EMA-based head movements and phrasing: a preliminary study

In this paper we describe present work on multimodal prosody by means of simultaneous recordings of articulation and head movements. Earlier work has explored patterning, usage and machine-learning based detection of focal pitch accents, head beats and eyebrow beats through audiovisual recordings. Kinematic data obtained through articulography allows for more comparable and accurate measurements, as well as three-dimensional data. Therefore, our current approach involves examining speech and body movements concurrently, using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). We have recorded large amounts of this kind of data previously, but for other purposes. In this paper, we present results from a preliminary study on the interplay between head movements and phrasing and find tendencies for upward movements occuring before and downward movements occuring after prosodic boundaries.