Consistency in transcription and labelling of German intonation with GToBI

A diverse set of speech data was labelled in three sites by 13 transcribers with differing levels of expertise, using GToBI, a consensus transcription system for German intonation. Overall inter-transcriber -consistency suggests that, with training, labellers can acquire sufficient skill with GToBI for large-scale database labelling. 1

An intonational comparison of Yes/No Questions between the dialect of Evia and Standard Greek

This paper presents an Autosegmental analysis of the intonational contour of Yes/No Questions in Evia Greek (EG) and compares it to that of Standard Modern Greek (SMG). It is shown that the two dialects can express Y/N questions differently: where SMG has a rise-fall at the end of the question, EG can have either a similar contour to SMG or a rise as a boundary tone. In our analysis, we followed the auto-segmental metrical theory and in particular GRToBI (Arvaniti & Baltazani 2005). We collected sound data from 4 native speakers of EG via 4 different production experiments, manipulating the position of the last stressed syllable (final syllable, penult, and antepenult). Therefore, we controlled the realisation of tonal targets under tonal crowding conditions. We also measured the scaling and the alignment of nuclear accents and phrase-edge tones. A different phonetic realization has frequency of occurrence of 71% in the dialectal variety, that is described with low nuclear accent (L*), a bitonal phrase tone (LH-) and a H(igh) edge tone (H%), which sound similar to the Elliptical Questions in SMG or continuation rise, but do not have the same function

A study of turn-yelding cues in human-computer dialogue

Previous research has made signi cant advances in under- standing how humans manage to engage in smooth, well-coordinated conversation, and have unveiled the existence of several turn-yielding cues | lexico-syntactic, prosodic and acoustic events that may serve as predictors of conversational turn nality. These results have subse- quently aided the re nement of turn-taking pro ciency of spoken dia- logue systems. In this study, we nd empirical evidence in a corpus of human-computer dialogues that human users produce the same kinds of turn-yielding cues that have been observed in human-human interac- tions. We also show that a linear relation holds between the number of individual cues conjointly displayed and the likelihood of a turn switch.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

A study of turn-yelding cues in human-computer dialogue

Previous research has made signi cant advances in under- standing how humans manage to engage in smooth, well-coordinated conversation, and have unveiled the existence of several turn-yielding cues | lexico-syntactic, prosodic and acoustic events that may serve as predictors of conversational turn nality. These results have subse- quently aided the re nement of turn-taking pro ciency of spoken dia- logue systems. In this study, we nd empirical evidence in a corpus of human-computer dialogues that human users produce the same kinds of turn-yielding cues that have been observed in human-human interac- tions. We also show that a linear relation holds between the number of individual cues conjointly displayed and the likelihood of a turn switch.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

ToBiPI: UM SISTEMA DE NOTAÇÃO ENTOACIONAL PARA O PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO

RESUMO: Este artigo apresenta o sistema ToBiPI – Transcription of Brazilian Portuguese Intonation – ¬ para a notação entoacional do português brasileiro (PB), e descreve a simbologia e os métodos utilizados para notação nesse sistema. Nosso objetivo é apresentar uma descrição formal e funcional dos fenômenos envolvidos na entoação do PB, por meio de análise de um corpus de fala espontânea. ABSTRACT: This paper presents the system ToBiPI – Transcription of Brazilian Portuguese Intonation – for the intonational annotation for of the Brazilian Portuguese (BP), and describes the simbology and methods used for such annotation system. Our objective is to present a formal and functional description of phenomena involved in the BP intonation, by analyzing a spontaneous speech corpus

Gépi beszéd természetességének növelése automatikus, beszédjel alapú hangsúlycímkéző algoritmussal

A minél természetesebb hangzás elérése a géppel előállított beszédben napjainkban is igen fontos kutatási terület. A hangzás természetességét számos más tényező mellett a prozódia is nagyban befolyásolja, ezért alapvető követelmény egy olyan, precízen annotált korpusz megléte, amely alapján gépi tanulással pontos generatív modelleket állíthatunk elő. A korpusz kézi címkézése költséges és hosszadalmas, még a prozódiai egységekre, hangsúlyokra vonatkozóan is, ráadásul nemzetközi tapasztalatok is igazolják, hogy a szakértő címkézők ítélete is szubjektív, hiszen a különböző szakértők által előállított hangsúlyozásra vonatkozó annotációk közötti átfedés ritkán haladja meg a 80%-ot. A fentiek miatt gyakran használnak automatikus címkéző eljárásokat. A hangsúlycímkézést leggyakrabban a szöveges átirat alapján végzik el, ami azonban szerényebb pontosságot szolgáltat az emberi annotáláshoz képest. Alternatívaként jelen munkában egy beszédjel alapú hangsúlycímkéző algoritmust valósítunk meg. Az így nyert hangsúlycímkézés ellenőrzésére hat (3-3 férfi és női) HMM-TTS rendszert tanítunk, majd szubjektív lehallgatási tesztekkel (CMOS) hasonlítjuk össze a rendszereket

Evaluating a scheme for dialogue annotation

This paper describes the evaluation of a coding scheme for the segmentation and annotation of transliterated spoken dialogues with dialogue act information. Using the kappa method for measuring the reliability of this coding scheme we find that both for segmentation and labeling we receive reliable results. It is shown that this observation holds both for an evaluation of intercoder reliability and for the stability of coding by one coder over time. Our studies also suggest some improvements of our coding scheme which will be incorporated into the scheme for future use

Assessing respiratory contributions to f0 declination in German across varying speech tasks and respiratory demands

International audienceMany past studies have sought to determine the factors that affect f0 declination, and the physiological underpinnings of the phenomenon. This study assessed the relation between respiration and f0 declination by means of simultaneous acoustic and respiratory recordings from read and spontaneous speech from speakers of German. Within the respective Intonational Phrase unit, we analysed the effect of the number of syllables and voiceless obstruents. Both factors could influence the slope of either f0 declination or rib cage movement. If respiration and f0 declination are related physiologically, their relationship might also be modulated by either one or both factors. Our results show consistently for both speech tasks that the slope of the rib cage movement is not related with f0 declination when length and consonant content vary. Furthermore f0 slopes are generally shallower in spontaneous than in read speech. Finally, although a higher number of voiceless obstruents yielded a greater rib cage compression, it did not affect f0 declination. These results suggest that although f0 declination occurs in many languages, it might not have a purely physiological origin in breathing, but rather reflects cognitive processing which allows speakers to look ahead when planning their utterances