Stochastic suprasegmentals : relationships between redundancy, prosodic structure and care of articulation in spontaneous speech
Within spontaneous speech there are wide variations in the articulation of the same word by the same speaker. Some words become extremely reduced while others seem to stand out more strongly in a phrase or sentence. This thesis explores these variations in articulation from two different but, arguably, related perspectives, prosodic structure and redundancy. I argue that the constraint of producing robust communication while efficiently expending articulatory effort leads to: 1. An inverse relationship between language redundancy and care of articulation 2. The need for a strong 'checking' signal The inverse relationship improves robustness by spreading the information more smoothly across the speech signal leading to a smoother signal redundancy profile. Checking in contrast leads to a more robust signal by ensuring that errors are detected and corrected. I argue that smooth signal redundancy and a checking signal are implemented by prosodic prominence and prosodic boundaries. Prosodic prominence increases care of articulation and appear to coincide with unpredictable sections of speech. In doing so prosodic prominence leads to a smoother signal redundancy. Prosodic boundaries cause syllabic lengthening and,
Aylett, Matthew Peter
Stochastic suprasegmentals : relationships between redundancy, prosodic structure and care of articulation in spontaneous speech. Within spontaneous speech there are wide variations in the articulation of the same word by the same speaker. Some words become extremely reduced while others seem to stand out more strongly in a phrase or sentence. This thesis explores these variations in articulation from two different but, arguably, related perspectives, prosodic structure and redundancy. I argue that the constraint of producing robust communication while efficiently expending articulatory effort leads to: 1. An inverse relationship between language redundancy and care of articulation 2. The need for a strong 'checking' signal The inverse relationship improves robustness by spreading the information more smoothly across the speech signal leading to a smoother signal redundancy profile. Checking in contrast leads to a more robust signal by ensuring that errors are detected and corrected. I argue that smooth signal redundancy and a checking signal are implemented by prosodic prominence and prosodic boundaries. Prosodic prominence increases care of articulation and appear to coincide with unpredictable sections of speech. In doing so prosodic prominence leads to a smoother signal redundancy. Prosodic boundaries cause syllabic lengthening and,
stochastic relationship redundancy prosodic_structure care articulation spontaneous_speech within spontaneous_speech wide variation articulation word speaker word become extremely reduced others seem stand strongly phrase sentence explores variation articulation two_different arguably related perspective prosodic_structure redundancy argue constraint produce robust communication efficiently expend articulatory effort lead inverse_relationship language redundancy care articulation need strong signal inverse_relationship improve robustness spread information across speech_signal lead smooth signal redundancy profile contrast lead robust signal ensure error detect correct argue smooth signal redundancy check signal implement prosodic_prominence prosodic boundary prosodic_prominence increase care articulation appear coincide unpredictable section speech prosodic_prominence lead smooth signal redundancy prosodic boundary cause syllabic lengthening