Search Results (29)

Previous research on Mandarin Chinese tones and intonation has focused primarily on universal sentence pitch patterns (declination) and sentence types (declarative and interrogative). The specific impact of internal syntactic structures remains under-explored. This study presents two acoustic experiments using controlled Tone 1 (high-level) stimuli to isolate intonational “big waves” from lexical “small ripples”. Experiment 1 investigates how syntactic position (subject vs. object), relative clause type (subject-relative vs. object-relative), and word class (verb vs. noun) influence pitch contours. Experiment 2 resolves conflicting findings regarding word-class pitch by testing nouns and verbs across four sentential contexts. The results indicate that subject positions carry significantly higher pitch than object positions, reflecting an interaction between SVO word order and declination. Crucially, subject-relative (SR) clauses exhibit a falling pitch tendency, while object-relative (OR) clauses show a rising trend. These results suggest that pitch realization is a complex “algebraic sum” of universal phonological trends, syntactic hierarchy, and semantic information structure. Full article

This article presents articulatory–kinematic data on preboundary lengthening (Intonational Phrase-final lengthening) from the productions of ten native speakers of American English—a relatively rare class of phonetic data compared with the more widely available acoustic data. The dataset includes three trisyllabic nonce words (bábaba, babába, bababá), each designed to manipulate the location of lexical stress. These were produced under prosodic conditions that varied in boundary position and focus-induced phrasal prominence, enabling analysis of how preboundary lengthening is distributed across words with different lexical stress locations and how it interacts with prosodic prominence. Articulatory data were collected using electromagnetic articulography (EMA, Carstens AG200), providing kinematic measurements such as movement duration, peak velocity, and displacement of articulatory gestures. The accompanying files allow examination of individual speaker variation in these measures as modulated by prosodic structure, including boundary and prominence effects. While theoretical findings have been reported in a previous study, the full dataset, including detailed descriptions of individual speaker patterns, is made available here. By making these less commonly available articulatory data publicly available, we aim to promote broad reuse and support further research in prosody, articulatory phonetics, and speech production. Full article

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is characterized by atypical timing between segments, leading to prosodic disruption at the lexical level. This study tested whether prosodic impairment in CAS extends to the intonational level by examining declination of fundamental frequency (f0). Eleven children with CAS and ten typically developing (TD) peers aged 5 to 11 years old produced real and nonce multisyllabic words embedded in carrier phrases. Acoustic measures of inter-segment duration (within-word, between-word) and average f0 across segments were extracted. Children with CAS exhibited significantly longer inter-segment durations both within and between words, influenced by lexical stress position (first syllable, second syllable) and word status (real, nonce). They also showed shallower f0 declination slopes than TD peers, indicating reduced overall pitch fall. Segmentation and declination were not significantly correlated, suggesting distinct mechanisms underlying timing and pitch organization. Consistent with prior work, segmentation was greatest for nonce words with non-initial stress. Reduced declination in CAS may reflect limitations in prosodic planning or programming at the intonational level. These findings highlight dissociable disruptions in timing and pitch patterning in CAS, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of prosodic control in motor speech disorders. Full article

This paper presents novel evidence that particle-stranding ellipsis in Japanese is best accounted for by PF-deletion rather than by its theoretical competitor, LF-copying. I begin by examining a central prediction of the LF-copying analysis, which states that overt extraction is categorically ruled out, and show that this prediction is not supported by the empirical data. Additional evidence comes from covert across-the-board movement, as I demonstrate that particle-stranding ellipsis can occur in environments that are argued to involve this type of movement. This finding presents a serious derivational challenge to the LF-copying theory, given the widely accepted view that covert across-the-board movement is not permitted in the grammar. In addition to these syntactic observations, I present previously unreported prosodic evidence showing that particle-stranding ellipsis involving the negative polarity item -sika can exhibit focus intonation. As the LF-copying analysis cannot account for this prosodic pattern, the data provide strong support for the PF-deletion account. Finally, I show that these findings are well explained by the phonology-based deletion model that was originally proposed in the literature. Full article

This study examines the impact of spoken data collection techniques and language background on falling, level, and rising tones. Elicited data from a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), structured speech from a collaborative oral assessment task, and naturalistic speech from a comprehensive corpus of inner-circle and Hong Kong English were analyzed for Discourse Intonation features, resulting in 2756 tone choices by 184 speakers. Multinomial logistic regression indicates that structured speech by L2 English learners and naturalistic speech by both inner circle and Hong Kong English speakers exhibited similar tone choice patterns. However, DCT responses by L2 English learners contained significantly fewer level tones and more rising tones. Qualitative analyses suggest that contrary to naturalistic studies, L2 learners use rising tones to focus their attention on the speaker during a request. L1 users, on the other hand, used a variety of tone choices that focus on language and mitigate directness. Overall, these results add further evidence that DCTs do not elicit speech that generalizes to naturalistic discourse. Structured tasks in which two L2 speakers interact mirror the rates of the inner circle and Hong Kong English speakers detected in this study. Full article

Spoken language identification (SLI) relies on detecting key frequency characteristics like pitch, tone, and rhythm. While the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) generates time–frequency acoustic features (TFAF) for deep learning networks (DLNs), rectangular convolution kernels cause frequency mixing and aliasing, degrading feature extraction. We propose filamentary convolution to replace rectangular kernels, reducing the parameters while preserving inter-frame features by focusing solely on frequency patterns. Visualization confirms its enhanced sensitivity to critical frequency variations (e.g., intonation, rhythm) for language recognition. Evaluated via self-built datasets and cross-validated with public corpora, filamentary convolution improves the low-level feature extraction efficiency and synergizes with temporal models (LSTM/TDNN) to boost recognition. This method addresses aliasing limitations while maintaining computational efficiency in SLI systems. Full article

Evidence suggests that carriers of FMR1 mutations (e.g., fragile X syndrome and the FMR1 premutation) may demonstrate specific phenotypic patterns shared with autism (AU), particularly in the domain of pragmatic language, which involves the use of language in social contexts. Such evidence may implicate FMR1, a high-confidence gene associated with AU, in components of the AU phenotype. Prosody (i.e., using intonation and rhythm in speech to express meaning) is a pragmatic feature widely impacted in AU. Prosodic differences have also been observed in unaffected relatives of autistic individuals and in those with fragile X syndrome, although prosody has not been extensively studied among FMR1 premutation carriers. This study investigated how FMR1 variability may specifically influence prosody by examining the prosodic characteristics and related neural processing of prosodic features in women carrying the FMR1 premutation (PM). In Study 1, acoustic measures of prosody (i.e., in intonation and rhythm) were examined in speech samples elicited from a semi-structured narrative task. Study 2 examined the neural frequency following response (FFR) as an index of speech prosodic processing. Findings revealed differences in the production of intonation and rhythm in PM carriers relative to controls, with patterns that parallel differences identified in parents of autistic individuals. No differences in neural processing of prosodic cues were found. Post hoc analyses further revealed associations between speech rhythm and FMR1 variation (number of CGG repeats) among PM carriers. Together, the results suggest that FMR1 may play a role in speech prosodic phenotypes, at least in speech production, contributing to a deeper understanding of AU-related speech and language phenotypes among FMR1 mutation carriers. Full article

This paper investigates the relationship between syllabic duration and F0 contours for implementing three prosodic functions. Work on rhythm usually describes the evolution of syllable-sized durations throughout utterances, rarely making reference to melodic events. On the other hand, work on intonation usually describes linear sequences of melodic events with indirect references to duration. Although some scholars have explored the relationship between these two parameters for particular functions, to our knowledge, there has been no investigation on the systematic correlation between syllabic duration and F0 values throughout narrative sequences. Based on a corpus of story retelling with nine speakers of Brazilian Portuguese from two regions, our work investigated the interplay between syllabic duration and melody to signal three prosodic functions: terminal and non-terminal boundary marking and prominence. The examination of local syllabic duration maxima and four F0 descriptors revealed that these maxima act as landmarks for particular F0 shapes: for non-terminal boundaries, the great majority of shapes were increasing and increasing–decreasing patterns; for terminal boundaries, almost all shapes were decreasing F0 patterns; and for prominence marking, the great majority of shapes were high tones across the stressed syllable. Time series analyses revealed significant correlations between duration and specific F0 descriptors, pointing to a ruled interplay between F0 and syllabic duration patterns in Brazilian Portuguese story retelling. Full article

This study presents a pioneering approach that leverages advanced sensing technologies and data processing techniques to enhance the process of clinical documentation generation during medical consultations. By employing sophisticated sensors to capture and interpret various cues such as speech patterns, intonations, or pauses, the system aims to accurately perceive and understand patient–doctor interactions in real time. This sensing capability allows for the automation of transcription and summarization tasks, facilitating the creation of concise and informative clinical documents. Through the integration of automatic speech recognition sensors, spoken dialogue is seamlessly converted into text, enabling efficient data capture. Additionally, deep models such as Transformer models are utilized to extract and analyze crucial information from the dialogue, ensuring that the generated summaries encapsulate the essence of the consultations accurately. Despite encountering challenges during development, experimentation with these sensing technologies has yielded promising results. The system achieved a maximum ROUGE-1 metric score of 0.57, demonstrating its effectiveness in summarizing complex medical discussions. This sensor-based approach aims to alleviate the administrative burden on healthcare professionals by automating documentation tasks and safeguarding important patient information. Ultimately, by enhancing the efficiency and reliability of clinical documentation, this innovative method contributes to improving overall healthcare outcomes. Full article

This paper applies the Autosegmental Metrical (AM) model of intonation phonology and the Spanish Tones and Break Indices (Sp_ToBI) annotation conventions to compare the intonational contours of declarative sentences in two varieties of Puerto Rican Spanish: (1) San Juan Spanish, spoken in the capital city of San Juan, and (2) Loíza Spanish, an Afro-Hispanic vernacular spoken in Loíza. The geographical proximity between these two municipalities entails constant contact within a shared linguistic space. However, speakers from San Juan perceive Loíza as a municipality that has its own peculiar way of speaking. The acoustic and phonological analysis was carried out with PRAAT to verify whether pitch accents coincide in the spontaneous speech of the two analyzed varieties. The data we examined contain an overall predominance of the bitonal pitch accents L*+H and L+<H* in San Juan Spanish, and L+H* in Loíza Spanish. Findings show both similarities and differences within the two speech communities, as well as with intonational patterns in other (Afro-)Hispanic varieties. These results provide new information on spontaneous declarative intonation in (Afro-)Puerto Rican Spanish by offering a new perspective on the origin of a set of the prosodic phenomena found in these two varieties. Full article

The present study explores intonational patterns in spontaneous speech in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish (PAS). The data came from 12 monolingual Spanish speakers in the city of Pucallpa, where the Spanish language has historically been in contact with the Amazonian language Shipibo-Konibo. The speakers responded to an open-ended prompt that elicited broad focus declaratives. Acoustic information from 1524 pitch accents was extracted from 194 sentences and analyzed using Praat. The analysis focused on five features: F0 rises, F0 peak alignment, downstepping, final lowering, and cases of stress clash. The results not only supported previous research on this variety that came from read speech tasks (e.g., F0 peaks consistently aligned with the stressed syllable), but also highlighted the importance of using multiple methodologies to gain a more comprehensive understanding of PAS prosody. Specifically, the varied sentence lengths and structures common in spontaneous speech provided new insights into downstepping, final lowering, and stress clash in PAS intonation. Overall, these results contribute to the growing literature on Spanish prosody in shared linguistic spaces and lend support for trends (such as F0 peak alignment) that have been reported in other language contact varieties. Full article

This paper presents an inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones in Galician Spanish (GS), a variety spoken in Northwestern Spain. Research so far has focused on explaining GS intonation features as transfer phenomena from Galician, the vernacular Romance language in the region. Because of this, previous studies have often included Galician L1 speakers, for whom transfer is expected when speaking Spanish L2. However, GS is the single L1 of half the children in Galicia, and it is spoken almost exclusively by about a quarter of Galicians. Our study focuses on this population and investigates the relative frequency and distribution of tonal units in GS when direct transfer from Galician is unlikely. A corpus of 1706 sentences (statements, questions, imperatives, and vocatives in neutral and biased contexts) was obtained from 28 participants through a discourse completion task. Results showed that patterns previously attributed to direct transfer from Galician L1 (for example, upstepped final accents in neutral declaratives or falling contours in unmarked interrogatives) are widespread in GS as L1. Findings also show commonalities with other L1 Spanish varieties, both in Europe (for example, L* L% as the unmarked declarative ending) and America (for example, the L* + H prenuclear accent of Caribbean varieties). Full article

This paper discusses the challenges posed in creating a Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) environment for multiple languages. By selecting one language from each of three different language families, we show that a single environment may be tailored to cater for different target languages. We detail the challenges faced during the development of a multimodal CAPT environment comprising a toolkit that manages mobile applications using speech signal processing, visualization, and estimation algorithms. Since the applied underlying mathematical and phonological models, as well as the feedback production algorithms, are based on sound signal processing and modeling rather than on particular languages, the system is language-agnostic and serves as an open toolkit for developing phrasal intonation training exercises for an open selection of languages. However, it was necessary to tailor the CAPT environment to the language-specific particularities in the multilingual setups, especially the additional requirements for adequate and consistent speech evaluation and feedback production. In our work, we describe our response to the challenges in visualizing and segmenting recorded pitch signals and modeling the language melody and rhythm necessary for such a multilingual adaptation, particularly for tonal syllable-timed and mora-timed languages. Full article

Utterances containing verbal irony display prosodic particularities that distinguish them from non-ironic speech. While some prosodic features of irony have been identified in Spanish, previous studies have not accounted for different subtypes, nor have they examined this phenomenon in Chilean Spanish despite the unique intonation patterns in this dialect. This study examined the acoustic and prosodic correlates of five subtypes of irony (jocularity, rhetorical questions, understatements, hyperbole, and sarcasm) spontaneously occurring in the casual speech of sociolinguistic interviews with fifteen Chilean women. We segmented 3907 syllable nuclei from 197 spontaneously occurring instances of irony and compared the syllables within the ironic utterances to those in the pre-ironic utterances, along seven acoustic and prosodic variables: pitch range, duration, F0, F1, F2, H1*–H2*, and HNR. The results showed that the speakers favored jocularity and did not produce sarcasm or understatements, and that jocularity, hyperbole, and rhetorical questions significantly differed from the baseline utterances along a variety of acoustic and prosodic measures. We argue that these cues contributed to marking the ironic utterances as salient, allowing these women to talk about difficult real-life events with a touch of humor. Our study provides additional evidence for the connection between prosody and pragmatics in Chilean Spanish and lays the groundwork for further examination of irony and prosody in this and other Spanish dialects. Full article

This explorative study examines intonation contours in neutral and non-neutral statements of Paraguayan Spanish, a variety shaped by extensive contact with Guarani, a co-official language of Paraguay. Paraguayan Spanish displays both lexical and syntactic borrowings from Guarani, along with innovative intonation patterns not found in other Spanish varieties. Previous but still limited research on yes/no and wh-questions in this variety suggests the emergence of a unique intonational system, possibly of a hybrid nature, in both Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Guarani bilinguals. To date, no comprehensive description of intonation patterns in Paraguayan Spanish statements exists. The present study addresses this gap by analyzing data obtained through a Discourse Completion Task, covering broad-focus statements, contrastive focus, exclamatives, and statements of the obvious. Data were collected in 2014 from two monolingual speakers, eleven bilingual Spanish-dominant speakers, and eight bilingual Guarani-dominant speakers. The intonation is formalized using the Autosegmental–Metrical model of intonational phonology and the Spanish Tones and Break Indices labeling system. The findings reveal three main realizations of nuclear accents (L+H*, H+L*, and innovative >H+L*) in neutral and non-neutral declarative sentences, lengthening of syllables, diverse syntactical strategies, and lexical borrowings. The study contributes to the understanding of a lesser-studied Spanish variety and offers insights into theoretical aspects of contact linguistics. Full article