This book aims to develop a framework for a fully explanatory theory of speech production and speech perception. It emphasises the difference between static models (primarily descriptive) and dynamic models that attempt to show how the basic linguistics and phonetics are related in an actual human speaker/listener.
What roles do the speaker and the listener play in communication processes? Providing an overall system view, this innovative textbook explains how those working in the area think about speech. Emphasising contextual and environmental perspectives, Tatham and Morton lead you through classical and modern phonetics alongside discussion of cognitive and biological aspects of speech. In explaining speech production-for-perception and the relationship between phonology and phonetics, this book shows the possible applications (such as language teaching, clinical practice, and speech technology) and how these are relevant to other disciplines, including sociolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, psychology and speech acoustics.
Inter-individual variation in speech is a topic of increasing interest in the humanities. It can yield important insights into biological, linguistic, cognitive, and social features of language. The big challenge is to find out which speaker- and listener-specific details are crucial. This book introduces such details from various perspectives.
Companion website, featuring additional resources such as sound files, can be found here: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/phonetics/ Providing a comprehensive overview of the four primary areas of phonetics, Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception is an ideal guide to the complete study of speech and sound. An accessible but in-depth introductory textbook on the basic concepts of phonetics Covers all four areas of phonetics: transcription, production, acoustics, and perception Offers uniquely thorough coverage of related relevant areas, including vocal fold vibration and the working of the ear, creating an engagingly flexible work for instructors Includes chapter-by-chapter exercises, enabling students to put their knowledge into practice Written in a clear and concise style by two of the field’s leading scholars
Including contributions from a team of world-renowned international scholars, this volume is a state-of-the-art survey of second language speech research, showcasing new empirical studies alongside critical reviews of existing influential speech learning models. It presents a revised version of Flege's Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) for the first time, an update on a cornerstone of second language research. Chapters are grouped into five thematic areas: theoretical progress, segmental acquisition, acquiring suprasegmental features, accentedness and acoustic features, and cognitive and psychological variables. Every chapter provides new empirical evidence, offering new insights as well as challenges on aspects of the second language speech acquisition process. Comprehensive in its coverage, this book summarises the state of current research in second language phonology, and aims to shape and inspire future research in the field. It is an essential resource for academic researchers and students of second language acquisition, applied linguistics and phonetics and phonology.
The Handbook of Speech Perception is a collection of forward-looking articles that offer a summary of the technical and theoretical accomplishments in this vital area of research on language. Now available in paperback, this uniquely comprehensive companion brings together in one volume the latest research conducted in speech perception Contains original contributions by leading researchers in the field Illustrates technical and theoretical accomplishments and challenges across the field of research and language Adds to a growing understanding of the far-reaching relevance of speech perception in the fields of phonetics, audiology and speech science, cognitive science, experimental psychology, behavioral neuroscience, computer science, and electrical engineering, among others.
Remarkable progress is being made in spoken language processing, but many powerful techniques have remained hidden in conference proceedings and academic papers, inaccessible to most practitioners. In this book, the leaders of the Speech Technology Group at Microsoft Research share these advances -- presenting not just the latest theory, but practical techniques for building commercially viable products.KEY TOPICS: Spoken Language Processing draws upon the latest advances and techniques from multiple fields: acoustics, phonology, phonetics, linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, syntax, psychology, and beyond. The book begins by presenting essential background on speech production and perception, probability and information theory, and pattern recognition. The authors demonstrate how to extract useful information from the speech signal; then present a variety of contemporary speech recognition techniques, including hidden Markov models, acoustic and language modeling, and techniques for improving resistance to environmental noise. Coverage includes decoders, search algorithms, large vocabulary speech recognition techniques, text-to-speech, spoken language dialog management, user interfaces, and interaction with non-speech interface modalities. The authors also present detailed case studies based on Microsoft's advanced prototypes, including the Whisper speech recognizer, Whistler text-to-speech system, and MiPad handheld computer.MARKET: For anyone involved with planning, designing, building, or purchasing spoken language technology.