A-118: Local and Global Pitch Contours in Intonation.
(Yi Xu, PI)

Research Goals. The goal of this research is to understand the relation between underlying pitch targets and the articulatory constraints in pitch production, and the relation between local and global aspects of intonation. The experiments are designed to investigate in both Chinese and English three factors important for forming surface F0 contours: (a) the nature of underlying local pitch targets, (b) the articulatory constraints under which pitch targets are implemented, and (c) the interaction between global intonation patterns and local pitch targets.. The improved understanding of intonation that this project seeks to achieve may benefit the areas of automatic speech synthesis and recognition, speech and language pathology, and second language teaching.

Current Status. This grant was transferred to Haskins in September when Yi Xu moved here from University of Chicago. The project is funded until July 31, 2004.

[This project is supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH Grant DC-003902).]