• Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.203-217
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• 2000

In spoken language, the characteristics of prosodic realization are related to the meaning of utterance. The pitch pattern of an interrogative sentence which differs from that of declarative sentences can be considered in this respect.. If we consider the question-answer pair, we can find that the most important variation comes from the intended meaning of asking. In this paper, we experiment with four kinds of interrogative sentences and show that the difference in pitch patterns of interrogative sentences can be explained in relation to the focus phenomena that is, the differences of the boundary tones in interrogative sentences are due to the differences in the prosodic domain of focus. For a relevant explanation with the focus phenomena, we divided focus into the categories: emphatic focus, which plays a role in delivering the speaker's intended meaning for the sentence interpretation, and informational focus, delivers the central intended meaning of the utterance. The results can be summarized in three points. First, High boundary tone delivers the meaning of asking. Second, the realization of different boundary tones that are found in wh-question and alternative question are just phonetic variations caused by focusing. Third, the high rise boundary tone in echo questions is related to the meaning of surprise or incredulity, and this relation is a consensus of existing opinion, that is, the speaker's attitude of surprise can raise the pitch range. From these results we can distinguish between boundary type and phonetic variation, and we can also give appropriate meaning to the different boundary tones in interrogative sentences that have been regarded as merely a part of sentence type.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.234-239
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is to examine the viability of simulating one dialect with the speech segments of another dialect through prosody cloning. The hypothesis is that, among Korean regional dialects, it is not the segmental differences but the prosodic differences that play a major role in authentic dialect perception. This work intends to support the hypothesis by simulating Masan dialect with the speech segments from Seoul dialect. The dialect simulation was performed by transplanting the prosodic features of Masan utterances unto the same utterances produced by a Seoul speaker. Thus, the simulated Masan utterances were composed of Seoul speech segments but their prosody came from the original Masan utterances. The prosodic features involved were the fundamental frequency contour, the segmental durations, and the intensity contour. The simulated Masan utterances were evaluated by four native Masan speakers and the role of prosody in dialect authentication and speech synthesis was discussed.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.141-156
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• 1998

In the previous studies, some characteristics of flaccid dysarthria patients have been studied mainly in two aspects: their difficulties in articulation and their metrical dysfunction. Therapeutic research on the articulation impediment of the patients have been carried out extensively (Yorkston, 1981). However, their phonetic characteristics have been less well-studied. The aim of this paper is to measure and describe some phonetic differences between the normal speaker group (six speakers) and the flaccid dysarthria patient group (six speakers in three different degreed of severity). Two types of short sentences comprising of subject-object-verb, i.e. declarative and yes-no question sentences, were recorded to investigate some phonetic characteristics of these two groups of speakers. The two groups (normal group vs. patient group) show differences in yes-no question boundary tone (H% vs. HL%), pitch range (wide vs. narrow), duration (short vs. long) and intensity (strong vs. weak) of sentence final verb endings in Korean.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2018

In this study, we investigated age differences of preference and trust ratings when the appearance of an artificial intelligent speaker resembles a human face. The appearance of the artificial intelligent speaker was presented in seven levels from robot face to human face. In addition, face stimuli were divided into gender (male and female) and age (20s / 60s). Participants evaluated the reliability and likability of each face stimulus on a 7-point scale. The results show that younger adults tend to prefer the face that was halfway between the robot and the human face, while older adults evaluated that the perceived reliability and likability were higher when the stimuli resembled the human face. When asked to choose the most preferred of the four face categories, all participants chose a younger face. However, with additional conditions including emoticon face and empty condition, older adults still preferred human face, while younger adults preferred emoticon face and empty condition. Taken together, older adults are more receptive to human faces than robotic faces in the context of artificial intelligence speakers. Because artificial intelligent speakers can play an important role in the elderly living alone, the present study will be a good reference in the design and development of artificial intelligent speakers for the elderly users.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1422-1432
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• 1993

Nonlinear mapping function of the HCNN( Hidden Control Neural Network ) can change over time to model the temporal variability of a speech signal by combining the nonlinear prediction of conventional neural networks with the segmentation capability of HMM. We have two things in this paper. first, we showed that the performance of the HCNN is better than that of HMM. Second, the HCNN with its prediction error measure given by weighted distance is proposed to use suitable distance measure for the HCNN, and then we showed that the superiority of the proposed system for speaker-independent speech recognition tasks. Weighted distance considers the differences between the variances of each component of the feature vector extraced from the speech data. Speaker-independent Korean digit recognition experiment showed that the recognition rate of 95%was obtained for the HCNN with Euclidean distance. This result is 1.28% higher than HMM, and shows that the HCNN which models the dynamical system is superior to HMM which is based on the statistical restrictions. And we obtained 97.35% for the HCNN with weighted distance, which is 2.35% better than the HCNN with Euclidean distance. The reason why the HCNN with weighted distance shows better performance is as follows : it reduces the variations of the recognition error rate over different speakers by increasing the recognition rate for the speakers who have many misclassified utterances. So we can conclude that the HCNN with weighted distance is more suit-able for speaker-independent speech recognition tasks.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.41
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• pp.121-148
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• 2010

The aim of this paper is to look into the characteristics and its value of Jo Uin(曺友仁)'s Jadosa(自悼詞). I compared Jadosa with other Yeongungasa(戀君歌辭) works for this purposes in the sides of aspect of Yeongunuisik(戀君意識) and emotionalism. Therefore Jadosa is equipped with space setting called the heavenly world and the earthly world, and has characteristics that a speaker of the earthly world misses a lover of the heavenly world. Also, Jadosa is similar to Samiingok(思美人曲) and Sokmiingok(續美人曲) of Jeong Cheol(鄭澈) because the former borrowed a few phrases and motifs from the latter. However, if I look into Jadosa in greater detail in the sides of emotion or attitude of a speaker, the speaker of Jadosa shows a reproachful attitude Unlike works of Jeong Cheol. And the speaker of Jadosa urges the lover to be aware of his illusion. Finally these differences occur as a political standing and a relation with the king is different in every writer. Accordingly This paper is very worthwhile through comparison of Jadosa and other Yeongungasa works given that I reviewed characteristics and a meaning of Jadosa.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2015

This research mainly focuses on intonational characteristics of synchronous English speech. Intonation contours were extracted from 1,848 utterances produced in two different speaking modes (solo vs. synchronous) by 28 (12 women and 16 men) native speakers of English. Synchronous speech is found to be slower than solo speech. Women are found to speak slower than men. The effect size of speech rate caused by different speaking modes is greater than gender differences. However, there is no interaction between the two factors (speaking modes vs. gender differences) in terms of speech rate. Analysis of pitch point features has it that synchronous speech has smaller Pt (pitch point movement time), Pr (pitch point pitch range), Ps (pitch point slope) and Pd (pitch point distance) than solo speech. There is no interaction between the two factors (speaking modes vs. gender differences) in terms of pitch point features. Analysis of sentence level features reveals that synchronous speech has smaller Sr (sentence level pitch range), Ss (sentence slope), MaxNr (normalized maximum pitch) and MinNr (normalized minimum pitch) but greater Min (minimum pitch) and Sd (sentence duration) than solo speech. It is also shown that the higher the Mid (median pitch), the MaxNr and the MinNr in solo speaking mode, the more they are reduced in synchronous speaking mode. Max, Min and Mid show greater speaker discriminability than other features.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.644-655
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• 2020

The study examined differences between perceptions of AI speakers and intention to continuous use of AI speakers according to usage function. We divided usage patterns into single- and multi-function orientations based on the usage by different functions of audio content (music, news, and search), and analyzed the differences between perceptions of using AI speakers and the intention to continuous use. 335 men and women who had experience using AI speakers participated in an online survey. Results are as follows. First, men used AI speakers mainly for acquiring news, and the extent to which 20s and 40s acquire news was different. Second, perceptions of usefulness and ease of use were found to be higher in the multi-functional group(music-news-search). Last, regarding the intention to continuous use of AI speakers, the multi-functional group was highest, and users focusing on music listening were relatively higher than users for other functions. The findings of the study are expected to be used as foundational data for expanding the use of AI speakers and developing strategies for service provision in each AI speaker brand.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.129-136
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• 2013

This study investigated how acoustic characteristics (i.e., duration, F1, F2) of English high front vowels /i, ɪ/ are modulated by boundary- and prominence-induced strengthening in native vs. non-native (Korean) speech production. The study also examined how the durational difference in vowels due to the voicing of a following consonant (i.e., voiced vs. voiceless) is modified by prosodic strengthening in two different (native vs. non-native) speaker groups. Five native speakers of Canadian English and eight Korean learners of English (intermediate-advanced level) produced 8 minimal pairs with the CVC sequence (e.g., 'beat'-'bit') in varying prosodic contexts. Native speakers distinguished the two vowels in terms of duration, F1, and F2, whereas non-native speakers only showed durational differences. The two groups were similar in that they maximally distinguished the two vowels when the vowels were accented (F2, duration), while neither group showed boundary-induced strengthening in any of the three measurements. The durational differences due to the voicing of the following consonant were also maximized when accented. The results are discussed further in terms of phonetics-prosody interface in L2 production.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.259-264
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• 2001

It is necessary to predict the sound pressure level(SPL) in rooms before designing an apartment when exterior noises are produced. In order to predict SPL for an apartment that has some specific exterior noises, the following should be known: the characteristics of outdoor noise, sound insulation performance and sound level differences of each room. The purpose of this study is to find out the possibility of predicting sound pressure level of rooms in an apartment by analysing sound level differences among rooms. Sound sources used in this experiment are construction noise, aircraft noise, railroad noise, road traffic noise and white noise as a reference to compare with the previous four. These noises were recorded and reproduced by speaker. As a result, we found that within the sound reduction pattern, the sound difference level appeared uniform depending on the sound insulation characteristics of the windows installed when facing the noise source. When the windows having the same acoustic performance were installed, the SPL in each room resulted in nearly the same values.