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We test a subset of intonational contrasts proposed in the Autosegmental-Metrical model for American English for evidence of contrast enhancement in phonologically and phonetically longer vs. shorter intervals. F0 trajectories were assessed from 32 speakers’ imitated productions of six tonally distinct tunes, e.g., HHH, HHL. Maximally three tune shapes emerge from clustering analyses of imitated f0 trajectories, each cluster comprising imitations of two phonetically similar but phonologically distinct tunes. We find enhancement of tune contrasts between the emergent clusters in measures of f0 differences (RMSD, end f0, center of gravity). There is no evidence of enhancement for phonetically similar tunes grouped within the same cluster, though fine-grained phonetic distinctions are detected for these “lost” tune contrasts, suggesting a reanalysis as within-category variation. 

While motion capture is rapidly becoming the gold standard for research on the intricacies of co-speech gesture and its relationship to speech, traditional marker-based motion capture technology is not always feasible, meaning researchers must code video data manually. We compare two methods for coding co-speech gestures of the hands and arms in video data of spontaneous speech: manual coding and semi-automated coding using OpenPose, a markerless motion capture software. We provide a comparison of the temporal alignment of gesture apexes based on video recordings of interviews with speakers of Medumba (Grassfields Bantu). Our results show a close correlation between the computationally calculated apexes and our hand-annotated apexes, suggesting that both methods are equally valid for coding video data. The use of markerless motion capture technology for gesture coding will enable more rapid coding of manual gestures, while still allowing 

The timing of both manual co-speech gestures and head gestures is sensitive to prosodic structure of speech. However, head gesters are used not only by speakers, but also by listeners as a backchanneling device. Little research exists on the timing of gestures in back-channeling. To address this gap, we compare timing of listener and speaker head gestures in an interview context. Results reveal the dual role that head gestures play in speech and conversational interaction: while they are coordinated in key ways to one’s own speech, they are also coordinated to the gestures (and hence, the speech) of a conversation partner when one is actively listening to them. We also show that head gesture timing is sensitive to social dynamics between interlocutors. This study provides a novel contribution to literature on head gesture timing and has implications for studies of discourse and accommodation. 

Recent work on rising declaratives proposes a distinction between steep inquisitive rising declaratives and shallow assertive rising declaratives. Yet, it is unclear whether this contrast arises from a phonological distinction of the pitch accent used or a phonetic distinction in the scaling of the boundary tone target. In two perception experiments, we evaluate the contributions of pitch accent and boundary tone in the interpretation of assertive force. In Exp. 1, we find a counterintuitive result for the weighting of pitch accent, which is better understood from the perspective of the Tonal Center of Gravity. This perspective provides a path forward for Exp. 2, which shows no evidence of a contribution from the pitch accent in the interpretation of assertive force. Results speak against a phonological contrast in subtypes of rising declaratives and suggest a need for more narrow investigation in the phonetic domain. 

Fluid conversation depends on conversation partners’ ability to make predictions about one another’s speech in order to forecast turn ends and prepare upcoming turns. One model used to explain this process of temporal prediction is the coupled oscillator model of turn-taking. A generalization that the model captures is the relative scarcity of interruption in turn-taking, as it predicts partners’ turns should be counter-phased to one another, with minimal pause time between turns. However, in naturalistic conversation, turns are often delayed, rather than occurring in perfect succession. We hypothesize that these delays are not of arbitrary duration, but are structured in their timing, just as between turns with immediate transitions. We demonstrate that relative timing of prosodic events occurring at turn ends is key to modelling pause duration between turns, providing evidence that interturn pauses exist in a temporal trading relation with the final syllable and prosodic word of immediately preceding turn.