The Experts below are selected from a list of 180 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
J. Pitrelli - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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ICASSP - Recognition of word-final Unstressed Syllables
ICASSP '86. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing, 1Co-Authors: J. PitrelliAbstract:A system was developed to recognize American English word-final Unstressed Syllables ending in a sonorant. The algorithm takes as inputs a digitized speech signal and two time pointers, one during the penultimate vowel and the other at the end of the input word. Output includes identification of the final segment and a list of features for the segment preceding the final segment. Identifying these segments is necessary to distinguish many sets of words, such as easy/easing and hammer/hanger. A two-pass process is used to recognize the Unstressed Syllables. First, the system segments the signal by broad phonetic classes. Then, routines are applied to identify the final segment of the word and to determine a list of some of the features of the segment preceding the final segment. Most of the decisions made by the system are based on energy measurements and formant frequencies. System testing showed that a segment in an Unstressed Syllable could be reliably identified as one of a small set of phonemes, but absolute identification is difficult. Broad-class segmentation was 83% accurate, and the best feature-recognition rates were for strong fricatives and voicing. Final segments were identified correctly 67% of the time. Two-thirds of the errors, however, were substitutions within pairs of phonemes which are only rarely used to distinguish words.
Fathi Salam - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Speech clarity and coarticulatory effects in standard and dialectal Arabic
2012Co-Authors: Mohamed Embarki, Slim Ouni, Fathi SalamAbstract:This study deals with the co-variation of speech clarity and coarticulatory patterns. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of two parameters, the speech style (formal vs. non formal) and the prosodic position (stressed vs. Unstressed Syllable). The speech material was composed of three word lists varying CV Syllable contexts with pharyngealized /t d s / vs. non- pharyngealized consonants /t d s / in Modern standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic. Acoustic materials revealed evident relationship between speech clarity and coarticulation: more coarticulation in formal speech and in strong prosodic position.
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Speech clarity and coarticulation in Modern standard Arabic and Dialectal Arabic
2011Co-Authors: Mohamed Embarki, Slim Ouni, Fathi SalamAbstract:This study deals with the co-variation of speech clarity and coarticulatory patterns. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of two parameters on coarticulation, the speech style (formal vs. non formal) and the prosodic position (stressed vs. Unstressed Syllable). The speech material was composed of four word lists varying CV Syllable contexts with pharyngealized /t d s / vs. non- pharyngealized consonants /t d s / in Modern standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic. Acoustic and EMA materials were analyzed. The results revealed evident relationship between speech clarity and coarticulation: more coarticulation in formal speech (MSA) and under stressed Syllable.
Kazlauskienė Asta - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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F0 in Lithuanian: the indicator of stress, Syllable accent, or intonation?
'IOS Press', 2020Co-Authors: Kazlauskienė Asta, Sabonytė ReginaAbstract:This study is focused on analysing whether changes of F0 in the Lithuanian language are influenced by: 1) stress and the type of a Syllable accent (acute, circumflex); 2) the type of a sentence (declarative, exclamatory, interrogative); 3) phrase accent (focused word). The research material consists of the recordings of three female Standard Lithuanian speakers. Each of the samples was read 5 times. The analysis of the relation of F0 in a stressed and an Unstressed Syllable, in an acute and a circumflex, in a focal and non-focal position, in declarative, exclamatory, interrogative sentences allows us to assume that the pitch is an indicator of intonation rather than of a lexical stress and a Syllable accentHumanitarinių mokslų fakultetasLituanistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta
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F0 in Lithuanian: the indicator of stress, Syllable accent, or intonation?
'IOS Press', 2018Co-Authors: Kazlauskienė Asta, Sabonytė ReginaAbstract:This study is focused on analysing whether changes of F0 in the Lithuanian language are influenced by: 1) stress and the type of a Syllable accent (acute, circumflex); 2) the type of a sentence (declarative, exclamatory, interrogative); 3) phrase accent (focused word). The research material consists of the recordings of three female Standard Lithuanian speakers. Each of the samples was read 5 times. The analysis of the relation of F0 in a stressed and an Unstressed Syllable, in an acute and a circumflex, in a focal and non-focal position, in declarative, exclamatory, interrogative sentences allows us to assume that the pitch is an indicator of intonation rather than of a lexical stress and a Syllable accent
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The clitics in standard Lithuanian
2018Co-Authors: Kazlauskienė AstaAbstract:ISSN 2335-2388 (Online)Žodis lietuvių kalboje yra gana savarankiškas prozodinis vienetas, bet kai kada jis gali netekti kirčio. Šio tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti ir aprašyti lietuvių kalbos žodžių prozodinį savarankiškumą lemiančius veiksnius. Tiriamąją medžiagą sudaro ištraukos iš lietuvių autorių grožinių ir eseistikos kūrinių, kurias perskaitė 22 profesionalūs diktoriai (iš viso 11 val. 20 min.). Pirminiams duomenims išgauti buvo sukurta kompiuterinė programa (programavo prof. dr. G. Raškinis). Tiriamojoje medžiagoje beveik penktadalis žodžių pavartoti su klitikais. Lietuvių kalbos žodžių prozodinis savarankiškumas priklauso nuo daugelio veiksnių: fonetinės struktūros (vienskiemeniai žodžiai dažniau prišlyja), morfologinių požymių (nekaitomosios kalbos dalys dažnai neturi kirčio), sakinio struktūros (eliptiniuose sakiniuose kirtį gali gauti kitais atvejais klitiškai vartojami žodžiai), pragmatinių intencijų (loginį kirtį turintis žodis dažnai gaus ir leksinį kirtį), ritmo spaudimo (greta nekirčiuoto skiemens potencialus klitikas gali išlaikyti kirtį). Pastarasis veiksnys yra svarbus kalbos ritmiškumo reguliatorius dėl dviejų priežasčių. Pirma, klitikas gali panaikinti kirčio sangrūdą, kuri susidarytų, jei abu žodžiai būtų kirčiuoti. Antra, jei klitikas prišlyja prie žodžio, kirčiuoto pirmajame skiemenyje, kirtis pasislenka – kirčiuotu tampa antrasis skiemuo. Toks žodis būdingesnis lietuvių kalbai ir yra lengviau artikuliuojamas. Vis dėlto lietuvių kalboje ritmas neturi didelės įtakos žodžių šlijimui, žodžių prozodinį savarankiškumą lemia skiemenų kiekis ir morfologiniai požymiaiA Lithuanian word is quite an autonomous prosodic unit. Nevertheless, in some cases a word loses stress, connects to an adjacent word, and becomes a part of a succeeding or preceding word. The aim of this research is to establish and describe the prosodic autonomy of the Lithuanian language word and its determinants. The database for this analysis consists of some audio recordings of novels, which were used in this study (11 h 20 min, 22 speakers). A computational programme was designed by Prof. Dr. G. Raškinis. The empirical data showed that the words with clitics comprise about ¼ of all the words. The data analysis suggests that the word autonomy depends on many factors: phonetic structure (monosyllabic words often lose their stress), morphological features (uninflected parts of speech, especially prepositions, often do not have a stress), the structure of a sentence (a potential clitic can get a stress in an elliptic sentence), pragmatic intentions (a word with a phrase stress will get a lexical stress), and the pressure of the rhythm (a potential clitic can keep stress due to the succeeding Unstressed Syllable). The latter factor is important for the rhythm of the speech for two reasons. First, a clitic can eliminate a stress clash, which might be formed if both words had stresses. Second, if clitic is connected to the word with a first stressed Syllable, the second Syllable would become stressed. Such word is articulated easier than the word which begins with a stressed Syllable. However, the rhythm does not have a major impact on the word autonomy in the Lithuanian language. The phonetic structure and morphological features have the most significant influence on the prosodic autonomy of a wordLituanistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta
Víctor Pavón Vázquez - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Improvement of Intelligibility in the Oral Production of Standard English: A Study About the Production of Vowel Quality in Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
English Language Teaching, 2019Co-Authors: Ana María Muñoz Mallén, Víctor Pavón VázquezAbstract:Pronunciation is an essential aspect in the teaching of the English language, especially those aspects of pronunciation such as stress and vowel quality as they are crucial elements to ensure intelligibility in communication. The general objective of this study is to investigate whether the theoretical-practical instruction on pronunciation has a crucial impact on the vowel quality production of stressed and Unstressed Syllable in isolated words and in wider contexts, and therefore, in the improvement of intelligibility and of the oral production in general terms, in two groups of Spanish students of English (the control and the experimental group). More particularly, the study addresses the impact of formal instruction in pronunciation based on deduction in terms of rule formation from a cognitive perspective. The results indicate that the specific work implemented with the production of vowel quality in stressed and Unstressed Syllables have a significant impact on intelligibility.
Shizuka Nakamura - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Rhythm segment constitution showing regular periodicity
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2016Co-Authors: Shizuka NakamuraAbstract:To verify the possibility of regular periodicity of English rhythm, each sentence was divided into respective rhythm segments and the properties of its durations were analyzed. Rhythm segment (RhySeg) was defined as a segment including one Syllable with a primary/secondary stress to which an adjacent Unstressed Syllable(s). The following locations of a stressed Syllable in RhySeg were compared: forward, semi-forward, middle, semi-back, and back. To reflect the perceptual effect to the RhySeg constitution, the following factors to equally compress all of the Unstressed Syllables were compared: 0.1-1.0 at an interval of 0.1. To find the RhySeg constitution showing regular periodicity, not only the degree of concentration of the distribution, but the degree of closeness between RhySeg with a secondary stress and 1/2 of that with a primary stress, whose engagement on regular periodicity was indicated in previous studies, was applied as a criterion. Comparative experiments showed the best when the stressed syl...
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Characteristics of Contrast between the Stressed and the Unstressed in Rhythm Units Observed in Duration Structure in English Speech by Japanese Learners.
Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 2011Co-Authors: Shizuka NakamuraAbstract:English rhythm is related to contrast between the stressed and the Unstressed in duration structure. In native English speech, in general, an intra-speaker average duration of stressed Syllable is longer than that of Syllable as a whole. On the contrary, that of Unstressed Syllable is shorter than that of Syllable as a whole. In the previous paper by the present author, it was reported that stressed Syllable durations of speech of learners tend not to be lengthened enough, and an Unstressed ones tend not to be shortened enough as compared with that of native speakers (Nakamura, 2010). For these reason, learner speech does not have such a high ratio of intra-speaker average durations of stressed to Unstressed Syllables as native speech. Since this lower ratio affected subjective evaluation, a correlation coefficient between the ratios and subjective evaluation scores given by English language teachers was observed to be 0.48. In this paper, an indicator, which demonstrates more adequately a duration contrast between the stressed and the Unstressed, was investigated, for the purpose of increasing the correlation with subjective evaluation. A rhythm unit was defined here as a stressed Syllable connected to the preceding and succeeding Unstressed Syllables. Then, a value based on a ratio of stressed to Unstressed Syllable durations in the rhythm unit was treated as an indicator to represent learner characteristics. As a result, a correlation coefficient of the indicators with subjective evaluation scores was increased to 0.65. A substantial part of mechanism in subjective evaluation of rhythm in English speech was revealed and became possible to simulate reasonably by objective evaluation.
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Analysis of Relationship between Duration Characteristics and Subjective Evaluation of English Speech by Japanese learners with regard to Contrast of the Stressed to the Unstressed
Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 2010Co-Authors: Shizuka NakamuraAbstract:Nakamura, S. (2010). Analysis of relationship between duration characteristics and subjective evaluation of English speech by Japanese learners with regard to contrast of the stressed to the Unstressed. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 14(1), 1-14. To improve more effectively the learners’ proficiency to control contrast of the stressed to the Unstressed in English teaching, it is necessary to analyze how the acoustical characteristics of learners' speech are related to the perceptual evaluation by teachers. This paper analyzes A) learner characteristics of durations measured in speech units related to stress, which are stressed and Unstressed Syllables, and strong and weak vowels, and B) the relationship between the duration characteristics and subjective evaluation of English rhythm control proficiency. As a result of analyses, the following were revealed. Duration characteristics of learner speech were as follows: 1) Lengthened duration of speech units and inserted pauses make learners’ sentence duration longer compared to that of native speakers. 2) Learner speech does not provide sufficient contrast between the stressed and the Unstressed as native speech does, because it is difficult for learners to shorten the durations of Unstressed Syllables and weak vowels. The relationship between the duration characteristics and subjective evaluation were as follows: 1) Duration of the Syllable, especially the Unstressed Syllable, and that of the vowel, especially the weak vowel, have a stronger correlation with subjective evaluation score. 2) Shorter duration of the weak vowel rather than that of the Unstressed Syllable tend to be evaluated as more native-like speech, that is, shortening the duration of the weak vowel strongly affects subjective evaluation.
