After Self-Imitation Prosodic Training L2 Learners Converge Prosodically to the Native Speakers

Little attention is paid to prosody in second language (L2) instruction, but computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) offers learners solutions to improve the perception and production of L2 suprasegmentals. In this study, we extend with acoustic analysis a previous research showing the effectiveness of self-imitation training on prosodic improvements of Japanese learners of Italian. In light of the increased degree of correct match between intended and perceived pragmatic functions (e.g., speech acts), in this study, we aimed at quantifying the degree of prosodic convergence towards L1 Italian speakers used as a model for self-imitation training. To measure convergence, we calculated the difference in duration, F0 mean, and F0 max syllable-wise between L1 utterances and the corresponding L2 utterances produced before and after training. The results showed that after self-imitation training, L2 learners converged to the L1 speakers. The extent of the effect, however, varied based on the speech act, the acoustic measure, and the distance between L1 and L2 speakers before the training. The findings from perceptual and acoustic investigations, taken together, show the potential of self-imitation prosodic training as a valuable tool to help L2 learners communicate more effectively

Dynamics of short-term cross-dialectal accommodation. A study on Grison and Zurich German

This study investigates whether rhythmic features are object of accommodation between Grison and Zurich German (henceforth GRG and ZHG) speakers, insomuch as it was previously observed for vowel formants. Cross-dialectal rhythmic accommodation and its evoking/inhibiting factors (e.g., acoustic distance vs dialect markedness, new vs previously heard words) were examined in a corpus of pre-and post-dialogue recordings, performed by 18 pairs of GRG and ZHG speakers. Three rhythmic measures were designed which were based on cross-dialectal timing differences related to intervocalic sonorants gemination, open syllable lengthening and reduction of word-final vowels

Speakers are more cooperative and less individual when interacting in larger group sizes

Introduction: Cooperation, acoustically signaled through vocal convergence, is facilitated when group members are more similar. Excessive vocal convergence may, however, weaken individual recognizability. This study aimed to explore whether constraints to convergence can arise in circumstances where interlocutors need to enhance their vocal individuality. Therefore, we tested the effects of group size (3 and 5 interactants) on vocal convergence and individualization in a social communication scenario in which individual recognition by voice is at stake. Methods: In an interactive game, players had to recognize each other through their voices while solving a cooperative task online. The vocal similarity was quantified through similarities in speaker i-vectors obtained through probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). Speaker recognition performance was measured through the system Equal Error Rate (EER). Results: Vocal similarity between-speakers increased with a larger group size which indicates a higher cooperative vocal behavior. At the same time, there wasan increase in EER for the same speakers between the smaller and the largergroup size, meaning a decrease in overall recognition performance. Discussion: The decrease in vocal individualization in the larger group size suggests thatingroup cooperation and social cohesion conveyed through acoustic convergence have priority over individualization in larger groups of unacquainted speakers

The expression of certainty and uncertainty in social communication campaigns

This study represents the final step in a wide research intended to compare\ud the print, television and radio advertising campaigns on issues of racism and\ud immigration, launched in Italy since 1990s. Verifying whether the\ud communicative process, the linguistic and extra-linguistic features\ud expressing the status of the foreigners, the kind of relationship between\ud natives and non natives and the social roles assigned to immigrants in the\ud social communication campaigns vary in accordance to the kind of the\ud advertising agency (governmental/ non governmental/ private bodies), and\ud to the Italian political context (left wing/ right wing) we determine the way the advertising agencies express the degree of certainty and uncertainty towards the message they are conveying to Italian hearers and readers

Multiple Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Consortia Enhance Yield and Fatty Acids of Medicago sativa: A Two-Year Field Study on Agronomic Traits and Tracing of Fungal Persistence

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are promoted as biofertilizers due to potential benefits in crop productivity, and macro- and microelement uptake. However, crop response to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation is context-dependent, and AMF diversity and field establishment and persistence of inoculants can greatly contribute to variation in outcomes. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that multiple and local AMF inoculants could enhance alfalfa yield and fatty acids (FA) compared to exotic isolates either single or in the mixture. We aimed also to verify the persistence of inoculated AMF, and which component of the AMF communities was the major driver of plant traits. Therefore, a field experiment of AMF inoculation of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) with three single foreign isolates, a mixture of the foreign isolates (FMix), and a highly diverse mixture of local AMF (LMix) was set up. We showed that AMF improved alfalfa yield (+ 68%), nutrient (+ 147% N content and + 182% P content in forage), and FA content (+ 105%). These positive effects persisted for at least 2 years post-inoculation and were associated with enhanced AMF abundance in roots. Consortia of AMF strains acted in synergy, and the mixture of foreign AMF isolates provided greater benefits compared to local consortia (+ 20% forage yield, + 36% forage N content, + 18% forage P content, + 20% total FA in forage). Foreign strains of Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus irregularis persisted in the roots of alfalfa 2 years following inoculation, either as single inoculum or as a component of the mixture. Among inoculants, F. mosseae BEG12 and AZ225C and the FMix exerted a higher impact on the local AMF community compared with LMix and R. irregularis BEG141. Finally, the stimulation of the proliferation of a single-taxa (R. irregularis cluster1) induced by all inoculants was the main determinant of the host benefits. Crop productivity and quality as well as field persistence of inoculated AMF support the use of mixtures of foreign AMF. On the other hand, local mixtures showed a lower impact on native AMF. These results pave the way for extending the study on the effect of AMF mixtures for the production of high-quality forage for the animal diet

Resource Constrained Semantic Segmentation for Waste Sorting

This work addresses the need for efficient waste sorting strategies in Materials Recovery Facilities to minimize the environmental impact of rising waste. We propose resource-constrained semantic segmentation models for segmenting recyclable waste in industrial settings. Our goal is to develop models that fit within a 10MB memory constraint, suitable for edge applications with limited processing capacity. We perform the experiments on three networks: ICNet, BiSeNet (Xception39 backbone), and ENet. Given the aforementioned limitation, we implement quantization and pruning techniques on the broader nets, achieving positive results while marginally impacting the Mean IoU metric. Furthermore, we propose a combination of Focal and Lov\'asz loss that addresses the implicit class imbalance resulting in better performance compared with the Cross-entropy loss function.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

“Young” and “Old” Voices: the prosodic auto-transplantation technique for speaker’s age recognition

The present study is intended to figure out the extent to which prosody and intonation affect listeners’ ability to estimate the speaker’s age. The performance of a 40-year old anchorman and another by the same speaker at the age of 80 were spectroacoustically analyzed in order to identify the prosodic features of a “young” and an “old” voice. The results of the analysis have shown significant differences between the two voices on a suprasegmental level. To test the effects of these differences on a perceptual level, through the prosodic transplantation technique, the F0 values and the durations of segments and silences were transferred from the “young” to the “old” voice and viceversa. Two age recognition tests, based on original and transplanted voices, were administered to Italian listeners. The results of perceptual tests have confirmed the strict relationship between some rhythmic and prosodic features and the speaker’s age and have demonstrated the effectiveness of the transplantation technique. With advancing age, articulation rate and speech rate slow down, voice register rises and tonal range widens. Moreover, the “old” voice is also characterized by a higher percentage of vocalic portion which determines a shift of the Italian rhythm towards the isomoraic pattern

Convergen rítmicamente los hablantes? Estudio sobre las propiedades segmentales temporales en el alemán de Zúrich y del cantón de Grisón antes y después de las interacciones dialógicas

This paper reports on the results of a research investigating whether rhythmic features, in terms of segmental timing properties, are object of speaker’s adjustments after the exposure to a conversational partner. In the context of dialects in contact, this is crucial to understand whether rhythmic attributes may bring about language variation and change. In the context of human-machine interactions, this can benefit the design of spoken dialogues systems to achieve human-likeness. To study rhythmic accommodation, we selected a corpus of pre- and post-dialogue recordings, performed by 18 speakers of Grison and Zurich German (henceforth GRG and ZHG), two Swiss German dialects characterised by noticeable segmental and supra-segmental differences. To quantify rhythmic convergence, we designed three measures based on the segmental timing differences between the two dialects. We compared the Euclidean distances in the three measures between GRG and ZHG speakers in a pair before and after two interactions. Results reveal that dyads members do not significantly shift the production of segmental timing features after the dialogues. Neither linguistic nor social factors can account for the observed accommodation pattern. Cross-dialectal segmental timing differences, captured by the three ratio measures, may be either robust against the influence of interlocutors’ acoustic behaviour or too subtle to be perceived or retained after interactions.Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación que examina si los rasgos rítmicos vinculados con las características temporales segmentales sufren adaptaciones por parte del locutor después de cierta exposición con un interlocutor. En un contexto de dialectos en contacto, es importante comprender la aportación del estudio de las propiedades rítmicas al campo de la variación y cambio de lengua. En un contexto de interacción persona-ordenador, esto puede beneficiar el diseño de sistemas de diálogos que logren un habla casi nativa. Para estudiar la acomodación rítmica, se seleccionó un corpus de grabaciones recopiladas antes y después de un diálogo entre 18 pares de locutores de alemán del cantón de Grisón y de alemán de Zúrich (de ahora en adelante, GRG y ZHG), dos dialectos suizo-alemanes que se caracterizan por sus diferencias segmentales y suprasegmentales. Para cuantificar la convergencia rítmica, se usaron tres medidas basadas en las diferencias temporales segmentales entre los dos dialectos. Se comparó la distancia euclidiana para las tres medidas entre locutores GRG y ZHG antes y después de dos interacciones. Los resultados revelan que los miembros del par no cambian significativamente la producción de sus características rítmicas temporales después del diálogo. Ningún factor lingüístico o social permite explicar el patrón de acomodación que se observa. Las diferencias rítmicas temporales inter-dialectos, que se capturan con las tres medidas, son o demasiado robustas contra la influencia del comportamiento rítmico de los interlocutores, o demasiado sutiles para ser percibidas o recordadas después de las interacciones

Labeling expressive speech in L2 Italian: the role of prosody in auto-and external annotation

The present study is intended to compare two approaches of labeling expressive corpora: auto-annotation and annotation by external lay listeners. These two methods have been applied to the semi-spontaneous emotional speech produced by Chinese learners of L2 Italian, involved in the CardTask, a moodinduction procedure that allows us to control the context of interaction, preserving the spontaneity of reactions. The emotional responses to the stimuli presented in the task were the object of an auto-annotation session. The same samples were then administered only in the auditory mode to 20 Italian and 20 Chinese lay listeners. The results of perceptual tests have underlined some similarities and differences between both auto- and external annotation, and between the ratings given by external Italian and Chinese listeners. The labels chosen by native Italians were similar to those selected in the auto-annotation session, particularly in the case of anxiety, fear and disgust. The correspondence between the results of the two annotation methods may be ascribed to the different prosodic patterns characterizing the emotional states. The results of the annotation made by Chinese listeners show that they found it hard to give a specific emotional label to utterances produced in a second language relying solely on prosodic patterns