Katherine Morton - Böcker

This book is about the nature of expression in speech. It is a comprehensive exploration of how such expression is produced and understood, and of how the emotional content of spoken words may be analysed, modelled, tested, and synthesized. Listeners can interpret tone-of-voice, assess emotional pitch, and effortlessly detect the finest modulations of speaker attitude; yet these processes present almost intractable difficulties to the researchers seeking to identify and understand them. In seeking to explain the production and perception of emotive content Mark Tatham and Katherine Morton review the potential of biological and cognitive models. They examine how the features that make up the speech production and perception systems have been studied by biologists, psychologists, and linguists, and assess how far biological, behavioural, and linguistic models generate hypotheses that provide insights into the nature of expressive speech.The authors use recent techniques in speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition as a test bed for models of expression in speech. Acknowledging that such testing presupposes a comprehensive computational model of speech production, they put forward original proposals for its foundations and show how the relevant data structures may be modelled within its framework.This pioneering book will be of central interest to researchers in linguistics and in speech science, pathology, and technology. It will also be valuable for behavioural and cognitive scientists wanting to know more about this vital and elusive aspect of human behaviour.

This book is about the nature of expression in speech. It is a comprehensive exploration of how such expression is produced and understood, and of how the emotional content of spoken words may be analysed, modelled, tested, and synthesized. Listeners can interpret tone-of-voice, assess emotional pitch, and effortlessly detect the finest modulations of speaker attitude; yet these processes present almost intractable difficulties to the researchers seeking to identify and understand them. In seeking to explain the production and perception of emotive content Mark Tatham and Katherine Morton review the potential of biological and cognitive models. They examine how the features that make up the speech production and perception systems have been studied by biologists, psychologists, and linguists, and assess how far biological, behavioural, and linguistic models generate hypotheses that provide insights into the nature of expressive speech.The authors use recent techniques in speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition as a test bed for models of expression in speech. Acknowledging that such testing presupposes a comprehensive computational model of speech production, they put forward original proposals for its foundations and show how the relevant data structures may be modelled within its framework.This pioneering book will be of central interest to researchers in linguistics and in speech science, pathology, and technology. It will also be valuable for behavioural and cognitive scientists wanting to know more about this vital and elusive aspect of human behaviour.

Rapid economic growth in the world's most populous nation is leading to widespread soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and the depletion of vital natural resources. The scale and severity of environmental problems in China now threaten the economic and social foundations of its modernization. Using case studies, Morton analyzes the relationship between international and local responses to environmental problems in China, challenging the prevailing wisdom that weak compliance is the only constraint upon local environmental management in China. It advances two interrelated discussions: first, it constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the key dimensions of environmental capacity. This is broadly defined to encompass the financial, institutional, technological and social aspects of environmental management. Second, the book presents the results of an empirical inquiry into the implementation of donor-funded environmental projects in both China's poorer and relatively developed regions. By drawing upon extensive fieldwork, it seeks to explain how, and under what conditions, international donors can strengthen China's environmental capacity, especially at the local level. It will be of interest to those studying Chinese politics, environmental studies and international relations.

Rapid economic growth in the world's most populous nation is leading to widespread soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and the depletion of vital natural resources. The scale and severity of environmental problems in China now threaten the economic and social foundations of its modernization. Using case studies, Morton analyzes the relationship between international and local responses to environmental problems in China, challenging the prevailing wisdom that weak compliance is the only constraint upon local environmental management in China. It advances two interrelated discussions: first, it constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the key dimensions of environmental capacity. This is broadly defined to encompass the financial, institutional, technological and social aspects of environmental management. Second, the book presents the results of an empirical inquiry into the implementation of donor-funded environmental projects in both China's poorer and relatively developed regions. By drawing upon extensive fieldwork, it seeks to explain how, and under what conditions, international donors can strengthen China's environmental capacity, especially at the local level. It will be of interest to those studying Chinese politics, environmental studies and international relations.

With a growing need for understanding the process involved in producing and perceiving spoken language, this timely publication answers these questions in an accessible reference.  Containing material resulting from many years’ teaching and research, Speech Synthesis provides a complete account of the theory of speech.  By bringing together the common goals and methods of speech synthesis into a single resource, the book will lead the way towards a comprehensive view of the process involved in human speech. The book includes applications in speech technology and speech synthesis. It is ideal for intermediate students of linguistics and phonetics who wish to proceed further, as well as researchers and engineers in telecommunications working in speech technology and speech synthesis who need a comprehensive overview of the field and who wish to gain an understanding of the objectives and achievements of the study of speech production and perception.

What roles do the speaker and the listener play in communication processes? Providing an overall system view, this innovative textbook explains how those working in the area think about speech. Emphasising contextual and environmental perspectives, Tatham and Morton lead you through classical and modern phonetics alongside discussion of cognitive and biological aspects of speech. In explaining speech production-for-perception and the relationship between phonology and phonetics, this book shows the possible applications (such as language teaching, clinical practice, and speech technology) and how these are relevant to other disciplines, including sociolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychology and speech acoustics. Key Features* Definition and Explanation boxes throughout the text to help you understand key terms and concepts* Tutorial sections in each chapter provide opportunities for you to expand or reinforce your learning* Encourages you to develop understanding of theoretical applications through explanation of traditional and contemporary theories* Evaluation sections enable you to compare the pros and cons of competing theories

This book aims to develop a framework for a fully explanatory theory of speech production and speech perception. It emphasises the difference between static models (primarily descriptive) and dynamic models that attempt to show how the basic linguistics and phonetics are related in an actual human speaker/listener.