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Collaborative signaling of informational structures by dynamic speech rate
H Koiso1, A Shimojima, Y Katagiri
1Gaduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. koiso@kokken.go.jp
Language and Speech
|April 4, 2000
Summary
Dynamic speech rates in Japanese conversations signal information structure. Slower speech often indicates new information, while faster speech suggests continuation, aiding conversational understanding.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Conversational analysis often overlooks prosodic features.
- Dynamic speech rate variations are under-explored as contextualization cues.
- Understanding information flow in spoken discourse is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of dynamic speech rate changes in conversational Japanese.
- To determine if speech rate variations signal information structure in dialogues.
- To analyze the effectiveness of speech rate as a cue for information openings.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of five spontaneous, task-oriented Japanese dialogues.
- Examination of speech rate variations (acceleration and deceleration).
- Correlation analysis between speech rate changes and information structure points.
Main Results:
- Speech decelerations correlate with new information openings.
- Speech accelerations correlate with the absence of information openings.
- These correlations are observed in both single-speaker and multi-speaker interactions, with and without turn shifts.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic speech rates serve as effective cues for information structures in conversational Japanese.
- Speech rate changes contribute to the collaborative construction of information in dialogues.
- The findings highlight the potential of prosodic features in discourse analysis.