Cumming Ruth E
University of Cambridge, UK.
Phonetica. 2011;68(1-2):1-25. doi: 10.1159/000327223. Epub 2011 Jul 21.
This experiment investigated whether fundamental frequency (f0) and duration are interdependent cues for the perceived rhythmicality of sentences, and whether this depends on the native language of listeners. The task required a judgement of which stimulus sentence had the most natural- sounding rhythm. In the stimuli, duration and f0 were manipulated on a certain syllable to test whether a deviant duration results in a less natural- sounding rhythm than a deviant f0 movement, or vice versa. The listeners were native speakers of Swiss German (SG), Swiss French (SFr) or French (Fr). SG and Fr differ from each other in terms of prosodic properties involving f0 and duration; in particular, their rhythms sound different. The results demonstrate that duration and f0 are interdependent cues for perceived rhythmicality, and that the relative significance of a non-deviant duration and a non-deviant f0 excursion in the rhythmicality judgements of listeners depends on their native language. Importantly, these findings have implications for current research on speech rhythm.
本实验研究了基频（f0）和时长是否是句子感知节奏的相互依存线索，以及这是否取决于听众的母语。该任务要求判断哪个刺激句的节奏听起来最自然。在刺激材料中，时长和f0在某个音节上进行了操控，以测试与f0变化异常相比，时长异常是否会导致节奏听起来不那么自然，反之亦然。听众为瑞士德语（SG）、瑞士法语（SFr）或法语（Fr）的母语者。SG和Fr在涉及f0和时长的韵律特性方面彼此不同；特别是，它们的节奏听起来不同。结果表明，时长和f0是感知节奏的相互依存线索，并且在听众的节奏判断中，非异常时长和非异常f0偏移的相对重要性取决于他们的母语。重要的是，这些发现对当前的语音节奏研究具有启示意义。
