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The Perception of Lexical Stress in Spanish

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The Perception of Lexical Stress in Spanish The perception of lexical stress in Spanish Joaquim Llisterri, María Machuca, Carme de la Mota, Montserrat Riera, Antonio Ríos Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona E-mail: {joaquim | maria | carme | montse | mestre}@liceu.uab.es then been manipulated to obtain the test stimuli following ABSTRACT the procedure explained below. As in other languages, stress in Spanish is signalled by The recorded corpus consisted of four meaningful three three simultaneous acoustic cues: fundamental frequency syllable words with constant CV structure allowing the (F0), duration and intensity. In this experiment, the role of stress to be placed on the first (proparoxytone), second these parameters in the perception of lexical stress in (paroxytone) and final (oxytone) syllable –número, numero, isolated words has been studied using natural resynthesised numeró; límite, limite, limité; médico, medico, medicó; speech. Results show that the F0 contour alone is not válido, valido, validó– and four meaningless words in enough to allow the identification of the stressed syllable of which the position of the stress has also been varied a word. However, in combination with duration, intensity –*núlibo, *nulibo, *nulibó; *ládebo, *ladebo, *ladebó; or both duration and intensity, F0 is a relevant acoustic cue *máledo, *maledo, *maledó; *lúguido, *luguido, for the perception of lexical stress. On the other hand, *luguidó–. intensity and duration, either combined or in isolation, are not sufficient for the identification of the stressed syllable The 240 target words (10 repetitions of 8 words x 3 stress within a word. patterns) were analysed using the Praat software (©P. Boersma & D. Weenink, Institute of Phonetics, University of Amsterdam, http://www.praat.org). F0 was measured at 1. INTRODUCTION the beginning, centre and end of each of the three vowels in the word. Intensity values were obtained from five It is generally acknowledged that, as in other languages, equidistant points within each vowel. Vowel duration was stress in Spanish is signalled by three simultaneous acoustic also analysed. Mean values for the 10 repetitions of each cues: fundamental frequency (F0), duration and intensity. word were obtained, and they were used to create the set of An earlier perceptual study using synthetic stimuli [1] basic stimuli. concluded that, in Spanish, F0 is the only parameter systematically related to the identification of the stressed Several modifications were then performed to obtain the syllable of a word, while the role of duration depends on the stimuli used in the perceptual test. In words with lexical stress pattern. The experiments with natural resynthesised stress in the first syllable (as válido), mean F0, duration and speech reported in [2, 3] indicated that a replacement of the intensity values for each vowel were replaced by the mean F contour is not enough to induce the identification of the 0 F0, duration and intensity values found in the equivalent stressed syllable if the other two parameters are not word with stress on the second syllable (as valido). modified. Moreover, in words with lexical stress on the second syllable (as valido), the F0 duration and intensity values for Taking advantage of the fact that Spanish is a free accent each vowel were changed by the values found in the language –i.e. lexical stress can appear in any syllable of corresponding words with lexical stress on the final syllable the word– a perceptual experiment with natural (as validó). Oxytone words were not manipulated to avoid resynthesised speech has been designed to assess the role of shifting an F0 peak or duration and intensity values across a F0, duration and intensity in the identification of the word boundary. stressed syllable in isolated words, using lexical items with the same segmental content but with differences in stress Figures 1 and 2 show an example of the manipulation of a placement. To take into account the role of lexical single parameter: the F0 of the vowels in the words válido knowledge, phonologically acceptable but non-existent and valido is replaced by the F0 of the corresponding words have also been included in the test corpus. The vowels in valido and validó respectively, while the original contribution of each acoustic cue has been examined both duration and intensity are maintained. in isolation and in combination with other cues. 2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The primary data for the experiment has been extracted from the analysis of a corpus of isolated words read by a native speaker of Castilian Spanish. The recordings have their stress pattern. Within each test, stimuli were presented (a) Válido [balio] with (b) Válido [balio] with in random order. original F0 contour F0 contour extracted from valido [balio] The tests were administered through individual headphones at the Language Laboratory of the Department of French and Romance Philology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Subjects were given written instructions on paper as well as an oral briefing; they were warned of the presence of existent and non-existent words on the test, and of the requirement that no blank replies were allowed. A set of five training stimuli was included at the beginning of b a l i δ o b a l i δ o each test, and questions on the procedure were taken after each training period. As there were more than 600 stimuli, the test was divided in two sessions: one in which stimuli with modifications in a single acoustic cue were presented and another one in which stimuli with cues in combination Figure 1: Waveform, F (black line) and intensity (grey line) 0 were used. In order to avoid listeners’ fatigue, breaks were for the word válido (a) and waveform, F and intensity after 0 introduced in each session, during which simple distracting superimposing the F contour of the word valido (b). 0 activities were carried out. Thirty speakers of Spanish, students at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, with (a) Valido [balio] with (b) Valido [balio] with ages between 18 and 45 years old, responded to the test. A original F0 contour F0 contour extracted from total of 18480 replies were obtained. validó [balio] 3. RESULTS Resynthesised natural items do not present special problems to the listeners when they are asked to identify the stress pattern. For stimuli without manipulation in the acoustic parameters – i.e. with the averaged values obtained b a l i δ o b a l i δ o from the reference speaker– correct identification of stress placement ranges from 92.97% to 100% in meaningful words and from 91.41% to 100% in meaningless words. Results corresponding to the judgements about stimuli with Figure 2: Waveform, F0 (black line) and intensity (grey line) modified acoustic parameters are shown below. Results for the word valido (a) and waveform, F0 and intensity after from the first test, in which subjects were asked to identify superimposing the F0 contour of the word validó (b). the syllable bearing the stress, are presented in Table 1. Results obtained from the second test, in which subjects To create the test stimuli, each word was resynthesised with had to decide if a pair of words were coincident or not in the replaced values using PSOLA as implemented in Praat. their stress pattern are shown in Table 2. In both tables, results for the manipulation of each acoustic parameter in The values of each acoustic parameter (F0, duration and isolation are presented first (F0, D, I) , followed by those intensity) has been, in the first place, modified individually, obtained with the modification of paired acoustic cues (D+I, maintaining the original values of the other two parameters. F0+D, F0+I); finally, the results of the simultaneous Then, the values for two parameters have been manipulation of F0, duration and intensity are given superimposed together (F0 and duration, intensity and (F0+D+I). Besides, results for meaningful words are duration and F0 and intensity) maintaining the original presented in regular style and for meaningless words in values of the third. Finally, the values of the three italics. The second column indicates the modification that parameters have been simultaneously modified by has been performed in the stimuli: for example, “PP with P replacing all the original values. This strategy has allowed values” means an originally proparoxytone words in which the study of the perceptual effects of each acoustic cue both the values of the target acoustic parameters have been in isolation and in combination with others. replaced by those of a paroxytone word. In columns 3, 4 and 5 in table 1, the percentages of identification of the Two different kinds of tasks have been proposed to the stimuli as a proparoxytone (PP), a paroxytone (P) or an subjects who participated in the experiment. In the first one oxytone (O) word are presented. In table 2, “S” and “D” in (test 1), they were asked to identify the syllable bearing the the columns labelled “PP”, “P” and “O” correspond to the stress –the first, the second or the last– in a total of 336 percentage of identification as same or different of paired isolated words. In the second task (test 2), subjects were words. asked wether 280 pairs of words were equal or different in PP P O paroxytone words with values from oxytone words are perceived as oxytone in a maximum 1.67% of the cases. F0 PP with P values 61.67 38.33 0 Results corresponding to intensity values show a very 52.78 45 2.22 similar trend. P with O values 15 70.56 14.44 As for the cases in which two parameters have been 6.11 69.44 24.44 simultaneously modified, the results show that the effect of D PP with P values 99.44 0.56 0 the modification is not really perceived by the listeners 96.67 3.33 0 unless one of the superimposed parameters is the F0 contour.
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