The research presented in this paper focuses on the role of melodic configuration and syntactic completion in the turn-taking process in Dutch. Subjects were presented with fragments of task-oriented dialogue, in which syntactic completeness and four types of melodic configuration were systematically varied, asking them to indicate whether they expected the turn to change at a specific point or not. The number of expected speaker changes turns out to be very low when no possible syntactic completion point has been reached. A rising pitch accent followed by a level boundary tone (H* %) is generally interpreted as a signal that the speaker wishes to continue, while H* H%, H*L L% and H*L H% configurations at syntactic boundaries are expected to be followed by a speaker change in the majority of cases. The data support the view that syntactic and melodic completion play a major role in the projection of possible turn-transition places.
Cite as: Caspers, J. (2001) Testing the perceptual relevance of syntactic completion and melodic configuration for turn-taking in dutch. Proc. 7th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 2001), 1395-1398, doi: 10.21437/Eurospeech.2001-360
@inproceedings{caspers01_eurospeech,
author={Johanneke Caspers},
title={{Testing the perceptual relevance of syntactic completion and melodic configuration for turn-taking in dutch}},
year=2001,
booktitle={Proc. 7th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 2001)},
pages={1395--1398},
doi={10.21437/Eurospeech.2001-360}
}