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Title:
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Peaks and Plateaux: The production and perception of intonational high targets in English
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Author:
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Rachael-Anne Knight
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.rachaelanne.net
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Cambridge
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2003
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Phonetics
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Director(s):
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Sarah Hawkins
Francis Nolan
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Abstract:
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Intonational high targets are often realised not as sharp peaks, but as flat stretches of contour, or plateaux. This dissertation investigates the realisation of high targets in production and the effects of this realisation on perception.
The dissertation begins with a description of the development of autosegmental-metrical approaches to intonational phonology, and the issues raised by the presence of intonational plateaux. The dissertation goes on to investigate plateau realisation by means of three production experiments using highly controlled, read speech. In these experiments, the realisation of several subjects’ plateaux is investigated in relation to both structural and non-structural factors. The first two experiments demonstrate that plateau duration and alignment covary with aspects of linguistic structure, such as the onset and coda of the accented syllable, and the number of syllables and presence of word boundaries in the final foot. The third production experiment demonstrates that the end of the plateau may mark linguistic structure, as its alignment is unaffected by non-structural variables such as pitch span and utterance type. The role of physiological constraints, and the relationship between syllable duration and intonational alignment are discussed.
Four perceptual experiments elucidate the perceptual effects of different ways of realising a high target. The first of these experiments demonstrates that the alignment of the end of the plateau within the syllable can affect the process of spoken word recognition. These findings are related to previous experimental findings and current models of recognition. The other three perceptual experiments suggest that the presence of a plateau increases the perceived height and prominence (but not the perceived duration) of accents and, as such, may be a substitute variable for peak height. The psychoacoustic mechanisms behind this effect and the physiological mechanisms behind the production of intonation are discussed. It is concluded that plateaux may be an energy efficient way to increase the perceived prominence of the nucleus.
It is concluded that the alignment of the end of the plateau is crucial and may signal linguistic structure, whilst the entire plateau may be a device for increasing the perception of pitch height and prominence. The implications of these findings for intonational phonology and speech synthesis are discussed.
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