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The effect of noise on segmental and prosodic timing in speech production Bradford, Louise
Abstract
The present investigation examined the effects of noise on prosodic and segmental timing in speech production, focusing on preboundary lengthening, pausing, speaking rate and trends in segmental duration. Preboundary lengthening was examined using normalized duration measurements. Four subjects participated in this study. Each read syntactically ambiguous sentences to a listener under conditions of quiet and multitalker babble. These sentences were then labeled by listeners according to a seven-point scale of perceived boundary strength (or break index). Each break index corresponded to a level of prosodic phrasing proposed in the literature. In general, speakers were highly individualistic in the ways they altered the segmental components of speech in noise. Three of four subjects decreased their rates of speaking in noise to varying degrees. The greatest changes in segmental durations were observed in vowels and sonorants. Changes in consonant durations were more subject specific. Both the distribution and durations of pauses were characterized by a large degree of intersubject variability. The number of pauses tended to increase with increasing perceptual boundary strength, and pauses at the larger phrase boundaries were significantly longer than those at lower levels of phrasing. Preboundary lengthening was found to increase rapidly across three lower levels of phrasing, while almost no differences were observed between the two highest levels of phrasing across both speaking conditions. This suggests that preboundary lengthening is an important perceptual cue to the lower levels of phrasing, which are marked by few other phonetic cues. The effect of noise on overall timing relationships between prosodic constituents was minimal. The degree of preboundary lengthening remained relatively constant across speaking conditions for all four subjects participating in the experiment. It is proposed that speakers try to maintain prosodic timing relationships in order to preserve speech intelligibility in noise.
Item Metadata
Title |
The effect of noise on segmental and prosodic timing in speech production
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1995
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Description |
The present investigation examined the effects of noise on prosodic and segmental
timing in speech production, focusing on preboundary lengthening, pausing, speaking
rate and trends in segmental duration. Preboundary lengthening was examined using
normalized duration measurements. Four subjects participated in this study. Each read
syntactically ambiguous sentences to a listener under conditions of quiet and multitalker
babble. These sentences were then labeled by listeners according to a seven-point scale
of perceived boundary strength (or break index). Each break index corresponded to a
level of prosodic phrasing proposed in the literature.
In general, speakers were highly individualistic in the ways they altered the
segmental components of speech in noise. Three of four subjects decreased their rates of
speaking in noise to varying degrees. The greatest changes in segmental durations were
observed in vowels and sonorants. Changes in consonant durations were more subject
specific.
Both the distribution and durations of pauses were characterized by a large degree
of intersubject variability. The number of pauses tended to increase with increasing
perceptual boundary strength, and pauses at the larger phrase boundaries were
significantly longer than those at lower levels of phrasing. Preboundary lengthening was
found to increase rapidly across three lower levels of phrasing, while almost no
differences were observed between the two highest levels of phrasing across both
speaking conditions. This suggests that preboundary lengthening is an important
perceptual cue to the lower levels of phrasing, which are marked by few other phonetic
cues.
The effect of noise on overall timing relationships between prosodic constituents
was minimal. The degree of preboundary lengthening remained relatively constant across
speaking conditions for all four subjects participating in the experiment. It is proposed
that speakers try to maintain prosodic timing relationships in order to preserve speech
intelligibility in noise.
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Extent |
4788352 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-01-14
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0098919
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1995-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.