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SUMMARY:Phonetics/phonology research cluster workshop on speech rhythm - V
 . Dellwo\, B. Post\, C. Graham\, A. Li\, E. Schmidt
DTSTART:20110325T093000Z
DTEND:20110325T130000Z
UID:TALK30280@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Marco Aldo Piccolino Boniforti
DESCRIPTION:|9:30–11:00|*Student presentations* - _Calbert Graham\, Aike
  Li\, Elaine Schmidt (University of Cambridge)_|\n|11:00–11:30|*Coffee b
 reak*|\n|11:30–12:30|*Speech rhythm perception* - _Prof Volker Dellwo (U
 niversität Zürich)_|\n|12:30–13:00|*A cross-linguistic study of rhythm
 ic development* - _Dr Brechtje Post (University of Cambridge)_|\n\n*Speech
  rhythm perception* _(V. Dellwo)_\n\nSpeech rhythm is predominantly a perc
 eptual phenomenon but yet the mechanisms by which we perceive the rhythm o
 f a speech signal are still widely unknown. In the present talk I will rep
 ort on a study that compared which durational information is more salient 
 in terms of the auditory impression of the rhythm of a sentence: (a) the d
 urations of consonantal and vocalic intervals or (b) the durations of syll
 ables. For a listening experiment\, durational cues of seven German senten
 ces produced by ten German speakers (five male\, five female) were extract
 ed under two different conditions. In condition I\, consonantal intervals 
 were turned into /s/-sounds and vocalic intervals into /a/-sounds (cv dele
 xicalization). In condition II\, entire syllables were turned into /sa/ sy
 llables with a generic durational /s/:/a/ ratio of 5.5 : 4.5 (sy-delexical
 ization). In a rating task 21 native listeners of German judged on a seven
  point scale for 140 delexicalized sentences (7 sentences x 10 speakers x 
 2 delexicalization conditions) how well they matched the auditory rhythm o
 f their originals. Results revealed that sy-delexicalized stimuli are typi
 cally rated significantly higher than the cv-delexicalization. It was foun
 d that when syllabic cues\, in particular the number of syllables in a sen
 tence\, were not obtainable from the cv-delexicalization\, listener rating
 s were poor. The impact of the results on how listeners may perceive rhyth
 mic differences between languages using cv-delexicalized speech are discus
 sed.\n\n*A cross-linguistic study of rhythmic development* _(B. Post)_\n	\
 nThe characteristic rhythm of a language – traditionally referred to in 
 terms of stress- and syllable-timing – has been claimed to emerge from v
 arious phonological properties like syllable structure\, vowel reduction\,
  stress placement\, and phrasing. If so\, learning to produce an appropria
 te rhythmic pattern as a child depends not only on sufficient motor contro
 l\, but also on the acquisition of those properties. This implies that\, w
 hile rhythmic development may start early\, it potentially encompasses the
  entire period of phonological development until approximately age 9.\n\nI
 n this paper\, we investigate to what extent the acquisition of rhythm is 
 indeed language-dependent\, and emerges gradually as language-specific sys
 temic properties are acquired. We comparing English (stress-timed)\, Spani
 sh (syllable-timed)\, and Catalan (mixed/intermediate rhythm class) 2-\, 4
 -\, and 6-year-olds\, to test the hypothesis that rhythmic differences eme
 rge in parallel with the acquisition of phonology. Hence\, cross-linguisti
 c rhythmic differences should already be apparent at age 2\, but become st
 ronger with age\, reflecting phonological and prosodic differences. Also\,
  rhythmic patterns remain untarget-like even at age 6\, depending on the c
 omplexity of the systemic properties of the target language. \n\nThe resul
 ts confirm that there are ambient effects of segmental and syllabic proper
 ties of the target language already at age 2\, and that rhythm development
  is language-dependent. The results also show that incomplete acquisition 
 of phonological systemic properties rather than lack of motor control play
 s a role in the non-target-like timings observed in younger children. Howe
 ver\, syllabic and segmental properties cannot fully explain the findings.
  Factors such as stress placement and phrasing\, which are some of the pro
 perties which are not yet fully acquired at 6\, also play a role\, support
 ing a more refined\, multi-systemic model of rhythmic development.\n\nThis
  study is part of ‘APriL’\, an international collaborative project wit
 h Lluïsa Astruc (Open University)\, Elinor Payne (University of Oxford)\,
  and Pilar Prieto and Maria del Mar Vanrell (both Universitat Pompeu Fabra
 )\, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Ref. 2007 PBR 29 and Ref. 2009
  PBR 00018\; PI Prieto) and the British Academy (Ref. SG-51777\; PI Post).
 \n\n
LOCATION:Wine Room\, King’s College
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