ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1995
ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1995

Perception of prepausal tonal contours: implications for automatic stylization of intonation

David House

Interactive adjustment tests were carried out to determine how a silent interval influences the perception of the preceding tonal contour. Results from 16 subjects show a strong influence of silence on tonal perception indicating that silence increases sensitivity for the preceding tonal endpoint with subjects showing greatest response consistency for the stimuli with the longest pause where adjustment is based on endpoint frequency in a nasal consonant before the pause. The implications of these results for automatic stylization and models of intonation are discussed.