Multimode database and its preliminary results

Abstract

Data from four speaking modes—word‐list reading, text reading, conversation, and reading of sentences occurring in the conversation—were collected from American English speakers (five male, five female). Each speaker spoke for approximately 5 h. Smaller amounts of similar data are being collected for Japanese and Spanish. The principal objective is to better understand speech activities and their underlying rules by capturing them in speaking modes that exhibit very different ranges of variation. The reading of sentences spoken in conversation is particularly useful, because it allows us to directly compare acoustic attributes of linguistic forms in formal versus spontaneous speech. Several research projects that contrast conversation and more formal modes (two of which will be presented at this meeting) are being carried out. These include formant frequencies of unstressed vowels [Wallace]; acoustic properties of /ɚ/s [Horna); prosodic attributes of stressed and unstressed vowels; perception and acoustic correlates of degrees of emphasis. Ideas for future research, including a cross‐language study of contractions used in conversation, will be proposed.