The suprasegmental signaling of attitude in German and Chinese : a phonetically oriented contribution to intercultural communication

In den letzten 15 Jahren ist ein wachsendes Interesse an den Erkenntnissen der interkulturellen Kommunikationsforschung zu verzeichnen. Während sich Anthropologie, Soziologie und Kulturpsychologie mit kulturell bedingten Unterschieden in der Mentalität, der Lebensweise und des Interaktionsethos beschäftigen, interessiert sich die Linguistik - vor allem die Sozio-linguistik - für die Probleme, die auf Unterschiede in den kommunikativen Gewohnheiten der Menschen zurückzuführen sind. Hierbei treten die suprasegmentellen Mittel immer mehr in den Vordergrund: Wie die Forschungen der Interaktionalen Soziolinguistik gezeigt haben, sind viele Missverständnisse in der interkulturellen Kommunikation auf Fehlinterpretationen von Intonation, Tonhöhe, Lautstärke, Geschwindigkeit und Stimmqualität zurückzuführen. In dieser Arbeit wird der interkulturelle Ansatz der Interaktionalen Soziolinguistik mit den Arbeitsmethoden der Experimentalphonetik kombiniert und auf das Deutsche und das Chinesische (Mandarin) angewandt. Nach einer einführenden Betrachtung des chinesischen Interaktionsethos, der mit den in den westlichen Welt vorherrschenden Interaktionsnormen verglichen wird, beschäftigt sich die Arbeit schwerpunktmäßig mit den Funktionen der supra-segmentellen Mittel in den zwei Sprachen, vor allem in Bezug auf die Kommunikation von Sprechereinstellung (attitude). Zu diesem Zweck werden Dialoge mit deutschen und chinesi-schen Sprechern organisiert, in denen unterschiedliche Sprechereinstellungen zum Ausdruck kommen. Diese werden in Hörtests mit deutschen und chinesischen Muttersprachlern analysiert und anhand von Sprechverhaltensmustern (interaction strategies) beschrieben. Die phonetische Exponenz dieser Sprechverhaltensmuster in den zwei Sprachen wird dann in einer mehrteiligen phonetischen Sprachanalyse bestimmt. Der Vergleich der phonetischen Exponenz dieser Sprechverhaltensmuster im Chinesischen und Deutschen gibt Aufschluss über die Faktoren, die in der suprasegmentellen Kommunikation zwischen Sprechern dieser Sprachen zu Problemen führen können. Ein besonderes Augenmerk liegt dabei auf der Rolle der Intonation in Chinesischen - ein Bereich, der fast gänzlich unerforscht ist.The last 15 years have seen a growing interest in the concerns and achievements of inter-cultural communication research, prompting a steady increase of scholarly writings on topics like intercultural management, cross-cultural business communication and intercultural com-munication at work. Thus, researchers in anthropology, sociology and psychology are taking a growing interest in the problems arising from culturally-patterned differences in mentality, way of life and norms of interaction. Linguists, on the other hand, especially those working in the sociologically and/or anthropologically-oriented disciplines, such as interactional socio-linguistics, are examining the linguistic problems of intercultural communication - those originating in differences in the use of language. In the latter field in particular, attention has come to focus strongly on the use of the suprasegmental features of intonation, pitch, loudness, tempo and voice quality, as differences in the use of these features have been found to cause frequent and serious misunderstandings of speaker meaning and intent. In this work the intercultural approach of interactional sociolinguistics is combined with the working methods of experimental phonetics and applied to German and Chinese (Mandarin). Following an introductory examination of the Chinese norms of interaction which are compared with those of the western world, this work focuses on the communicative functions of the suprasegmental features in the two languages, in particular in the signaling of attitude. To this aim, dialogs with German and Chinese speakers are organized, in the course of which different speaker attitudes are elicited. These attitudes are determined in listening tests with native speakers of German and Chinese and described in terms of patterns of speech behavior, referred to as interaction strategies. This is followed by the determination of the phonetic exponency of these interaction strategies in the two languages, achieved with the help of conscientious phonetic speech analyses. The phonetic exponency of the interactions strategies in German and Chinese is then compared to reveal the areas which can cause problems in suprasegmental communication between speakers of these two languages. Special emphasis is placed on the role of intonation in Chinese, a field of research which is virtually untouched

Subsidia: Tools and Resources for Speech Sciences

Este libro, resultado de la colaboración de investigadores expertos en sus respectivas áreas, pretende ser una ayuda a la comunidad científica en tanto en cuanto recopila y describe una serie de materiales de gran utilidad para seguir avanzando en la investigació

Teaching Pronunciation from the Top Down

In this paper, a theoretical and pedagogical foundation for research efforts is provided. Pronunciation is examined from a contextual, "top-down" perspective from which segmental articulation assumes less importance than more general properties of speech such as rhythm and voice quality. Pronunciation is described as conveying many different types of messages to a hearer related to the information structure of a discourse, the speaker's attitude and mood, and other social and psychological features of the speaker or of the relationship between the speaker and hearer. Moreover, various aspects of pronunciation are shown to relate to specific gestures. The aim is to present a more descriptively enlightening and pedagogically useful characterization of second language phonology than traditional treatments, in which phonology was identified with discrete articulations and in which suprasegmental features were relegated to the periphery of language per se, i.e., to the paralinguistic and in some cases the extralinguistic domains of communication. Suggestions for teaching pronunciation are set in a context of research and theory, and a focus on the non-segmental characteristics of speech is advocated. This discussion makes reference to the use of video and computer media in pronunciation training (see Pennington forthcoming for further discussion), as well as to the use of more traditional types of audiovisual aids. The paper concludes with a set of research questions on pronunciation instruction derived from this investigation

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The International Workshop on Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy. This edition celebrates twenty years of uninterrupted and succesfully research in the field of voice analysis

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The MAVEBA Workshop proceedings, held on a biannual basis, collect the scientific papers presented both as oral and poster contributions, during the conference. The main subjects are: development of theoretical and mechanical models as an aid to the study of main phonatory dysfunctions, as well as the biomedical engineering methods for the analysis of voice signals and images, as a support to clinical diagnosis and classification of vocal pathologies

IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION ABILITY USING CARTOON FILMS (A COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 KALIWIRO IN 2009/2010)

Mustika Ratna Pratiwi. K2206024. “IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION ABILITY USING CARTOON FILMS (A COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 1 KALIWIRO IN 2009/2010)”. A Thesis. Surakarta. Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University, 2010. This thesis is written 1) to describe whether cartoon films can improve students’ pronunciation ability and to what extent cartoon films can improve students’ pronunciation ability and 2) to identify what happens when cartoon films are used as a teaching learning media in pronunciation practice in the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Kaliwiro. The method used in this research was a collaborative action research. The research was conducted in two cycles from March 10th until May 3rd 2010 at the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 1 Kaliwiro. The research data were collected by using techniques of observation, interview, diary, document, and test (pre-test and post-test). The data were analyzed through constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. The research findings prove that cartoon films could improve the students’ pronunciation ability. The improvement of the students’ pronunciation ability included: a) the students made fewer mistakes in producing particular sounds b) They also made fewer mistakes in reading the dialogue using English stress pattern c) They were able to produce falling intonation e) The mean score is improved from 44.3 for pre-test, 73.5 for first post test, to 80.6 for second post test. The research findings also prove that cartoon films could improve classroom situation of pronunciation practice. The improvement of the classroom situation included: a) The students were active in the classroom b) They were able to answer teacher’s questions and were active to give suggestion to the teacher c) They did not refuse to read dialogue in front of the class d) They were cheerful and highly motivated in conducting the lesson e) They paid attention to the teacher, the students did not look bored or make noise. Besides the two findings above, there were other findings as follows: They practiced pronunciation and read the dialogue outside the class. The result of the research implies that English teachers need to choose the appropriate media in teaching pronunciation. The appropriate media to teach pronunciation is cartoon films

Pan European Voice Conference - PEVOC 11

The Pan European VOice Conference (PEVOC) was born in 1995 and therefore in 2015 it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its establishment: an important milestone that clearly expresses the strength and interest of the scientific community for the topics of this conference. The most significant themes of PEVOC are singing pedagogy and art, but also occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. PEVOC takes place in different European cities every two years (www.pevoc.org). The PEVOC 11 conference includes a symposium of the Collegium Medicorum Theatri (www.comet collegium.com

Envelhecimento vocal: estudo acústico-articulatório das alterações de fala com a idade

Background: Although the aging process causes specific alterations in the speech organs, the knowledge about the age effects in speech production is still disperse and incomplete. Objective: To provide a broader view of the age-related segmental and suprasegmental speech changes in European Portuguese (EP), considering new aspects besides static acoustic features, such as dynamic and articulatory data. Method: Two databases, with speech data of Portuguese adult native speakers obtained through standardized recording and segmentation procedures, were devised: i) an acoustic database containing all EP oral vowels produced in similar context (reading speech), and also a sample of semispontaneous speech (image description) collected from a large sample of adults between the ages 35 and 97; ii) and another with articulatory data (ultrasound (US) tongue images synchronized with speech) for all EP oral vowels produced in similar contexts (pseudowords and isolated) collected from young ([21-35]) and older ([55-73]) adults. Results: Based on the curated databases, various aspects of the aging speech were analyzed. Acoustically, the aging speech is characterized by: 1) longer vowels (in both genders); 2) a tendency for F0 to decrease in women and slightly increase in men; 3) lower vowel formant frequencies in females; 4) a significant reduction of the vowel acoustic space in men; 5) vowels with higher trajectory slope of F1 (in both genders); 6) shorter descriptions with higher pause time for males; 7) faster speech and articulation rate for females; and 8) lower HNR for females in semi-spontaneous speech. In addition, the total speech duration decrease is associated to non-severe depression symptoms and age. Older adults tended to present more depressive symptoms that could impact the amount of speech produced. Concerning the articulatory data, the tongue tends to be higher and more advanced with aging for almost all vowels, meaning that the vowel articulatory space tends to be higher, advanced, and bigger in older females. Conclusion: This study provides new information on aging speech for a language other than English. These results corroborate that speech changes with age and present different patterns between genders, and also suggest that speakers might develop specific articulatory adjustments with aging.Contextualização: Embora o processo de envelhecimento cause alterações específicas no sistema de produção de fala, o conhecimento sobre os efeitos da idade na fala é ainda disperso e incompleto. Objetivo: Proporcionar uma visão mais ampla das alterações segmentais e suprassegmentais da fala relacionadas com a idade no Português Europeu (PE), considerando outros aspetos, para além das características acústicas estáticas, tais como dados dinâmicos e articulatórios. Método: Foram criadas duas bases de dados, com dados de fala de adultos nativos do PE, obtidos através de procedimentos padronizados de gravação e segmentação: i) uma base de dados acústica contendo todas as vogais orais do PE em contexto semelhante (leitura de palavras), e também uma amostra de fala semiespontânea (descrição de imagem) produzidas por uma larga amostra de indivíduos entre os 35 e os 97 anos; ii) e outra com dados articulatórios (imagens de ultrassom da língua sincronizadas com o sinal acústico) de todas as vogais orais do PE produzidas em contextos semelhantes (pseudopalavras e palavras isoladas) por adultos de duas faixas etárias ([21-35] e [55-73]). Resultados: Tendo em conta as bases de dados curadas, foi analisado o efeito da idade em diversas características da fala. Acusticamente, a fala de pessoas mais velhas é caracterizada por: 1) vogais mais longas (ambos os sexos); 2) tendência para F0 diminuir nas mulheres e aumentar ligeiramente nos homens; 3) diminuição da frequência dos formantes das vogais nas mulheres; 4) redução significativa do espaço acústico das vogais nos homens; 5) vogais com maior inclinação da trajetória de F1 (ambos os sexos); 6) descrições mais curtas e com maior tempo de pausa nos homens; 7) aumento da velocidade articulatória e da velocidade de fala nas mulheres; e 8) diminuição do HNR na fala semiespontânea em mulheres. Além disso, os idosos tendem a apresentar mais sintomas depressivos que podem afetar a quantidade de fala produzida. Em relação aos dados articulatórios, a língua tende a apresentar-se mais alta e avançada em quase todas as vogais com a idade, ou seja o espaço articulatório das vogais tende a ser maior, mais alto e avançado nas mulheres mais velhas. Conclusão: Este estudo fornece novos dados sobre o efeito da idade na fala para uma língua diferente do inglês. Os resultados corroboram que a fala sofre alterações com a idade, que diferem em função do género, sugerindo ainda que os falantes podem desenvolver ajustes articulatórios específicos com a idade.Programa Doutoral em Gerontologia e Geriatri

Robust and language-independent acoustic features in Parkinson's disease

Introduction: The analysis of vocal samples from patients with Parkinson's disease (PDP) can be relevant in supporting early diagnosis and disease monitoring. Intriguingly, speech analysis embeds several complexities influenced by speaker characteristics (e.g., gender and language) and recording conditions (e.g., professional microphones or smartphones, supervised, or non-supervised data collection). Moreover, the set of vocal tasks performed, such as sustained phonation, reading text, or monologue, strongly affects the speech dimension investigated, the feature extracted, and, as a consequence, the performance of the overall algorithm. Methods: We employed six datasets, including a cohort of 176 Healthy Control (HC) participants and 178 PDP from different nationalities (i.e., Italian, Spanish, Czech), recorded in variable scenarios through various devices (i.e., professional microphones and smartphones), and performing several speech exercises (i.e., vowel phonation, sentence repetition). Aiming to identify the effectiveness of different vocal tasks and the trustworthiness of features independent of external co-factors such as language, gender, and data collection modality, we performed several intra- and inter-corpora statistical analyses. In addition, we compared the performance of different feature selection and classification models to evaluate the most robust and performing pipeline. Results: According to our results, the combined use of sustained phonation and sentence repetition should be preferred over a single exercise. As for the set of features, the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients demonstrated to be among the most effective parameters in discriminating between HC and PDP, also in the presence of heterogeneous languages and acquisition techniques. Conclusion: Even though preliminary, the results of this work can be exploited to define a speech protocol that can effectively capture vocal alterations while minimizing the effort required to the patient. Moreover, the statistical analysis identified a set of features minimally dependent on gender, language, and recording modalities. This discloses the feasibility of extensive cross-corpora tests to develop robust and reliable tools for disease monitoring and staging and PDP follow-up