• 음성과학
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.157-168
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• 2001

The limited capacity model has been used to explain linguistic interactions and trade-offs that occur in children's speech. The purpose of the present investigation is to explore the interrelationship of MLU (as an index of syntactic development) and fluency in the spontaneous speech of normal children. Twenty normal children's (ten girls and ten boys, aged 36-48 months) spontaneous speech samples were obtained during free-play interactions with their mothers or other adults. The results indicated that the MLU of disfluent utterances were significantly longer than that of fluent utterances. Also, disfluencies occurred more frequently in longer utterances than in shorter utterances. In addition, the utterances where disfluencies occurred more than 2 times were longer than those where disfluencies occurred once. These results imply that the increase of MLU appear to affect not only the occurrence of disfluent utterances, but also the number of disfluencies within the utterances. In other' words, these findings show that there are trade-off effects between MLU and fluency. This is discussed within a limited capacity framework.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.9-20
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose an automatic fluency evaluation algorithm for English speaking tests. In the proposed algorithm, acoustic features are extracted from an input spoken utterance and then fluency score is computed by using support vector regression (SVR). We estimate the parameters of feature modeling and SVR using the speech signals and the corresponding scores by human raters. From the correlation analysis results, it is shown that speech rate, articulation rate, and mean length of runs are best for fluency evaluation. Experimental results show that the correlation between the human score and the SVR score is 0.87 for 3 speaking tests, which suggests the possibility of the proposed algorithm as a secondary fluency evaluation tool.

• 대한음성학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한음성학회 1996년도 10월 학술대회지
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• pp.37-42
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• 1996

This study aims to see some prosodic features of English spoken by Japanese learners of English. It focuses on speech rates, pauses, and intonation when the learners read an English passage. Three Japanese learners of English, who are all male university students, were asked to read the speech material, an English passage of 110 word length, at their normal reading speed. Then a native speaker of English, a male American English teacher. was asked to read the same passage. The Japanese speakers were also asked to read a Japanese passage of 286 letters (Japanese Kana) to compare the reading of English with that of japanese. Their speech was analyzed on a computerized system (KAY Computerized Speech Lab). Wave forms, spectrograms, and F0 contours were shown on the screen to measure the duration of pauses, phrases and sentences and to observe intonation contours. One finding of the experiment was that the movement of the low speakers' speech rates showed a similar tendency in their reading of the English passage. Reading of the Japanese passage by the three learners also had a similar tendency in the movement of speech rates. Another finding was that the frequency of pauses in the learners speech was greater than that in the speech of the native speaker, but that the ration of the total pause length to the whole utterance length was about tile same in both the learners' and the native speaker's speech. A similar tendency was observed about the learners' reading of the Japanese passage except that they used shorter pauses in the mid-sentence position. As to intonation contours, we found that the learners used a narrower pitch range than the native speaker in their reading of the English passage while they used a wider pitch range as they read the Japanese passage. It was found that the learners tended to use falling intonation before pauses whereas the native speaker used different intonation patterns. These findings are applicable to the teaching of English pronunciation at the passage level in the sense that they can show the learners. Japanese here, what their problems are and how they could be solved.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.19-31
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• 2020

이 연구의 목적은 성인 화자의 휴지 단위와 호흡 단위의 실현 양상을 관찰하여, 이것이 인지적 차이나 사회 언어적 변수 간 차이를 어떻게 반영하고 있는지 고찰하는 것이다. 이러한 차이를 고찰하기 위해 과제, 세대, 성별에 따른 발화 길이와 호흡 단위의 실현을 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 청·장년층 남녀 화자 48명의 문단 낭독 발화와 자유 발화를 분석하였다. 과제와 성별 변수는 휴지 단위와 호흡 단위 실현에 모두 영향을 주었다. 발화 길이는 낭독 발화에서, 여성의 발화에서 더 길었고, 호흡 단위의 길이는 자유 발화와 남성의 발화에서 더 길게 나타났다. 한편 세대 변수는 발화 길이 실현에는 영향을 주지 못했지만, 음절 수와 어절 수 실현에는 영향을 주었다. 발화 과제에 따른 차이는 인지적 부담량을 반영한다. 발화 계획이 빈번하게 이뤄져야 하는 자유 발화는 상대적으로 더 짧은 발화 길이를 보인다. 호흡 단위의 길이가 낭독 발화에서 더 짧았던 이유는 낭독 발화의 문장 길이에 영향을 받은 것이다. 성별에 따른 차이는 남성과 여성의 발화 내 휴지 패턴 차이에서 기인하였다. 호흡 단위의 경우 남성이 여성보다 더 긴 길이를 보였는데, 이는 남성과 여성의 폐활량 차이에서 비롯한 것으로 보인다. 세대는 음절 수와 어절 수 실현에만 영향을 주었는데, 이는 세대 간 발화속도 차이에서 기인한 결과로 해석할 수 있다.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.63-68
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• 2010

A new version of sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) which has been investigated in utterance-length control is proposed to obtain uniform response results in speaker verification (SV). Although SPRTs can obtain fast responses in SV tests, differences in the performance may occur depending on the compositions of consonants and vowels in the sentences used. In this paper, a fast sequential probability ratio test (FSPRT) method that shows consistent performances at all times regardless of the compositions of vocalized sentences for SV will be proposed. In generating frames, the FSPRT will first conduct SV test processes with only generated frames without any overlapping and if the results do not satisfy discrimination criteria, the FSPRT will sequentially use frames applied with overlapping. With the progress of processes as such, the test will not be affected by the compositions of sentences for SV and thus fast response outcomes and even consistent performances can be obtained. Experimental results show that the FSPRT has better performance to the SPRT method while requiring less complexity with equal error rates (EER).

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.216-224
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• 2014

본 논문은 Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) 기반의 화자식별에서 급격한 계산 복잡도 감소를 위한 새로운 방법을 제안한다. 일반적으로 GMM 기반의 화자식별 시스템은 테스트 발성의 길이, 등록 화자의 수, GMM의 크기 등 크게 세 가지 요인에 비례하는 많은 계산 복잡도를 가진다. 이러한 점은 화자식별 시스템이 다양한 응용분야에 적용되는 것을 막는 큰 요인이기에 계산 복잡도와 식별 성능 사이의 trade-off 관계는 실제 적용을 위해 가장 중요한 고려요소이다. 식별 성능을 거의 그대로 유지하면서 최대한 계산 복잡도를 감소시키기 위해 우리는 Universal Background Model (UBM) 클러스터링 접근 방법을 제시하고, 또한 이 방법은 실시간 구조의 화자식별에 적용할 수 있다는 것을 보여준다. 제안한 방법의 실험을 통해 미미한 정도의 식별 성능 저하에서 speed-up factor 6의 결과를 얻을 수 있었다.

• 디지털콘텐츠학회 논문지
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.323-331
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• 2013

Praat프로그램을 활용하면 시각적인 영어교육효과를 얻을 수 있다. 시청각교육이 중시되는 영어교육의 방법론에 비추어볼 때 시각적인 연구의 활용은 교육의 효율성 측면에서 기대되는바가 크다고 할 수 있다. 이러한 점에 착안하여 본 연구에서는 현재 고등학교에 재학 중인 학생들 중 영어성적이 1,2등급에 해당되는 학생과 5,6등급에 해당되는 학생들을 두 그룹으로 나누어 각각의 그룹이 원어민의 발음과 어떤 차이를 보이는지를 알아보고, 그 차이가 어떻게 다른지를 시각적인 면으로 규명해보고자 시도하였다. 이를 위해 원어민이 녹음한 CD가 내장되어있는 영어발음교재를 실험자료로 활용하였다. 구체적으로 영어발음에서 외국인어투를 보일 가능성이 있는 영어저모음과 이중모음이 들어있는 단어와 문장을 대상으로 하였으며, 단어와 문장들은 캠브리지대학교 출판국에서 출간된 English Pronunciation in Use의 교재내용 중의 일부를 활용하였다. 실험을 통해 나타난 결과를 보면 한국인 피 실험자의 두 집단 간에 공히 모음이나 단어단위에선 집단 간, 그리고 원어민의 녹음자료와의 사이에서도 유의미한 차이가 나타나지 않았다. 그러나 다섯 단어 이상으로 구성된 상대적으로 긴 문장단위의 실험에서는 5,6등급 집단의 발음이 유의미하게 크게 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 한국인 피 실험자들의 억양구현실패에서 기인한 것으로 보여지며, 이러한 분석은 Praat프로그램에서 제공한 시각적인 자료에 의해 뒷받침되고 있다.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제60권7호
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• pp.227-231
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to verify the safety of low-dose topiramate on language development in pediatric patients with migraine. Methods: Thirty newly diagnosed pediatric patients with migraine who needed topiramate were enrolled and assessed twice with standard language tests, including the Test of Language Problem Solving Abilities (TOPs), Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology, and computerized speech laboratory analysis. Data were collected before treatment, and topiramate as monotherapy was sustained for at least 3 months. The mean follow-up period was $4.3{\pm}2.7months$. The mean topiramate dosage was 0.9 mg/kg/day. Results: The patient's mean age was $144.1{\pm}42.3months$ (male-to-female ratio, 9:21). The values of all the language parameters of the TOPs were not changed significantly after the topiramate treatment as follows: Determine cause, from $15.0{\pm}4.4$ to $15.4{\pm}4.8$ (P>0.05); making inference, from $17.6{\pm}5.6$ to $17.5{\pm}6.6$ (P>0.05); predicting, from $11.5{\pm}4.5$ to $12.3{\pm}4.0$ (P>0.05); and total TOPs score, from $44.1{\pm}13.4$ to $45.3{\pm}13.6$ (P>0.05). The total mean length of utterance in words during the test decreased from $44.1{\pm}13.4$ to $45.3{\pm}13.6$ (P<0.05). The Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test results decreased from $97.7{\pm}22.1$ to $96.3{\pm}19.9months$, and from $81.8{\pm}23.4$ to $82.3{\pm}25.4months$, respectively (P>0.05). In the articulation and phonology validation in both groups, speech pitch and energy were not significant, and all the vowel test results showed no other significant values. Conclusion: No significant difference was found in the language-speaking ability between the patients; however, the number of vocabularies used decreased. Therefore, topiramate should be used cautiously for children with migraine.