Home Linguistics & Semiotics Modeling and Perception of ‘Gesture Reduction’
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Modeling and Perception of ‘Gesture Reduction’

  • René Carré and Pierre L. Divenyi
Published/Copyright: August 22, 2000

Abstract

The phenomenon of vowel reduction is investigated by modeling ‘gesture reduction’ with the use of the Distinctive Region Model (DRM). First, a definition is proposed for the term gesture, i.e. an acoustically efficient command aimed at deforming, in the time domain, the area function of the vocal tract. Second, tests are reported on the perception of vowel-to-vowel transitions obtained with reduced gestures. These tests show that a dual representation of formant transitions is required to explain the reduction phenomenon: the trajectory in the F<sub>1</sub>–F<sub>2</sub> plane and the time course of the formant changes. The results also suggest that time-domain integration of the trajectories constitutes an integral part of the auditory processing of transitions. Perceptual results are also discussed in terms of the acoustic traces of DRM gestures.


verified


References

1 d&rsquo;Alessandro, C.; Castellengo, M.: The pitch of short duration vibrato tones. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 95: 1617&ndash;1630 (1994).10.1121/1.408548Search in Google Scholar

2 Badin, P.; Fant, G.: Notes on the vocal tract computations. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 2/3, pp. 53&ndash;107 (1984).Search in Google Scholar

3 Beautemps, D.: R&eacute;cup&eacute;ration des gestes de la parole &agrave; partir de trajectoires formantiques: identification de cibles vocaliques non atteintes et mod&egrave;les pour les profils sagittaux des consonnes fricatives; th&egrave;se Institut National Polytechnique, Grenoble (1993).Search in Google Scholar

4 Browman, C.; Goldstein, L.: Towards an articulatory phonology; in Ewan, Anderson, Phonol. Yb., pp. 219&ndash;252 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986).10.1017/S0952675700000658Search in Google Scholar

5 Brownlee, S.A.: The role of sentence stress in vowel reduction and formant undershoot: a study of lab speech and informal spontaneous speech; PhD thesis University of Texas, Austin (1996).Search in Google Scholar

6 Carr&eacute;, R.; Chennoukh, S.; Divenyi, P.; Lindblom, B.: On the perceptual characteristics of &lsquo;speech gestures&rsquo;. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 96: S3326 (1994).10.1121/1.410724Search in Google Scholar

7 Carr&eacute;, R.; Mody, M.: Prediction of Vowel and Consonant Place of Articulation. Proc. 3rd Meet. ACL Special Interest Group in Computational Phonol. SIGPHON 97, Madrid 1997, pp. 26&ndash;32.Search in Google Scholar

8 Carr&eacute;, R.; Mrayati, M.: Vowel-vowel trajectories and region modeling. J. Phonet. 19: 433&ndash;443 (1991).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30334-1Search in Google Scholar

9 Chiba, T.; Kajiyama, M.: The vowel: its nature and structure (Tokyo-Kaiseikan Publishing Company, Tokyo 1941).Search in Google Scholar

10 Di Benedetto, M.G.: Frequency and time variations of the first formant: properties relevant to the perception of vowel height. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 86: 67&ndash;77 (1989).10.1121/1.398221Search in Google Scholar

11 Divenyi, P.; Lindblom, B.; Carr&eacute;, R.: The role of transition velocity in the perception of V1V2 complexes. Proc. 13th Int. Congr. Phonet. Sci., Stockholm 1995, pp. 258&ndash;261.Search in Google Scholar

12 Fant, G.: Speech sounds and features (MIT Press, Cambridge 1973).Search in Google Scholar

13 Fant, G.: Vocal tract area and length perturbations. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 4, pp. 1&ndash;14 (1975).Search in Google Scholar

14 Fowler, C.A.: Phonological and articulatory characteristics of spoken language. Haskins Lab. Status Rep. Speech Res., SR 109/110, pp. 1&ndash;12 (Haskins Laboratories, New Haven 1992).Search in Google Scholar

15 Gay, T.: Effect of speaking rate on vowel formant movements. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 63: 223&ndash;230 (1978).10.1121/1.381717Search in Google Scholar

16 House, A.S.; Fairbanks, G.: The influence of consonant environment upon the secondary acoustical characteristics of vowels. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 25: 105&ndash;113 (1953).10.1121/1.1906982Search in Google Scholar

17 Huang, C.B.: Perception of first and second formant frequency trajectories in vowels. Int. Congr. on Phonet. Sci., Tallinn 1987, pp. 194&ndash;197.Search in Google Scholar

18 Johnson, K.: Speaker perception without speaker normalization. An exemplar model; in Johnson, Mullennix, Talker variability in speech processing, pp. 145&ndash;165 (Academic Press, New York 1997).Search in Google Scholar

19 Kozhevnikov, V.A.; Chistovich, L.A.: Speech, articulation, and perception. JPRS-30543. NTIS (US Department of Commerce, 1965).Search in Google Scholar

20 Kuehn, D.P.; Moll, K.L.: A cineradiographic study of VC and CV articulatory velocities. J. Phonet. 4: 303&ndash;320 (1976).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)31257-4Search in Google Scholar

21 Kuhl, P.: Infants&rsquo; perception and representation of speech: development of a new theory. Proc. ICSLP &rsquo;92, Banff 1992, pp. 449&ndash;456.10.21437/ICSLP.1992-3Search in Google Scholar

22 Kuwabara, H.: An approach to normalization of coarticulation effects for vowels in connected speech. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 77: 686&ndash;694 (1985).10.1121/1.392337Search in Google Scholar

23 Lindblom, B.: Spectrographic study of vowel reduction. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 35: 1773&ndash;1781 (1963).10.1121/1.1918816Search in Google Scholar

24 Lindblom, B.: Explaining phonetic variation: a sketch of the H and H theory; in Marchal, Hardcastle, Speech production and speech modelling, NATO ASI Series, pp. 403&ndash;439 (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1990).10.1007/978-94-009-2037-8_16Search in Google Scholar

25 Lindblom, B.; Studdert-Kennedy, M.: On the role of formant transitions in vowel perception. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 42: 830&ndash;843 (1967).10.1121/1.1910655Search in Google Scholar

26 Lindgren, R.; Lindblom, B.: Reduction of vowel chaos. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 2, pp. 1&ndash;4 (1996).Search in Google Scholar

27 Mattingly, I.G.: The global character of phonetic gesture. J. Phonet. 18: 445&ndash;452 (1990).10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30372-9Search in Google Scholar

28 Moore, B.C.J.; Sek, A.: Discrimination of frequency glides with superimposed random glides in level. J. acoust. Soc. Am., 104: 411&ndash;421 (1998).10.1121/1.423297Search in Google Scholar

29 Mrayati, M.; Carr&eacute;, R.; Gu&eacute;rin, B.: Distinctive region and modes: a new theory of speech production. Speech Commun. 7: 257&ndash;286 (1988).10.1016/0167-6393(88)90073-8Search in Google Scholar

30 Mrayati, M.; Carr&eacute;, R.; Gu&eacute;rin, B.: Distinctive regions and modes: articulatory-acoustic-phonetic aspects. A reply to Bo&euml; and Perrier comments. Speech Commun. 9: 231&ndash;238 (1990).10.1016/0167-6393(90)90059-ISearch in Google Scholar

31 Nord, L.: Acoustic studies of vowel reduction in Swedish. Q. Prog. Status Rep., Speech Transm. Lab., R. Inst. Technol., Stockh., No. 4, pp. 19&ndash;36 (1986).Search in Google Scholar

32 Peterson, G.E.; Barney, H.L.: Control methods used in the study of the vowels. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 24: 175&ndash;184 (1952).10.1121/1.1906875Search in Google Scholar

33 Son, R.J.J.H. van: Vowel perception: a closer look at the literature. Proc. Inst. Phonet. Sci., Univ. Amsterdam 17: 33&ndash;64 (1993).Search in Google Scholar

34 Son, R.J.J.H. van; Pols, L.C.W.: Formant movements of Dutch vowels in a text, read at normal and fast rate. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 92: 121&ndash;127 (1992).10.1121/1.404277Search in Google Scholar

35 Son, R.J.J.H. van; Pols, L.C.W.: Vowel identification as influenced by vowel duration and formant track shape. Proc. Eurospeech &rsquo;93, Berlin, pp. 285&ndash;288 (1993).Search in Google Scholar

36 Strange, W.: Dynamic specifications of coarticulated vowels spoken in sentence context. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 85: 2135&ndash;2153 (1989).10.1121/1.397863Search in Google Scholar

37 Strange, W.; Bohn, O.S.: Dynamic specification of coarticulated German vowels: perceptual and acoustical studies. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 104: 488&ndash;504 (1998).10.1121/1.423299Search in Google Scholar

38 Strange, W.; Jenkins, J.J.; Johnson, T.L.: Dynamic specification of coarticulated vowel. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 74: 695&ndash;705 (1983).10.1121/1.389855Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2000-08-22
Published in Print: 2000-12-01

© 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Special Section
  2. Title Page
  3. Foreword
  4. Acoustic Patterning of Speech Its Linguistic and Physiological Bases
  5. Investigating Unscripted Speech: Implications for Phonetics and Phonology
  6. Emotive Transforms
  7. The Source-Filter Frame of Prominence
  8. The C/D Model and Prosodic Control of Articulatory Behavior
  9. Diverse Acoustic Cues at Consonantal Landmarks
  10. Perceptual Processing
  11. Modeling and Perception of ‘Gesture Reduction’
  12. General Auditory Processes Contribute to Perceptual Accommodation of Coarticulation
  13. Adaptive Dispersion in Vowel Perception
  14. Language Acquisition as Complex Category Formation
  15. Biology of Communication and Motor Processes
  16. Singing Birds, Playing Cats, and Babbling Babies: Why Do They Do It?
  17. The Phonetic Potential of Nonhuman Vocal Tracts: Comparative Cineradiographic Observations of Vocalizing Animals
  18. Dynamic Simulation of Human Movement Using Large-Scale Models of the Body
  19. En Route to Adult Spoken Language / Language Development
  20. An Embodiment Perspective on the Acquisition of Speech Perception
  21. Speech to Infants as Hyperspeech: Knowledge-Driven Processes in Early Word Recognition
  22. The Construction of a First Phonology
  23. Auditory Constraints on Sound Structures
  24. Searching for an Auditory Description of Vowel Categories
  25. Commentary
  26. Imitation and the Emergence of Segments
  27. Deriving Speech from Nonspeech: A View from Ontogeny
  28. Paper
  29. Developmental Origins of Adult Phonology: The Interplay between Phonetic Emergents and the Evolutionary Adaptations of Sound Patterns
  30. Further Section
  31. Publications Björn Lindblom
  32. Index autorum Vol. 57, 2000
  33. Contents Vol. 57, 2000
Downloaded on 30.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1159/000028469/pdf
Scroll to top button