Putzer Manfred, Barry William J
Institute of Phonetics, Saarland University, Germany.
Clin Linguist Phon. 2008 Jun;22(6):407-20. doi: 10.1080/02699200701830869.
The present study deals with the dimensions of normal and pathological phonation. Separation of normal voices from pathological voices is tested under different aspects. Using a new parametrization of voice-quality properties in the acoustic signal, the vowel productions of 534 speakers (267 M, 267 F) without any reported voice pathology and the productions of 534 gender-matched pathological speakers were considered. In a first step, a gender-specific separation of the two groups is supported by a number of significantly different parameter means. In a second step, a clustering technique differentiates three subgroups within each group and gender on the basis of the acoustic parameters. Further, a statistical examination of the correct assignment in the database (DB-classification) as "normal" or "pathological" shows that the two groups overlap to some extent. The overlap of speaker assignment indicates a phonation continuum through the multidimensional space extending from normal to pathological voices. The validity of a categorical distinction of normal and pathological phonation in the sense of an individual or group-orientated labelling of voice quality as "normal" or "pathological", respectively, is discussed.
本研究涉及正常发声和病理性发声的维度。从不同方面测试正常声音与病理性声音的区分。利用声学信号中语音质量特性的一种新参数化方法，研究考虑了534名无任何发声病理报告的说话者（267名男性，267名女性）的元音发音以及534名性别匹配的病理性说话者的发音。第一步，两组之间基于一些显著不同的参数均值实现了性别特异性区分。第二步，一种聚类技术根据声学参数在每组及每个性别中区分出三个亚组。此外，对数据库中正确归类为“正常”或“病理性”的统计检验表明，两组在一定程度上存在重叠。说话者归类的重叠表明从正常声音到病理性声音在多维空间中存在一个发声连续体。讨论了将正常发声和病理性发声分别按个体或群体导向标记为“正常”或“病理性”的分类区分的有效性。
