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W E Cooper

Publications and source records attributed to W E Cooper.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

The influence of inter- and intra-speaker tempo on fundamental frequency and palatalization.

A study was conducted to examine the influence of speaking rate and emphatic stress on patterns of fundamental frequency (F0) and palatalization across word boundaries. Two groups of speakers, exhibiting characteristically fast versus slow speech, uttered preselected sentences at normal, fast, and slow rates. Acoustic analysis of F0 showed somewhat higher F0 peaks for characteristically fast speakers and for fast rates of speech. Emphatic stress was accompanied by a typical heightening of F0 on the emphasized word and by a lowering of F0 on a neighboring word. Palatalization across word boundaries was more frequent among characteristically fast speakers and at fast rates of speech. In addition, palatalization was more frequent in the absence of emphatic stress at the key site. The results for F0 were discussed in terms of the influence of vocal fold tension, while the results for palatalization were discussed in terms of the incompatibility of phonological processes of lengthening versus shortening as well as possible look-ahead restrictions.

Female↗
PubMed1983

Declination of fundamental frequency in speakers' production of parenthetical and main clauses.

An experimental study was conducted to investigate fundamental frequency (F0) contours in sentences with and without parenthetical clauses. Sentences consisted of a systematically lengthened parenthetical clause inserted between the subject noun phrase and the verb phrase of the main clause. The middle portion of the parenthetical was lengthened incrementally in each sentence to test the effects of sentence length on fundamental frequency contours of seven test sentences. Computer-aided measurements were made for: F0 peaks of key stressed segments; duration of the main clause, parenthetical clause, and clause-final syllables within each; and pauses immediately preceding and following the parenthetical. Mean results demonstrate: (1) a drop in F0 for the parenthetical clause, well below the main clause declination and forming a separate contour of declination; (2) a sharp rise in F0 on return to the main clause; (3) no effect of longer parenthetical length on final segment durations of either the parenthetical or the main clause; and (4) no effect of increased parenthetical length on main clause duration or pause length. These results suggest that parenthetical clauses are mentally programmed as independent constituents, but are subject to some of the same general declination constraints as main clauses.

Humans↗
PubMed1983

Delayed open reduction of Lisfranc's joint dislocation.

Dislocation fracture of the tarsometatarsal joint is a rare but devastating injury that presents a great challenge to the podiatric surgeon. A case of Lisfranc's dislocation is presented that was further complicated by the 7-month interval between injury and diagnosis. Because of this interval and the resultant degenerative change that ensued in the tarsometatarsal articulation, surgical arthrodesis of these joints was attempted with combined use of bone screws and Kirschner wire internal fixation. Results of surgery were excellent with anatomical realignment of Lisfranc's articulation and the return of all preinjury physical activities 8 months postoperatively.

Aged↗
PubMed1980

Segmenting speech into words.

Four experiments employed a listening for mispronuciations task to determine how listeners perceive an ordered series of words from a continuous, phonetically ambiguous stimulus. In experiments 1,2, and 3, listeners' reaction times to detect mispronuciations were obtained in phonological sequences that could be perceived as either one or two words (e.g., "cargo" or "car go" mispronounced "carko"). In experiment 1, segmentation of the acoustic signal as one or two words was guided by the theme of a short story. For example, the sentence "They saw the carko on the ferry" was spliced into two stories--one about a shipment of cargo, and one about a car about to go on a ferryboat. The results showed significantly faster reaction times--by about 300 ms--when the mispronunciation was perceived as occurring in the second syllable of a word. In experiment 2, alternate segmentation of the same acoustic signal were constrained by the grammatical nature of the first few words in a sentence. Subjects were presented with sentences such as "The doctor said that nosetrops will help the cold" or "the doctor said he knows trops will help the cold." By means of tape splicing, the final portions of the two sentences in each pair were acoustically identical. Reaction times were again found to be faster--by about 150 ms--when the mispronunciation was perceived as occuring in the second or third syllable of a word, rather than at the beginning of a word. Experiment 3 replicated these results using naturally recorded sentences having normal prosody. The results of experiments 1-3 demonstrated that prior context determines how syllables are recognized as words and that a mispronounced second syllable is detected faster than a mispronounced word-initial syllable. It was argued that mispronunciations are detected more quickly in second syllables because the intended word has been accessed from its first syllable. This hypothesis was further supported in experiment 4. When subjects read each sentence before hearing it, so that all syllables were equally (and perfectly) predictable, mispronunications were detected equally fast in first and second syllables.

Humans↗
PubMed1978

Perceptibility of phonetic features in fluent speech.

A series of experiments examined listeners' ability to detect mispronounced words in a short story. Mispronunciations were produced by changing a single consonant segment in a word to produce a (phonologically permissible) nonsense word. The results of six different experiments showed that prestressed work-initial stop consonants are more perceptible than other consonants. For example, mispronunciations produced by changing the voicing of a word-initial stop (e.g., "boy" to "poy") were detected about 70% of the time, while changes in voicing of a word-initial fricative (e.g., "voice" to "foice") were detected about 38% of the time. Mispronunciations produced by changing the place of articulation of a prestressed word-initial stop were most detectable of all (80% to 90% detection) for three different speakers. A change in place of articulation of a word-initial stop (e.g., "baby" to "daby") was detected as often as a change in both place of articulation and voicing (e.g., "baby" to "taby"). Finally, it was found that a mispronunciation was detected about twice as often in word-initial than in word-final position in one syllable words for both stops and nasals. The results suggest that listeners pay special attention to word-initial stop consonants in natural continuous speech.

Humans↗