Phonetic convergence in multiple features

Abstract

People's speech shifts during conversation and other interactions to become more similar to the speech of interlocutors in several linguistic characteristics. Most studies on this convergent shift analyze one or two phonetic features (e.g., Babel 2009, Nielsen 2011) or holistic perceptual similarity ratings (e.g., Goldinger 1998). This study focuses on analyzing how the amount of change in difference between speakers’ averages in one feature is correlated with that pair’s change in difference in other features. Convergence was compared for eight speech features over the course of partners’ interactions: F1, F2, vowel duration, pitch, amplitude, turn duration, duration of pauses within turns, and duration of pauses between turns. Among the 28 correlations between convergence in different features, there were only three correlations which reached significance: between within-turn pause duration and between-turn pause duration, between pitch and F2, and between pitch and turn duration, all of which can be attributed to feature correlation independent of change. The degree to which convergence is exhibited by a pair in each feature seems to be highly influenced by the individual speakers; there was a significant correlation in the convergent change within each feature between pairs including the same individual.