ESCA Workshop on Prosody Lund, Sweden September 27-29, 1993

Functional, Acoustical and Perceptual Analysis of Vocal Hesitations in Spontaneous Speech

Isabelle Guaïtella

Institut de Phonétique d'Aix-en-Provence, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, URA CNRS 261, France

The aim of this study is to reconsider and to show the interest of the analysis of a phenomenon which is specific to spontaneous speech: tvocal hesitations. These latter are often assimilated to silent pauses. Acoustical investigations led us to shed some light on the perceptual and communicative functions of vocal hesitations. This study is based on a general description of the rhythmic organisation of spontaneous speech. We demonstrate that both functions and acoustic manifestations of vocal hesitation are specific.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Guaïtella, Isabelle (1993): "Functional, acoustical and perceptual analysis of vocal hesitations in spontaneous speech", In Prosody-1993, 128-131.