1. Representing Intonational Variation
Julia Hirschberg
CS 4706
11/24/2018

2. Today
How can we represent meaningful speech variation s.t. we can communicate this to others?
Expanded vs. compressed pitch range?
Louder vs. softer speech?
Faster vs. slower speech?
Differences in intonational prominence?
Differences in intonational phrasing?
Differences in pitch contours?
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3. Schemes for Representing Intonational Variation
An early proposal: Joshua Steele
Language Learning Approaches
/ IS it INteresting /
/ d’you feel ANGry? /
/ WHAT’S the PROBlem? / (McCarthy, 1991:106)
How can we capture all and only the meaningful intonational variation for a given language unambiguously?
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4. Intonation Models
No commonly agreed upon model for one language, let alone all
Researchers work in different traditions and focus on different aspects of intonation
Different models may arise from different types of data
Auditory
Acoustic
Perceptual …
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5. Intonation Models Auditory:
ESL-orientated; empirical data scarce; even trained listeners do not always agree on what they hear
Acoustic:
Distinction between linguistically relevant and irrelevant details in acoustic signal
Perceptual approach
Experimental data, often w/ manipulated f0
Hard to design experiments with naïve listeners which give adequate control over parameters used in making decisions
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6. Intonation models
Basic division into linear and superpositional models
Linear models: intonation involves a succession of individual choices from an intonation lexicon
Superpositional models: the intonation of an utterance involves a combination of local and utterance-sized components
Speakers may combine aspects of linear and superpositional models in the production of intonation
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7. Intonation Models Linear or Tone sequence models
British school (Kingdon ’58, O’Connor & Arnold ’73, Cruttenden ’97): based on auditory analysis
American School (Pierrehumbert ’80, ToBI): mainly acoustic analysis
Dutch school (‘t Hart, Collier and Cohen 1990): perceptual data
Superpositional models (Fujisaki 1983, Möbius et al. 1993): acoustic/physiological
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8. Superpositional models
Pitch pattern of intonation modeled with two components: phrase component and accent component.
Phrase has basic shape, and pitch movements for individual accents are superimposed over basic shape:
plus =
Apples, oranges and tomatoes
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9. Good for modeling declination
Declination: downtrend in f0 over the course of an utterance
Best seen as statistical abstraction: if one takes f0 measurements from enough utterances, over time, a downtrend in f0 will emerge
Lily and Rosa thought this was divine.
Prince William was gorgeous
and he was looking for a bride.
They dreamed of wedding bells.
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10. Superpositional models
Advantages
Good at modeling declination in intonation languages
Successful in speech synthesis for languages like Japanese (little variation in accent type, e.g.)
Capture prosodic structure in languages which have both tone and intonation (e.g. Mandarin)
Disadvantages
All contours must be modeled with an accent and a phrase component
Many SAE contours cannot be captured easily
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11. Intonation contours cannot be modeled as sequences of prosodic events
No account of different accent types, or variations in phrase endings
No notation system which allows users to share observations from large speech corpora or to compare contours
A method primarily for synthesis, analysis of speech production
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12. Tone sequence models
General assumption: intonation is generated from sequences of (possibly) categorically different and phonologically distinctive accents
Two types of models within the group of tone sequence models:
Type 1: Intonation made up of sequences of pitch movements
Type 2: Intonation made up of sequences of pitch levels or targets
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13. Two types of tone-sequence model
Type 1: based on pitch movements t a r g e
Type 2: based on pitch levels H
The British School The Dutch School t a r g e L
The American School
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14. Tone Sequence Models
Overall shape of intonation phrase is not component of models
Model is a succession of independent accent and boundary tone choices from an intonation lexicon
Do not model phrase-level phenomena (e.g. declination, pitch range, nuclear accent)
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15. The British School
Tone sequence model and pitch movement analysis (e.g. falling vs. rising intonation)
Auditory model: teaching English as a second language
O’Connor and Arnold 1972:
Earliest textbook for English instruction that tells user which contour appropriate in which context
No empirical evidence
British school analyses applied to English, German, Dutch, French, …
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16. Concepts in the British School
Basic unit of intonational description: intonation phrase (tone unit)
Delimited by pauses, phrase-final lengthening, pitch movement
Syllables within a tone unit can be stressed or accented
telephone
Accented syllables are stressed and pitch prominent
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17. Accent
Stressed syllable has full vowel and is perceived as involving a rhythmic beat
Pitch prominence
syllable produced with moving pitch or
syllable part of a pitch jump from a preceding syllable or onto a following syllable or
syllable at a point in the utterance where the direction of pitch movement changes (e.g. from rising to falling)
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18. Pitch Prominence Syllable produced with moving pitch
Syllable part of a pitch jump from a preceding syllable or onto a following syllable
Syllable at a point in utterance where direction of pitch movement changes i g
the r l g i r l
in the gar
the
den n e d g a r h e i n t i r l
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the

19. An example
and I think it’s HOrriblerrible
...a POINT where
you have to CLEAN it
There’s a point where you have to clean it and I think it’s horrible...
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20. Intonation Phrase Structure
Intonational phrases have an internal structure
Structure determined by location of accents in an IP
Each accent defines the beginning of a prosodic constituent
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21. Intonation phrase structure
Two types of accent unit in the British School:
Prenuclear accent units; also called the Head
Nuclear accent units; also called the Nucleus
The nuclear accent unit is the last accent unit in the IP
The head comprises all prenuclear accent units
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22. Intonation phrase structure
Prenuclear accent unit
Nuclear accent unit
Prehead
‘Head’
‘Nucleus’
Stressed syllable
But
JOHN’s never BEEN to Jamaica
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23. Six nuclear choices in EnglishJ a m i c
falling i c
rising J a m a c
rising-falling i J m
falling-rising J a m i c
Rising-falling-rising a c i J m
level J a m i c
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24. Strengths and Weaknesses
How are accents, prominence defined? How are they related to segments? Too many options….
Are prenuclear accents qualitatively different from nuclear accents? What is the evidence?
Does each pitch accent begin a new ‘prosodic unit’ in the phrase? What is the evidence?
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25. Next Class The American School and Laboratory Phonology ToBI
Read the ToBI conventions
Listen to the ToBI training data or cardinal examples
Bring your laptop and headphones to class
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