The speaker-specificity of filled pauses: A cross-linguistic study

Boer, M.M. de; Heeren, W.F.L. (2019)

Article in monograph or in proceedings

We investigated the speaker-specificity of filled pauses across languages and time. The filled pauses uh and um contain speaker-specific information in a speaker’s native language. Since speakers are relatively unaware of their hesitation behavior, it might transfer from their first (L1) to their second language (L2). We examined filled pauses using several phonetic-acoustic features in spontaneous  L1 Dutch and L2 English speech of 20 female speakers, recorded at two times, three years apart.

Using linear mixed-effects models, we found that speakers differ in their first and second formants of uh and um in L1 versus L2, while duration and fundamental frequency remain stable. Speaker classification models trained on filled pauses in one language perform worse – but still relatively well – on the other language. With the exception of a few speakers, hesitation behavior remained stable over time. In spite of L1-L2 differences, some speaker characteristics of filled pauses remain.

• forensic phonetics
• hesitation markers
• speaker-specificity
• second language acquisition

• All authors: Boer, M.M. de; Heeren, W.F.L.
• Editor(s): Calhoun, S.; Escudero, P.; Tabain, M.; Warren, P.
• Date: 2019
• Pages: 607 - 611
• ISBN (print): 978-0-646-80069-1
• Link: http://intro2psycholing.net/ICPhS/
• Conference: 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
• Date: 2019-08-05 - 2019-08-09
• Location: Melbourne, Australia
• Sponsorship: NWO
• Grant number: 276-75-010