Pitch targets and their realization: Evidence from Mandarin Chinese

Xu, Yi; Wang, Emily

doi:10.1016/s0167-6393(00)00063-7

Cited by 238 publications

(194 citation statements)

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“…Target approximation is a simulation of the articulatory dynamics, which gives rise to the contextual variability (Xu and Wang, 2001), while parallel encoding is a simulation of how communicative meanings are encoded with the articulatory dynamics, which gives rise to the non-contextual variability. Fig.…”

Section: An Articulatory-functional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 2 is an illustration of the basic concept of target approximation (Xu and Wang, 2001). F 0 contour (black solid curve) is the response of the target approximation process to the underlying pitch targets (gray dashed line).…”

Section: An Articulatory-functional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the various aspects of prosody, fundamental frequency (F 0 ) is by far the most challenging, and has attracted most of the research effort. Many theories and computational models of F 0 patterns have been proposed over the years (Anderson et al, 1984;Bailly and Holm, 2005;Black and Hunt, 1996;Fujisaki et al, 2005;Grabe et al, 2007;Hirst, 2005Hirst, , 2011Jilka et al, 1999;Kochanski and Shih, 2003;Mixdorff et al, 2003;Pierrehumbert, 1980Pierrehumbert, , 1981Prom-on et al, 2009;Taylor, 2000;van Santen and Möbius, 2000;Xu and Wang, 2001;Xu, 2005), and a large number of empirical studies have been conducted (as reviewed by Wagner and Watson, 2010;ShattuckHufnagel and Turk, 1996;Xu, 2011). Despite the extensive effort, however, most of the critical issues still remain unresolved and some are still under heated debate (Arvaniti and Ladd, 2009;Ladd, 2008;Wagner and Watson, 2010;Wightman, 2002;Xu, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward invariant functional representations of variable surface fundamental frequency contours: Synthesizing speech melody via model-based stochastic learning

Prom-on

2014

Speech Communication

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Variability has been one of the major challenges for both theoretical understanding and computer synthesis of speech prosody. In this paper we show that economical representation of variability is the key to effective modeling of prosody. Specifically, we report the development of PENTAtrainer -A trainable yet deterministic prosody synthesizer based on an articulatory-functional view of speech. We show with testing results on Thai, Mandarin and English that it is possible to achieve high-accuracy predictive synthesis of fundamental frequency contours with very small sets of parameters obtained through stochastic learning from real speech data. The first key component of this system is syllable-synchronized sequential target approximation -implemented as the qTA model, which is designed to simulate, for each tonal unit, a wide range of contextual variability with a single invariant target. The second key component is the automatic learning of function-specific targets through stochastic global optimization, guided by a layered pseudo-hierarchical functional annotation scheme, which requires the manual labeling of only the temporal domains of the functional units. The results in terms of synthesis accuracy demonstrate that effective modeling of the contextual variability is the key also to effective modeling of function-related variability. Additionally, we show that, being both theory-based and trainable (hence datadriven), computational systems like PENTAtrainer can serve as an effective modeling tool in basic research, with which the level of falsifiability in theory testing can be raised, and also a closer link between basic and applied research in speech science can be developed.3 Graphical Abstract Highlights (maximum 85 characters/bullet)• High synthetic accuracy of prosody achieved for Thai, Mandarin and English • Many-to-one mapping from contextually variable surface F 0 to invariant functional targets • Effectively handling of both contextual and non-contextual variability • Combination of deterministic synthesis and data-driven parameter learning • Large-scale and full-detailed prosody synthesis as tool for theory testing • Freely available as a Praat scripts and plug-ins to the speech science community at large

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Section: An Articulatory-functional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Articulatory-functional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward invariant functional representations of variable surface fundamental frequency contours: Synthesizing speech melody via model-based stochastic learning

Prom-on

2014

Speech Communication

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“…Although the majority of modern Chinese words are disyllabic and the uncertainty of disyllabic tonal realizations has partly been explained by individual backgrounds, how disyllabic JM words are realized in connected speech needs further investigation. Researchers have done fruitful studies on contextual tonal realizations and their interactions with sentential prosodies (Chen, 2010;Chen and Gussenhoven, 2008;Xu, 1997Xu, , 1999Xu and Prom-on, 2014;Xu and Wang, 2001). However, how to transfer this knowledge from SC to the other Chinese dialects and how the predictors we investigated work in context still open questions.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting tonal realizations in one Chinese dialect from another

Chen

Heuven

et al. 2016

Speech Communication

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Pronunciation dictionaries are usually expensive and time-consuming to prepare for the computational modeling of human languages, especially when the target language is under-resourced. Northern Chinese dialects are often under-resourced but used by a significant number of speakers. They share the basic sound inventories with Standard Chinese (SC). Also, their words usually share the segmental realizations and logographic written forms with the SC translation equivalents. Hence the pronunciation dictionaries of northern Chinese dialects could be easily available if we were able to predict the tonal realizations of the dialect words from the tonal information of their SC counterparts. This paper applies statistical modeling to investigate the tonal aspect of the related words between a northern dialect, i.e. Jinan Mandarin (JM), and Standard Chinese (SC). Multi-linear regression models were built with between-word pitch distance of JM words as the dependent variable and the following were included as the predictors: SC tonal relations, between-dialect tonal identity, and individual backgrounds. The results showed that tonal relations in SC and between-dialect identity, as predictors featuring the relation between the JM and SC tonal systems, are significant and robust predictors of JM tonal realizations. The speakers' sociolinguistic and cognitive backgrounds, together with the tonal merge and neutral tone information within JM, are important for the prediction of JM tonal realizations and affect the way that between-language predictors take effect.

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“…So, how, where, and at what frequency/scaling distance from the F 0 peak maximum the assumed second high tonal target actually manifests itself in the F 0 course has to be determined in follow-up studies. In addition to a detailed analysis of the F 0 course, these follow-up studies could use the derivative-based approach of Xu and Wang (2001) in order to define and reliably determine the second high tonal target.…”

Section: Perspectives For Phonological Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pointed and plateau-shaped pitch accents in North Frisian

Niebuhr¹,

Hoekstra

2015

Laboratory Phonology

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Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpusinterviews of 10 elderly speakers -and conducted multiparametric F 0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F 0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F 0 range and F 0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.

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Pitch targets and their realization: Evidence from Mandarin Chinese

Cited by 238 publications

References 39 publications

Toward invariant functional representations of variable surface fundamental frequency contours: Synthesizing speech melody via model-based stochastic learning

Toward invariant functional representations of variable surface fundamental frequency contours: Synthesizing speech melody via model-based stochastic learning

Predicting tonal realizations in one Chinese dialect from another

Pointed and plateau-shaped pitch accents in North Frisian

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