Disfluencies in the analysis of speech data

Abstract

In our study of concord phenomena in spoken Brazilian Portuguese we found disfluencies, including apparent corrections, in about 15% of the relevant tokens in our corpus of recorded speech data. Disfluencies have very little effect on the rate of marking. When fluency is included in a variable rule analysis as a factor group containing categories for different types of disfluency, as well as for data without any disfluency, it is not selected as statistically significant. Furthermore, separate analyses of all data, only fluent data, and only disfluent data revealed no significant changes in the numerical results obtained for other factor groups. We conclude that, at least insofar as the variable phenomena we studied are concerned, speech is not overly laden with errors; there is nothing in the data to mislead the language learner.

Sociolinguistic correlates of negative evaluation: Variable concord in Rio de Janeiro

“…In Naro and Scherre (1996a:225–228), we presented a detailed analysis of the effect of media in the 1980 sample for three concord phenomena, namely, the two we are dealing with here, as well as a third phenomenon, subject/predicate concord ( Eles [pl] estavam [pl] perdidos [pl] ‘They were lost’; Os [pl] vizinho [sg] fica [sg] doido [sg] ‘The neighbors go crazy’). We repeat here our criteria for levels of contact: Our classification of contact with media is hierarchical.…”

“…Furthermore, subjects without a plural marker on the last element tend to trigger unmarked plural verbs. These effects have been described in detail in the relevant literature on Brazilian Portuguese for the last 30 years, in articles published in Language (Naro 1981), Language Variation and Change (Scherre and Naro 1991, 1992, Naro and Scherre 1996a, Scherre 2001) and in Selected Papers from NWAV 8 (Scherre 1981, Guy 1981, NWAV 23 (Naro and Scherre 1996b), NWAV 38 (Scherre and Naro 2010).…”

“…In the middle levels we distinguish two subclasses: a) people who do have some contact with different forms of the media, but who do not absorb its content and are, for example, unable to recount the plot of a movie or television soap opera or to give a brief summary of the daýs news or the content of a magazine article; b) people who are able to perform such exercises, but who do not adopt a critical attitude. (Naro & Scherre, 1996a:225–226) In 1996, we set up four levels of media contact, but because results for the second intermediary level are very similar to those of the highest level, we used only three levels of media contact in the present investigation: (i) no appreciable media contact; (ii) some media contact, but not able to recount or summarize content; (iii) media contact, and able to discuss content, with or without a critical attitude.…”

“…In the middle levels we distinguish two subclasses: a) people who do have some contact with different forms of the media, but who do not absorb its content and are, for example, unable to recount the plot of a movie or television soap opera or to give a brief summary of the daýs news or the content of a magazine article; b) people who are able to perform such exercises, but who do not adopt a critical attitude. (Naro & Scherre, 1996a:225–226)…”

Défis dans l’évaluation du bégaiement chez les bilingues

“…Les disfluidités sont présentes dans la parole en espagnol (Johnson, O'Connell, et Sabin 1979), en portugais (Naro et Scherre 1996), en japonais (Kawakami et Ito 1999), en Igbo (langue parlée en Nigéria) (Nwokah 1988) et en français (Grosjean et Deschamps 1975). Il s'agit probablement d'un phénomène universel.…”