Word boundary cues in clear speech: A supplementary report

O n e of a l is tener 's m a jo r tasks in unders tand ing con t inuous speech is segment ing the speech signal into separa te words. W hen listening condi t ions are difficult, speakers can help l isteners by de l ibera te ly speaking m ore clearly. In four exper im en ts , we exam ined how word boundar ie s are p roduced in del ibera te ly clear speech. In an ear l ier repor t we showed that speakers do indeed m ark word bounda r ie s in c lear speech , by pausing at the b o u n d a ry and lengthening p re -boundary syllables; m oreo v e r , these effects are appl ied part icularly to boundar ies p receding weak syllables. In English, l isteners use segm en ta t ion p rocedu res which m ak e word bounda r ie s before s t rong syllables eas ier to perceive; thus mark ing word b o u n ­ daries before weak syllables in c lear speech will m ake clear precisely those boundar ies which arc otherwise hard to perceive. T h e present repor t p resen ts su p p lem en ta ry da ta , namely prosodic analyses of the syllable following a critical word boundary . M ore lengthening and g rea te r increases in intensity were applied in c lear speech to weak syllables than to strong. M ean F\ ) was also increased to a g rea te r ex tent on weak syllables than on strong. Pitch m o v e m e n t , how ever , increased to a grea ter C T J C * extent on s t rong syllables than on weak. T he effects were , however , very small in com par ison to the dura t iona l effects we obse rved ear l ie r for syllables p receding the b o u n d a ry and for pauses at the boundary . Zusammenfassung. Eine de r H a u p ta u fg a b e n für den H ö re r beim V ers tehen fl iessender Sprache ist die Zer legung des Sprachsignals in W ör te r . W enn die H ö rb ed in g u n g en ungünst ig sind, kann der Sprecher dem Z u h ö r e r durch bewusst d e u t ­ liches Sprechen helfen. In vier E x p e r im en ten haben wir un te rsuch t , wie W or tg renzen in bewusst deutl ich gesp rochener Sprache erzeugt w erden . In e inem früheren Bericht haben wir gezeigt, dass Sprecher bei k larer Sprechweise W or tg renzen tatsächlich m ark ie ren , indem sie zwischen den W ö r te rn Pausen einlegen und Silben vor W or tg renzen ver längern: weiter