Proposal of description for an intonation pattern: The simulacrum of neutral intonation

Abstract

The aim of this study is describe the intonation pattern Simulacrum of Neutral Intonation (SNI), defined as the monotone speech produced by the speakers with a prevalence of rhythm and a flat speech melody. As first step, 71 recordings were separated by gender of the subjects and their emotional states: 9 anger male and female speech, 10 neutral male speech, 11 neutral female speech, 11 sad male speech, 9 sad female speech, 7 SNI female speech, and 5 SNI male speech. The 71 samples were analyzed in terms of 44 acoustical parameters established a priori and separated by clustered using the parameters selected by Principal Component Analysis. The four final parameters of this analysis were as follows: (i) lower F0 value, (ii) lower dispersion of positive variations of Focus/Emphasis, (ii) lower mean interval between units of bearing of intonation, and (iv) lower median of these same intervals. These values shows a possible characterization of intonational speech register, called Simulacrum of Neutral Intonation. The SNI record is similar to other speech registers, as those used by speakers with psychic disorders or in stressful situations. These values confirms some findings, as seen in Ragin et al. (1989) and Thomas et al. (1990).