Plug, L and Smith, R (2018) Segments, syllables and speech tempo perception. In: Smith, R, (ed.) Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018. Speech Prosody 2018, 13-16 Jun 2018, Poznań, Poland. , pp. 279-283.
Abstract
Studies of speech tempo commonly use syllable or segment rate as a proxy measure for perceived tempo. In languages whose phonologies allow substantial syllable complexity these measures can produce figures on quite different scales. Listeners’ sensitivity to syllable rate has been demonstrated in multiple studies in which listeners judge the rhythm or tempo of spoken utterances, although these studies do not control for segment rate. Evidence for listeners’ sensitivity to segment rate is much rarer. We report two experiments aimed at clarifying the contributions of syllable and segment rate to English listeners’ tempo judgements. In the first experiment, we manipulate syllable rate in utterance pairs that are constant in segment rate; in the second, we keep syllable rate constant and manipulate segment rate. Listeners decide for each pair which utterance sounds faster. Our results suggest that syllable rate differences are perceived as tempo differences even if segment rate is constant, while differences in segment rate that do not correspond to differences in syllable rate have little impact on perceived speech tempo in English.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Keywords: | phonetics; speech perception; tempo; syllable structure; rhythm |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number British Academy SG151790 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2018 15:00 |
Last Modified: | 13 Aug 2018 14:45 |
Status: | Published |
Identification Number: | 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-57 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:128473 |