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Background: Speech rate plays an essential role in overall speech intelligibility in fluent speakers and is an important variable affecting fluency in people who stutter (PWS). There are no normative speech rate data for South African English (SAE). In PWS, attempts to manipulate speech rate for improved fluency have mostly focused on articulation rate. Revisiting the role of pauses in speech rate and the manipulation of both frequency and duration of pauses was deemed necessary to investigate a potentially valuable alternative strategy to assist PWS in rate reduction and possible improved fluency. Aims: The aims of this study were to investigate the speech rate and pause use for first language (L1) and second language (L2) SAE fluent speakers and PWS in both monologue and reading tasks. In addition, this study investigated if the manipulation of pause use could increase fluency in L1 and L2 PWS given six sessions of pause instruction in SAE. Methods: 80 fluent speakers (40 L1 SAE and 40 L1 isiZulu) and 14 PWS (7 L1 SAE and 7 L1 isiZulu) were asked to engage in a 2-minute monologue and a reading task in order to calculate the mean speech rate, frequency of pauses and average pause duration for each group. Following baseline measures, the 14 PWS were randomly assigned to either immediate or delayed intervention consisting of 6 sessions addressing manipulation of pauses. A crossover treatment design allowed for repeated measures of speech rate and pause use across three data collection periods. Results: Results revealed L1 and L2 SAE fluent speakers differed significantly in speech rate and frequency of pauses in reading and in pause length in the monologue. L1 and L2 PWS differed in frequency of pauses in reading. L1 fluent speakers and PWS differed in speech rate and both measures of pause use in reading. L2 fluent speakers and PWS differed in frequency of pauses in the monologue. Results from the crossover intervention for the PWS revealed a significant decrease in percentage syllables stuttered (% SS) for the delayed treatment group and a clinically significant decrease in % SS for both groups, in conjunction with a reduced speech rate that could be linked to increased frequency and/or average duration of pauses. Conclusions: This study presented speech rate and pause use norms for both fluent speakers and PWS, L1 and L2 SAE speakers that may provide useful guidelines for speech language pathologists in South Africa. Additionally, the intervention results for PWS presented efficacy data for six sessions of pause manipulation with measurable findings for improved fluency.

Post-reinforcement pauses (PRP) and interresponse times (IRTs) were examined to determine if these two temporal units changed in a similar fashion as a function of the delivery of differential reinforcement. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, four pigeons were exposed to a series of procedures in which PRP and IRT durations were gradually increased and then decreased. A fixed-ratio two (FR 2) differentiation schedule was used. Reinforcement was delivered if the PRP or IRT durations were greater than (PRP > and IRT > procedures) or less than (PRP < and IRT < procedures) specified temporal criteria. Criteria were gradually changed across procedures. Results showed that PRPs and IRTs changed in accordance with the differential reinforcement as specified by the various contingencies. When PRPs and IRTs were free to vary, the PRPs tended to change in a direction consistent with the IRT shaping contingencys whereas, the IRTs tended to shorten regardless of the PRP shaping contingency. In Experiment 2, two subjects were exposed to both an FR 2 and FR 1 schedule to determine if schedule size influenced the effects obtained on the differentiation procedures. PRPs were systematically changed using a differentiation procedure with a response requirement of either FR 1 or FR 2. Results showed similar changes in PRP durations between FR 1 and FR 2 differentiation procedures. An analysis of errors made on each shaping condition in both experiments was conducted to determine whether PRPs or IRTs were more susceptible to the differential reinforcement contingencies. Fewer errors were made on the PRP shaping conditions, indicating that PRPs were more easily changed. Implications for a comprehensive theory of reinforcement were discussed.

Cette thèse porte sur les processus cognitifs engagés lors de la production d’un texte par des adolescents de différents âges, plus particulièrement lors de l’élaboration de la connectivité du texte. Il sera demandé à 60 élèves issus de trois niveaux scolaires (CM2, 5ème, 3ème) de produire un texte narratif et un texte argumentatif. L’enregistrement se fera sur des tablettes graphiques, afin de collecter les données temporelles liées à la production écrite. L’analyse des pauses, du débit d’écriture et des révisions permettront de mieux comprendre la gestion temporelle de la mise en place de la connectivité syntaxique et de la cohésion sémantique; en outre, des profils de scripteurs pourront être définis à partir de leur rythme d’écriture. L’enregistrement des mouvements oculaires pourra venir compléter ces analyses. Les variations inter-individuelles seront prises en compte, notamment grâce à des tests psycho-cognitifs (test de mémoire, aisance grapho-motrice, étendue du vocabulaire, capacité de lecture). Enfin, suite à une évaluation des textes, leur qualité sera mise en relation avec les outils linguistiques utilisés pour établir la connectivité ainsi qu’avec les caractéristiques de gestion temporelle de chaque scripteur. / This research aims to study cognitive processes involved when adolescents produce texts, in a developmental perspective. It will be study how syntactic connectivity and cohesion are elaborated, through the analysis of pauses, writing rate and revisions. Furthermore, types of writers will be characterized by their writing fluency. Psycho-cognitive tests will be used to explore inter-individual variations. At least we will define coherence’s features and types of writers associated to papers judged as well-written

Cette thèse étudie les rapports entre l’expression d’attitudes agressives contrôlées et la perception de la dominance, à partir d’extraits de séances télévisées du conseil Municipal de Montreuil (93100) durant l’année 2013, période marquée par un climat politique vif et hostile. Un corpus a été constitué à partir d’extraits de parole spontanée de la Maire, Dominique Voynet, et de quatre de ses opposants. Les cinq locuteurs ont participé à l’enregistrement d’une relecture neutre du corpus de leurs propres extraits de parole (25 stimuli par locuteur) ainsi qu’à l’auto-évaluation perceptive de leurs stimuli (profils émotionnels), dont les résultats ont été comparés à l’évaluation perceptive des extraits par des auditeurs naïfs. Tous les locuteurs ont été perçus comme légèrement hostiles, légèrement mécontents et légèrement dominants malgré des profils émotionnels auto-évalués variables. Les extraits originaux et relus ont été comparés au niveau de leur structuration prosodico-syntaxique et de leurs caractéristiques temporelles et mélodiques. Les résultats montrent que 1) certains locuteurs semblent plus s’appuyer sur des paramètres mélodiques et d’autres sur des paramètres temporels ; 2) on peut néanmoins dégager les tendances générales concernant les corrélats dans la parole de l’hostilité et de la dominance dans notre corpus : a) des écarts entre structuration syntaxique et prosodique des extraits, b) la réduction ou l’absence d’allongements syllabiques finaux pré-pausaux, c) de fortes variations de plage de variation de F0 de part et d’autre des pauses silencieuses. / This dissertation studies the relationship between the expression of controlled aggressive attitudes and the perception of dominance, based on extracts from televised sessions of the Municipal Council of Montreuil during 2013; a period marked by a lively and hostile political climate. We constituted a corpus of spontaneous speech extracts from the Mayor, Dominique Voynet, and four of her opponents. During subsequent recording sessions, the five speakers were asked to read transcriptions of their own speech extracts in a neutral tone (25 stimuli per speaker). They also participated in a self-evaluation questionnaire that focused on the perception of emotional profiles in their own stimuli. The results of the speakers’ perceptive evaluations were compared to those of a control group of naïve listeners. All speakers were perceived as slightly hostile, discontent and dominant, despite the variability observed in the self-evaluated profiles. The original and re-read extracts were compared in their prosodic- syntactic structure as well as their temporal and melodic characteristics. We show that: 1) some speakers seem to rely mostly on melodic parameters whereas others primarily use temporal parameters, 2) nevertheless, general trends emerge regarding the speech correlates of hostility and dominance in our corpus, notably: a) discrepancies between the syntactic and the prosodic structure of the extracts, b) reduction or absence of pre-pausal final syllabic lengthening, c) large variations in F0 range on both sides of silent pauses.

This diploma thesis examines speech rate in three different speech styles - in reading, prepared semi-spontaneous monologue and consecutive interpreting from English into Czech. In the first part of the thesis we summarize previous research, define several types of speech rate, pauses and all three speech styles. In the second part, dedicated to empirical research, we first describe the material and speakers, and then we continue with information about recording and processing of the recordings, mainly the two ways of segmentation into inter-pause units. The results are summarized in three sub-chapters; one looks at speaking rate, the next deals with articulation rate and the last one is dedicated to pauses. The last subchapter in the Results chapter compares our findings with both Czech and foreign research into the topic. Altogether we analysed recordings of four female speakers (two students and two prefessional interpreters) in three speech styles. In each of the styles we calculated speaking rate of the whole text, speaking rate of four linear parts (introduction, main part 1, main part 2 and conclusion) and articulation rate of one chosen unit from each linear part. Our results suggest that the highest speaking rate and articulation rate are in reading; semi-spontaneous speech is somewhat...

The present dissertation focuses on the question whether and under which conditions infants recognise clauses in fluent speech and the role a prosodic marker such as a pause may have in the segmentation process. In the speech signal, syntactic clauses often coincide with intonational phrases (IPhs) (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, p. 190), the boundaries of which are marked by changes in fundamental frequency (e.g., Price, Ostendorf, Shattuck-Hufnagel & Fong, 1991), lengthening of the final syllable (e.g., Cooper & Paccia-Cooper, 1980) and the occurrence of a pause (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, p. 188). Thus, IPhs seem to be reliably marked in the speech stream and infants may use these cues to recognise them. Furthermore, corpus studies on the occurrence and distribution of pauses have revealed that there is a strong correlation between the duration of a pause and the type of boundary it marks (e.g., Butcher, 1981, for German). Pauses between words are either non-existent or short, pauses between phrases are a bit longer, and pauses between clauses and at sentence boundaries further increase in duration. This suggests the existence of a natural pause hierarchy that complements the prosodic hierarchy described by Nespor and Vogel (1986). These hierarchies on the side of the speech signal correspond to the syntactic hierarchy of a language. In the present study, five experiments using the Headturn preference paradigm (Hirsh-Pasek, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk, Cassidy, Druss & Kennedy, 1987) were conducted to investigate German-learning 6- and 8-month-olds’ use of pauses to recognise clauses in the signal and their sensitivity to the natural pause hierarchy. Previous studies on English-learning infants’ recognition of clauses (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 1987; Nazzi, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk & Jusczyk, 2000) have found that infants as young as 6 months recognise clauses in fluent speech. Recently, Seidl and colleagues have begun to investigate the status the pause may have in this process (Seidl, 2007; Johnson & Seidl, 2008; Seidl & Cristià, 2008). However, none of these studies investigated infants’ sensitivity to the natural pause hierarchy and especially the sensitivity to the correlation between pause durations and the respective within-sentence clause boundaries / sentence boundaries. To address these questions highly controlled stimuli were used. In all five experiments the stimuli were sentences consisting of two IPhs which each coincided with a syntactic clause. In the first three experiments pauses were inserted either at clause and sentence boundaries or within the first clause and the sentence boundaries. The duration of the pauses varied between the experiments. The results show that German-learning 6-month-olds recognise clauses in the speech stream, but only in a condition in which the duration of the pauses conforms to the mean duration of pauses found at the respective boundaries in German. Experiments 4 and 5 explicitly addressed the question of infants’ sensitivity to the natural pause hierarchy by inserting pauses at the clause and sentence boundaries only. Their durations were either conforming to the natural pause hierarchy or were being reversed. The results of these experiments provide evidence that 8-, but not 6-month-olds seem to be sensitive to the correlation of the duration of pauses and the type of boundary they demarcate. The present study provides first evidence that infants not only use pauses to recognise clause and sentence boundaries, but are sensitive to the duration and distribution of pauses in their native language as reflected in the natural pause hierarchy. / Die vorliegende Dissertation geht der Frage nach, ob und ab wann Deutsch lernende Kinder in der Lage sind, Clauses in gesprochener Sprache zu erkennen und welche Rolle dabei ein prosodischer Marker wie die Pause spielen kann. Im Sprachstrom sind syntaktische Clauses oft durch Intonationsphrasen (IPhs) repräsentiert (Nespor & Vogel, 1986). Die Grenzen solcher IPhs werden markiert durch Veränderungen in der Grundfrequenz (z.B., Price, Ostendorf, Shattuck-Hufnagel & Fong, 1991), die Längung der grenzfinalen Silbe (z.B., Cooper & Paccia-Cooper, 1980) und das Vorhandensein einer Pause (Nespor & Vogel, 1986, p. 188). Man kann also davon ausgehen, dass die Grenzen von IPhs zuverlässig markiert sind und Kleinkinder diese Hinweisreize zu deren Wahrnehmung nutzen. Ein weiterer Hinweis ist die Dauer einer Pause, die systematisch mit der Art der Grenze korreliert an der sie vorkommt (z.B., Butcher, 1981, fürs Deutsche). Es finden sich kaum oder gar keine Pausen zwischen Wörtern, etwas längere Pausen an Phrasengrenzen, noch längere Pausen an Clausegrenzen und die längsten Pausen an Satzgrenzen. Das legt die Existenz einer Natürlichen Pausenhierarchie nahe, die die prosodische Hierarchie (Nespor & Vogel, 1986) auf der Seite des Sprachsignals ergänzt. Diese prosodischen Hierarchien korrespondieren mit der syntaktischen Hierarchie einer Sprache. In der vorliegenden Studie werden fünf Experimente präsentiert, die mittels der Headturn Preference Methode (Hirsh-Pasek, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk, Cassidy, Druss & Kennedy, 1987) durchgeführt wurden. Die Fragestellung war, ob Deutsch lernende 6 und 8 Monate alte Kinder Pausen nutzen, um Clauses im Sprachstrom zu erkennen und ob sie bereits sensitiv für die natürliche Pausenhierarchie sind. Vorläuferstudien (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 1987; Nazzi, Kemler Nelson, Jusczyk & Jusczyk, 2000) haben gezeigt, dass bereits 6 Monate alte Englisch lernende Kinder Clauses in der Sprache erkennen. Erstmals haben Seidl und Mitarbeiterinnen (Seidl, 2007; Johnson & Seidl, 2008; Seidl & Cristià, 2008) den Status der Pause in diesem Zusammenhang näher untersucht. Keine der genannten Studien hat jedoch die Sensitivität von Kindern gegenüber der natürlichen Pausenhierarchie und besonders die Sensitivität gegenüber der Korrelation von Pausendauer und Clause-, bzw. Satzgrenzen erforscht. Um dieser Frage nachzugehen, wurde in der vorliegenden Studie ein hoch kontrolliertes Stimulusmaterial verwendet: Sätze die aus zwei IPhs bestehen, welche jeweils einem syntaktischen Clause entsprechen. In den ersten drei Experimenten wurden Pausen zum einen an den Clause- und den Satzgrenzen und zum anderen innerhalb der ersten Clauses und an den Satzgrenzen eingefügt. Die Dauer der Pausen variierte zwischen den Experimenten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass 6 Monate alte Kinder in der Lage sind, Clauses in gesprochener Sprache zu erkennen, aber nur ein einer Bedingung, in der die eingefügten Pausen eine Dauer hatten, die mit der natürlichen Sprache übereinstimmte. In den Experimenten 4 und 5 wurde explizit getestet, inwieweit die Kinder sensitiv gegenüber der natürlichen Pausenhierarchie sind. Dafür wurden Pausen nur noch an den Clause- und den Satzgrenzen eingefügt, die jeweilige Dauer der Pausen entsprach dabei einmal der Pausenhierarchie, zum anderen widersprachen sie ihr. Die Ergebnisse der beiden Experimente zeigen, dass 8 Monate alte Kinder, nicht jedoch 6 Monate alte Kinder, sensitiv für die Verbindung von Pausendauer und der jeweiligen prosodisch/syntaktischen Grenze sind. Die Ergebnisse der Dissertation zeigen erstmals, dass Kinder Pausen nicht nur nutzen, um Clauses in gesprochener Sprache zu erkennen, sondern dass sie auch sensitiv gegenüber Pausendauer und Pausenverteilung in ihrer Muttersprache sind und damit gegenüber der Natürlichen Pausenhierarchie.

Esta pesquisa reflete sobre possíveis modos de utilização do Yoga para o fazer teatral. Propõe-se a análise de três experimentações previamente realizadas pela autora com grupos distintos de atores/alunos onde se utilizou de diferentes modos as técnicas do Yoga para o Teatro. O estudo tece também um olhar sobre a sociedade atual, refletindo a respeito de seus sujeitos e de seu ritmo de vida, na tentativa de compreender a realidade dos grupos que estiveram em trabalho. Por meio das experimentações, buscaram-se rupturas no ritmo cotidiano desses atores/alunos para o possível estabelecimento de pausas que pudessem promover um processo de preparação fluido para as práticas teatrais. O trabalho está dividido em duas etapas principais: a primeira compreende uma breve explanação da trajetória da autora, bem como suas motivações para a pesquisa, a contextualização da sociedade atual, um breve levantamento histórico/filosófico do Yoga e um apanhado de algumas práticas já realizadas por importantes pessoas de teatro. A segunda, por sua vez, compreende a análise dos experimentos previamente realizados e a promoção de reflexão sobre tais vivências. / In this work, we consider possible uses of Yoga in the practice of Theater. Three trials previously conducted by the author with different groups of actors/students were analyzed. In these trials, Yoga techniques were applied to theatrical performances in different ways. Moreover, this study also looks at the current society, reflecting about their subjects and their way of life, in an attempt to understand the reality of the groups whom we have been working with. Through these experiments, we sought to make these actors / students get away from their daily routines, establishing breaks that could promote a fluid process of preparation for the theatrical practices. The work is divided into two main parts: the first comprises a brief explanation of the trajectory of the author, as well as her motivations for conducting this research, the context of today's society, a brief historical/philosophical survey of Yoga, and an overview of some practices already made by important people in the theater scene. The second part comprises the analysis of previously conducted experiments and a reflection over these experiences.

Esta pesquisa reflete sobre possíveis modos de utilização do Yoga para o fazer teatral. Propõe-se a análise de três experimentações previamente realizadas pela autora com grupos distintos de atores/alunos onde se utilizou de diferentes modos as técnicas do Yoga para o Teatro. O estudo tece também um olhar sobre a sociedade atual, refletindo a respeito de seus sujeitos e de seu ritmo de vida, na tentativa de compreender a realidade dos grupos que estiveram em trabalho. Por meio das experimentações, buscaram-se rupturas no ritmo cotidiano desses atores/alunos para o possível estabelecimento de pausas que pudessem promover um processo de preparação fluido para as práticas teatrais. O trabalho está dividido em duas etapas principais: a primeira compreende uma breve explanação da trajetória da autora, bem como suas motivações para a pesquisa, a contextualização da sociedade atual, um breve levantamento histórico/filosófico do Yoga e um apanhado de algumas práticas já realizadas por importantes pessoas de teatro. A segunda, por sua vez, compreende a análise dos experimentos previamente realizados e a promoção de reflexão sobre tais vivências. / In this work, we consider possible uses of Yoga in the practice of Theater. Three trials previously conducted by the author with different groups of actors/students were analyzed. In these trials, Yoga techniques were applied to theatrical performances in different ways. Moreover, this study also looks at the current society, reflecting about their subjects and their way of life, in an attempt to understand the reality of the groups whom we have been working with. Through these experiments, we sought to make these actors / students get away from their daily routines, establishing breaks that could promote a fluid process of preparation for the theatrical practices. The work is divided into two main parts: the first comprises a brief explanation of the trajectory of the author, as well as her motivations for conducting this research, the context of today's society, a brief historical/philosophical survey of Yoga, and an overview of some practices already made by important people in the theater scene. The second part comprises the analysis of previously conducted experiments and a reflection over these experiences.

Esta pesquisa reflete sobre possíveis modos de utilização do Yoga para o fazer teatral. Propõe-se a análise de três experimentações previamente realizadas pela autora com grupos distintos de atores/alunos onde se utilizou de diferentes modos as técnicas do Yoga para o Teatro. O estudo tece também um olhar sobre a sociedade atual, refletindo a respeito de seus sujeitos e de seu ritmo de vida, na tentativa de compreender a realidade dos grupos que estiveram em trabalho. Por meio das experimentações, buscaram-se rupturas no ritmo cotidiano desses atores/alunos para o possível estabelecimento de pausas que pudessem promover um processo de preparação fluido para as práticas teatrais. O trabalho está dividido em duas etapas principais: a primeira compreende uma breve explanação da trajetória da autora, bem como suas motivações para a pesquisa, a contextualização da sociedade atual, um breve levantamento histórico/filosófico do Yoga e um apanhado de algumas práticas já realizadas por importantes pessoas de teatro. A segunda, por sua vez, compreende a análise dos experimentos previamente realizados e a promoção de reflexão sobre tais vivências. / In this work, we consider possible uses of Yoga in the practice of Theater. Three trials previously conducted by the author with different groups of actors/students were analyzed. In these trials, Yoga techniques were applied to theatrical performances in different ways. Moreover, this study also looks at the current society, reflecting about their subjects and their way of life, in an attempt to understand the reality of the groups whom we have been working with. Through these experiments, we sought to make these actors / students get away from their daily routines, establishing breaks that could promote a fluid process of preparation for the theatrical practices. The work is divided into two main parts: the first comprises a brief explanation of the trajectory of the author, as well as her motivations for conducting this research, the context of today's society, a brief historical/philosophical survey of Yoga, and an overview of some practices already made by important people in the theater scene. The second part comprises the analysis of previously conducted experiments and a reflection over these experiences.