Effects of emphatic stress and speaking mode on articulatory organization

Abstract

An adult male talker recorded multiple repetitions of short nonsense sentences. Each sentence was of the form “A huCl ate a C2uffle,” where C1 and C2 were from the set {/b/,/d/,/g/}. Sentences containing all nine combinations of C1-C2 pairings were recorded in several speaking modes: CLEAR, CONVERSATIONAL, STRESS1, and STRESS2. The latter two conditions entailed production of the sentences in conversational mode, but with emphatic stress on the syllable containing either the first (STRESS1) or the second (STRESS2) variable consonant. These materials were recorded at the University of Wisconsin Microbeam facility and include both acoustic data and tracings of the trajectories of flesh points on the tongue, lips, and jaw. Analyses of the acoustic and articulatory data suggest that local effects of stress on consonant articulation are similar to those of clear speech. The largest acoustic and articulatory differences were observed for consonants in syllable final position. The various significant articulatory effects of stress and speaking mode will be compared to perceptual measures of consonant intelligibility.