Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 8-48
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Speech Rate ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Articulatory Phonology ◽  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Articulatory Movement ◽  
Key Features

This chapter summarizes the basic mechanisms of the Articulatory Phonology model, currently the most thoroughly worked-out model in the literature, with a focus on its system-intrinsic mechanisms used to account for systematic variation in speech timing. Key features of the model are reviewed, and oscillator-based mechanisms are described for timing control for articulatory gestures, control of inter-gestural coordination, prosodic timing control, and the control of overall speech rate. Strengths of the AP/TD approach are discussed, which include facts that are well-accounted-for within this model, such as the predominance of CV syllables within the world’s languages, as well as characteristics of processing within the model that are assumed to be advantageous, such as the avoidance of the need to explicitly plan the details of articulatory movement when planning an utterance. This presentation forms the basis of the evaluation presented in subsequent chapters.

scholarly journals Timing in talking: what is it used for, and how is it controlled?

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1658) ◽  
pp. 20130395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Control ◽  
Motor Control ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Optimal Control Theory ◽  
Interval Duration ◽  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Rate Of Speech ◽  
Prosodic Structures

In the first part of the paper, we summarize the linguistic factors that shape speech timing patterns, including the prosodic structures which govern them, and suggest that speech timing patterns are used to aid utterance recognition. In the spirit of optimal control theory, we propose that recognition requirements are balanced against requirements such as rate of speech and style, as well as movement costs, to yield (near-)optimal planned surface timing patterns; additional factors may influence the implementation of that plan. In the second part of the paper, we discuss theories of timing control in models of speech production and motor control. We present three types of evidence that support models of speech production that involve extrinsic timing. These include (i) increasing variability with increases in interval duration, (ii) evidence that speakers refer to and plan surface durations, and (iii) independent timing of movement onsets and offsets.

The prosodic governance of surface phonetic variation: Support for an alternative approach III

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Adjustment Mechanisms ◽  
Speech Motor

Effects of prosodic structure on surface phonetics are modeled in AP/TD in two ways: 1) via a set of PI and MuT adjustment mechanisms used to model lengthening effects at boundaries and on prominent syllables, and 2) via a hierarchy of coupled syllable, cross-word foot, and phrase oscillators, used to model poly-subconstituent shortening effects, and to control overall speech rate. These mechanisms are challenged by 1) findings presented in previous chapters that suggest that longer durations associated with boundaries and prominences are due to longer surface duration specifications, 2) findings presented here that show that polysyllabic shortening does not affect all words in an utterance, inconsistent with an oscillator-based mechanism that controls all aspects of any produced utterance, and 3) findings relating to speech rate presented in previous chapters which suggest that speech rate specifications relate to surface durations, rather than to planning oscillator frequencies. Patterns of speech timing presented in this chapter thus suggest that there are reasons to be uncertain whether periodicity is a major factor in speech motor control in typical speaking circumstances, and therefore call into question the use of suprasegmental oscillators.

Evidence motivating consideration of an alternative approach

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Motor Control ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Speech Motor Control ◽  
Articulatory Phonology ◽  
Fitts Law ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Principled Explanation ◽  
Spatial Interference ◽  
Normal Speech ◽  
Speech Motor

This chapter begins to motivate the development of an alternative approach to speech production by pointing out three potential difficulties with the highly-successful Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics approach. First, it discusses the extensive nature of modifications to AP/TD default specifications required to account for the wide variety of surface phonetic forms. The need for a large number of adjustments in AP/TD raises questions about the appropriateness of the AP/TD default-adjustment approach, which would have been more appropriate if the default, non-prominent, phrase-medial, normal-speech-rate specifications could be used most of the time. Second, it discusses the lack of a principled explanation for behaviors described by Fitts’ law. While the theory can accommodate some aspects of Fitts’ law, others are not explained or accommodated. Finally, it suggests that AP/TD’s gestural score architecture raises the risk of spatial interference among overlapping, independent gestures. These three challenges taken together set the stage for the discussion of additional challenges in Chapter 4, which further motivate consideration of phonology-extrinsic-timing-based approaches to speech motor control.

Timing Control Accuracy in Normal Speakers and Stutterers

1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret H. Cooper ◽  
George D. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Motor Output ◽  
Finger Tapping ◽  
Output Buffer ◽  
Speech Sample ◽  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Speech Segment ◽  
Speech Motor ◽  
Control Accuracy

This study attempted to assess the abilities of 10 normal speakers, five stutterers in therapy, and five stutterers no longer in therapy, to control the time program of repeated utterances. The speech sample comprised repeated sentences, paragraphs, and nursery rhymes, and a finger-tapping task was included as a control. Temporal accuracy was measured. Results suggest that (1) there is a wide range of timing abilities, even among the normal speakers, with considerable overlap between the different groups of speakers; (2) on most of the experimental tasks, normal speakers are more accurate timers than are stutterers; (3) stutterers released from therapy are more accurate timers than are stutterers still in therapy, whenever these groups differ; and (4) subjects' speech timing scores correlate moderately with their tapping scores. These results are discussed in terms of (1) theoretical timing control processes, such as a neural clock for controlling speech segment durations, and a speech motor output buffer, whose capacity may be limited in stutterers, and (2) known effects of rhythmic constraints and respiratory irregularity on fluency.

On the characteristics of English speech timing control by Japanese learners

2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 3175-3175
Author(s):  
Hajime Tsubaki ◽  
Shizuka Nakamura ◽  
Yoshinori Sagisaka
Keyword(s):  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Japanese Learners

Articulatory Phonology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Pouplier
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Articulatory Phonology ◽  
Control Units ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
The Many ◽  
Low Dimensional ◽  
Linguistic Units

One of the most fundamental problems in research on spoken language is to understand how the categorical, systemic knowledge that speakers have in the form of a phonological grammar maps onto the continuous, high-dimensional physical speech act that transmits the linguistic message. The invariant units of phonological analysis have no invariant analogue in the signal—any given phoneme can manifest itself in many possible variants, depending on context, speech rate, utterance position and the like, and the acoustic cues for a given phoneme are spread out over time across multiple linguistic units. Speakers and listeners are highly knowledgeable about the lawfully structured variation in the signal and they skillfully exploit articulatory and acoustic trading relations when speaking and perceiving. For the scientific description of spoken language understanding this association between abstract, discrete categories and continuous speech dynamics remains a formidable challenge. Articulatory Phonology and the associated Task Dynamic model present one particular proposal on how to step up to this challenge using the mathematics of dynamical systems with the central insight being that spoken language is fundamentally based on the production and perception of linguistically defined patterns of motion. In Articulatory Phonology, primitive units of phonological representation are called gestures. Gestures are defined based on linear second order differential equations, giving them inherent spatial and temporal specifications. Gestures control the vocal tract at a macroscopic level, harnessing the many degrees of freedom in the vocal tract into low-dimensional control units. Phonology, in this model, thus directly governs the spatial and temporal orchestration of vocal tract actions.

Coordination: Support for an alternative approach II

Speech Timing ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 102-131
Author(s):  
Alice Turk ◽  
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Information ◽  
Relative Timing ◽  
Timing Control ◽  
Movement Coordination ◽  
Coupled Oscillator ◽  
Movement Timing ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Oscillator Phase ◽  
Phase Relationships

Two key features of the current AP/TD coupled-oscillator approach to movement coordination are that 1) coordination among gestures is treated as relative timing control, accomplished via planning-oscillator phase relationships, rather than coordination based on spatial information or absolute timing, and 2) coordination is based on the (relative) timing of movement onsets, rather than the timing of target achievement. Evidence bearing on both of these issues suggests that 1) patterns of relative timing do not necessarily require implementation via oscillator phase relationships, and 2) coordination is often based on the part of movement most closely related to the goal (often the endpoint), rather than on movement onsets (as proposed in recent versions of AP/TD). This chapter includes a discussion of alternative, i.e. non-oscillator-based, mechanisms that can model both the coordination of movements for synchronous target achievement, and the planning of movement timing when targets are sequential.

Development of Speech Timing Control in Children

1975 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth M. Tingley ◽  
George D. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing

Children's speech timing control

1974 ◽  
Vol 55 (S1) ◽  
pp. S43-S43
Author(s):  
George D. Allen ◽  
Beth M. Tingley
Keyword(s):  
Timing Control ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
Children's Speech

Impact of Cognitive Impairment and Dysarthria on Spoken Language in Multiple Sclerosis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Lynda Feenaughty ◽  
Ling-Yu Guo ◽  
Bianca Weinstock-Guttman ◽  
Meredith Ray ◽  
Ralph H.B. Benedict ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Pause Duration ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Perceptual Judgments ◽  
Speech Timing ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objective: To investigate the impact of cognitive impairment on spoken language produced by speakers with multiple sclerosis (MS) with and without dysarthria. Method: Sixty speakers comprised operationally defined groups. Speakers produced a spontaneous speech sample to obtain speech timing measures of speech rate, articulation rate, and silent pause frequency and duration. Twenty listeners judged the overall perceptual severity of the samples using a visual analog scale that ranged from no impairment to severe impairment (speech severity). A 2 × 2 factorial design examined main and interaction effects of dysarthria and cognitive impairment on speech timing measures and speech severity in individuals with MS. Each speaker group with MS was further compared to a healthy control group. Exploratory regression analyses examined relationships between cognitive and biopsychosocial variables and speech timing measures and perceptual judgments of speech severity, for speakers with MS. Results: Speech timing was significantly slower for speakers with dysarthria compared to speakers with MS without dysarthria. Silent pause durations also significantly differed for speakers with both dysarthria and cognitive impairment compared to MS speakers without either impairment. Significant interactions between dysarthria and cognitive factors revealed comorbid dysarthria and cognitive impairment contributed to slowed speech rates in MS, whereas dysarthria alone impacted perceptual judgments of speech severity. Speech severity was strongly related to pause duration. Conclusions: The findings suggest the nature in which dysarthria and cognitive symptoms manifest in objective, acoustic measures of speech timing and perceptual judgments of severity is complex.

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