Metrical Segmentation in Dutch: Vowel Quality or Stress?

Quené, Hugo; Koster, Mariette

doi:10.1177/002383099804100203

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The strong syllable at word onset is used to drive spoken-word perception, by activating a tentative set of appropriate candidates in the mental lexicon [Norris et al, 1995]. Stressed syllables are more effective than unstressed syllables for this purpose, because their vowels are less reduced and hence more salient than the vowels in unstressed syllables, at least in English and in Dutch [Kager, 1989;Sluijter, 1995;Sluijter and Van Heuven, 1996;Quené and Koster, 1998]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Timing Regularity and Metrical Expectancy on Spoken-Word Perception

2005

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Certain types of speech, e.g. lists of words or numbers, are usually spoken with highly regular inter-stress timing. The main hypothesis of this study (derived from the Dynamic Attending Theory) is that listeners attend in particular to speech events at these regular time points. Better timing regularity should improve spoken-word perception. Previous studies have suggested only a weak effect of speech rhythm on spoken-word perception, but the timing of inter-stress intervals was not controlled in these studies. A phoneme monitoring experiment is reported, in which listeners heard lists of disyllabic words in which the timing of the stressed vowels was either regular (with equidistant inter-stress intervals) or irregular. In addition, metrical expectancy was controlled by varying the stress pattern of the target word, as either the same or the opposite of the stress pattern in its preceding words. Resulting reac-tion times show a main effect of timing regularity, but not of metrical expectancy. These results suggest that listeners employ attentional rhythms in spoken-word per-ception, and that regular speech timing improves speech communication.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, stressed syllables contribute more than unstressed syllables to spokenword perception [e.g. Van Leyden and Van Heuven, 1996;Quené and Koster, 1998;Cutler and Van Donselaar, 2001].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Timing Regularity and Metrical Expectancy on Spoken-Word Perception

2005

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“…To date, this question has not been addressed directly, and we are only offered a few conflicting leads from studies that have manipulated acoustic parameters to assess their impact on the more general issues of speech intelligibility and perception. Some of these variables include fundamental frequency contour ͑Laures and Weismer, 1999; Mens andPovel, 1986͒, segment duration ͑Hammen et al, 1994;Hertrich and Ackermann, 1998;Mens andPovel, 1986͒, andvowel quality ͑Bond, 1981;Fear et al, 1995;Quené and Koster, 1998͒. When it comes to speech segmentation, the available information is sparse. In general, the presence of multiple stress parameters is shown to be more effective for segmentation than that of isolated ones ͑Streeter, 1978͒, at least for adult listeners ͑Thiessen and Saffran, 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic cues to lexical segmentation: A study of resynthesized speech

Spitzer

Liss

Mattys

2007

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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It has been posited that the role of prosody in lexical segmentation is elevated when the speech signal is degraded or unreliable. Using predictions from Cutler and Norris' [J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 14, 113-121 (1988)] metrical segmentation strategy hypothesis as a framework, this investigation examined how individual suprasegmental and segmental cues to syllabic stress contribute differentially to the recognition of strong and weak syllables for the purpose of lexical segmentation. Syllabic contrastivity was reduced in resynthesized phrases by systematically (i) flattening the fundamental frequency (F0) contours, (ii) equalizing vowel durations, (iii) weakening strong vowels, (iv) combining the two suprasegmental cues, i.e., F0 and duration, and (v) combining the manipulation of all cues. Results indicated that, despite similar decrements in overall intelligibility, F0 flattening and the weakening of strong vowels had a greater impact on lexical segmentation than did equalizing vowel duration. Both combined-cue conditions resulted in greater decrements in intelligibility, but with no additional negative impact on lexical segmentation. The results support the notion of F0 variation and vowel quality as primary conduits for stress-based segmentation and suggest that the effectiveness of stress-based segmentation with degraded speech must be investigated relative to the suprasegmental and segmental impoverishments occasioned by each particular degradation.

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“…Hypokinetic dysarthria was chosen as an entry point for this line of research because it was believed that the cardinal speech features, by their very nature, serve to diminish syllabic strength contrastivity. Although the precise acoustic correlates of syllabic strength have yet to be determined, there is evidence that they lie in the domains of relative syllable duration, intersyllabic pitch and loudness differences, and vowel quality or vowel strength ͑Cutler and Butterfield, 1990Butterfield, , 1991Butterfield, , 1992Fear et al, 1995;Halle and Keyser, 1971;Klatt, 1980;Lehiste, 1972;Nakatani and Schaffer, 1978;Quené and Koster, 1998;van Ooijen et al, 1997͒. Thus, the hypokinetic dysarthric speech features of rapid speaking rate, a tendency toward monotony and monoloudness, and phoneme imprecision ͑Ackermann and Ziegler, 1991; Adams, 1991;Darley et al, 1969;Duffy, 1995;Forrest et al, 1989;Logemann and Fisher, 1981;Ludlow and Bassich, 1984;Ramig, 1992;Weismer, 1984 should reduce syllabic strength contrastivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lexical boundary error analysis in hypokinetic and ataxic dysarthria

Liss

Spitzer

Caviness

et al. 2000

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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This investigation is the second in a series to examine a potential source of reduced intelligibility in dysarthric speech, namely the mismatch between listeners' perceptual strategies and the acoustic information available in the dysarthric speech signal. Lexical boundary error (LBE) analysis was conducted on listener transcripts from phrases produced by speakers with hypokinetic dysarthria, ataxic dysarthria, and normal controls. By design, the hypokinetic and ataxic dysarthric tapes elicited similar intelligibility (words-correct) scores. However, they elicited different numbers and patterns of lexical boundary errors. The nature of the error pattern differences can be traced to the listeners' use of available syllabic strength information to segment the acoustic stream. Specifically, although both dysarthric speech samples elicited numerous lexical boundary errors, those for the hypokinetic speech generally conformed to predictions offered from studies of degraded normal speech. Those for the ataxic speech did not conform strongly to such predictions. It appears that the prosodic deficits of the ataxic speech (tendency toward syllabic isochrony, excessive loudness variation, and reduced vowel working space consequent to reductions in vowel strength) posed more of a problem for listeners than did the prosodic deficits of the hypokinetic speech (rapid rate, monotony, reduced vowel working space).

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Metrical Segmentation in Dutch: Vowel Quality or Stress?

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Effects of Timing Regularity and Metrical Expectancy on Spoken-Word Perception

Effects of Timing Regularity and Metrical Expectancy on Spoken-Word Perception

Acoustic cues to lexical segmentation: A study of resynthesized speech

Lexical boundary error analysis in hypokinetic and ataxic dysarthria

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