Effect of intonation on Cantonese lexical tones

In tonal languages, there are potential conflicts between the F0-based changes due to the coexistence of intonation and lexical tones. In the present study, the interaction of tone and intonation in Cantonese was examined using acoustic and perceptual analyses. The acoustic patterns of tones at the initial, medial, and final positions of questions and statements were measured. Results showed that intonation affects both the F0 level and contour, while the duration of the six tones varied as a function of positions within intonation contexts. All six tones at the final position of questions showed rising F0 contour, regardless of their canonical form. Listeners were overall more accurate in the identification of tones presented within the original carrier than of the same tones in isolation. However, a large proportion of tones 33, 21, 23, and 22 at the final position of questions were misperceived as tone 25 both within the original carrier and as isolated words. These results suggest that although the intonation context provided cues for correct tone identification, the intonation-induced changes in F0 contour cannot always be perceptually compensated for, resulting in some erroneous perception of the identity of Cantonese tone. © 2006 Acoustical Society of America.published_or_final_versio

From communicative functions to prosodic forms

This is a proposal in favour of proceeding from communicative function to linguistic form, rather than the reverse, for an insightful account of how humans communicate by speech in languages. A functional framework is developed that encompasses argumentation structures, declarative and interrogative functions, and expressive intensification. Such a function orientation can become a powerful tool in comparative prosodic research across the world's languages. The potential of this approach is shown by comparing the prosodic form of Mandarin Chinese data collected in functionally contextualized scenarios with corresponding data from English and German

Toward invariant functional representations of variable surface fundamental frequency contours: Synthesizing speech melody via model-based stochastic learning

Variability has been one of the major challenges for both theoretical understanding and computer synthesis of speech prosody. In this paper we show that economical representation of variability is the key to effective modeling of prosody. Specifically, we report the development of PENTAtrainer—A trainable yet deterministic prosody synthesizer based on an articulatory–functional view of speech. We show with testing results on Thai, Mandarin and English that it is possible to achieve high-accuracy predictive synthesis of fundamental frequency contours with very small sets of parameters obtained through stochastic learning from real speech data. The first key component of this system is syllable-synchronized sequential target approximation—implemented as the qTA model, which is designed to simulate, for each tonal unit, a wide range of contextual variability with a single invariant target. The second key component is the automatic learning of function-specific targets through stochastic global optimization, guided by a layered pseudo-hierarchical functional annotation scheme, which requires the manual labeling of only the temporal domains of the functional units. The results in terms of synthesis accuracy demonstrate that effective modeling of the contextual variability is the key also to effective modeling of function-related variability. Additionally, we show that, being both theory-based and trainable (hence data-driven), computational systems like PENTAtrainer can serve as an effective modeling tool in basic research, with which the level of falsifiability in theory testing can be raised, and also a closer link between basic and applied research in speech science can be developed

The perception of intonation questions and statements in Cantonese

In tone languages there are potential conflicts in the perception of lexical tone and intonation, as both depend mainly on the differences in fundamental frequency (F0) patterns. The present study investigated the acoustic cues associated with the perception of sentences as questions or statements in Cantonese, as a function of the lexical tone in sentence final position. Cantonese listeners performed intonation identification tasks involving complete sentences, isolated final syllables, and sentences without the final syllable (carriers). Sensitivity (d′ scores) were similar for complete sentences and final syllables but were significantly lower for carriers. Sensitivity was also affected by tone identity. These findings show that the perception of questions and statements relies primarily on the F0 characteristics of the final syllables (local F0 cues). A measure of response bias (c) provided evidence for a general bias toward the perception of statements. Logistic regression analyses showed that utterances were accurately classified as questions or statements by using average F0 and F0 interval. Average F0 of carriers (global F0 cue) was also found to be a reliable secondary cue. These findings suggest that the use of F0 cues for the perception of intonation question in tonal languages is likely to be language-specific. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America.published_or_final_versio

How Movie Dubbing Can Help Native Chinese Speakers’ English Pronunciation

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of English movie scripts and movie dubbing activities can help native Chinese speakers improve their awareness of prosodic features in English, specifically, sentence stress. The literature review explores Chinese and English prosody, movie dubbing and ideal pronunciation standards. The qualitative research paradigm was implemented to explore the hypothesis that hearing and mimicking the natural speech patterns of native speakers can help native Chinese speakers improve their awareness of sentence stress in English. After three cycles of language instruction and language discrimination activities, seven students were chosen for a case study. Data collected from their responses to activities and questionnaires were analyzed. The results indicate that these students’ actual ability to hear sentence stress is greater than their theoretical awareness of sentence stress rules. The author concludes with recommendations for adapting movie dubbing activities and suggestions for future research

Phonological issues in the production of prosody by francophone and sinophone learners of english as a second language

Un accent de non-natif peut mener à une incompréhension ou à la perception de degrés différents d'accent d'étrangeté. La prosodie, qui est maintenant reconnue comme un élément important de l'impression d'étrangeté, est relativement peu abordée en recherche en acquisition des langues étrangères. Ceci contraste avec l'intérêt grandissant envers la prosodie en tant qu'élément de la langue maternelle. Dans cette thèse, la recherche phonologique est évaluée quant à sa pertinence dans la recherche sur la prosodie des langues étrangères. Deux aspects de la théorie phonologique sont étudiés: la typologie et l'organisation phonologique. Ce choix est justifié par la présomption générale que l'étrangeté prosodique est créée soit par une différence de typologie entre langue maternelle (L1) et langue étrangère (L2) soit par un transfert de traits prosodiques de la L1. La critique de la recherche en typologie phonologique conclut que, à ce stade, aucun modèle de classification prosodique n'est applicable à l'acquisition d'une L2. En particulier, l'étude démontre que certaines typologies, en particulier la théorie de l'isochronie accentuelle/l'isochronie syllabique de Pike, devraient être exclues parce qu'elles entravent les progrès en recherche sur l'acquisition et la production de la prosodie des langues étrangères. Le second aspect de la théorie phonologique étudié dans cette thèse est l'organisation phonologique. La prémisse est que les différences sous-jacentes à l'organisation prosodique plutôt que les différences phonologiques de surface sont transférées de L1 à L2. Les analyses approfondies de l'anglais nord américain, le français et le chinois standard révèlent d'importantes différences phonologiques entre l'anglais nord américain et les deux autres langues. Quatre expériences évaluent certaines de ces différences. La prosodie de l'anglais produite par des locuteurs natifs du français est analysée dans des phrases rythmiquement simples et des phrases rythmiquement plus complexes. Les résultats démontrent que l'accentuation lexicale est moins problématique que l'accentuation prosodique supra-lexicale. En particulier, il est démontré que les montées de fréquence fondamentale (F0) de début et de fin de syntagme accentuel (SA), typiques du français, sont source d'erreur dans la prosodie de l'anglais langue seconde. Il est cependant montré que cette erreur, bien que remarquée par les locuteurs natifs de l'anglais, n'affecte pas la perception de placement d'accentuation par ces derniers. La prosodie de l'anglais produite par des locuteurs natifs du chinois est analysée en termes de transfert de ton et d'alignement de pic de F0. Les résultats indiquent que les locuteurs du chinois utilisent les tons chinois quand ils produisent des tons accentuels de l'anglais; plus spécifiquement, la majorité des locuteurs utilisent le ton 2 (ton montant) quand ils produisent un ton accentuel montant. La dernière expérience révèle que les locuteurs natifs du chinois alignent le ton accentuel avec la syllabe accentuée à laquelle elle correspond de manière plus stricte que les locuteurs natifs de l'anglais nord américain le font. Les résultats de cette thèse génèrent un aperçu de la progression de la performance de la prosodie d'une langue étrangère. Les conclusions comportent des implications sur le contenu pédagogique et le format de l'enseignement de la prononciation. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Phonologie, Phonétique, Phonologie prosodique, Prosodie, Rythme, ESL, Français du Québec, Français de France, Chinois

Analysis of atypical prosodic patterns in the speech of people with Down syndrome

Producción CientíficaThe speech of people with Down syndrome (DS) shows prosodic features which are distinct from those observed in the oral productions of typically developing (TD) speakers. Although a different prosodic realization does not necessarily imply wrong expression of prosodic functions, atypical expression may hinder communication skills. The focus of this work is to ascertain whether this can be the case in individuals with DS. To do so, we analyze the acoustic features that better characterize the utterances of speakers with DS when expressing prosodic functions related to emotion, turn-end and phrasal chunking, comparing them with those used by TD speakers. An oral corpus of speech utterances has been recorded using the PEPS-C prosodic competence evaluation tool. We use automatic classifiers to prove that the prosodic features that better predict prosodic functions in TD speakers are less informative in speakers with DS. Although atypical features are observed in speakers with DS when producing prosodic functions, the intended prosodic function can be identified by listeners and, in most cases, the features correctly discriminate the function with analytical methods. However, a greater difference between the minimal pairs presented in the PEPS-C test is found for TD speakers in comparison with DS speakers. The proposed methodological approach provides, on the one hand, an identification of the set of features that distinguish the prosodic productions of DS and TD speakers and, on the other, a set of target features for therapy with speakers with DS.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (grant TIN2017-88858-C2-1-R)Junta de Castilla y León (grant VA050G18