School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/392

Filters

2019 - 2020 2
Reset filters

Settings
Statistics
Citations
Type: Conference Paper × Author: Maxwell, Olga × Author: Wigglesworth, Gillian ×

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The “other” Spanish: Methodological issues in the study of speech timing in Chilean Spanish
    Reynolds, I ; Maxwell, O ; Wigglesworth, G (International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), 2020-01-01)
    This paper is a preliminary account of speech rhythm and some phonological properties of Chilean Spanish in spontaneous dialogues. Different dialects of Spanish have been studied using rhythm metrics measuring the durational variability of vocalic and consonantal intervals. There are, however, methodological issues regarding the segmentation of intervals, often overlooked in previous research, such as the criteria for categorising certain segments into the different intervals and the segmentation of different voice qualities. The present study addresses this gap and compares rhythm metrics obtained using two methods of segmentation based on the available literature. The analyses reveal that a strictly 'acoustic' approach to segmentation of intervals results in slightly inflated metrics. Nevertheless, both methods show there is significant durational interval variability in Chilean Spanish, compared to other dialects of Spanish, that may be connected to phonological properties of the variety.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Second language fluency: re-thinking utterance fluency from a phonetics-phonology interface
    Reynolds Cavallieri, I ; Wigglesworth, G ; Maxwell, O ; Calhoun, S ; Escudero, P ; TABAIN, M ; Warren, P (Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc., 2019-08-09)
    Research into second language fluency has called for cross-linguistic studies to rule out measures that can be attributed to intra-speaker variation. However, cross-linguistic comparisons in fluency studies are problematic. Research in the area has not necessarily taken into consideration differences across languages such as syllable structure, phonotactics, durational cues to prominence and prosodic levels, and idiosyncratic nature of pause duration. The preliminary results of this study into L2 fluency in Chilean Spanish speakers of English revealed that speed and pause phenomena were mostly idiosyncratic, and that segments rather than syllables could be a more reliable measure. Durational cues for phrasal level prominence were not implemented consistently in the L1 and preboundary lengthening in the L2 was not necessarily being used to signal prosodic constituent boundaries. It may be useful to re-operationalize measures used in L2 fluency studies from a phonetics-phonology interface perspective