Cambridge Studies in Speech Science and Communication – serie

The variation that a speech sound undergoes under the influence of neighbouring sounds has acquired the well-established label coarticulation. The phenomenon of coarticulation has become a central problem in the theory of speech production. Much experimental work has been directed towards discovering its characteristics, its extent and its occurrence across different languages. This book is a major study of coarticulation by a team of international researchers. It provides a definitive account of the experimental findings to date, together with discussions of their implications for modelling the process of speech production. Different components of the speech production system (larynx, tongue, jaw, etc.) require different techniques for investigation and a whole section of this book is devoted to a description of the experimental techniques currently used. Other chapters offer a theoretically sophisticated discussion of the implications of coarticulation for the phonology-phonetics interface.

This book presents an experimental-phonetic approach to the study of intonation, defined as the ensemble of pitch variations in speech. It brings together in a single volume a detailed explication of the stylization method used in the analysis of intonation; theoretical insights and the experimental evidence that supports them, the results of physiological measurements that substantiate hypotheses about the production of intonation; and applications arising from the research. Johan't Hart, Rene Collier and Antonie Cohen argue that a perception-oriented approach, carried out by studying the perceptual consequences of deliberate manipulations of the speech signal, is the only way in which it can be decided what, out of the abundant information in the acoustic domain, is important for the listener and hence may be relevant for communication. The method they employ is fruitful not only for the analysis of Dutch, but also of British English, German and Russian intonation.

How reliably can individuals be recognised by their voices? This question has recently been the subject of much debate among speech researchers and forensic scientists and the controversial and crucial nature of that debate has stimulated a wide range of empirical research. In this book Dr Nolan argues convincingly that both the design and interpretation of many of these experiments are vitiated by the lack of a comprehensive model of variability between speakers and within the speech of an individual. This volume clearly demonstrates that any valid theory of speaker recognition must integrate the approaches of a number of disciplines and it is itself an important step towards that integration. It will be of interest to phoneticians and to speech scientists, including those with an engineering background and also to forensic scientists specialising in this area.

Patterns of Sounds describes the frequency and distributional patterns of the phonemic sounds in a large and representative sample of the world's languages. The results are based on UPSID (the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database), a computer file containing the phonemes of 317 languages selected on the basis of genetic diversity. The book contains nine chapters analysing the UPSID data, as well as fully labelled phoneme charts for each language and a comprehensive segment index. Questions of the frequency and co-occurrence of the particular segment types are discussed in detail and possible explanations for the patterns observed are evaluated. The book is thus both a report on the research into phoneme inventory structure that has been done using UPSID and a resource that provides the reader with the tools to extend that research.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the emerging fields of neurolinguistics and linguistic aphasiology. Reflecting the dramatic changes that have taken place in the study of language disorders over the last decade, David Caplan's approach is firmly interdisciplinary. He introduces concepts from the main contributing disciplines - neurology, linguistics, psychology and speech pathology - in such a way that they will be clearly understood by all students, whatever their particular background. The topics covered have been carefully selected to demonstrate how the more sophisticated topical neurolinguistic approaches have developed from traditional clinical models. The critical and detailed discussion of all the main theoretical issues in the fields makes this a fundamental work not only for students but also for specialists.

This textbook has been carefully designed to provide a thorough introduction to the study of speech. It assumes no technical background, and students from the wide variety of disciplines contributing to this new and exciting field will find the exposition always accessible. Each chapter progresses from simple examples to more detailed discussions of recent primary research and concludes with problem sets which student's will find interesting and enlightening. All the topics that are essential for a basic understanding of the field are covered - the physiological, biological, and neurological bases of speech; the physics of sound; the source-filter theory of speech production; and the principles underlying electrical and computer models of speech production. All students, whatever their area of special interest speech therapy, phonological theory, psycholinguistics. neurolinguistics, anthropology, etc. - will discover in this text the challenge and fascination of the scientific study of speech. The authors undoubtedly succeed in their explicit aim: not only, to prepare students to evaluate critically the latest research, but also to encourage them to undertake their own research projects.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the emerging fields of neurolinguistics and linguistic aphasiology. Reflecting the dramatic changes that have taken place in the study of language disorders over the last decade, David Caplan's approach is firmly interdisciplinary. He introduces concepts from the main contributing disciplines - neurology, linguistics, psychology and speech pathology - in such a way that they will be clearly understood by all students, whatever their particular background. The topics covered have been carefully selected to demonstrate how the more sophisticated topical neurolinguistic approaches have developed from traditional clinical models. The critical and detailed discussion of all the main theoretical issues in the fields makes this a fundamental work not only for students but also for specialists.

This book presents an experimental-phonetic approach to the study of intonation, defined as the ensemble of pitch variations in speech. It brings together in a single volume a detailed explication of the stylization method used in the analysis of intonation; theoretical insights and the experimental evidence that supports them, the results of physiological measurements that substantiate hypotheses about the production of intonation; and applications arising from the research. Johan't Hart, Rene Collier and Antonie Cohen argue that a perception-oriented approach, carried out by studying the perceptual consequences of deliberate manipulations of the speech signal, is the only way in which it can be decided what, out of the abundant information in the acoustic domain, is important for the listener and hence may be relevant for communication. The method they employ is fruitful not only for the analysis of Dutch, but also of British English, German and Russian intonation.