation in first word targets and later child word forms. In concluding, it is found that common resources are strongly in evidence in the first words but by the later point there is good evidence of ambient language influence as well as of individual differences within the groups.

Processing of word-level stress by Mandarin-speaking second language learners of English

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHEN QIN ◽  
YU-FU CHIEN ◽  
ANNIE TREMBLAY
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
Cue Weighting ◽  
Taiwan Mandarin ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Suprasegmental Cues ◽  
Stress Experiment

ABSTRACTThis study investigates whether second language learners’ processing of stress can be explained by the degree to which suprasegmental cues contribute to lexical identity in the native language. It focuses on Standard Mandarin, Taiwan Mandarin, and American English listeners’ processing of stress in English nonwords. In Mandarin, fundamental frequency contributes to lexical identity by signaling lexical tones, but only in Standard Mandarin does duration distinguish stressed–unstressed and stressed–stressed words. Participants completed sequence-recall tasks containing English disyllabic nonwords contrasting in stress. Experiment 1 used natural stimuli; Experiment 2 used resynthesized stimuli that isolated fundamental frequency and duration cues. Experiment 1 revealed no difference among the groups; in Experiment 2, Standard Mandarin listeners used duration more than Taiwan Mandarin listeners did. These results are interpreted within a cue-weighting theory of speech perception.

scholarly journals A Cross-Linguistic Study of Individual Differences in Speech Planning

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Swets ◽  
Susanne Fuchs ◽  
Jelena Krivokapić ◽  
Caterina Petrone
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Production ◽  
American English ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Speed Of Processing ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
Planning Strategies

Although previous research has shown that there exist individual and cross-linguistic differences in planning strategies during language production, little is known about how such individual differences might vary depending on which language a speaker is planning. The present series of studies examines individual differences in planning strategies exhibited by speakers of American English, French, and German. Participants were asked to describe images on a computer monitor while their eye movements were monitored. In addition, we measured participants' working memory capacity and speed of processing. The results indicate that in the present study, English and German were planned less incrementally (further in advance) prior to speech onset compared to French, which was planned more incrementally (not as far in advance). Crucially, speed of processing predicted the scope of planning for French speakers, but not for English or German speakers. These results suggest that the different planning strategies that are invoked by syntactic choices available in different languages are associated with the tendency for speakers to rely on different cognitive support systems as they plan sentences.

scholarly journals Using the ToBI transcription to record the intonation of Slovene

Linguistica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Volk
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
American English ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Tone Sequence ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
High Tone ◽  
Audio Recording ◽  
The Core ◽  
Low Tone ◽  
Mainstream American English

The paper presents ToBI, a transcription method for prosodic annotation. ToBI is an acronym for Tones and Breaks Indices which first denoted an intonation system developed in the 1990s for annotating intonation and prosody in the database of spoken Mainstream American English. The MAE_ToBI transcription originally consists of six parts – the audio recording of the utterance, the fundamental frequency contour and four parallel tiers for the transcription of tone sequence, ortographic transcription, indication of break indices between words and for additional observations. The core of the transcription, i. e. of the phonological analyses of the intonation pattern, is represented by the tone tier where tonal variation is transcribed by using labels for high tone and low tone where a tone can appear as a pitch accent, phrase accent and boundary tone. Due to its simplicity and flexibility, the system soon began to be used for the prosodic annotation of other variants of English and many other languages, as well as in different non-linguistic fields, leading to the creation of many new ToBI systems adapted to individual languages and dialects. The author is the first to use this method for Slovene, more precisely, for the intonational transcription and analysis of the corpus of spontaneous speech of Slovene Istria, in order to investigate if the ToBi system is useful for the annotation of Slovene and its regional variants.  

The Prosody of Topic Transition in Interaction: Pitch Register Variations

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 658-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Riou
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
American English ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Prosodic Cues

In conversation, speakers can mobilize a variety of prosodic cues to signal a switch in topics. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach combining Conversation Analysis and Instrumental Prosody to investigate the prosody of topic transition in American English, and analyzes the ways in which speakers can play on register level and on register span. A cluster of three prosodic parameters was found to be predictive of transitions: a higher maximum fundamental frequency (F0), a higher median F0 (key), and an expanded register span. Relative to speakers’ habitual profiles, the mobilization of such prosodic cues corresponds to a marked upgraded prosodic design. This finding is consistent with the general assumption that continuation constitutes the norm in conversation, and that departing from it, as in the case of a topic transition, requires a marked action and marked linguistic design. The disjunctive action of opening a new topic corresponds to the use of a marked prosodic cue.

Relations Between Prosodic Variables and Emotions in Normal American English Utterances

1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
George L. Huttar
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
American English ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Semantic Differential ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Frequency Range ◽  
Perceived Emotion

The emotional states of an adult male American speaker, as reflected in 30 utterances, were evaluated by 12 subjects on nine 7-point semantic differential scales. The subjects also evaluated the utterances on similar scales for pitch, loudness, and speed. Significant correlations were found between some acoustic variables and the judgments of some types of emotion. Higher correlations were found between the acoustic variables and judgments of degree of emotion. Correlation coefficients between judgments of emotion and judgments of prosodic features were in general higher than the correlations involving the acoustic variables. Degree of perceived emotion was found to be highly and positively correlated with fundamental frequency range and intensity range. A causal explanation of these relations in terms of human physiology is suggested.

The Role of Predictability in Intonational Variability

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Turnbull
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
General Property ◽  
American English ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Interpretation Of Results

Predictability is known to affect many properties of speech production. In particular, it has been observed that highly predictable elements (words, syllables) are produced with less phonetic prominence (shorter duration, less peripheral vowels) than less predictable elements. This tendency has been proposed to be a general property of language. This paper examines whether predictability is correlated with fundamental frequency (F0) production, through analysis of experimental corpora of American English. Predictability was variously defined as discourse mention, utterance probability, and semantic focus. The results revealed consistent effects of utterance probability and semantic focus on F0, in the expected direction: less predictable words were produced with a higher F0 than more predictable words. However, no effect of discourse mention was observed. These results provide further empirical support for the generalization that phonetic prominence is inversely related to linguistic predictability. In addition, the divergent results for different predictability measures suggests that the parameterization of predictability within a particular experimental design can have significant impact on the interpretation of results, and that it cannot be assumed that two measures necessarily reflect the same cognitive reality.

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