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The effect of segmental context on the perception of nasal consonants
Prokopová, Zuzana ; Bořil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Šturm, Pavel (referee)
In this thesis, the effect of segmental context on the perception of nasal consonants (namely their place of articulation) is investigated. Disyllabic sequences ending with syllables [ne] or [na:] were extracted from one speaker's utterances and the vowel preceeding the nasal consonant was varied either by replacing the first syllable with a different one, which however came from the same phonemic context, or by mani- pulation of formant trajectories. 15 original, 15 spliced and 5 manipulated pseudo- words were presented to 32 listeners, whose task was to choose from two options, one containing [n] and the other [m], the one that matched the heard stimulus. In case of six spliced and one manipulated stimuli, there was a significant shift of the average evaluation: while the original stimuli were clearly identified as containing [n], eva- luation of the altered stimuli was at least equivocal. This finding is inconsistent with the idea of an invariant acoustic cue for place of articulation in the nasal consonant itself or in one of the adjoining segments, and emphasises the contextual dependence of our perception of segments. The result may be of importance for concatenative speech synthesis. Keywords: nasal consonants, place of articulation, effect of segmental context, perception of speech
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Properties of fundamental frequency contours in segmental contexts
Hruška, Robin ; Bořil, Tomáš (advisor) ; Šturm, Pavel (referee)
This paper attempts to describe the fundamental frequency (F0) contours in Czech utterances in relation to their segmental context. After inspecting the principles of intonation contour analysis, a simple stylization algorithm is designed and used to detect peak and valley turning points in the contours of syllabic nuclei. A statistical description of the turning points' timing relative to the nucleus boundaries is provided. Stylization by a tonal perception model based algorithm is performed on the original contours and the result is then analysed for dynamic tones and intersyllabic pitch jumps. Also, cumulative steepness is proposed as a parameter to quantify total contour variation. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Use of glottalization as a factor enabling speaker identification
Skákal, Ladislav ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Bořil, Tomáš (referee)
While handling the task of speaker identification, forensic phoneticians use a combination of various parameters contained in different levels of speech signal. The main aim of the present thesis is to explore whether glottalization in Czech may be considered as a potentially useful parameter in this sense. In our research, we focus on the rate of prevocalic glottalization at word boundaries and we distinguish between different realisations of glottalization: canonical glottal stop and its hypoarticulated form - creaky voice. The studied material consists of repeated recordings of three male and four female speakers and contains both read text and spontaneous speech. The results do not indicate that the same speaker would use glottalization differently in the first and second recording, but a difference in glottalization is found between speakers. From the forensic phonetics point of view, this finding seems to be useful. Marginally, some other factors which are not directly connected with the speaker (height of following vowel, lexical factors and speech rate) were examined, but no influence on glottalization was found. Keywords: glottal stop, glottalization, forensic phonetics, speaker identification
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Speech rate and realization of pauses in consecutive interpreting into Czech in comparison with original Czech speeches
Rubovičová, Carmen ; Veroňková, Jitka (advisor) ; Bořil, Tomáš (referee)
This diploma thesis examines speech rate in three different speech styles - in reading, prepared semi-spontaneous monologue and consecutive interpreting from English into Czech. In the first part of the thesis we summarize previous research, define several types of speech rate, pauses and all three speech styles. In the second part, dedicated to empirical research, we first describe the material and speakers, and then we continue with information about recording and processing of the recordings, mainly the two ways of segmentation into inter-pause units. The results are summarized in three sub-chapters; one looks at speaking rate, the next deals with articulation rate and the last one is dedicated to pauses. The last subchapter in the Results chapter compares our findings with both Czech and foreign research into the topic. Altogether we analysed recordings of four female speakers (two students and two prefessional interpreters) in three speech styles. In each of the styles we calculated speaking rate of the whole text, speaking rate of four linear parts (introduction, main part 1, main part 2 and conclusion) and articulation rate of one chosen unit from each linear part. Our results suggest that the highest speaking rate and articulation rate are in reading; semi-spontaneous speech is somewhat...
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Using long-term formant distributions for speaker identification in various acoustic conditions
Lazárková, Dita ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Bořil, Tomáš (referee)
The analysis of long-time formant distribution is relatively young but promising discipline of speaker identification. It is a method of mapping the long-term behavior of formants in speech of individual speakers. Frequently encountered problems in practice are bad acoustic quality and very short duration of analyzed recordings. This work aims to present the historical development of forensic phonetics and currently used methods. In the practical part, it deals with the usability of LTF method in forensic practice, especially in recordings containing background noise. It was shown that the noise appreciably affects extracted LTF values and unfortunately the change is not systematic. Therefore, we proposed several methods to compensate the noise in recordings, in order to be able to compare recordings with and without noise. We also investigated the minimum duration of recording, which is necessary for statistical reliability of the resulting values. This boundary is not exact and for each speaker, it is substantially individual. But it is apparent that recordings (vocalic streams) shorter than 15 s often provide incomplete information, wherefore they cannot be recommended for analysis. Keywords: LTF, long-time formant distribution, speaker identification, forensic phonetics, acoustic quality of...
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Prosodic characteristics of discourse irony in a television discussion programme
Rebernaková, Aneta ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Bořil, Tomáš (referee)
Bachelor thesis is concerned with discursion irony in discussion TV show and prosodic characteristics of its acoustic correlates - concretely f0 level, intensity and speech rate. The main goal is to discover, whether or not is the irony acoustically enhanced and how. The definition of irony as a term is quite complicated and involves into many areas. Therefore it was needed to thoroughly study technical publications written about the problematics from several different views (for example sociolinguistic, pragmatics, acoustics). In the theoretical part the thesis offers an overview of different approaches to the term itself as well as to the research of given subject. Hereafter the thesis offers basic overview of elements, which by previous researches accompany an appearance of irony, both lexical and non-verbal signs and last but not the least, the acoustical ones. Practical part works with material from television discussion show, which at first went though process of selection based on context (ironical parts were selected from written transcription). Selected ironical and non-ironical parts will be put through acoustic and subjective perception analysis. The results of ironic and non-ironic discourses will then be compared to each other with focus on differences, which perceptionally and...
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Just Wages: A comparison between the views of traditional economic theory and the Catholic Social Doctrine
Bořil, Tomáš ; Vyhnánek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Báťa, Karel (referee)
This thesis deals with comparing the views of the main economic stream (represented mainly by the neo-classical) with Catholic social teaching on the issue of just wages. In Catholic social teaching, this matter is explicitly analyzed in contrast to the neoclassical theory which omits it. For this reason, in order to compare views of those two different schools of thought, the work focuses on the relationship of normative and positivist science, the hidden assumptions of neoclassical theory that concern the individual and the concept of work, her understanding of justice with regard to distribution, and the theory of minimum wages. Further work analyzes the paradigms and principles of Catholic social teachings related to just wages, which are rooted in the teachings of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. This study examines the compatibility and difference in the two schools of thought not only in respect to the issue of just wages, but also juxtaposes the roots of the various assumptions of both theories. Title: Just Wages: A comparison between the views of traditional economic theory and the Catholic Social Doctrine Author: Tomáš Bořil Author's e-mail: tobo[at]email[dot]cz Supervisor: PhDr. Tomáš Vyhnánek Academic year: 2010/2011 JEL Classification: D630, D310, E240 Keywords: Just wage, Catholic...
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