Domaines et propriétés : une description de la répartition de l'information linguistique

International audienceL'ensemble des théories linguistiques cherchent à donner une explication exhaustive du fonctionnement du langage. En particulier, à l'intérieur de chaque domaine linguistique (phonologie, syntaxe, morphologie, pragmatique) il est question de rendre compte systématiquement du fonctionnement des énoncés dans le cadre d'une grammaire. Or, depuis de nombreuses années, les linguistes observent que leur propre domaine de description est souvent insuffisant pour rendre compte, de façon formelle, des énoncés réellement produits par les locuteurs. L'exemple de la variabilité phonétique montre comment l'interaction des différents domaines linguistique autorise une certaine imprécision acoustique. Nous proposons enfin une architecture à deux niveau où l'interaction des domaines est implémentée par des contraintes

Language as a complex system: the case of phonetic variability

International audienceModern linguistic theories try to give an exhaustive explanation of how language works. In this perspective, each linguistic domain, such as phonetics, phonology, syntax, pragmatics, etc., is described by means of a set of rules or properties (in other words, a grammar). However, it is a long time linguists have observed that it is not possible to give a precise description of a real life utterance within a unique domain. We illustrate this problem with the case of phonetic variability and show how different domains interact. We propose then a two-level architecture in which domain interaction is implemented by means of constraints

Language as a complex system: the case of phonetic variability

International audienceModern linguistic theories try to give an exhaustive explanation of how language works. In this perspective, each linguistic domain, such as phonetics, phonology, syntax, pragmatics, etc., is described by means of a set of rules or properties (in other words, a grammar). However, it is a long time linguists have observed that it is not possible to give a precise description of a real life utterance within a unique domain. We illustrate this problem with the case of phonetic variability and show how different domains interact. We propose then a two-level architecture in which domain interaction is implemented by means of constraints

Vowel reduction in conversational speech in French: the role of lexical factors

International audienceIn this study we investigate vowel reduction and the role of some lexical factors in the production of vowels extracted from a corpus of French conversations. Vowel durations and spectral quality are examined with respect to 1. their interaction in the corpus, 2. the position of vowels in words, and 3. word frequency and word category. The analyses are conducted on vowels produced by 16 speakers. Our study provides strong evidence that vowel reduction (decrease in durations and more centralized spectral values) affects most of the vowels in conversational speech. The results show that vowels in final syllables of words were less often reduced while the preceding ones show reduced durations and centralized formant values. Moreover vowels are more reduced in monosyllabic function words than in monosyllabic content words. Nevertheless, we did not find a clear effect of word frequency on vowel durations. Finally, our study shows that vowel reduction depends on several factors related to lexical properties (word category) and to prosodic properties (stress and final lengthening)

PROCESSING OF WORD-INITIAL VOWELS IN FRENCH : A PRODUCTION – PERCEPTION PERSPECTIVE

International audienceIn this paper we ask whether coarticulation patterns similarly across and within lexical units in production. We hypothesize that word onsets are more resistant to coarticulation in order to preserve the canonical form of lexical entries. We look at acoustic and articulatory (EPG) cues of coarticulation in pairs of CV where vowel is either word-initial or word-internal. In addition, in a perceptual experiment, we test whether a reduction of coarticulation at word onset can preserve initial phoneme identity. Vowels of CV and C#V sequences are presented in isolation to listeners. Results do not show robust tendencies. Nevertheless, vowels in word-initial position tend to be more open than in word-internal position. This phenomena seems to be perceived by listeners

In search of intonational cues to content word beginnings in conversational speech

International audienceWe used an annotated conversational French speech corpus to 1. investigate whether the intonational rises that occur at the beginning of French content words in read speech (APRs) are also present in spontaneous speech and therefore available as cues to word segmentation and lexical access, and 2. test two measures of characterizing intonation patterns using automatically extracted F0 and time values. The two measures tested both proved problematic: they were sensitive to the segmental composition of the critical region. We found no evidence that APRs are reliably present in the corpus as a whole, although we suggest that they may be present in particular types of conversational speech

On place assimilation in French sibilant sequences

International audienceA corpus of systematically constructed sentences read by 4 female speakers revealed the existence of place assimilation in sequences of French alveolar and postalveolar sibilants. The assimilation manifests itself gradually in time and frequency measurements and is directed towards 'postalveolar'. Thus, it can be regressive and progressive, depending on the order of the place features in the sibilant sequences

Phonetic variability as a static/dynamic process in speech communication: a cross linguistic study

This study is a cross-linguistic investigation of qualitative and quantitative variations due to 1/ the structure of vocalic system, 2/ the amount of context within speech message. We hypothesize that phonetic distinctivity of vowels in a language is relative to 1/ the properties of the phonological system, 2/ the amount of informational context. Three languages (Spanish, French and English) were analyzed in three different types of speech (isolated vowels, within words and within texts). Results show 1/ centralization in the three vocalic systems relative to the amount of context, 2/ an increase of vowel dispersion also due to an increase of context information

Aspects phonologique et dynamique de la distinctivité au sein des systèmes vocaliques: une étude inter-langue

Dans ce travail nous explorons différentes causes de la variation phonétique. L'analyse d'un corpus multilingue de plusieurs types de parole nous permet d'observer une distinctivité variable des voyelles de chaque système en fonction du contexte de production. Cette variabilité peut être attribuée 1/ à la spécificité des systèmes vocalique, 2/ à la quantité d'information véhiculée dans le message linguistique

Annotation automatique en syllabes d'un dialogue oral spontané

International audienceThis paper proposes a solution to identify automatically syllable boundaries in the particular context of spontaneous speech. The main goal consists in identifying syllables from a continuous stream of phonemes. At first, phoneme classes are defined to be as well-suited as possible to reduce the problem complexity. Secondly, a few number of general rules are defined. Finally, some exception rules allows to adapt the problem to the specific context of spontaneous speech. The proposed system is evaluated and compares favorably to the only two existing other systems, for French, with significant improvements. Keywords:syllable, phoneme, segmentation, rules.Cet article propose une méthode pour identifier automatiquement les frontières de syllabes dans le contexte particulier de la parole spontanée. Le principe est d'identifier les syllabes à partir d'un flux de phonèmes. Dans un premier temps, nous proposons de regrouper les phonèmes dans des classes. Nous proposons ensuite des règles de segmentation selon les suites de classes rencontrées.Cette méthode a été appliquée sur le CID, corpus conversationnel français. Les évaluations montrent que notre proposition est plus proche d'une segmentation manuelle que les 3 outils qui existent déjà