The dynamics of intonation: Categorical and continuous variation in an attractor-based model.

ABSTRACT: The framework of dynamical systems offers powerful tools to understand the relation between stability and variability in human cognition in general and in speech in particular. In the current paper, we propose a dynamical systems approach to the description of German nuclear pitch accents in focus marking to account for both the categorical as well as the continuous variation found in intonational data. We report on results from 27 native speakers and employ an attractor landscape to represent pitch accent types in terms of f0 measures in a continuous dimension. We demonstrate how the same system can account for both the categorical variation (relative stability of one prosodic category) as well as the continuous variation (detailed modifications within one prosodic category). The model is

SUBMITTER: Roessig S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6532892 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature