Temporal structuring of acoustic segments in speech communication

Abstract

The following problems were studied on the domain of the temporal structuring of speech utterance: the determination of algorithms of synthesis of the rhythmic patterns of the utterance, the problem which is often referred to as preprogramming of the temporal organization of the speech signal being part of a more general problem of synthesis (generation) of prosodic patterns of the utterance; the determination of signals used in the information exchange between linguistic and neuro-physiological levels of speech analysis and synthesis; the rules determining the conversion of transformation of the rhythmic patterns of the utterance into real-time intervals between articulatory positions and movements. The character of a durational correlation which has been revealed in this experiment (with the use of the special correlation coefficient ρ and the test of the H0-hypothesis) made it possible to define three types of temporal correlation: microcorrelation (for subsound and sound levels), mesocorrelation (for syllabic level), and macrocorrelation (for the level of phrase rhythmic structures—phonetic words). The integral temporal organization of speech utterance is determined on the one hand by a lower level effect—coarticulation, and on the other hand by a higher level effect—the rhythmic patterns of a phrase.