The purpose of this study was to examine how length and location of speech pausing affects a listeners' perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Furthermore, the end goal of this study is to understand how to better assess atypical speech pause for persons with aphasia (PWA). Speech samples were collected from two neurotypical speakers over the age of 75. The speech samples were the recorded responses of picture description tasks found in the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). These speech samples were then modified to include artificial pauses located both within sentence and between sentence, as well as differing lengths of three seconds, five seconds, and seven seconds. Forty-one listeners (31 female, 8 male) were recruited to listen to the 28 speech samples. Using a visual analogy scale, listeners rated each sample on their perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Communication effectiveness and likability ratings were significantly higher for between-utterance pauses. Likewise, ratings were highest for the baseline (no pause) stimuli and decreased as pause length increased. Across all conditions, ratings for the male speaker were rated slightly greater than that of the female speaker. Results of this study provide preliminary evidence that longer speech pause, especially found within utterance, affect the likability and communication effectiveness of PWA. It is hoped that additional research regarding speech pause will be conducted to determine how best to assess speech pause in PWA.

In dieser Arbeit werden verschiedene Sprechtempoparameter in den Sprachen Chinesisch, Deutsch, Englisch, brasilianisches und europäisches Portugiesisch sowie Spanisch zueinander in Bezug gesetzt: Die Maßeinheiten Laute, Silben, Wörter und Morpheme pro Sekunde werden unter Ein- und Ausschluss der Pausenzeit gemessen. Dabei ergeben sich für die germanischen Sprachen niedrige Durchschnittswerte, die romanischen Sprachen liegen im mittleren bis hohen Bereich und das Chinesische weist je nach betrachtetem Parameter mittlere oder hohe Werte auf. Eine Analyse der Pausenstruktur ergibt vergleichbare Pausenanteile, aber einen höheren Anteil interner Pausen in den Sprachen Chinesisch, europäisches Portugiesisch und Spanisch. Weiterhin werden nonverbale Aspekte berücksichtigt und die Größen Gesten, Gesichts¬ausdrücke und Bewegungen des Kopfes und Oberkörpers pro Minute gemessen. Im brasilianischen Portugiesisch sind Gesten und im Chinesischen Bewegungen des Kopfes und Oberkörpers auffallend häufig. Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede sind in allen Bereichen gering und nur im europäischen Portugiesisch statistisch signifikant. Bezüglich des wahrgenommenen Sprechtempos zeigt sich in Experimenten und Umfragen, dass die romanischen Sprachen als schnell bezeichnet werden. Chinesische Hörer schätzen außerdem das Sprechtempo anders ein als deutsche, wobei die Silbenkomplexität für beide Gruppen unterschiedliche Rollen spielt. Daneben bestehen zwischen diesen beiden Gruppen signifikante Unterschiede in der Beurteilung von Sachlichkeit und Vertrauenswürdigkeit in Aufnahmen. Für die untersuchte Sprechsituation wird davon ausgegangen, dass in verschiedenen Sprachgemeinschaften die Verwendung unterschiedlicher sprachlicher (verbaler wie nonverbaler) Mittel bevorzugt wird. Das Sprechtempo wird damit als eine von phonetisch-phonologischen Faktoren, aber auch von in gesellschaftlichen Gruppen vorhandenen Tendenzen im Sprachgebrauch beeinflusste Größe verstanden. / This doctoral thesis is a cross-linguistic analysis of speech tempo, comparing Chinese, English, German, Brazilian and European Portuguese, and Spanish. There are several parameters of speech tempo under analysis: sounds, syllables, words, and morphemes per second. The Germanic languages show lower values, whereas Romance languages tend to have medium and high values, and Chinese appears to have different, both medium and high values depending on what element is counted. An analysis of pause structure renders comparable percentages of time spent on silence, yet the proportion of internal pauses is considerably higher in Chinese, European Portuguese and Spanish. Furthermore, nonverbal aspects of speech are considered and data are collected for the measures gestures, facial expressions and movements of the head and torso per minute. Gestures are remarkably more frequent in Brazilian Portuguese, and movements of the head/torso are highly frequent in Chinese. Differences between genders are generally small, only within European Portuguese some statistically significant differences can be observed. Surveys on stereotypes and perception experiments show that the Romance languages are generally perceived as spoken more rapidly. The listeners’ native language appears to be a factor of perceived speech tempo: Chinese listeners’ responses are significantly different from German listeners’ responses. Syllable complexity plays different roles for these two groups of listeners. They also show significant differences when judging objectivity and trustworthyness in recordings. Considering the particular communication situation analyzed here, it is pointed out that in different speech communities, different verbal and nonverbal behavior is preferred in certain contexts. Speech tempo is influenced by phonetic and phonological factors, as well as tendencies towards a certain communicative style that can be observed within a given society.