1. The Effect of Pitch Span on Intonational Plateaux Rachael-Anne Knight University of Cambridge Speech Prosody 2002

2. 1 What Are Intonational Plateaux?  The H of H*L nuclear accent has been observed to appear as a flat stretch of contour rather than as a single point Plateau Peak

3. 2 How Are Plateaux Defined?  Plateaux are defined as being 4% down from any absolute peak in F0  4% is the range of perceptual equality Peak 4% range Plateau

4. 3 What Is Known About Plateaux – Segmental Factors  When the onset of the accented syllable is a sonorant, plateaux :  Are proportionally longer  Begin earlier inside the syllable

5. 4 What Is Known About Plateaux – Structural Factors  When there are more syllables in the foot  Both the beginning and end of the plateau are aligned later in the syllable

6. 5 Summary of Factors Affecting Plateaux Realisation  Segmental  Onset/coda type  Structural  Number of syllables in the foot ? Extralinguistic  Pitch span

7. 6 The Experiment - Aim  To look at the effect of pitch span on the plateau’s  Duration  Alignment

8. 7 What Is Pitch Span?  Pitch span is the difference between the highest and lowest targets in the utterance  The (extra) linguistic correlate is emotional involvement Expanded Neutral Compressed

9. 8 How Does Peak Alignment Change With Pitch Span?  Peaks move later in the syllable when the pitch span is wider  This a feature when syllables are lengthened by non-structural means  e.g. Slower tempo

10. 9 Duration Hypothesis  It is hypothesized that the plateau may be shorter in wider pitch spans  As the speaker has to reach more extreme values there may be less time to realise a plateau

11. 10 Alignment Hypothesis-A  If the duration hypothesis is correct the two ends of the plateau may contract around the peak in more expanded spans  This would lead to later alignment of the beginning and earlier alignment of the end of the plateau

12. 11 Alignment Hypothesis - B  Following data on peak alignment under changes in pitch span…  The whole plateau may be later in expanded pitch spans

13. 12 Predicted Behaviour in Expanded Span DurationStartPeakEnd Hypothesis A Hypothesis B Results

14. 13 Stimuli  2 all-sonorant utterances  We were relying on a milliner  A milliner?!  In 3 pitch spans (compressed, neutral, expanded)  Recorded by one male and one female phonetician  Combined to form conversational dyads

15. 14 Procedure  Subjects listened to the stimuli through headphones in a sound-treated room  Instructed to produce an intonationally equivalent utterance in their own voice  Imitation recorded onto a UNIX machine using a high quality microphone

16. 15 Subjects  12 students at the University of Cambridge  8 women and 4 men  Age range 21-27  All with some phonetic training

17. 16 Pitch SpanStart of PlateauPeakEnd of Plateau Plateau Duration Syllable Duration Foot Duration Low tone Measurements Taken

18. 17 Statistics  Repeated measures (MANOVA)  Pitch span  Sex  Utterance

19. 18 Initial Results  The paradigm works – people really do use different pitch spans  As they imitate increasingly wider spans:  The peak gets higher  The distance between the high and low points increases  Syllables increase in duration

20. 19 Results – Duration of the Plateau  Plateau duration is significantly affected by pitch span  It is shorter in the expanded than the neutral span and shorter in the neutral than the compressed  The duration hypothesis is supported

21. 20 Results – Peak Alignment  Peak alignment is significantly affected by the pitch span  The peak is significantly later in the syllable in an expanded pitch span  Confirming previous studies

22. 21 Results – Alignment of the Start of the Plateau  Alignment of the beginning of the plateau is affected by pitch span  It is later in the expanded span  As predicted by both alignment hypotheses

23. 22 Results – Alignment of the End of the Plateau  The alignment of the end of the plateau is not significantly affected by the pitch span used  It is consistently anchored  This result was not predicted by either alignment hypothesis

24. 23 Results – Alignment Summary  Start of plateau is later in expanded pitch span  Peak is later in expanded pitch span  End of plateau is stable across pitch span

25. 24 Observed Behaviour in Expanded Span DurationStartPeakEnd Hypothesis A Hypothesis B Results

26. 25 Conclusions  The duration hypothesis was confirmed  Neither alignment hypothesis was fully confirmed  Instead, surprisingly (?) the end of the plateau is consistently anchored

27. 26 Implication I. Range of perceptual equality  End of the plateau is first place at which the listener can tell the speaker has started to fall II. The end of the plateau covaries with foot structure  Later in the syllable in polysyllabic feet  The end of the plateau is an important marker of linguistic structure  Possibly more important than the peak itself

28. The Effect of Pitch Span on Intonational Plateaux Rachael-Anne Knight University of Cambridge Speech Prosody 2002