Exames de Comparação Forense de Locutores apresentam características complexas, demandando análises demoradas quando realizadas manualmente. Propõe-se um método para reconhecimento automático de vogais com extração de características para análises acústicas, objetivando-se contribuir com uma ferramenta de apoio nesses exames. A proposta baseia-se na medição dos formantes através de LPC (Linear Predictive Coding), seletivamente por detecção da frequência fundamental, taxa de passagem por zero, largura de banda e continuidade, sendo o agrupamento das amostras realizado por meio do método k-means. Experimentos realizados com amostras de três diferentes bases de dados trouxeram resultados promissores, com localização das regiões correspondentes a cinco das vogais do Português Brasileiro, propiciando a visualização do comportamento do trato vocal de um falante, assim como detecção de trechos correspondentes as vogais-alvo. / Forensic speaker comparison exams have complex characteristics, demanding a long time for manual analysis. A method for automatic recognition of vowels, providing feature extraction for acoustic analysis is proposed, aiming to contribute as a support tool in these exams. The proposal is based in formant measurements by LPC (Linear Predictive Coding), selectively by fundamental frequency detection, zero crossing rate, bandwidth and continuity, with the clustering being done by the k-means method. Experiments using samples from three different databases have shown promising results, in which the regions corresponding to five of the Brasilian Portuguese vowels were successfully located, providing visualization of a speaker’s vocal tract behavior, as well as the detection of segments corresponding to target vowels.

Ce travail s’intéresse à l’application de la phonétique expérimentale [acoustique et perceptive] à la didactique de la prononciation des langues étrangères. Le propos est illustré par les difficultés d’apprentissage par des japonophones des voyelles du français ; les expériences portent spécifiquement sur les voyelles -u y ø-. Le but est d’élucider les difficultés que présentent ces phones selon que leur statut phonémique et leur réalisation phonétique diffèrent ou non entre la langue maternelle et la langue apprise. Le -u- français diffère phonétiquement de son équivalent phonémique, le -u- japonais. L’étude confirme que le -u- français, phonémiquement « similaire » au -u- japonais, est plus difficile que la voyelle « nouvelle » -y-, qui n'a pas d'équivalent ni phonémique ni phonétique en japonais. La production du -ø-, qui est « nouveau » phonémiquement mais proche du -u- japonais au plan acoustique, semble présenter encore moins de difficulté. La thèse apporte également une réflexion sur la didactique de la prononciation. L’analyse de manuels généralistes de français publiés au Japon suggère que les apprenants et les enseignants sont rarement conscients de la différence de difficultés des -u y ø-. Quelques méthodes d’enseignement de la prononciation – certaines traditionnelles, d’autres innovantes – sont proposées, dans l’idée de favoriser la conscientisation de ces difficultés. Le but de cette thèse est une contribution à l’éclaircissement des processus d’apprentissage de la prononciation des langues étrangères, et à l’amélioration de son apprentissage et de son enseignement. / This dissertation deals with the application of experimental [acoustic and perceptual] phonetics to the teaching of pronunciation. The issue is illustrated by Japanese speakers’ difficulties in learning French vowels in general. Experiments were specifically conducted on the vowels -u y ø-. The objective is to elucidate the case of individual phones depending on whether or not their phonemic status and their phonetic realisation differ in the two languages under study. French -u- differs phonetically from its phonemic counterpart, Japanese -u-. The present study confirms that French -u-, which is phonemically “similar” [to Japanese -u-], turns out to be more difficult than the “new” vowel -y-, which has no phonemic or phonetic counterpart in Japanese. The production of -ø-, which is phonemically “new” but acoustically close to Japanese -u-, seems to present still less difficulty. The dissertation also brings a reflection on t! he teaching of pronunciation. The analysis of general French textbooks published in Japan suggests that learners and teachers are seldom aware of the difference in the difficulties caused by the three vowels -u y ø-. Also, some methods of pronunciation teaching [some traditional, others new] are presented in terms of how they foster learners’ awareness of these difficulties. The goal of this dissertation is to help to shed light on the learning processes of the pronunciation of foreign languages, and to improve its learning and teaching.

L’effet d’ordre de la présentation des stimuli a un impact sur leur discriminabilité. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le phénomène d’asymétrie et comment celui-ci réagit avec divers facteurs cognitifs localisés dans différentes étapes du traitement. Nous nous focalisons sur le rôle de la périphéricité acoustique, de la dégradation auditive et des représentations mentales permanentes. Des données sur la perception visuelle complètent la partie principale de notre travail. Nous envisageons aussi la variabilité inter- et intra-sujet dans la perception et et dans la production des voyelles. Nos données révèlent que les effets d’ordre sont un mécanisme complexe qui ne peut pas être réduit à un seul facteur déclencheur. / It has been knonw for 150 years that the order of presentation of stimuli has an impact on their discriminability. In this thesis, we have examined the phenomenon of asymmetries in vowel perception ad how it interacts with various cognitive factors located at different steps of the stimulus decoding. We have focused on the role of acoustic peripherality, of auditory decay and of permanent mental representations. Data from visual perception complements the main body of our work. Inter-subject variability in vowel perception and production is also deal with. Our data shows that order effects are a complex mechanism which cannot be reduced to a single trigger factor.

TITLE: Vowel Lenght: Comparison of Czech and French Vowel Systems from the Phonetic and Phonological Point of View. A Pedagogically Focused Contrastive Study. AUTHOR: Kateřina Vychopňová DEPARTMENT: Department of French Language and Literature SUPERVISOR: prof. PhDr. Marie DOHALSKÁ, DrSc./ prof. Philippe MARTIN The thesis, one of the French-Czech contrastive studies, deals with the issue of vowel length in Czech and French language. The first part of the thesis, which was intentionally written for a potential pedagogic use, introduces the comparison of the main phonetic and phonological characteristics of both languages, their typology considering vowels length and its development through the history of these languages. The second part, experimental, brings the description and results of several attempts which observe whether the French native speakers learning Czech respect the length of Czech vowels, further the influence of following consonants, final and initial stress and also the type of a syllable on the length of French vowels, both in the production of French native speakers and Czech native speakers learning French. The results prove that articulatory habits which both groups of speakers use in their mother tongue have a significant influence on the production of the acquired language. In...

This study presents detailed phonetic and acoustic analyses of the speech characteristics of two new cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). Participants include a 48-year-old female who began speaking with an "Eastern European" accent following a traumatic brain injury, and a 45-year-old male who presented with a "British" accent following a subcortical cerebral vascular accident (CVA). Identical samples of the participants' pre- and post-morbid speech were obtained, thus affording a new level of control in the study of Foreign Accent Syndrome. The speech tasks consisted of oral readings of the Grandfather Passage and 18 real words comprised of the stop consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/ combined with the peripheral vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/ and ending in a voiceless stop. Computer-based acoustic measures included: 1) voice onset time (VOT), 2) vowel durations, 3) whole word durations, 4) first, second and third formant frequencies, and 5) fundamental frequency. Formant frequencies were measured at three points in the vowel duration: a) 20%, b) 50%, and c) 80% to assess differences in vowel 'onglides' and 'offglides'. The phonetic analysis provided perceptual identification of the major phonetic features associated with the foreign quality of participant's FAS speech, while acoustic measures allowed precise quantification of these features. Results indicated evidence of backing of consonant and vowel productions for both participants. The implications for future research and clinical applications are also considered.

L’objectif de ce travail était d’examiner la spécificité fonctionnelle du traitement et des représentations des hauteurs musicales. À cette fin, ce traitement a été comparé à celui des phonèmes de la parole, d’une part, et aux associations spatiales évoquées par des séquences ordonnées, d’autre part. Nos quatre études avaient pour point commun d’adapter à un nouvel objet de recherche des méthodes bien établies en psychologie cognitive. Ainsi, nous avons exploité la tâche de classification accélérée (Etude 1) de Garner (1974), l’analyse des conjonctions illusoires en mémoire (Etude 2), l’additivité de la composante mismatch negativity (MMN) des potentiels évoqués (Etude 3) et l’observation d’associations spatiales de codes de réponse (Etude 4).<p>Les trois premières études, menées chez des participants non-musiciens, portaient sur la spécificité de traitement des hauteurs par rapport à celui des phonèmes au sein de stimuli chantés. Les deux premières études ont mis en évidence un effet surprenant de la nature des phonèmes sur leurs interactions avec le traitement des mélodies :les voyelles apparaissaient plus intégrées à la mélodie que les consonnes. Ceci était vrai à la fois lors du traitement en temps réel de non-mots chantés (Etude 1) et au niveau des traces en mémoire de ces mêmes non-mots (Etude 2, utilisant une tâche de reconnaissance à choix forcé permettant la mise en évidence de conjonctions illusoires). Cette dissociation entre voyelles et consonnes quant à leur intégration avec les traitements mélodiques ne semblait pas causée par des caractéristiques acoustico-phonétiques telles que la sonorité. Les résultats de la troisième étude indiquaient que les MMNs en réponse à des déviations de hauteur et de voyelle n’étaient pas additives et que leur distribution topographique ne différait pas selon le type de déviation. Ceci suggère que, même au niveau pré-attentionnel, le traitement des voyelles n’est pas indépendant de celui des hauteurs. <p>Dans la quatrième étude, nous avons comparé le traitement des hauteurs musicales à un autre domaine :la cognition spatiale. Nous avons ainsi montré que les non-musiciens comme les musiciens associent les notes graves à la partie inférieure et les notes aiguës à la partie supérieure de l’espace. Les deux groupes liaient aussi les notes graves au côté gauche et les notes aiguës au côté droit, mais ce lien n’était automatique que chez les musiciens. Enfin, des stimuli musicaux plus complexes (intervalles mélodiques) n’évoquaient ces associations spatiales que chez les musiciens et ce, uniquement sur le plan horizontal.<p>Ces recherches contribuent de plusieurs manières à la compréhension de la cognition musicale. Premièrement, nous avons montré que les consonnes et les voyelles diffèrent dans leurs interactions avec la musique, une idée à mettre en perspective avec les rôles différents de ces phonèmes dans l’évolution du langage. Ensuite, les travaux sur les représentations spatiales des hauteurs musicales ouvrent la voie à un courant de recherche qui aidera à dévoiler les liens potentiels entre habiletés musicales et spatiales.<p>/<p>The purpose of this work was to examine the functional specificity of musical pitch processing and representation. To this aim, we compared musical pitch processing to (1) the phonological processing of speech and (2) the spatial associations evoked by ordered sequences. The four studies described here all use classical methods of cognitive psychology, which have been adapted to our research question. We have employed Garner’s (1974) speeded classification task (Study 1), the analysis of illusory conjunctions in memory (Study 2), the additivity of the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials (Study 3), as well as the observation of spatial associations of response codes (Study 4).<p>The three first studies examined, in non-musician participants, the specificity of pitch processing compared to phoneme processing in songs. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a surprising effect of phoneme category on their interactions with melodic processing: vowels were more integrated with melody than were consonants. This was true for both on-line processing of sung nonwords (Study 1) and for the memory traces of these nonwords (Study 2, using a forced-choice recognition task allowing the occurrence of illusory conjunctions). The difference between vowels and consonants was not due to acoustic-phonetic properties such as phoneme sonority. The results of the third study showed that the MMN in response to pitch and to vowel deviations was not additive and that its brain topography did not differ as a function of the kind of deviation. This suggests that vowel processing is not independent from pitch processing, even at the pre-attentive level.<p>In the fourth study, we compared pitch processing to another domain: spatial cognition. We showed that both musicians and non-musicians map pitch onto space, in that they associate low-pitched tones to the lower spatial field and high-pitched tones to the higher spatial field. Both groups of participants also associated low pitched-tones with the left and high-pitched tones with the right, but this association was automatic only in musicians. Finally, more complex musical stimuli such as melodic intervals evoked these spatial associations in the horizontal plane only in musicians.<p>This work contributes to the understanding of music cognition in several ways. First, we have shown that consonants and vowels differ in their interactions with music, an idea related to the contrasting roles of these phonemes in language evolution. Second, the work on the spatial representation of pitch opens the path to research that will help uncover the potential links between musical and spatial abilities.<p> / Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished