Disfluencies in continuous speech in French: Prosodic parameters of filled pauses and vowel lengthening

Wu, Yaru [CRISCO, Université de Caen Normandie] Didirkova, Ivana [Université Paris 8 Vincennes - Saint-Denis] Simon, Anne-Catherine [UCL]

This study examines prosodic parameters in two types of disfluencies, vowel lengthenings, and filled pauses. We analyzed approximately 2.5 hours of continuous speech representing 11 different speech genres, including prepared, semi-prepared, and unprepared speech. Mean fundamental frequency (f0) and pitch resets were analyzed to compare the prosodic correlates of disfluent (e.g., lengthenings, filled pauses) syllables with their surrounding fluent syllables as a function of the degree of speech preparation. The results show that the average fundamental frequency is lower in filled pauses and disfluent vowel lengthenings than in fluent speech. Furthermore, filled pauses are produced with a lower f0 than vowel lengthening. Larger pitch resets are observed between disfluent units and their preceding contexts, and both filled pauses and prolongations depend on the degree of preparation of the discourse. The duration of vowel lengthening tends to be longer than that of filled pauses.