Relationships between structural and acoustic properties of maternal talk and children’s early word recognition

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 612-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Suttora ◽  
Nicoletta Salerni ◽  
Paola Zanchi ◽  
Laura Zampini ◽  
Maria Spinelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
High Pitch ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Child Interaction ◽  
Speech Features ◽  
Final Syllable ◽  
Listening Task

This study aimed to investigate specific associations between structural and acoustic characteristics of infant-directed (ID) speech and word recognition. Thirty Italian-acquiring children and their mothers were tested when the children were 1;3. Children’s word recognition was measured with the looking-while-listening task. Maternal ID speech was recorded during a mother–child interaction session and analyzed in terms of amount of speech, lexical and syntactic complexity, positional salience of nouns and verbs, high pitch and variation, and temporal characteristics. The analyses revealed that final syllable length positively predicts children’s accuracy in word recognition whereas the use of verbs in the utterance-final position has an adverse effect on children’s performance. Several of the expected associations between ID speech features and children’s word recognition skills, however, were not significant. Taken together, these findings suggest that only specific structural and acoustic properties of ID speech can facilitate word recognition in children, thereby fostering their ability to extrapolate sound patterns from the stream and map them with their referents.

scholarly journals Efficiency of the energy contained in modulators in the Arabic vowels recognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 3601
Author(s):  
Nesrine Abajaddi ◽  
Youssef Elfahm ◽  
Badia Mounir ◽  
Laila Elmaazouzi ◽  
Ilham Mounir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Spoken Word Recognition ◽  
Recognition Rate ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Important Process ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Demodulation Method

<span>The speech signal is described as many acoustic properties that may contribute differently to spoken word recognition. Vowel characterization is an important process of studying the acoustic characteristics or behaviors of speech within different contexts. This current study focuses on the modulators characteristics of three Arabic vowels, we proposed a new approach to characterize the three Arabic vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/. The proposed method is based on the energy contained in the speech modulators. The coherent subband demodulation method related to the spectral center of gravity (COG) was used to calculate the energy of the speech modulators. The obtained results showed that the modulators energy help characterize the Arabic vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ with an interesting recognition rate ranging from 86% to 100%.</span>

Acoustical Analysis of Spanish Vowels Produced by Laryngectomized Subjects

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 988-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Cervera ◽  
José L. Miralles ◽  
Julio González-Àlvarez
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Word Context ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
English Speaking

The purpose of this study was to describe the acoustic characteristics of Spanish vowels in subjects who had undergone a total laryngectomy and to compare the results with those obtained in a control group of subjects who spoke normally. Our results are discussed in relation to those obtained in previous studies with English-speaking laryngectomized patients. The comparison between English and Spanish, which differ widely in the size of their vowel inventories, will help us to determine specific or universal vowel production characteristics in these patients. Our second objective was to relate the acoustic properties of these vowels to the perceptual data obtained in our previous work (J. L. Miralles & T. Cervera, 1995). In that study, results indicated that vowels produced by alaryngeal speakers were well perceived in word context. Vowels were produced in CVCV word context by two groups of patients who had undergone laryngectomy: tracheoesophageal speakers (TES) and esophageal speakers. In addition a control group of normal talkers was included. Audio recordings of 24 Spanish words produced by each speaker were analyzed using CSL (Kay Elemetrics). Results showed that F1, F2, and vowel duration of alaryngeal speakers differ significantly from normal values. In general, laryngectomized patients produce vowels with higher formant frequencies and longer durations than the group of laryngeal subjects. Thus, the data indicate modifications either in the frequency or temporal domain, following the same tendency found in previous studies with English-speaking laryngectomized speakers.

scholarly journals Acoustic properties of word and phrasal prominence in Uzbek

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Angeliki Athanasopoulou ◽  
Irene Vogel ◽  
Hossep Dolatian
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
New Information ◽  
Final Stress ◽  
Boundary Properties ◽  
Baseline Information ◽  
Final Syllable ◽  
Dialogue Types ◽  
Information Focus

Based on a large-scale corpus of experimental data produced by 8 native speakers of Tashkent Uzbek, we assess the presence of canonical word-final stress in real words spoken in three dialogue types: without focus, with contrastive focus, and with new information focus on the target. The first context provides baseline information regarding the manifestation of stress, in the absence of additional focus properties. By comparing the latter two contexts with the former, we are also able to assess the acoustic manifestation of the two types of focus. The most noteworthy properties of the final syllable are its relatively long duration and sharp falling contour, potentially serving as the cues to lexical stress, and enhanced by both types of focus. Due to the word-final position of stress, however, the patterns we observe could also be consistent with boundary properties, a possibility we consider as well. In addition, we briefly compare the prosodic patterns we observe in Uzbek with similarly collected data in Turkish. We find that the prominence patterns in Uzbek, while not particularly strong, are nevertheless stronger than those in Turkish, and also exhibit crucial differences. Implications for Turkic prosody more generally are also suggested.

Experimantal study of acoustic properties of saturated sand in the temperature range –20+20 ᵒC

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
M. S. Sudakova ◽  
M. L. Vladov
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Freezing And Thawing ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Ground Sample ◽  
S Waves ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Waves

Water phase transition divides the areas of soil approximation from the point of view of its elastic properties. It is interesting to study changing of acoustic characteristics, both kinematic and dynamic, in the process of freezing and thawing, since they can be indicators of various inelastic characteristics of the transition from one state to another. In the article we present results of initial stage of research on the topic identified in the title. This includes: design of a measuring cell that introduces minimal distortions in ultrasonic p and s waves measurements on water-saturates ground sample, monitoring sample temperature, performing ultrasonic measurements with a time step that provides necessary detailing for observing time and temperature dependencies of the waves characteristics registered during the phase transition data analisys.

Testing the Hyperarticulation and Prosodic Hypotheses of Child-Directed Speech: Insights From the Perceptual and Acoustic Characteristics of Child-Directed Cantonese Tones

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 1907-1925
Author(s):  
Puisan Wong ◽  
Kelly Wing Sum Ng
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Perceptual Accuracy ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
Lowering Effect ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Pitch Level

Purpose The function of child-directed speech has been debated for decades. This study examined the perceptual and acoustic characteristics of child- and adult-directed Cantonese tones to test the hyperarticulation and prosodic hypotheses that have been proposed to account for the acoustic modifications in child-directed speech. Method Sixty-two mother–child dyads participated in the study. The mothers verbally labeled 30 pictures in monosyllabic isolated words and in the final position of a carrier sentence to the experimenter and their 1- to 5-year-old children. The 8,634 adult- and child-directed productions were low-pass filtered to eliminate lexical information and presented to 5 judges for tone identification. Acoustic analysis was performed on the productions. Results Acoustically, child-directed tones were produced with an elevated pitch, and the pitch level decreased as the child's age increased. Acoustic contrasts between phonetically similar and more confusing tones were not enhanced in child-directed speech, and unexpectedly, child-directed tones were identified with a lower accuracy than adult-directed tones. The perceptual errors of child-directed tones mirrored the errors found in identifying tones excised from sentence-final position, which had a pitch-lowering effect on the tones. The lower perceptual accuracy, the lack of enhanced acoustic contrasts in confusing tone pairs, and the similarities in the error patterns in identifying tones in child-directed speech and tones in utterance-final position suggest that the acoustic modifications in child-directed tones are prosodic effects serving pragmatic purposes. Conclusion The findings reject the hyperarticulation hypothesis and support the prosodic hypothesis of child-directed speech.

A Preliminary Study of Subjective Frequency Estimates of Words Spoken in Cantonese

2001 ◽  
Vol 88 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1253-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. W. Yip
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
University Students ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Subjective Frequency ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
Frequency Counts

A database is presented of the subjective frequency estimates for a set of 30 Chinese homophones. The estimates are based on analysis of responses from a simple listening task by 120 University students. On the listening task, they are asked to mention the first meaning thought of upon hearing a Chinese homophone by writing down the corresponding Chinese characters. There was correlation of .66 between the frequency of spoken and written words, suggesting distributional information about the lexical representations is generally independent of modality. These subjective frequency counts should be useful in the construction of material sets for research on word recognition using spoken Chinese (Cantonese).

scholarly journals Effects of the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech on infant word recognition

2010 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Yung Song ◽  
Katherine Demuth ◽  
James Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Acoustic Properties

scholarly journals The effect of emotion on voice production and speech acoustics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Emotional Speech ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Voice Production ◽  
Acoustic Measures ◽  
Vocal Fold Dynamics ◽  
Speech Planning ◽  
Response Patterning ◽  
The Voice

The study of emotional expression in the voice has typically relied on acted portrayals of emotions, with the majority of studies focussing on the perception of emotion in such portrayals. The acoustic characteristics of natural, often involuntary encoding of emotion in the voice, and the mechanisms responsible for such vocal modulation, have received little attention from researchers. The small number of studies on natural or induced emotional speech have failed to identify acoustic patterns specific to different emotions. Instead, most acoustic changes measured have been explainable as resulting from the level of physiological arousal characteristic of different emotions. Thus measurements of the acoustic properties of angry, happy and fearful speech have been similar, corresponding to their similar elevated arousal levels. An opposing view, the most elaborate description of which was given by Scherer (1986), is that emotions affect the acoustic characteristics of speech along a number of dimensions, not only arousal. The lack of empirical data supporting such a theory has been blamed on the lack of sophistication of acoustic analyses in the little research that has been done.By inducing real emotional states in the laboratory, using a variety of computer administered induction methods, this thesis aimed to test the two opposing accounts of how emotion affects the voice. The induction methods were designed to manipulate some of the principal dimensions along which, according to multidimensional theories, emotional speech is expected to vary. A set of acoustic parameters selected to capture temporal, fundamental frequency (F0), intensity and spectral vocal characteristics of the voice was extracted from speech recordings. In addition, electroglottal and physiological measurements were made in parallel with speech recordings, in an effort to determine the mechanisms underlying the measured acoustic changes.The results indicate that a single arousal dimension cannot adequately describe a range of emotional vocal changes, and lend weight to a theory of multidimensional emotional response patterning as suggested by Scherer and others. The correlations between physiological and acoustic measures, although small, indicate that variations in sympathetic autonomic arousal do correspond to changes to F0 level and vocal fold dynamics as indicated by electroglottography. Changes to spectral properties, speech fluency, and F0 dynamics, however, can not be fully explained in terms of sympathetic arousal, and are probably related as well to cognitive processes involved in speech planning.

The acoustic advantage of hunting at low heights above water: behavioural experiments on the European ‘trawling’ bats Myotis capaccinii, M. dasycneme and M. daubentonii

2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (22) ◽  
pp. 3843-3854
Author(s):  
Björn M. Siemers ◽  
Peter Stilz ◽  
Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler
Keyword(s):  
Smooth Surface ◽  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Foraging Strategy ◽  
Pressure Level ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
The World ◽  
Calm Water ◽  
Behavioural Experiments ◽  
Different Parts

SUMMARY We have demonstrated in behavioural experiments that success in capturing prey from surfaces in ‘trawling Myotis’ (Leuconoë-type) depends on the acoustic properties of the surface on which the prey is presented. Two types of surface structure were ensonified with artificial bat signals to probe their acoustic characteristics. We have shown that perception of prey by echolocation is easier if the prey is presented on a smooth surface (such as calm water) than if it is presented on a structured surface (such as vegetation or the ground). This is because the smooth surface reflects a much lower level of clutter echoes than the structured one if ensonified at an angle typical for bats foraging low over water. The ensonification experiments revealed that the sound pressure level of the echo was even higher for mealworms on a smooth surface than for mealworms suspended in air. This might be because waves travelling via the surface also contribute to the echo (e.g. reflection from the surface to the mealworm, back to the surface and then to the receiver). From the behavioural experiments, we conclude that ‘trawling Myotis’ take isolated objects on smooth (water) surfaces for prey. Those objects reflect isolated, stationary acoustic glints back to the echolocating bats. Conversely, ‘trawling Myotis’ will not recognise prey if prey echoes are embedded in numerous clutter echoes. We have demonstrated marked similarities between the three European ‘trawling Myotis’ species M. dasycneme, M. daubentonii and M. capaccinii in echolocation behaviour, search image, foraging strategy and prey perception. We propose that a combination of prey abundance and acoustic advantages could have led to repeated and convergent evolution of ‘trawling’ bats in different parts of the world.

Acoustic properties of vowels in Upper Necaxa Totonac

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Michelle García-Vega ◽  
Benjamin V. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Second Formant

Upper Necaxa Totonac is a Totonacan language spoken in the Necaxa River valley in the Sierra Norte of Puebla State, Mexico. While the Totonacan languages historically have three phonemic vowel qualities, the Upper Necaxa system consists of five vowels that contrast length and laryngealization. With acoustic data from six native speakers from the Totonacan communities of Patla and Chicontla, we explore the phonetic properties of vowels with respect to the first and second formant frequencies, quantity (duration), vowel phonation (modal vs. laryngeal), and stress. The data indicate that long, short, modal and laryngeal vowels occupy a similar formant space and that duration is the primary phonetic correlate of phonemic vowel length. A shift in vowel quality and an increase in duration and pitch were shown to be the acoustic characteristics of stress. The study provides a first acoustic analysis of vowels in Upper Necaxa, and contributes to typological descriptions of the properties of vowels connected with quality, quantity, stress, and phonation.

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