Vocal expression of emotion : Comparison of Japanese and English

在2002年4月1日至2005年3月31日期间，对日语和美式英语语音情感表达的声学、发音和感知特征进行了各种实验，结果已作为期刊或论文发表（见附件参考书目）。主要结果如下：(1)对美国英语和日语自发语音的发音和声学数据（在NTT实验室，Atsugi录制的录音）的检查表明，悲伤和模仿悲伤的话语(a)与阅读话语不同，(b)具有相似的声学特征（高F0，改变F1以及改变音质），(c)但在发音方面不同（例如嘴唇，下巴和舌头）。此外，被听众评价为悲伤的演讲与高F0和声音质量变化有关。(2)分析不同说话风格的句子表达话语的发音和声学特征，发现节奏模式和音高轮廓都不同，重音模式（以音节和边界大小为代表）往往独立于语调而起作用，如怀疑突出的音节（/won/）实际上F0值最低。(3)对日本和美国的日语副语言信息感知研究表明，母语听众能够在三维感知空间中正确识别副语言信息类型，而非母语听众则表现出不同的模式，这取决于他们的语言熟练程度；此外，回归分析显示声学测量与感知空间高度相关。

During the period from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2005, various experiments were done on the topic of the acoustic, articulatory and perceptual characteristics of vocal expression of emotion in Japanese and American English, the results have been published as journal or proceeding publications (see attached bibliography).The main results are the following :(1) Examination of articulatory and acoustic spontaneous speech American English and Japanese speech data (recordings made at NTT Laboratories, Atsugi) indicate that sad and imitated sad utterances (a) are different from read utterances, (b) have similar acoustic characteristics (high F0, changed F1 as well as changed voice quality), (c) but are different in terms of articulation (e.g., lip, jaw and tongue). In addition, speech rated highly by listeners as sad is associated with high F0 and changed voice quality.(2) Analysis of articulatory and acoustic characteristics of expressive utterances of a given sentence in different speaking styles suggested that both rhythmic patterns and voice pitch contours vary, and that the stress pattern (represented by syllable and boundary magnitudes) often works independently from intonation, e.g., for suspicion, the prominent syllable (/won/) actually has the lowest F0 value.(3) Perception studies with Japanese and American listeners of Japanese paralinguistic information indicated that native listeners could identify types of paralinguistic information correctly in 3-dimensional perceptual space, but non-native listeners showed a different pattern, depending on their degree of proficiency in the language ; moreover, regression analysis showed high correlation between the acoustic measures and perceptual space.