Synchronous speech is speech elicited by asking speakers to read a text in synchrony. The present study investigates the timing characteristics of speech obtained under such circumstances. In a main experiment, subjects read a text alone, with a recording of another speaker, or with another live speaker. The last condition produces a much higher degree of synchrony, even at the left edges of phrases following a pause. Subjects display a high level of agreement in pause placement in the synchronous condition, but add pauses idiosyncratically when reading alone. A small second experiment fails to uncover the informational basis of this synchrony, because some subjects can achieve similar synchrony with a recording of synchronous speech, whereas others appear to require a live speaker. Speech that has been modified in this manner is of immediate interest because it seems to express speaker’s attempts to produce maximally predictable speech.
[1]
Mark Liberman,et al.
Use of nonsense‐syllable mimicry in the study of prosodic phenomena
,
1976
.
[2]
Mary E. Beckman,et al.
A Typology of Spontaneous Speech
,
1997,
Computing Prosody.
[3]
Rudolf Rasch,et al.
Timing and synchronization in ensemble performance.
,
1988
.
[4]
B. Repp.
Patterns of note onset asynchronies in expressive piano performance.
,
1996,
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
[5]
Janet B. Pierrehumbert,et al.
Tonal Elements and Their Alignment
,
2000
.
[6]
T. Crystal,et al.
Segmental durations in connected‐speech signals: Current results
,
1988
.
[7]
J. Pierrehumbert.
The phonology and phonetics of English intonation
,
1987
.