Perceptie-effecten van geografische variantie in (micro-)prosodische

eigenschappen

Marie Nilsenová

Communicatie- en informatie Wetenschappen

Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen

Universiteit van Tilburg

Background

• Clear correlation between age, body size and F0, as well as timbre (Greisbach 1999, Kraus, Freyberg & Morsella 2002)

• Listeners should be able to exploit that knowledge, eg reflecting on the Frequency Code: deeper <-> bigger/taller

• But listener estimates not as good as could be expected, also correlation not always perfect (Cohen et al 1980, Gunter & Manning 1982, van Dommelen & Moxness 1995)

• Free (non-linguistic) variation with social, geographical distribution?

• Expectation: listeners should perform better when estimating speakers in their own variant compared to another variant

Methodology

• 16 speakers (8 male, 8 female/8 B-Dutch, 8 B-Flemish) reading the same short text (newspaper article)

• 2 groups of participants - Dutch, Flemish• Task: estimate speaker’s length, weight, age and the

‘pleasantness’ of the voice (operationalized as 3 properties; Cronbach’s >.65); fixed time

• Also report if speaker Dutch or Flemish

Speaker comparison: Female

Age

(years)

Weight

(kg)

Length

(cm)

NL-fem-1 25 65 173

NL-fem-2 40 60 174

NL-fem-3 57 63 163

NL-fem-4 56 65 178

VL-fem-1 38 60 169

VL-fem-2 31 68 180

VL-fem-3 34 56 163

VL-fem-4 36 56 169

Speaker comparison: Male

Age

(years)

Weight

(kg)

Length

(cm)

NL-masc-1 41 88 184

NL-masc-2 34 72 184

NL-masc-3 29 83 190

NL-masc-4 25 83 174

VL-masc-1 32 79 185

VL-masc-2 41 65 180

VL-masc-3 28 78 188

VL-masc-4 37 63 168

Questionnaire

• Wat vindt u van deze stem?

Plezierig OnplezierigVriendelijk OnvriendelijkAangenaam Vervelend

Wat is volgens u de leeftijd van de spreker? jaarWat is volgens u de lengte van de spreker? cmWat is volgens u het gewicht van de spreker? kg

De spreker is Vlaams Nederlands

Design

• Two conditions: normal and reversed speech (Audacity)

• Purpose of the reversed speech condition: – to assure that speakers do not adapt to the variant they hear

based on previous experience;– also, to examine if adaptation to own variant also relevant for

perception of an ‘unknown’ language

Participants (N=179)

Normal speech condition

Reversed speech condition

Dutch Male

Female

10

25

27

41

Flemish Male

Female

9

18

13

36

Total 62 117

Measure of accuracy

• Index of accuracy (Kraus, Freyberg & Morsella 2002): the average of the absolute difference between estimated and actual values (AD) - the mean of the absolute differences between judges’ estimates of speakers’ values on an attribute and the speakers’ actual value

• The AD measure indexes judges’ average error in estimating a particular attribute

• It answers the question “How close is the average estimate of attribute X to the actual value of X?”

• Absolute accuracy - the sum of the absolute difference between estimated and actual values (AA)

Results (Length)

• Normal condition (AD): interaction effect between speakers’ variant and gender, and listeners’ variant (p<.05, partial eta squared = .127) in the predicted direction

• Reversed condition (AD): main effect of speakers’ variant (p<.05, partial eta squared = .058): Dutch speakers estimated more accurately than Flemish speakers

Results (Pleasantness)

• Normal speech condition: interaction effect of speaker’s variant and listener’s variant (p<.01, partial eta squared = .135) - listeners prefered their own variant

• Reversed speech condition: clear main effect of speaker’s variant (p<.001, partial eta squared =.535) - reversed Flemish prefered to reversed Dutch

Conclusion

• Accuracy of length estimation higher in normal speech condition for own variant

• Result not translated into the reversed speech condition

• Clear preference for speakers of own variant• Listeners generally reported that estimating weight

difficult• Other measures of accuracy to explore the directions

of the accuracy judgments

Thanks to:

Hanne Kloots

Machiel Debets

Julia Hirschberg

Marc Swerts