Phrasal length and complexity effects on interphrase pause duration

Abstract

This study examines the effect of prosodic structure and phrase length on pause duration and the speech planning processes that such pauses can reveal. Subjects read sentences varying in two ways. First, each sentence included a pause bounded either by long intonational phrases both before and after it, medium phrases before and after, or short phrases before and after. Second, the prosodic complexity of the phrase on each side of the pause, i.e., before it and after it, was varied as to whether it was a branching intonational phrase or a nonbranching intonational phrase. Fourteen speakers read sentences synchronously in dyads so as to minimize variability due to speech rate and individual differences [Cummins, ARLO (2002), Cummins, J. Phonetics: (2003); Zvonik and Cummins, ICSLP (2002)]. The results for the dyads analyzed to date indicate that preboundary branching phrases are followed by longer pauses than nonbranching preboundary phrases. Further, surrounding long phrases lead to longer pauses than surrounding medium phrases, which in turn give rise to longer pauses than surrounding short phrases. Interaction effects of phrasal length and complexity will also be discussed. [Work supported by NIH.]