[Experimental study of respiration in spontaneous dialogue]

The breathing patterns of two speakers engaging in a spontaneous conversation were studied. The variations observed in duration and air flow on inspiratory and expiratory phases indicated the following: Two of the factors which determine respiratory rhythm during speech are inspired air volume and expiration duration. The pragmatic constraints of dialogue constitute genuine constraints, such that the speaker's breathing is adapted to the dialogue rather than the dialogue being adapted to the breathing. No respiratory evidence was found to support the hypothesis of verbal unit ("sentence") preprogramming. On the contrary, the close relationship between conversational phenomena and respiratory phenomena indicates that there are no complete verbal units in dialogue.