Analyzing Prosody with Legendre Polynomial Coefficients

This investigation demonstrates the effectiveness of Legendre polynomial coefficients representing prosodic contours within the context of two different tasks: nativeness classification and sarcasm detection. By making use of accurate representations of prosodic contours to answer fundamental linguistic questions, we contribute significantly to the body of research focused on analyzing prosody in linguistics as well as modeling prosody for machine learning tasks. Using Legendre polynomial coefficient representations of prosodic contours, we answer prosodic questions about differences in prosody between native English speakers and non-native English speakers whose first language is Mandarin. We also learn more about prosodic qualities of sarcastic speech. We additionally perform machine learning classification for both tasks, (achieving an accuracy of 72.3% for nativeness classification, and achieving 81.57% for sarcasm detection). We recommend that linguists looking to analyze prosodic contours make use of Legendre polynomial coefficients modeling; the accuracy and quality of the resulting prosodic contour representations makes them highly interpretable for linguistic analysis

Prosodic Marking of Narrow Focus in Seoul Korean

This paper explores prosodic marking of narrow (corrective) focus in Seoul Korean. Korean lacks lexical stress and it has a phonologized association between the Accentual Phrase (AP) initial segment and intonation. In the experiment, four speakers read sentences including a two-item list which were designed to elicit either an L or H AP-initial tone. The durational variations, the pitch events at prosodic boundaries, and F$_{0}$span in 32 sentences read neutrally and 64 sentences read with one of the items under focus were analysed. The results show that the focused constituent consistently initiates a new prosodic phrase. I n comparison to the neutrally spoken or defocused counterpart, the focused constituent was more likely to be realised as an Intonational Phrase (IP) in some contexts . Bitonal IP boundary tones were more likely to occur under focus than monotonal tones. In addition, in focused constituents, durational expansion particularly at the phrase-edges, expansion in F$_{0}$span, and raising of the phrase-initial pitch were observed. On the other hand, defocused constituents were not phonetically reduced compared to the neutral counterparts. The results imply that the phonetic cues spreading over the focused constituent complement the exaggerated prosodic boundaries.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Academy of Korean Studies for the present work (grant number AKS-2012-R56)

Jeddah Arabic intonation : an autosegmental-metrical approach

IPhD ThesisThis thesis is a theoretical and instrumental investigation of intonation in Jeddah Arabic, an urban Arabic variety spoken in west Saudi Arabia. The study is carried out in an attempt to establish the dialect’s prosodic properties and to widen the scope and volume of the literature on Arabic prosody that would in turn aid in the cross-dialectal comparison of prosodic and intonational patterns. The investigation is carried out in light of the Auto-Segmental Metrical theory of intonation- a theory that has been reported to account for the intonational patterns of many languages. In AM theory, intonation is manifested via prominent F0 behaviour in interaction with phonological structure, hence maintains a close relationship between accent distribution and phonological/metrical structure. This F0 behaviour is examined acoustically through pitch level, range and excursion size, in the form of increased peak height and excursion, pitch compression or absence thereof to mark intonational structure. In addition to pitch, other acoustic correlates such as duration and amplitude are examined as well. The thesis includes the examination of the different tunes, postlexical phrasing, and accent categories (contour shapes) that occur in the dialect. Moreover, and as an integral part of AM analysis, the thesis closely examines both theoretically and acoustically the concepts of tonal alignment and accentuation and information structure in this Arabic dialect. Data for the study were collected from 20 native male and female speakers of Jeddah Arabic. Data were then semiautomatically segmented and manually transcribed using a modified TOBI system for Arabic. It is found that JA speakers rely on both qualitative and quantitative detail to enhance intonationally important material that is conveyed prosodically. The results also point to that JA is a stress-accent language that is although similar to other languages in this group, contributes differently to the general cross-language prosodic variation. The dialect demonstrates prominent pitch accents that faithfully associate and align with stressed syllables and are distributed in two intonational levels above the prosodic word: the intermediate phrase and the intonational phrase. Those two intonational levels are found to be marked by both tonal and non-tonal correlates. Experimental evidence shows that contrary to the typical reported correlates of those prosodic constituents, in JA intermediate phrases boundaries demonstrate longer pre-boundary units than intonational phrases. This non-tonal pattern in intermediate phrase boundaries correlates with later alignment of the tone with respect to the onset of the stressed syllable

Electrophysiologic assessment of (central) auditory processing disorder in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate

Session 5aPP - Psychological and Physiological Acoustics: Auditory Function, Mechanisms, and Models (Poster Session)Cleft of the lip and/or palate is a common congenital craniofacial malformation worldwide, particularly non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P). Though middle ear deficits in this population have been universally noted in numerous studies, other auditory problems including inner ear deficits or cortical dysfunction are rarely reported. A higher prevalence of educational problems has been noted in children with NSCL/P compared to craniofacially normal children. These high level cognitive difficulties cannot be entirely attributed to peripheral hearing loss. Recently it has been suggested that children with NSCLP may be more prone to abnormalities in the auditory cortex. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether school age children with (NSCL/P) have a higher prevalence of indications of (central) auditory processing disorder [(C)APD] compared to normal age matched controls when assessed using auditory event-related potential (ERP) techniques. School children (6 to 15 years) with NSCL/P and normal controls with matched age and gender were recruited. Auditory ERP recordings included auditory brainstem response and late event-related potentials, including the P1-N1-P2 complex and P300 waveforms. Initial findings from the present study are presented and their implications for further research in this area —and clinical intervention—are outlined. © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio