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Perceptual impact of speech melody hybridization: English and Czech English

100%
Volín J., Poesová K.
Research in Language
|
2016
|
vol. 14
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issue 1
31-41
EN
The current paper examines the role of intonation in the perception of foreign-accented speech. In order to assess how difficult it is to mentally process native, non-native and modified speech melodies, four conditions were analyzed and compared: native English, native English with Czech melody, Czech English with native melody and Czech English. The method of reaction times measurement in a word monitoring task was employed, in which 108 Czech listeners heard English sentences in the explored conditions and pressed a button when hearing a target word. Speech melody turned out to have a relatively weak but discernible impact on perceptual processing. Interestingly, Czech English proved to be more difficult to process than native English, although the listeners were Czech. The implementation of English F0 contours on Czech English speech slightly alleviated the cognitive load, however, the second hybrid, native English with Czech melody, pointed to the opposite direction. The causes of this discrepancy were investigated, particularly higher degrees of collocability in certain expressions.
2
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Acoustic Correlates of Word Stress as a Cue to Accent Strength

100%
Volín J., Weingartová L.
Research in Language
|
2014
|
vol. 12
|
issue 2
175-183
EN
Due to the clear interference of their mother tongue prosody, many Czech learners produce their English with a conspicuous foreign accent. The goal of the present study is to investigate the acoustic cues that differentiate stressed and unstressed syllabic nuclei and identify individual details concerning their contribution to the specific sound of Czech English. Speech production of sixteen female non-professional Czech and British speakers was analysed with the sounds segmented on a word and phone level and with both canonical and actual stress positions manually marked. Prior to analyses the strength of the foreign accent was assessed in a perception test. Subsequently, stressed and unstressed vowels were measured with respect to their duration, amplitude, fundamental frequency and spectral slope. Our results show that, in general, Czech speakers use much less acoustic marking of stress than the British subjects. The difference is most prominent in the domains of fundamental frequency and amplitude. The Czech speakers also deviate from the canonical placement of stress, shifting it frequently to the first syllable. On the other hand, they seem to approximate the needed durational difference quite successfully. These outcomes support the concept of language interference since they correspond with the existing linguistic knowledge about Czech and English word stress. The study adds specific details concerning the extent of this interference in four acoustic dimensions.
3
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Acoustic Correlates of Word Stress as A Cue to Accent Strength

100%
Volín J., Weingartová L.
Research in Language
|
2014
|
vol. 12
|
issue 2
175-183
EN
Due to the clear interference of their mother tongue prosody, many Czech learners produce their English with a conspicuous foreign accent. The goal of the present study is to investigate the acoustic cues that differentiate stressed and unstressed syllabic nuclei and identify individual details concerning their contribution to the specific sound of Czech English. Speech production of sixteen female non-professional Czech and British speakers was analysed with the sounds segmented on a word and phone level and with both canonical and actual stress positions manually marked. Prior to analyses the strength of the foreign accent was assessed in a perception test. Subsequently, stressed and unstressed vowels were measured with respect to their duration, amplitude, fundamental frequency and spectral slope. Our results show that, in general, Czech speakers use much less acoustic marking of stress than the British subjects. The difference is most prominent in the domains of fundamental frequency and amplitude. The Czech speakers also deviate from the canonical placement of stress, shifting it frequently to the first syllable. On the other hand, they seem to approximate the needed durational difference quite successfully. These outcomes support the concept of language interference since they correspond with the existing linguistic knowledge about Czech and English word stress. The study adds specific details concerning the extent of this interference in four acoustic dimensions.
4
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Spectral Measurements of Vowels for Speaker Identification in Czech

100%
Weingartová L., Volín J.
Studie z aplikované lingvistiky - Studies in Applied Linguistics
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2013
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vol. 4
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issue 1
21-36
EN
The expansion of telecommunication increased the availability of speech recordings which can be used in criminal investigations. Forensic science is a multidisciplinary approach that provides scientific grounds for assessing the evidence in such investigations. Forensic phonetics explores segmental (vocalic, consonantal) and suprasegmental (prosodic) speech parameters that are discriminant among speakers. There is, however, a gap between technical data‑driven and linguistically informed approaches, which we attempt to bridge in this study by examining Czech vowels through rigorous computational means. Seven different methods of quantifying vocalic spectral slope were compared for the purposes of speaker identification. In forensics, the use of spectral slope is mainly limited to the long‑term average spectra, which are easy to obtain, but have some serious drawbacks. Therefore, in this study, short‑term spectra of Czech vowels were used: although their extraction is more laborious, they provide more speaker‑specific information. Of the seven methods tested, two software predefined functions performed unsatisfactorily, while a combination of modified band density difference and band density ratio was able to differentiate among all of our speakers. The effect of vowel quality on these measures was also investigated.
CS
Vzestup telekomunikačních technologií v současné době umožňuje častější využití řečových nahrávek při vyšetřování trestných činů. Forenzní věda je multidisciplinární obor, který poskytuje vědeckou bázi pro posuzování důkazního materiálu během těchto vyšetřování. Forenzní fonetika se zabývá segmentálními (vokalickými a konsonantickými) a suprasegmentálními (prozodickými) řečovými rysy, které mohou odlišovat jednotlivé mluvčí. V tomto ohledu se nicméně rozšiřuje propast mezi technicky a lingvisticky orientovanými přístupy — tato studie je pokusem o její překlenutí zkoumáním českých vokálů rigorózními komputačními přístupy: pro účely rozpoznávání mluvčího ve forenzní praxi je zde porovnáno sedm metod stanovení vokalického spektrálního sklonu. Ve forenzní fonetice byl dosud spektrální sklon používán zejména při měření dlouhodobých průměrných spekter. Tato spektra se snadno získávají, avšak vykazují několik podstatných omezení. Zde jsou tedy využita krátkodobá spektra českých krátkých vokálů, jež přinášejí větší množství charakteristik specifických pro mluvčího, ale jejich extrakce je pracnější. Ze sedmi testovaných metod se softwarem předdefinované funkce ukázaly jako nevyhovující, zatímco kombinace modifikovaného rozdílu hustot pásem a poměru hustot pásem od sebe dokázala odlišit všechny mluvčí. Dále byl také prozkoumán vliv kvality vokálů na výsledky jednotlivých měření.
5
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Examining Temporal Structure of Speech with a Local Articulation Rate Metric

100%
Volín J., Svatošová M.
Research in Language
|
2023
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vol. 21
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issue 1
75-88
EN
The primary goal of our study is to propose a method of calculating and visualising local articulation rate for research in temporal structure of speech. The method builds on proportional durations of vowels and consonants in Czech, which normalizes for inherent durations of phones. We first demonstrate the importance of temporal structure on several conspicuous features: phrase-final deceleration, prominence marking, parentheticals, and information structure constituents. We then describe our method stepwise so that it could be tested by interested parties. We illustrate such testing on a sample of news bulletin sentences produced by 26 speakers. The results confirm that our procedure can meaningfully reflect various temporal features, including the ‘information status’ of words in contextually grounded utterances.
6
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The Impact of Rhythmic Distortions in Speech on Personality Assessment

81%
Volín J., Poesová K., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2014
|
vol. 12
|
issue 3
209-216
EN
The perennial question as to how perceived otherness in speech projects into listener assessment of one’s personality has been systematically investigated within the field of foreign accentedness, vocal communication of affective states and vocal stereotyping. In the present study, we aimed at exploring non-native listeners’ capacity to respond to differences in natural and modified native speech, particularly whether the manipulation of temporal structure in both stressed and unstressed syllables gives rise to any changes in the perception of the speaker’s personality. The respondents’ intuitive judgements were captured in the domain of the ‘nervousness category’ taken from the five-factor model of personality. Our results indicate an effect of temporal modifications on the listeners’ judgements. Analysis of variance for repeated measures confirmed a highly significant shift of personality evaluations towards the undesired traits (e.g., nervousness, anxiety, querulousness). Several interesting interactions with the semantic contents of the utterances and with the intrinsic qualities of the speakers’ voices were also found. We argue that the effects of accented speech go beyond conscious willingness to accept “otherness” and suggest a method for studying them.
7
Publication available in full text mode
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The Impact of Rhythmic Distortions in Speech on Personality Assessment

81%
Volín J., Poesová K., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2014
|
vol. 12
|
issue 3
209-216
EN
The perennial question as to how perceived otherness in speech projects into listener assessment of one’s personality has been systematically investigated within the field of foreign accentedness, vocal communication of affective states and vocal stereotyping. In the present study, we aimed at exploring non-native listeners’ capacity to respond to differences in natural and modified native speech, particularly whether the manipulation of temporal structure in both stressed and unstressed syllables gives rise to any changes in the perception of the speaker’s personality. The respondents’ intuitive judgements were captured in the domain of the ‘nervousness category’ taken from the five-factor model of personality. Our results indicate an effect of temporal modifications on the listeners’ judgements. Analysis of variance for repeated measures confirmed a highly significant shift of personality evaluations towards the undesired traits (e.g., nervousness, anxiety, querulousness). Several interesting interactions with the semantic contents of the utterances and with the intrinsic qualities of the speakers’ voices were also found. We argue that the effects of accented speech go beyond conscious willingness to accept “otherness” and suggest a method for studying them.
8
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

Spectral Characteristics of Schwa in Czech Accented English

81%
Volín J., Weingartová L., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2013
|
vol. 11
|
issue 1
31-39
EN
The English central mid lax vowel (i.e., schwa) often contributes considerably to the sound differences between native and non-native speech. Many foreign speakers of English fail to reduce certain underlying vowels to schwa, which, on the suprasegmental level of description, affects the perceived rhythm of their speech. However, the problem of capturing quantitatively the differences between native and non-native schwa poses difficulties that, to this day, have been tackled only partially. We offer a technique of measurement in the acoustic domain that has not been probed properly as yet: the distribution of acoustic energy in the vowel spectrum. Our results show that spectral slope features measured in weak vowels discriminate between Czech and British speakers of English quite reliably. Moreover, the measurements of formant bandwidths turned out to be useful for the same task, albeit less direct
9
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The effect of word-initial glottalization on word monitoring in Slovak speakers of English

81%
Volín J., Uhrinová M., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2012
|
vol. 10
|
issue 2
173-181
EN
The study investigates the impact of glottal elements before word-initial vowels on the speed of processing of the phrases taken from natural continuous speech. In many languages a word beginning with a vowel can be preceded by a glottal stop or a short period of creaky voice. However, languages differ in the extent of use and functions of this glottalization: it may be used to mark the word boundary, for instance, or to add special prominence to the word. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether the presence of the glottal element can influence reaction times in a word-monitoring paradigm. Users of different languages - Slovak and Czech learners of English, as well as native speakers of English - were participating in perception testing so that the influence of the mother tongue could be determined. The results confirm the effect of both glottalization and the L1 of the listeners. In addition, a significant effect of test item manipulations was found. Although the phrases with added or deleted glottal stops displayed no obvious acoustic artefacts, they produced longer reaction times than items with naturally present or absent glottalizations. We believe that this finding underlines the importance of inherent stress patterns, whose alterations lead to the increase in processing load.
10
Publication available in full text mode
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The Effect of Word-Initial Glottalization on Word Monitoring in Slovak Speakers of English

81%
Volín J., Uhrinová M., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2012
|
vol. 10
|
issue 2
173-181
EN
The study investigates the impact of glottal elements before word-initial vowels on the speed of processing of the phrases taken from natural continuous speech. In many languages a word beginning with a vowel can be preceded by a glottal stop or a short period of creaky voice. However, languages differ in the extent of use and functions of this glottalization: it may be used to mark the word boundary, for instance, or to add special prominence to the word. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether the presence of the glottal element can influence reaction times in a word-monitoring paradigm. Users of different languages - Slovak and Czech learners of English, as well as native speakers of English - were participating in perception testing so that the influence of the mother tongue could be determined. The results confirm the effect of both glottalization and the L1 of the listeners. In addition, a significant effect of test item manipulations was found. Although the phrases with added or deleted glottal stops displayed no obvious acoustic artefacts, they produced longer reaction times than items with naturally present or absent glottalizations. We believe that this finding underlines the importance of inherent stress patterns, whose alterations lead to the increase in processing load.
11
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Speech Melody Properties in English, Czech and Czech English: Reference and Interference

81%
Volín J., Poesová K., Weingartová L.
Research in Language
|
2015
|
vol. 13
|
issue 1
107-123
EN
Two major objectives were set for the present study: to provide reference data for the description of Czech and English F0 contours, and to investigate the limits of the ‘interference hypothesis’ on Czech English data. Altogether, the production of 40 speakers in 2392 breath-group F0 contours was analyzed. The speech of 32 professional speakers of English and Czech provides reference values for various acoustic correlates of pitch level, pitch span and downtrend gradient. These values were subsequently used as a benchmark for a confirmation of the interference hypothesis through comparison with a further sample of 8 non-professional speakers of English and Czech-accented English. The native English speakers of both genders produced significantly higher pitch level indicators, wider pitch span and a steeper downtrend gradient than the reference native speakers of Czech. Although the pitch level of the Czech-accented material lies in between the two reference groups, the pitch span of this group is the narrowest, which indicates that factors of foreign-accentedness other than simply interference are in effect.
12
Publication available in full text mode
Content available

Spectral Characteristics of Schwa in Czech Accented English

81%
Volín J., Weingartová L., Skarnitzl R.
Research in Language
|
2013
|
vol. 11
|
issue 1
31-39
EN
The English central mid lax vowel (i.e., schwa) often contributes considerably to the sound differences between native and non-native speech. Many foreign speakers of English fail to reduce certain underlying vowels to schwa, which, on the suprasegmental level of description, affects the perceived rhythm of their speech. However, the problem of capturing quantitatively the differences between native and non-native schwa poses difficulties that, to this day, have been tackled only partially. We offer a technique of measurement in the acoustic domain that has not been probed properly as yet: the distribution of acoustic energy in the vowel spectrum. Our results show that spectral slope features measured in weak vowels discriminate between Czech and British speakers of English quite reliably. Moreover, the measurements of formant bandwidths turned out to be useful for the same task, albeit less direct.
13
Publication available in full text mode
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Language Proficiency and Sonorant Devoicing in English Plosive-Sonorant Clusters

81%
Přečková K., Šturm P., Volín J.
Research in Language
|
2023
|
vol. 21
|
issue 4
443-459
EN
This article explores the timing of phonetic voicing in plosive-sonorant clusters in English. VOT was measured in two groups of Czech learners with different proficiency levels and a native English control group. The hypothesis was that cross-language differences in the implementation of the voicing contrast would be reflected in lower devoicing by the non-native speakers, modulated by proficiency. 24 participants read a text with plosive-sonorant clusters (such as in plan or troops). The study found that less proficient speakers exhibited smaller degrees of devoicing compared to more proficient speakers, who however did not differ from the native controls. In line with the absence of devoicing in Czech secondary-school textbooks, the results provide insight into the interplay between language proficiency and pronunciation details in L2 acquisition.
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