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Acoustic properties of monosyllabic words in semi-spontaneous dialogues and read speech
Ondrušková, Lucie ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
This thesis investigates temporal characteristics of monosyllabic words (je, se, že) in semi-spontaneous dialogues and read speech. Our material consisted of two sets of recordings from six speakers (three men and three women). The speakers read a text first, and this reading was followed by a recording of a spontaneous dialogue. We investigated differences of temporal characteristics of monosyllabic words between the two types of speech. In addition, we also examined how these characteristics are affected by different variables, which included: position in a stress group, presence of stress, presence of pause and speaker's personality. It was found that the type of speech had a significant influence on duration ratio of sounds in examined words je, že. Word se remained unaffected by the type of speech and generally appeared as a very stable element. The type of speech also influenced variability in duration - this variability proved to be higher in spontaneous speech. The type of speech did not affect average duration of words je, se, že. Position in the stress group also proved to have a significant effect on duration of words. This effect was mainly caused by words which created isolated stress groups - words in such position had longer duration than words in other positions. For words je, se...
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Phone durations in multi-syllable words with Czech analogues in Czech English
Růžek, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
This diploma thesis examines the foreign accent of Czech speakers in English. We focus on the factor of phone duration, which relates to both segmental and prosodic levels of phonetic description and is one of the correlates of prosodic prominence and speech rhythm. 84 words were selected from the texts avaible in the Prague Phonetic Corpus that have analogues in the loanword lexicon of Czech. Pronunciations of these words by native speakers (professional radio reporters) were compared with productions by Czech university students. The students were recorded prior to atteding a course in English phonetics. Based on our observations of durational patterns, we infer some plausible tendencies to be expected in Czech production of English. As durational interference from Czech into English has up to this date been a relatively unresearch domain, the present study adopts a qualitative research methodology. Keywords: Duration, Foreign Accent, Czech English, Interference 6
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Acoustic properties of word stress in read Czech English
Liska, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
key words: Czech English, foreign accent, word stress, word accent, stressed syllable, duration, f0, acoustic cues. This study investigates the acoustic properties of word stress in Czech English. The notion of foreign accent is introduced and its drawbacks are presented. Further on the various influences on the perceived degree, or strength, of foreign accent are discussed. Faulty realization of word stress is identified as one of the factors that contribute to unintelligibility of non-native speech (Benrabah, 1997; Hahn, 2004; Cutler, 1984). In Chapter 2 we compare the results of studies that used speakers of a variety of languages and form a basic theory on the acquisition of acoustic cues to word stress. We are mostly interested in f0 and duration. This theory, based on the feature hypothesis (McAllister et al., 2002 in Lee, Guion & Harada, 2006), states that languages that have a similar stress system to that of English (Dutch, Arabic) use their native cues to signal word stress, while non-contrastive languages (Vietnamese, Czech) prefer cue/s that are phonologically active on segmental level in their native language. Speakers of Vietnamese, a tone language, were found to prefer f0 over duration (Nguyen, 2003), so for Czech, a language that uses phonological vowel duration, it is expected that...
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Marriage duration specific fertility trends
Přibil, Martin ; Rychtaříková, Jitka (advisor) ; Šídlo, Luděk (referee)
Marriage duration specific fertility trends Abstract The aim of this Master thesis is to describe the development of the marital fertility in the Czech Republic with focus on the analysis of the period between the marriage and the birth of child of a given order in the current marriage. It shows trends in the marital fertility in the time period between 1974 and 2011from transverse and longitudinal view. Using selected indicators the thesis describes different development of the marital fertility in the given period, which is closely connected with the distinct social and demographic situation in the Czech Republic prior and after the year 1989. In the whole monitored period the number of marriages is decreasing significantly. There was a significant increase both in a number and ratio of the children born alive outside of marriage, and on the opposite, decrease in the number and ratio of children born alive within the marriage. Within the framework of the current marriages substantial changes of the reproductive behavior occurred with an obvious breaking point in 1989. Since that time significant decrease in number of children, both in total and in the number of children of a given order has started. At the same time significant prolongation of the period between the start of marriage and birth of a child...
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Structural and temporal attributes of consonantal intervals in pre-school children
Kropíková, Alena ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Studenovský, David (referee)
The aim of this diploma thesis is to describe the realizations of consonant clusters in an age- homogenous group of Czech-speaking children. The theoretical part of this thesis deals with the syllable and consonant clusters as language universals, as well as with the syllable structure and consonant clusters in Czech. Furthermore, some theories of speech acquisition which take combinations of segments and forming of syllable structure in children's speech into account are also presented. A number of studies in consonant cluster acquisition is also summarized. The practical part of this work consists of an experiment in which consonant clusters in 16 typically developing Czech children aged 3;8-4;9 ( x = 4,4) were analysed. Eleven various two-element consonant clusters were selected according to their frequency of occurrence in the corpus of written Czech. Clusters were placed in 30 real words and 30 pseudowords - the pseudowords had the same structure as real words. Imitation was used as a elicitation method. Pictures were used only as complementary elements. The entire sample consisted of 461 consonant clusters realized in real words and 464 clusters realized in pseudowords. We described the structure of the target consonant clusters (i.e. manner and quality/accuracy of realizations) and their...
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Deleuze's concept of time as told through art
Dvořák, Michal ; Blažková, Miloslava (advisor) ; Hogenová, Anna (referee)
This thesis is about concept of time in work of french philosopher Gilles Deleuze. First of all is nescessery to introduce reader with philosophy of Henri Bergson and Deleuze's interpretation of Bergon's work and how Deleuze uses it for demonstration of his own thoughs. After Bergson, there is finally an art, Marcel Proust and his novel In Search of Lost Time, which is subject of Deleuze's early work. Philosopher's original interpretation of proustian time is introduced in context of other intepretations of his time and also in the context in relation to philosophy of Bergson. The second half of thesis talks about modern film, which was Deleuze's interest through 1980s. This thesis doesn't try to make any brave interpretations of Deleuze's work, but does try to introduce a problém of time in his work, The concept of time is something which is not a big thing in Deleuze's philosophy, but i tis something what is there for a whole time because of Henri Bergson's influence.
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The ability of Czech speakers to imitate the temporal structure of English words with and without Czech analogues
Jakšič, Jan ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Gráf, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of the current thesis is to ascertain whether there is an effect of Czech analogues on the temporal structures of English words in realization of Czech speakers. The theoretical part of the thesis introduces three major areas of our focus: foreign accent, word stress, and duration. Definitions of relevant terms are presented and existing findings about the areas are summarized in this part. The empirical part consists of a research; the Czech speakers imitate English words with and without analogues after listening to a native speaker's realization. The temporal structures in realizations of the Czech speakers are compared to those in the native realizations. Apart from examining the temporal structures with respect to analogues, we also try to determine the possible effect of Czech stress placement on the durations of the English words and their segments in Czech realizations. The acquired data are analysed with regard to their significance and the results are subject to a discussion. Key words: Foreign Accent, Duration, Lexical Stress, the English of Czech Speakers, Analogues
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Topic of Life in Early Bergson
Novotný, Jan ; Kouba, Pavel (advisor) ; Švec, Ondřej (referee)
This diploma thesis observes the topic of life in early Bergson. It is divided into three parts. The first chapter is concentrated on Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. In this chapter we can become acquainted with the distinction between duration and space. This distinction is the basic of Bergson philosophy. We can also see the distinction between the deeper self and the surface self, which is based on the first distinction. The second chapter Matter and Memory shows how the foregoing distinctions are connected through the Bergson's theory of memory. In the last charter, named Creative Evolution, we deal with the metaphysic concept of life by Bergson, which has always been connected with duration and freedom
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The duration of stressed and unstressed vowels in Spanish
Berkovcová, Zuzana ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Šturm, Pavel (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to examine the issue of acoustic correlates of word stress in Spanish. The literature reviewed shows conflicting opinions among scholars engaged in this subject. Most of them traditionally consider intensity or fundamental frequency changes as determining features of prominent vowels, whereas duration is regarded as playing a minor role. The core of this thesis is to be found in the research that deals with the way duration behaves with both Spanish stressed and unstressed vowels analyzed in three different speech styles. Recordings of four Castilian Spanish native speakers were made, featuring two-syllable and three-syllable words which were analyzed with various positions of stressed vowels. On the whole, the results showed trends of major duration of stressed vowels in comparison with unstressed ones only in three-syllable words. No significant differences were observed in two-syllable words. No direct link between duration of stressed and unstressed vowels and each specific speech style could be established either, due to unequal values measured in two-syllable and three-syllable words. Key words: word stress, acoustic correlates, duration, speech styles, Spanish
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Syllable nucleus duration as a signal of foreign accent by L2 Russian speakers of Czech
Pinchuk, Oleksandr ; Zíková, Magdalena (advisor) ; Confortiová, Helena (referee)
The bachelor thesis 'Syllable nucleus duration as a signal of foreign accent by L2 Rus- sian speakers of Czech' focuses on realization of word accent in the Czech speeches of Russian native speakers. Through comparison of the duration values of syllable nuclei in selected words among Czech and Russian speakers, we tried to find a possible link between the vowel duration and perception of the Russian realization of accent as a marked one. This thesis consists of a theoretical and a practical part. In the theoretical part, which has been worked out on the basis of the professional literature studied, we deal with factors affecting the syllable accent and function of vowel duration in Russian and Czech. The practical part is de- voted to analysis of audio recordings, which comprises selection of words for instrumental analysis, manual segmentation of phones in selected words and processing of data on vowel duration. Based on the results obtained, we further compared the duration of vowels among Czech vs. Russian speakers, depending on position of the vowel in a word, phonological length of the vowels and the syllable accent. The realization of selected words among Russian speakers was confronted with the results of a perceptual test. Analysis of the audio recordings showed that the syllable nucleus...
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