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Abstract
This paper presents a first analysis of the distribution of head and eyebrow movements as a function of (a) phonological prominence levels (focal, non-focal) and (b) word accent (Accent 1, Accent 2) in Swedish news broadcasts. Our corpus consists of 31 brief news readings, comprising speech from four speakers and 986 words in total. A head movement was annotated for 229 (23.2%) of the words,
while eyebrow movements occurred much more sparsely (67 cases or 6.8%). Results of χ2-tests revealed a dependency of the distribution of movements on the one hand and focal accents on the other, while no systematic effect of the word accent type was found. However, there was an effect of the word accent type on the annotation of ‘double’ head movements. These occurred very sparsely, and predominantly
in connection with focally accented compounds (Accent 2), which are
characterized by two lexical stresses. Overall, our results suggests that head beats might have a closer association with phonological prosodic structure, while eyebrow movements might be more restricted to higher-level prominence and information-structure coding. Hence, head and eyebrow movements can represent two quite different modalities of prominence cuing, both from a formal and functional
point of view, rather than just being cumulative prominence markers.
while eyebrow movements occurred much more sparsely (67 cases or 6.8%). Results of χ2-tests revealed a dependency of the distribution of movements on the one hand and focal accents on the other, while no systematic effect of the word accent type was found. However, there was an effect of the word accent type on the annotation of ‘double’ head movements. These occurred very sparsely, and predominantly
in connection with focally accented compounds (Accent 2), which are
characterized by two lexical stresses. Overall, our results suggests that head beats might have a closer association with phonological prosodic structure, while eyebrow movements might be more restricted to higher-level prominence and information-structure coding. Hence, head and eyebrow movements can represent two quite different modalities of prominence cuing, both from a formal and functional
point of view, rather than just being cumulative prominence markers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings from Fonetik 2015 |
| Subtitle of host publication | Lund, June 8-10, 2015. Working Papers 55. 2015. |
| Editors | Malin Svensson Lundmark, Gilbert Ambrazaitis, Joost van de Weijer |
| Publisher | Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University |
| Pages | 11-16 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| Event | Fonetik 2015 - Lund, Sweden Duration: 2015 Jun 8 → 2015 Jun 10 |
Publication series
| Name | Working Papers in General Linguistics and Phonetics |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University |
| Volume | 55 |
| ISSN (Print) | 0280-526X |
Conference
| Conference | Fonetik 2015 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Sweden |
| City | Lund |
| Period | 2015/06/08 → 2015/06/10 |
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Free keywords
- focus
- beat gesture
- focal accent
- information structure
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Multimodal levels of prominence: a preliminary analysis of head and eyebrow movements in Swedish news broadcasts'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.-
Acoustic features of multimodal prominences: Do visual beat gestures affect verbal pitch accent realization?
Ambrazaitis, G. & House, D., 2017, Proceedings of The 14th International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing (AVSP2017). Ouni, S., Davis, C., Jesse, A. & Beskow, J. (eds.). KTH, 6 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Paper in conference proceeding › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Multimodal prominences: Exploring the patterning and usage of focal pitch accents, head beats and eyebrow beats in Swedish television news readings
Ambrazaitis, G. & House, D., 2017, In: Speech Communication. p. 110-113Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Multimodal levels of prominence: the use of eyebrows and head beats to convey information structure in Swedish news reading
Ambrazaitis, G. & House, D., 2016, p. 319-319. 1 p.Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster › peer-review
Open AccessFile
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Multi-modal levels of prominence: How verbal and visual signals interact in the coding of fine distinctions in information structure
Ambrazaitis, G., Frid, J., Svensson Lundmark, M., Alexanderson, S. & House, D.
2013/07/01 → 2017/12/31
Project: Research
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Huvudrörelser som prominensmarkörer i talad diskurs: behovet och utvecklingen av en ”rörelsedetektor” för audiovisuella taldatabaser
Gilbert Ambrazaitis (Invited speaker)
2016 Oct 7Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Att höja ett eller annat ögonbryn: Ansiktsgester och språkmelodi hos Svt Rapports nyhetsuppläsare
Gilbert Ambrazaitis (Lecturer)
2016 Sept 17Activity: Talk or presentation › Public lecture/debate/seminar