The inverse relation of pre-nuclear and nuclear prominences in German

The importance of pre-nuclear prominences for focus marking has been largely neglected. Recent studies, however, present first evidence that the prosody of the pre-nuclear region indicates its status as part of a broad focus or as pre-focal. This study presents a systematic investigation of the pre-nuclear domain and its relation to the nuclear accent in German. The results show that the realization of the pre-nuclear domain indeed depends on whether it is focal or pre-focal: The pre-nuclear noun is characterized by larger F0 excursions, higher F0 maxima and larger durations when it is in broad focus than when it precedes a narrow focus. Furthermore, the realization of a pre-focal, pre-nuclear domain depends on the following focus: The pre-nuclear noun is produced with smaller F0 excursions, lower F0 maxima and shorter durations before a corrective focus than before a non-corrective narrow focus. The comparison to the nuclear accent suggests an inverse relationship, i.e., the pre-nuclear domain becomes less prominent when the nuclear domain becomes more prominent. The findings suggest that the phonetic manifestation of information structure is distributed over larger prosodic domains and entails the modulation of phrasal prominence profiles rather than just local adjustments of the nucleus

Challenges with the kinematic analysis of neurotypical and impaired speech : measures and models

A common goal of kinematic studies on disordered speech is the identification of speech motor impairments that negatively impact speech function. Although it is well-known that the kinematic contours of speakers with speech disorders often deviate considerably from those of neurotypical speakers, systematic quantitative assessments of these impairment-related movement disturbances remain challenging. Kinematic measurement approaches are commonly grounded in models and theories that have emerged exclusively from observations of healthy speakers. However, often these models cannot accommodate the deviant articulatory behaviors of speakers with speech motor impairment. In the present paper, we address this problem. By considering noise as a factor in Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics (AP/TD), we can account for articulatory behaviors that are known to occur in healthy speakers (e.g., during slow speech) as well as in speakers with motor speech impairments. In a proof of concept, we descriptively compare modeled articulatory behaviors that include noise at various levels with empirical data. We view such an extension of the AP/TD as a first step towards a more comprehensive speech production model that can serve as a theoretical framework to study the speech production mechanism in healthy speakers and speakers with motor speech impairments