Previous work on the prosodic differences between read speech and spontaneous speech in British English RP has used a purely perceptual analysis of the data. However, this type of analysis is largely confined to one style of English (read monologue), and makes no reference to the acoustic exponents of prosodic features. The work to be reported here compares read speech with (semi-) spontaneous speech for a male speaker of RP English. This provides for a direct comparison between speaking styles. A perceptual prosodic transcription is made of each text, and an automatic stress detection algorithm is run over the data, locating any accented syllables and prosodic boundaries. The success of the algorithm is evaluated, using the perceptual transcription as reference. The styles of speech are then compared in prosodic terms.
Cite as: Hieronymus, J.L., Williams, B.J. (1991) A comparison of the prosody in read speech and directed monologue in British English. Proc. ESCA Workshop on Phonetics and Phonology of Speaking Styles, paper 032
@inproceedings{hieronymus91_ppst,
author={James L. Hieronymus and Briony J. Williams},
title={{A comparison of the prosody in read speech and directed monologue in British English}},
year=1991,
booktitle={Proc. ESCA Workshop on Phonetics and Phonology of Speaking Styles},
pages={paper 032}
}