Generation of Pauses Within the Z-Score Model

We have previously proposed [BB94] a model for the generation of segmental durations which proceeds in two steps : (a) prediction of the timing of a salient acoustic event per syllable according to phonotactic and syntactic information, and (b) application of a repartition model which determines the duration of each individual segment between these events. This paper focusses on the repartition model and describes how the initial model has been enriched to account for the emergence of pauses as speech rate is decreased. The last section of this paper describes a perceptual evaluation of the whole model. This evaluation shows that, for the same distribution of prediction errors, a precise timing of these events is perceptually more relevant than a segment-based method aiming at predicting precisely each individual segmental duration

Levels of Representation and Levels of Analysis for the Description of Intonation Systems.

It is argued that a satisfactory global theory of intonation will require four levels of analysis : (i) physical (acoustic, physiological) (ii) phonetic (iii) surface phonological and (iv) deep phonological. The theoretical and cognitive status of each level is discussed and specific proposals are made for a model respecting such an overall architecture as well as a condition of interpretability which requires that each level of representation be interpretable in terms of adjacent levels. The level of phonetic representation is conceived of as providing an interface between abstract cognitive representations and their physical manifestations. This level is also assumed to provide an interface between constraints on production and perception. For fundamental frequency an algorithm, MOMEL, for the automatic derivation of a representation as a sequence of target-points is presented. The level of surface phonological representation is seen as the prosodic equivalent of the International Ph..