Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Brandeis University, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-172).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xxii, 291 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-216). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

O setor de telemarketing encontra-se em expansão no Brasil e surge como uma primeira oportunidade de emprego formal. No telemarketing ativo, o papel do teleoperador é o contato direto com o cliente é ele quem faz a ligação, enquanto que, no receptivo, ele recebe a ligação. Neste cenário, a voz torna-se uma ferramenta de trabalho essencial, pois grande parte do desempenho do teleoperador relaciona-se diretamente à comunicação verbal. A voz necessita, para uma boa comunicação, variações de pitch, loudness, velocidade de fala, entoação. Esses parâmetros estão relacionados à prosódia. A literatura apresenta poucos estudos que contemplam a entoação no telemarketing. O presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar o perfil entoacional do operador de telemarketing, assim como identificar o tipo de padrão entoacional mais aceito pelos clientes de operadoras de telefonia celular. Para tanto, foi aplicado um questionário a 212 clientes de empresas de telefonia celular, realizado um estudo da entoação de 40 teleoperadores com base na Teoria Interacional da Entoação, desenvolvida por David Brazil, e apresentadas, a 100 clientes, gravações dos padrões mais recorrentes para que identificassem os mais aceitos. Os resultados mais representativos foram: os clientes percebem diferenças entre as formas de atendimento do telemarketing ativo do receptivo, principalmente, os de faixa etária mais jovem (20 a 30 anos); foi identificado como padrão mais recorrente, entre as 40 falas transcritas, o tom ascendente, tanto no telemarketing ativo quanto no receptivo. Contudo, no telemarketing ativo, o segundo padrão mais recorrente foi o descendente, e no telemarketing receptivo, foi o descendente-ascendente. De acordo com a avaliação de 100 clientes, os quais escutaram gravações de vozes de teleoperadores, os tons ascendentes e descendentes, independente do tipo de telemarketing, foram considerados naturais, e o tom descendente-ascendente foi considerado exagerado ou caricato. No telemarketing ativo, o padrão descendente foi mais aceito, e no telemarketing receptivo, os tons ascendentes. O padrão descendente-ascendente teve uma avaliação mais positiva pelos clientes do sexo masculino. Dessa forma, podemos concluir que é necessário conhecer o perfil do cliente que irá utilizar os serviços de telemarketing da empresa, seja ele receptivo ou ativo, para que o operador possa adequar a entoação à forma mais agradável ao cliente / The telemarketing sector is in frank expansion in Brasil, and for many it represents the initial opportunity for formal employment. In active telemarketing, the operator calls the customer whereas in receptive telemarketing the call is made by the customer. Since there is no face to face interaction performance of the operator, in both modalities, is solely dependent on his or her verbal communication skills. Thus, their voice is probably the most important component for success. For good communication there must be variations in voice pitch, loudness, speed and intonation, which are essential for good prosody. However, there are relatively few studies examining the subject of intonation in telemarketing. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterize the intonation profile of telemarketing operators, as well as to identify the intonation pattern more widely accepted by the customers of a cellular telephony company. For this, a questionnaire was applied to 212 customers and an analysis of the intonation of 40 telemarketing operators conducted using Brazils Interactive Theory of Intonation. 50 customers were also asked to listen to audio recordings containing the most frequent intonation patterns and requested to identify the most pleasant ones. Differences in customer service were observed between the two modalities of telemarketing (active or receptive), especially by younger customers (20-30 year olds). Of the 40 discourses evaluated, the most recurrent intonation pattern was the rise pattern both in the active and receptive telemarketing modalities. In active telemarketing, however, the second most prevalent pattern was the fall pattern, whereas in the receptive modality it was the fall-rise pattern. Based on the opinion of the 100 customers that listened to the recordings, it may be concluded that regardless of the type of telemarketing, the rise and fall patterns were considered more natural, in contrast to the fall-rise, pattern which was perceived as exagerated or caricatured. In active telemarmarketing the fall pattern was more widely accepted whereas the rise pattern was better accepted in receptive telemarketing. In addition, the rise and fall pattern was more positively evaluated by male customers. Thus, it may be concluded that, regardless of the type of telemarketing, it is necessary for the company to study the profile of its customers in order for its operators to use the most adequate voice intonation

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

No description available.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis finds its epistemological basis in two related motives: the re-conceptualisation of white writing in Zimbabwe as a sub-category of Zimbabwean literature, and the recognition of white narratives as necessarily dialogic. The first motive follows the realization that writing by Zimbabwean whites is systematically marginalized from “mainstream” Zimbabwean literature owing to its perceived irrelevance to the postcolonial Zimbabwean nation. Through an application of Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory, this thesis argues for a recognition of white writing as a literary sub-system existing in relation to other literary and non-literary systems in Zimbabwe’s polysystem of culture. As its second motive, the thesis also calls for a critical approach to white Zimbabwean narratives built on the understanding that the study of literature can no longer be left to monologic approaches alone. Rather, white narratives should be considered as multiple and hence amenable to a multiplicity of approaches that recognize dialogue as an essential aspect of all narratives. The thesis attempts, by closely reading nine white-authored narratives in Zimbabwe, to demonstrate that white Zimbabwean literature is characterized by multiplicity, simultaneity and instability; these are tropes developed from Bakhtin’s understanding of utterances as characterized by a minimum of two voices. To consider white writing in Zimbabwe as a multiplicity is to call forth its numerous dimensions and breadth of perceptions. Simultaneity posits the need to understand opposites/conflicts as capable of existing side by side without necessarily dissolving into unity. Instability captures the several movements and destabilizations that affect writers, characters and the literary system. These three tropes enable a re-reading of white Zimbabwean narratives as complex and multi-nuanced. Such characteristics of the literary system are seen to reflect on the experiences of “whiteness” in postcolonial Zimbabwe. The white narratives selected for examination in this thesis therefore exhibit crises of belonging that reflect the dialogic nature of existence. In sum, this thesis is meant as a dialogue, culminating in the proposition that calls for a decentred and redemptive literary experience. / AFRIKKANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis vestig sy epistemologiese basis in twee verwante motiewe: die herkonseptualisering van skryfwerk deur wit skrywers in Zimbabwe as ’n sub-kategorie van Zimbabwiese letterkunde, en die erkenning van wit narratiewe as onontkombaar dialogies in aard en wese. Die eerste motief volg die argument dat die skryfwerke van wit Zimbabwieërs stelselmatig gemarginaliseer is uit “hoofstroom” Zimbabwiese literatuur, as gevolg van dié skryfwerke se beweerde irrelevansie tot die koloniale Zimbabwiese nasie-staat. Deur Even-Zohar se polisisteem teorie toe te pas, pleit hierdie tesis vir die erkenning van letterkunde deur wit skrywers as ’n literêre sub-stelsel wat bestaan in verhouding tot ander literêre en nie-literêre sisteme in Zimbabwe se polisisteem van kultuur. As sy tweede motief, vra die tesis ook vir ’n kritiese benadering tot wit Zimbabwiese narratiewe, gebou op die verstandhouding dat die studie van letterkunde nie meer suiwer aan monologies benaderings oorgelewer behoort te word nie. Inteendeel, wit narratiewe moet as veelsydig beskou word, en dus vatbaar vir ’n verskeidenheid benaderings wat dialoog as ’n noodsaaklike aspek van alle verhale erken en verken. Deur nege wit outeurs se verhale in Zimbabwe noukeurig te lees, dui hierdie tesis aan dat wit Zimbabwiese literatuur gekenmerk word deur veelvuldigheid, gelyktydigheid en onstabiliteit; hieride is teoretiese konsepte wat ontleen is aan Bakhtin se begrip van uitsprake (“utterances”) as bestaande uit ’n minimum van twee stemme. Om wit lettere in Zimbabwe as veelvuldig te verklaar is om die talle dimensies en breedtes van persepsie in letterkundige korpus te erken. Gelyktydig postuleer die tesis die moontlikheid dat teenoorgesteldes/konflikte langs mekaar kan en móét bestaan, sonder om noodwendig in ’n eenheid te ontaard. Onstabiliteit, soos dit hier verstaan word, omvat die verskillende bewegings en ontstuimige roeringe wat skrywers, karakters en die literêre sisteem beïnvloed. Hierdie drie konsepte laat ’n herlees van wit Zimbabwiese verhale toe wat as kompleks en multi-genuanseerd bestempel kan word. Sulke kenmerke van die literêre sisteem moet in ag geneem word om die ervaring van “witheid” in post-koloniale Zimbabwe effektief uit te beeld. Die wit verhale wat gekies is vir herlees in hierdie tesis beeld dus krisisse van bestaan uit wat die dialogiese aard van die menslike bestaan omvat. Ter afsluiting is hierdie tesis bedoel as ’n dialoog wat kulmineer in ’n oproep vir gedensentraliseerde en verlossende ervarings van die letterkunde in sy geheel.

Theories of phonological word formation (e.g. Selkirk 1980, 1986; Nespor & Vogel 1986; Lahiri & Plank 2010) assume that prosodic units are not isomorphic with syntactic units. However, the prosodic status of compounds remain uncertain, at least in so far as language planning and phonological encoding is concerned. Theories are not transparent about the prosodic status of compounds: although a noun-noun compound in English consists of two lexical words (and therefore two prosodic words), it can also act as a single prosodic item by exhibiting main stress on the first unit and carrying inflection. Thus the question remains controversial - should these items be treated as a single prosodic unit, similar to a monomorphemic word, or as two distinct units for the purpose of post-lexical representation? Recursive word formation may suggest that compounds are a single unit. Psycholinguistic evidence measuring speech onset latency in native speakers of Dutch and Portuguese also shows compounds being treated as single prosodic units (Wheeldon & Lahiri 1997, 2002; Vigario, 2010). Although recent studies have produced evidence for the prosodification of compounds in native speakers, little is known about the process in non-native speakers. Our research questions are as follows: what is the post-lexical planning unit in English, and how do non-native fluent speakers of English plan these units for the purpose of phonological encoding? To investigate our hypotheses, we focus on the phonological encoding of compounds with and without encliticisation, for native and non-native speakers of English. In a series of delayed priming tasks, we found overwhelming evidence that reaction times reflected the total number of prosodic units in the target sentence. In online tasks, however, speech latencies only reflected the size of the first prosodic unit. Taken together,these results suggest that, despite containing two lexical and prosodic words, English compounds are planned as single prosodic units, exhibiting encliticisation and reaction times similar to those of monomorphemic words. As shown by the results in this study, this naming paradigm has proved extremely beneficial for eliciting data about the structure of prosodic units in speech production. Not only was it successful for native speakers of Dutch, European Portuguese, and English, we also found that it was easily implemented into a study of post-lexical encoding in non-native speakers of English.

Current high quality text-to-speech (TTS) systems are based on unit selection from a large database that is both contextually and prosodically rich. These systems, albeit capable of natural voice quality, are computationally expensive and require a very large footprint. Their success is attributed to the dramatic reduction of storage costs in recent times. However, for many TTS applications a smaller footprint is becoming a standard requirement. This thesis presents a new method for representing speech segments that can improve the quality and/or reduce the footprint current concatenative TTS systems. The circular linear prediction (CLP) model is revisited and combined with the constant pitch transform (CPT) to provide a robust representation of speech signals that allows for limited prosodic movements without a perceivable loss in quality. The CLP model assumes that each frame of voiced speech is an infinitely periodic signal. This assumption allows for LPC modeling using the covariance method, with the efficiency of the autocorrelation method. The CPT is combined with this model to provide a database that is uniform in pitch for matching the target prosody during synthesis. With this representation, limited prosody modifications and unit concatenation can be performed without causing audible artifacts. For resolving artifacts caused by pitch modifications in voicing transitions, a method has been introduced for reducing peakiness in the LP spectra by constraining the line spectral frequencies. Two experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the potential for the capabilities of CLP/CPT method. The first is a listening test to determine the ability of this model to realize prosody modifications without perceivable degradation. Utterances are resynthesized using the CLP/CPT method with emphasized prosodics to increase intelligibility in harsh environments. The second experiment compares the quality of utterances synthesized by unit-selection based limited-domain TTS against the CLP/CPT method. The results demonstrate that the CLP/CPT representation, applied to current concatenative TTS systems, can reduce the size of the database and increase the prosodic richness without noticeable degradation in voice quality.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla_confrontada.pdf: 967904 bytes, checksum: c3ddee6508b5c47e4d3217f528a70764 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-07-01 / The telemarketing sector is in frank expansion in Brasil, and for many it represents the initial opportunity for formal employment. In active telemarketing, the operator calls the customer whereas in receptive telemarketing the call is made by the customer. Since there is no face to face interaction performance of the operator, in both modalities, is solely dependent on his or her verbal communication skills. Thus, their voice is probably the most important component for success. For good communication there must be variations in voice pitch, loudness, speed and intonation, which are essential for good prosody. However, there are relatively few studies examining the subject of intonation in telemarketing. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterize the intonation profile of telemarketing operators, as well as to identify the intonation pattern more widely accepted by the customers of a cellular telephony company. For this, a questionnaire was applied to 212 customers and an analysis of the intonation of 40 telemarketing operators conducted using Brazil´s Interactive Theory of Intonation. 50 customers were also asked to listen to audio recordings containing the most frequent intonation patterns and requested to identify the most pleasant ones. Differences in customer service were observed between the two modalities of telemarketing (active or receptive), especially by younger customers (20-30 year olds). Of the 40 discourses evaluated, the most recurrent intonation pattern was the rise pattern both in the active and receptive telemarketing modalities. In active telemarketing, however, the second most prevalent pattern was the fall pattern, whereas in the receptive modality it was the fall-rise pattern. Based on the opinion of the 100 customers that listened to the recordings, it may be concluded that regardless of the type of telemarketing, the rise and fall patterns were considered more natural, in contrast to the fall-rise, pattern which was perceived as exagerated or caricatured. In active telemarmarketing the fall pattern was more widely accepted whereas the rise pattern was better accepted in receptive telemarketing. In addition, the rise and fall pattern was more positively evaluated by male customers. Thus, it may be concluded that, regardless of the type of telemarketing, it is necessary for the company to study the profile of its customers in order for its operators to use the most adequate voice intonation / O setor de telemarketing encontra-se em expansão no Brasil e surge como uma primeira oportunidade de emprego formal. No telemarketing ativo, o papel do teleoperador é o contato direto com o cliente é ele quem faz a ligação, enquanto que, no receptivo, ele recebe a ligação. Neste cenário, a voz torna-se uma ferramenta de trabalho essencial, pois grande parte do desempenho do teleoperador relaciona-se diretamente à comunicação verbal. A voz necessita, para uma boa comunicação, variações de pitch, loudness, velocidade de fala, entoação. Esses parâmetros estão relacionados à prosódia. A literatura apresenta poucos estudos que contemplam a entoação no telemarketing. O presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar o perfil entoacional do operador de telemarketing, assim como identificar o tipo de padrão entoacional mais aceito pelos clientes de operadoras de telefonia celular. Para tanto, foi aplicado um questionário a 212 clientes de empresas de telefonia celular, realizado um estudo da entoação de 40 teleoperadores com base na Teoria Interacional da Entoação, desenvolvida por David Brazil, e apresentadas, a 100 clientes, gravações dos padrões mais recorrentes para que identificassem os mais aceitos. Os resultados mais representativos foram: os clientes percebem diferenças entre as formas de atendimento do telemarketing ativo do receptivo, principalmente, os de faixa etária mais jovem (20 a 30 anos); foi identificado como padrão mais recorrente, entre as 40 falas transcritas, o tom ascendente, tanto no telemarketing ativo quanto no receptivo. Contudo, no telemarketing ativo, o segundo padrão mais recorrente foi o descendente, e no telemarketing receptivo, foi o descendente-ascendente. De acordo com a avaliação de 100 clientes, os quais escutaram gravações de vozes de teleoperadores, os tons ascendentes e descendentes, independente do tipo de telemarketing, foram considerados naturais, e o tom descendente-ascendente foi considerado exagerado ou caricato. No telemarketing ativo, o padrão descendente foi mais aceito, e no telemarketing receptivo, os tons ascendentes. O padrão descendente-ascendente teve uma avaliação mais positiva pelos clientes do sexo masculino. Dessa forma, podemos concluir que é necessário conhecer o perfil do cliente que irá utilizar os serviços de telemarketing da empresa, seja ele receptivo ou ativo, para que o operador possa adequar a entoação à forma mais agradável ao cliente

Mémoire (M.Ling.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1992. / Ce mémoire a été réalisé à l'UQAC dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en linguistique de l'Unniversité Laval extensionné à l'UQAC. CaQCU Bibliogr.: f. 113-117. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU