An autonomous system for quantifying the perceptual use of acoustic speech cues : voicing in intervocalic /td̃/ in French

232 Pages·1996·8.4 MB·English

by  Sawallis, Thomas Robert

ANAUTONOMOUSSYSTEMFORQUANTIFYING
THEPERCEPTUALUSEOFACOUSTICSPEECHCUES:
VOICINGININTERVOCALIC/t~d/INFRENCH
By
THOMAS ROBERT SAWALLIS
ADISSERTATIONPRESENTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOL
OFTHEUNIVERSITYOFFLORIDAINPARTIALFULFILLMENT
OFTHEREQUIREMENTSFORTHEDEGREEOF
DOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA
1996
UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDALIBRARIES
Copyright1996
by
Thomas R. Sawallis
Formywifeandmymother,
andinmemoryofmyfather.
keytothetreasureisthetreasure."
ScheherazadeandtheGenie,
inJohn Barth's Chimera
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Imustbedoingwellinmylife,withsomanypeopletobegratefulfor.
Thanksgofirsttothecommittee:BillSullivanandCarolineWiltshire,
thechairandcochair,forseeingitallthroughattheend;toJeanCasagrande
andSamBrownfortheirlongandcontinuingsupportandencouragement;
andtoIraFischlerforintroducingmetothepsychologicalmaterialswhich
havebecomesoimportanttomywork.
WithoutmymentorsattheInstitutdelaCommunicationParlee
(formerlytheInstitutdePhonetique)inGrenoble,Iwouldneverhave
becomeaphonetician,andthemainthanks(ormaybeblame)gotoChristian
Abrywithhisblastedamusing"reblochon"project. ButitwasLouis-JeanBoe
whoquiteaccidentallychangedthecourseofmylifebyanoffhanddiagramof
phonemesanalyzedintofeaturesanalyzedintocues." Andthenofcourse
ChristiantaughtmetothinkwhileLouis-Jeantaughtmetowork. Even
more,theywelcomedmebacktodothisdissertationproject. Grandmerci.
AliceFaberalwayshadmorefaithinmethanIdeserved,andhasdone
moretohelpcomfortandinspiremetogetthroughthisthanIcouldever
repay. Shehasbeenanemotionalandpracticalrockofstabilityintheshifting
groundsofmyacademiclifeforadecade,andIamgratefultoherforever.
DavidBirdsongwasalso,toobriefly,aguideintechniquesformelding
linguisticsandexperimentation,untilhemovedontobroaderpastures.
Iwouldliketothank(inapproximatechronologicalorder)anumberof
researcherswithwhomIhavehaddiscussionswhichwereprobably
v
insignificanttothem,buttomewereanythingbut: LeighLisker,Willy
Serniclaes,DomMassaro,Jean-LucSchwartz,TerryNearey,RandyDiehl,
DaveGreen,BrunoRepp,JohnOhala,JimFlege,andBobSorkin.
Thentherearethefriendsandcolleaguesinandaroundgradstudies
withwhomIsharedexcitement,frustration,snidecommentsandbeer(or
rathercoffeewiththeMuslims). IhopethethousandsofyouIhave
accidentallymissedwillforgivemeandthoseIherebyremembertothank:
DavidJohns,ChristianBenoit,BruceHamilton,JohnBro,KristaThoren,
VeroniqueAuberge,RabiaBelrhali,Nour-EdineAchab,SoniaKandel,Ted
Lacombe,GerardBailly,RudolphSock,PierreBadin,LindaNorthrup,David
Bogdan,KarenEberly,JanLap,IvySilverman,FengGang,VincentChang.
Forrefuge,respite,andrelieffrommystudies,Ihavereliedonmy
extralinguisticfriends,andIthankthemprofusely:GlennRampe,Dick
Burggraf,DougLanier,AnthonyAdams,RobinLauriault,ArielBloede,
RoselyneRoesch,ThereseLacoste,JeansPetrissans,andmyPasakin-laws.
Finally,therearefourwomenwhohavelightenedmylifeinmore
waysthanIcanbegintoexpress. GodknowswhyBarbaraBloedeneededa
surrogatesonwithsixkidsgrownalready,butIwouldneverhavesurvived
Francewithouther. MyauntCatherineMarion'ssupport,goodhumor,and
discretionhavealwaysbeenadelight. Mymom,NancySawallis,lovesmeof
course,butitishercombinationoffranknessandtoleranceofmyrare,but
flagrantflawsthatmakemelikeheraswellasloveher. Mydeepestthanks
gotomywife,PamelaPasakSawallis,whostillbelievesinmedespite
everything. Herkindnessandselflessness,hersmileandherlaugh,andher
unshakablefaithinmeareallmyjoy. Iamgratefulforhereveryday.
Andmyconstantgratitudegoestomylatefather,RobertFunston
Sawallis,whotaughtmetoloveknowledgeandrespectwisdom.
vi
TABLEOFCONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LISTOFTABLES
LISTOFFIGURES
ABSTRACT
CHAPTERS
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 StatementofProblem 2
1.2 StatementofPurpose 4
2 LITERATURE REVIEW g
2.1 CuesExist g
2.2 CuesWorkinNaturalSpeech 9
2.3 ThereareManyCuestotheSamePercept 11
2.4 CuesDifferAcrossLanguages 13
2.5 CuesInteract ig
Rankings lg
TradingRelations 18
PerceptualDecisionModels 19
2.6 GeneralCritiqueoftheLiterature 26
3 APPLYINGSIGNALDETECTIONTHEORYTOCUES 29
3.1 TheBasicsofSignalDetection 29
3.2 ApplyingtheMechanicsofSDT 32
3.3 StructureofCuesinSpeech 35
3.4 StandardizingSignalStrengthAcrossLanguages 37
3.5 TestingCueStrengthsAcrossLanguages 40
3.6 TheSpecificNeedforSignalDetectionTheory 42
3.7 Recapitulation 4g
vii
4 PROCEDURALOVERVIEW 47
4.1 ExperimentDesign 47
4.2 CorpusDesign
Opposition
Cues
Language 54
4.3 Corpus
Tokens 55
Talker
Recording 55
TokenVerification 58
Digitization 59
5 EXPERIMENT1:PHONETICSURVEY 60
5.1 MeasurementPhilosophyanditsImplementation 60
5.2 LabelingEvents 63
VVT (Vocalic Voice Termination) 63
VT (Voice Termination) 64
CFO(ConsonantFricationOnset) 64
WVOO(VoiceOnset) 65
(VocalicVoiceOnset) 65
5.3 Durations 66
5.4 Intensity
RMSAmplitudeCurves 71
BurstandVoicebarMeasurements 72
RelativeAmplitudeReferencePoint 73
FinalAmplitudeMeasurementTechnique 75
5.5 LabelVerification 75
5.6 FinalCueDefinitions(Recapitulation) 76
5.7 Results 77
Comparisonwithotherstudies 77
ApplicationtoExperiment2 82
6 EXPERIMENT2:PERCEPTIONTESTPROCEDURES 84
6.1 AnalogousWeakeningPatternAcrossCues 84
6.2 FactorialDesignwithinCues 86
6.3 CalculatingSensitivitieswiththeStimulusArray 89
6.4 StimulusConstruction 93
Shortening[t] 93
Attenuating[t] BurstAmplitude 93
Attenuating[d]VoicingAmplitude 94
Lengthening[d] 94
viii
6.5 StimulusPresentation 9g
RandomizationandOrderEffects 98
Stimulus Presentationand SubjectAccommodation
Difficulties 99
6.6 Materiel 102
6.7 Subjects'TaskandPreparation 102
6.8 SubjectGroups 104
7 EXPERIMENT2:PROCESSINGANDTABULATIONOF
PERCEPTUALDATA
107
7.1 ATerminologicalNote 107
7.2 CodingtheResponseSheets 109
7.3 ValidatingtheInitialResponses HI
7.4 RawResponsesandErrorRates 112
7.5 TheProblemofStatisticalAnalysis 114
GeneralStrategyforStatistics 115
ConfidenceIntervals Hg
7.6 Results 12q
8 ANALYSISANDCOMMENTARY 127
8.1 GeneralAspects
88..32 TAheDetDauirlaetdioAnnaolfys/ids/andADesignWeakness 112390
8.4 TheVowelAnalysis I34
8.5 TheBetterAnalyses 135
8.6 Conclusions
Effects
Trends .”.138
MethodologicalIssues 141
8.7 RecommendationsforRedesign 141
TheBaseRate
StatisticalModels 143
FurtherPossible Improvements 144
9 CONCLUSIONSANDPROSPECTS 146
9.1 Innovations
9.2 Directions
9.3 Significance
9.4 Implications 153
IX
APPENDICES
A SUBJECT MATERIALS
155
B RESPONSE DATA 157
C DATATABLES 174
SequencingacrosstheTables 174
LayoutofInformationWithintheTables 175
ResponseProportions 176
d' Values
D ORIGINALCONTRASTRESULTS 199
LISTOFREFERENCES 204
BIOGRAPHICALSKETCH 215
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