F0 declination in spontaneous Estonian: Implications for pitch-related preplanning in speech production

Self Cite

This study investigates the effect of different prosodic variables (e.g., pitch, syllable duration, presence of pitch accent and intonation boundary) and non-prosodic variables (e.g., type of verbal argument, presence of clause boundary, part-of-speech and number of syllables) on the perception of prominence in spontaneous Estonian. Following the methodology of Rapid Prosody Transcription, 396 randomly selected speech fragments from ten speakers were presented over the internet to 51 prosodically untrained listeners, whose task was to highlight the words they heard as prominent. The same dataset was annotated for intonational pitch accents and boundary tones by two experts. The results demonstrate that the strongest predictors of prominence perception are the pitch and duration of stressed syllables together with the presence of a pitch accent while the non-prosodic variables are somewhat weaker. The study corroborates earlier findings in that the perceptual salience in spoken language processing depends largely on the acoustic signal-based cues. Kokkuvõte. Nele Ots ja Eva Liina Asu: Prominentsuse taju eesti keeles: prosoodia kiirtranskribeerimise uurimus eesti keele kõnelejatega. Artikkel uurib eri prosoodiliste tunnuste (põhitoon, rõhulise silbi kestus, tooni aktsendi ja intonatsioonipiiri olemasolu) ning mitteprosoodiliste tunnuste (verbi argument, klausipiiri olemasolu, sõnaliik ja silpide arv) mõju prominentsuse tajule spontaanses eesti keeles. Lähtudes prosoodia kiirtranskriptsiooni (Rapid Prosody Transcription, RPT) metodoloogiast, esitati 396 juhuslikult valitud spontaanse kõne lõiku interneti teel 51-le prosoodia valdkonnas koolitamata kuulajale, kelle ülesandeks oli tekstis esile tõsta sõnad, mis kuuldusid neile rõhulisena. Kaks kõneprosoodia uurijat transkribeerisid samades kõne lõikudes tooniaktsendid ja intonatsioonipiirid. Tulemused näitavad, et prominentsuse taju tähtsaimad ennustajad on tooniaktsent, põhitoon ning silbi kestus. Mitteprosoodilised tunnused mõjutavad prominentsuse taju mõnevõrra vähem. Katse tulemused kinnitavad varasemate uurimuste järeldust, et tajutud prominentsus sõltub eelkõige akustilistest signaalipõhistest tunnustest. Märksõnad: prominentsus, taju, intonatsioon, tooniaktsent, sõnaliik, argumendistruktuur, prosoodia kiirtranskriptsioon (RPT), eesti keel

Section: Transcription Of Intonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The perception of prominence: a Rapid Prosody Transcription study with Estonian listeners

Ots

Asu

2019

Self Cite

“…To identify the prosodic phrase boundaries, I used the methodology developed for the purposes of labelling intonation phrases in the Phonetic Corpus of Estonian Spontaneous Speech 6 , described e.g. in Asu et al (2016).…”

Section: [Seeni]f Leidub Metsas)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Expression of narrow focus in spontaneous Estonian dialogues

Sahkai

2017

Self Cite

Abstract. Estonian offers several means for expressing narrow focus, including a choice between a syntactic strategy resulting in marked constituent order, and a prosodic strategy resulting in marked nuclear accent placement. The present study examines the usage of the different focus-marking strategies in spontaneous dialogues, with the primary aim of verifying the hypothesis that when either the syntactic or the prosodic strategy must be used, the prosodic strategy is preferred. The results show an overwhelming preference for keeping both the constituent order and the accent placement unmarked. In the relatively small number of cases where either the syntactic or the prosodic strategy must be chosen, a slight preference for the prosodic strategy can be observed. There also exists a minor strategy of focus fronting, whereby both the constituent order and the nuclear accent placement are marked; the role of this strategy requires further study.

“…In order to identify the phrasing of palun, various boundary cues will be analysed including the occurrence of pauses, voice quality, pitch and durational characteristics, all of which have been shown to mark the boundaries of intonation phrases in Estonian (Asu et al , 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosodic phrasing of the parenthetical <i>palun</i> ‘please’ in Estonian requests

Asu,

Sahkai,

Lippus

2023

This study investigates the prosody of the Estonian parenthetical palun ‘please’ in imperative requests. The occurrence of prosodic phrase boundary cues such as pauses, pre-boundary lengthening, and creaky voice as well as pitch characteristics and accentuation are analysed. The analysis is based on 753 utterances, where palun appears in three different positions: initial, medial or final. The requests were elicited using context descriptions from 21 female speakers of Estonian. The results show that palun is not phrased as a separate intonation phrase and that its intonation and accentuation vary depending on its position in the host utterance. Utterance-initially, palun always receives an intonational pitch accent while utterance-finally it is unaccented. It is concluded that the integrated prosody of palun may derive from its discourse marker-like function. Its prosody may be representative of certain other categories of parentheticals with similar functional properties such as comment clauses and reporting verbs, but different from functionally more independent parentheticals that express a proposition or speech act of their own. Kokkuvõte. Eva Liina Asu, Heete Sahkai, Pärtel Lippus: Kiilu palun prosoodiline fraseerimine eesti palvetes. Käesolev artikkel uurib kiilu palun prosoodiat eesti keele käsklausena vormistatud palvetes. Vaadeldakse prosoodilise fraasipiiri tunnuste (pausid, lõpupikenemine ja kärisev häälelaad) esinemist ning põhitooni ja aktsentueerimist. Materjaliks on 753 lausungit, kus palun esineb kolmes eri positsioonis: lause alguses, keskel ja lõpus. Materjal salvestati 21 eesti emakeelega naiskõnelejalt katses, kus osalejad pidid palveid esitama nii, nagu nad kontekstikirjelduse põhjal vastavas olukorras seda teeksid. Tulemused näitavad, et sõna palun ei fraseerita eraldi intonatsioonifraasina ja selle intonatsioon ja aktsentueeritus varieeruvad sõltuvalt lausepositsioonist. Lause alguses saab palun alati intonatsioonilise tooniaktsendi, aga lause lõpus on see aktsentueerimata. Kokkuvõtvalt võib palun’i integreeritud prosoodia tuleneda tema diskursusemarkeri-laadsest funktsioonist. Sellisena võib ta sarnaneda prosoodiliselt ka mõningate teiste sarnaselt funktsioneerivate kiiludega, nagu episteemilised või evidentsiaalsed kiilud (nt ma arvan, ütles ta), aga erineda funktsionaalselt iseseisvamatest kiiludest, mis väljendavad eraldiseisvat propositsiooni või kõneakti.