Распределение длительности фонационных отрезков в устнопорождаемом высказывании: логнормальная модель - Статья

Распределение длительности фонационных отрезков в устнопорождаемом высказывании: логнормальная модельВ статье представлены результаты экспериментального исследования распределения длительности фонационных отрезков в устнопорождаемом высказывании на материале французского, русского и английского языков в трех ситуациях общения: 1) интервью, 2) устной беседы, 3) устного ответа на экзамене по иностранному языку. В ходе анализа статистически репрезентативного корпуса устных текстов было установлено, что такая темпоральная характеристика устнопорождаемого высказывания как длительность фонационного отрезка подчиняется логнормальному статистическому распределению вне зависимости от типа изучаемой ситуации, индивидуальных особенностей говорящих, тематики и общей длительности высказывания, а также от того, на каком языке осуществляется порождение (родном или иностранном). Подчинение логнормальному распределению количественных характеристик проявлений какого-либо процесса свидетельствует об устойчивости базового механизма, отвечающего за их реализацию. Результаты настоящей работы могут быть использованы при разработке методики анализа устнопорождаемого высказывания, а также компьютерных алгоритмов автоматического распознавания речи. The article presents the results of an experimental study analyzing the distribution of phonation units within speech utterances produced in the French, Russian and English languages in three communicative situations: 1) interview; 2) general oral discussion and 3) student’s spoken answer in a foreign language test.A number of studies conducted in this field have demonstrated that such phenomena as the distribution of the lengths of filled-in pauses in oral French speech [2], the distribution of the lengths of non-filled-in pauses in the speech of sufferers from ataxic dysarthria articulatory disorders [4], and of the lengths of vowels and consonants in oral English speech [3] follow a lognormal model. Besides that, the length-related characteristics of certain specific instances of the written speech have also been found to be log-normally distributed, for example, the length of postings on internet forums dedicated to various subjects [5]. It is also well-known that in many languages the length of speech segments plays a key role in the formation of the rhythmic structure of an utterance, therefore further and more thorough analysis of the observed distribution patterns undoubtedly presents a matter of exceptional scientific interest bound to deepen our knowledge about the speech-production process. As it is impossible to explore the whole multitude of speech-production forms within a single study, this article narrows down the research subject to three communicative situations: 1) interview, 2) general oral discussion and 3) a student’s spoken answer in a foreign language test. The given article presents preliminary results of this experimental research and sets out a hypothesis that irrespective of the communicative situation, thematic speech subject, individual manner of the speaker and the language spoken (mother tongue or taught foreign), the time-length values of the constituent speech segments follow a lognormal distribution.The identified lognormal distribution pattern for phonation units’ lengths has turned out to be valid for all the types of utterances analyzed in the experiment. This allows to conclude that the variance in the phonation units’ length values is subject to a certain universal model which is realized each time irrespective of the subject of the utterance, individual traits of the speaker, the language spoken, etc. It seems only natural to assume that the observed general applicability of this distribution pattern reflects the working of a certain intrinsic mechanism regulating the production of a spontaneous oral utterance as such, or at least its temporal structure. More than that, as the experiment has also shown, this model is not violated by either the degree of predictability of the speech stimulus put forward to the speaker (an unexpected question from the researcher), or the amount of time provided for preparing the answer or delivering it, or the fact whether the communicative task in question was explicitly specified or merely contextually implied. Phonetic and Prosodic Characteristics of Disfluencies in French Spontaneous Speech // Poster presented at the 14th Conference on Laboratory Phonology 2014, July 25-27, 2014.