Sequential Temporal Patterns in Spontaneous Speech

Temporal properties of words are defined by physiological, psychical, and language-specific factors. Lexical representations are assumed to be stored either in a morphologically decomposed form or in a conceptually non-decomposed form. We assumed that the duration of words with and without suffixes would refer to the route of their lexical access. Measured durations of Hungarian nouns with various lengths produced by 10 speakers in spontaneous utterances revealed significant differences, depending on the words’ morphological structures. Durations of monomorphemic nouns were shorter than those of multimorphemic nouns, irrespective of the number of syllables they contained. Our interpretation is that multimorphemic words are accessed decompositionally in spontaneous speech, meaning that stem activation of the semantic representation is followed by activation of one or more suffixes. Durational differences of monomorphemic and multimorphemic words were not stable across word lengths. The number of suffixes did not influence the words’ temporal patterns. Kokkuvõte. Mária Gósy ja Ákos Gocsál: Sufiksiga ja sufiksita sõnade ajaline struktuur spontaanses ungari keeles. Sõnade ajalised omadused sõltuvad füsioloogilistest, psühholoogilistest ja keelespetsiifilistest teguritest. Eelduste kohaselt on sõnad mentaalses leksikonis representeeritud kas morfeemideks analüüsituna või tervikmõistena. Uurimuses lähtuti eeldusest, et sufiksiga ja sufiksita sõnade kestus viitab sellele, kuidas juurdepääs neile toimub. Mõõdeti kümne kõneleja spontaansetes lausungites produtseeritud eri pikkusega ungari nimisõnade kestust. Ilmnes, et kestus sõltus oluliselt sõna morfoloogilisest ülesehitusest. Tüvisõnade kestus oli tuletiste omast lühem, sõltumata silpide arvust sõnas. Järelduseks saadi, et juurdepääs tuletistele toimub spontaanses kõnes osade kaupa: tüve semantilise representatsiooni aktiveerimisele järgneb sufiksi või sufiksite aktiveerimine. Tüvisõnade ja tuletiste kestuserinevused olid eri pikkusega sõnade puhul erinevad. Sufiksite arv sõna ajalist struktuuri ei mõjutanud. Märksõnad: kestus, nimisõnad, tüvisõnad ja tuletised, leksikaalne juurdepääs, spontaansed lausungid

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Cognition and Talk: The Relationship of Semantic Units to Temporal Patterns of Fluency in Spontaneous Speech

Language and Speech ◽

10.1177/002383098602900203 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 141-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

John O. Greene ◽

Joseph N. Cappella

Keyword(s):

Temporal Patterns ◽

Spontaneous Speech ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

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Markovian Prediction of Sequential Temporal Patterns in Spontaneous Speech

Language and Speech ◽

10.1177/002383096801100104 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 27-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Joseph Schwartz ◽

Joseph Jaffe

Keyword(s):

Temporal Patterns ◽

Spontaneous Speech

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Changes in articulation accompanying functional changes in word usage

Journal of the International Phonetic Association ◽

10.1017/s0025100310000058 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 135-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mária Gósy ◽

Viktória Horváth

Keyword(s):

Temporal Patterns ◽

Spontaneous Speech ◽

Functional Change ◽

Original Function ◽

Speech Corpus ◽

Word Usage ◽

Functional Changes ◽

Lexical Function ◽

Second Formant ◽

Male Subjects

Two words in present-day Hungarian, the conjunction tehát ‘that is’ and ‘consequently’ and the pronoun ilyen ‘like this’ seem to be undergoing a functional change, acquiring the function of fillers, while retaining their former lexical function, too. Twenty narratives were drawn from the Hungarian Spontaneous Speech Corpus (BEA), to analyze the acoustic-phonetic patterns of these words. Both words showed significant differences in duration depending on function. The first and second formant values of the conjunction tehát showed significant differences depending on whether it was used as a filler or in its original function as a conjunction. The formants of the stressed vowel in the pronoun ilyen did not show any differences with either males or females, but the second formant of the unstressed vowel, depending on function, showed significant variations with male subjects. Apparently, females make an unconscious distinction between the two functions only by varying the time structure of the word. Our data confirmed that these words are indeed undergoing a functional change, which is manifested in changes of their temporal patterns and, to some extent, in the articulation of their vowels.

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Effects of Gender, Parental Role, and Time on Infant- and Adult-Directed Read and Spontaneous Speech

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2019_jslhr-s-19-0047 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 (11) ◽

pp. 4001-4014

Author(s):

Melanie Weirich ◽

Adrian Simpson

Keyword(s):

Parental Involvement ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Spontaneous Speech ◽

First Year ◽

Space Size ◽

Vowel Space ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Phonetic Features ◽

And Gender ◽

Description Task

Purpose The study sets out to investigate inter- and intraspeaker variation in German infant-directed speech (IDS) and considers the potential impact that the factors gender, parental involvement, and speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech) may have. In addition, we analyze data from 3 time points prior to and after the birth of the child to examine potential changes in the features of IDS and, particularly also, of adult-directed speech (ADS). Here, the gender identity of a speaker is considered as an additional factor. Method IDS and ADS data from 34 participants (15 mothers, 19 fathers) is gathered by means of a reading and a picture description task. For IDS, 2 recordings were made when the baby was approximately 6 and 9 months old, respectively. For ADS, an additional recording was made before the baby was born. Phonetic analyses comprise mean fundamental frequency (f0), variation in f0, the 1st 2 formants measured in /i: ɛ a u:/, and the vowel space size. Moreover, social and behavioral data were gathered regarding parental involvement and gender identity. Results German IDS is characterized by an increase in mean f0, a larger variation in f0, vowel- and formant-specific differences, and a larger acoustic vowel space. No effect of gender or parental involvement was found. Also, the phonetic features of IDS were found in both spontaneous and read speech. Regarding ADS, changes in vowel space size in some of the fathers and in mean f0 in mothers were found. Conclusion Phonetic features of German IDS are robust with respect to the factors gender, parental involvement, speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech), and time. Some phonetic features of ADS changed within the child's first year depending on gender and parental involvement/gender identity. Thus, further research on IDS needs to address also potential changes in ADS.

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Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Naturalness in Speakers of Varying Gender Identities

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00337 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (7) ◽

pp. 2054-2069

Author(s):

Brandon Merritt ◽

Tessa Bent

Keyword(s):

Spontaneous Speech ◽

Identification Accuracy ◽

Rating Task ◽

Gender Identification ◽

Identification Task ◽

Male And Female ◽

Perceptual Evaluation ◽

Speech Training ◽

And Gender ◽

Speech Naturalness

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how speech naturalness relates to masculinity–femininity and gender identification (accuracy and reaction time) for cisgender male and female speakers as well as transmasculine and transfeminine speakers. Method Stimuli included spontaneous speech samples from 20 speakers who are transgender (10 transmasculine and 10 transfeminine) and 20 speakers who are cisgender (10 male and 10 female). Fifty-two listeners completed three tasks: a two-alternative forced-choice gender identification task, a speech naturalness rating task, and a masculinity/femininity rating task. Results Transfeminine and transmasculine speakers were rated as significantly less natural sounding than cisgender speakers. Speakers rated as less natural took longer to identify and were identified less accurately in the gender identification task; furthermore, they were rated as less prototypically masculine/feminine. Conclusions Perceptual speech naturalness for both transfeminine and transmasculine speakers is strongly associated with gender cues in spontaneous speech. Training to align a speaker's voice with their gender identity may concurrently improve perceptual speech naturalness. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12543158

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