Predictors of Pause Duration in Read-Aloud Discourse

Xiaohong YANG; Mingxing XU; Yufang YANG

doi:10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461

Predictors of Pause Duration in Read-Aloud Discourse

Xiaohong YANG, Mingxing XU, Yufang YANG

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The research reported in this paper is an attempt to elucidate the predictors of pause duration in read-aloud discourse. Through simple linear regression analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression, we examined how different factors (namely, syntactic structure, discourse hierarchy, topic structure, preboundary length, and postboundary length) influenced pause duration both separately and jointly. Results from simple regression analysis showed that discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, topic structure, and postboundary length had significant impacts on boundary pause duration. However, when these factors were tested in a stepwise regression analysis, only discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, and postboundary length were found to have significant impacts on boundary pause duration. The regression model that best predicted boundary pause duration in discourse context was the one that first included syntactic structure, and then included discourse hierarchy and postboundary length. This model could account for about 80% of the variance of pause duration. Tests of mediation models showed that the effects of topic structure and discourse hierarchy were significantly mediated by syntactic structure, which was most closely correlated with pause duration. These results support an integrated model combining the influence of several factors and can be applied to text-to-speech systems.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E97-D No.6 pp.1461-1467

Publication Date: 2014/06/01

Publicized

Online ISSN: 1745-1361

DOI: 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461

Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Advances in Modeling for Real-world Speech Information Processing and its Application)

Category: Speech Synthesis and Related Topics

Authors

Xiaohong YANG
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mingxing XU
  Tsinghua University
Yufang YANG
  Chinese Academy of Sciences

Keyword

pause duration, syntactic structure, discourse hierarchy, topic structure, phrase length

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Xiaohong YANG, Mingxing XU, Yufang YANG, "Predictors of Pause Duration in Read-Aloud Discourse" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information, vol. E97-D, no. 6, pp. 1461-1467, June 2014, doi: 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461.
Abstract: The research reported in this paper is an attempt to elucidate the predictors of pause duration in read-aloud discourse. Through simple linear regression analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression, we examined how different factors (namely, syntactic structure, discourse hierarchy, topic structure, preboundary length, and postboundary length) influenced pause duration both separately and jointly. Results from simple regression analysis showed that discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, topic structure, and postboundary length had significant impacts on boundary pause duration. However, when these factors were tested in a stepwise regression analysis, only discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, and postboundary length were found to have significant impacts on boundary pause duration. The regression model that best predicted boundary pause duration in discourse context was the one that first included syntactic structure, and then included discourse hierarchy and postboundary length. This model could account for about 80% of the variance of pause duration. Tests of mediation models showed that the effects of topic structure and discourse hierarchy were significantly mediated by syntactic structure, which was most closely correlated with pause duration. These results support an integrated model combining the influence of several factors and can be applied to text-to-speech systems.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461/_p

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@ARTICLE{e97-d_6_1461,
author={Xiaohong YANG, Mingxing XU, Yufang YANG, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Predictors of Pause Duration in Read-Aloud Discourse},
year={2014},
volume={E97-D},
number={6},
pages={1461-1467},
abstract={The research reported in this paper is an attempt to elucidate the predictors of pause duration in read-aloud discourse. Through simple linear regression analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression, we examined how different factors (namely, syntactic structure, discourse hierarchy, topic structure, preboundary length, and postboundary length) influenced pause duration both separately and jointly. Results from simple regression analysis showed that discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, topic structure, and postboundary length had significant impacts on boundary pause duration. However, when these factors were tested in a stepwise regression analysis, only discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, and postboundary length were found to have significant impacts on boundary pause duration. The regression model that best predicted boundary pause duration in discourse context was the one that first included syntactic structure, and then included discourse hierarchy and postboundary length. This model could account for about 80% of the variance of pause duration. Tests of mediation models showed that the effects of topic structure and discourse hierarchy were significantly mediated by syntactic structure, which was most closely correlated with pause duration. These results support an integrated model combining the influence of several factors and can be applied to text-to-speech systems.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={June},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - Predictors of Pause Duration in Read-Aloud Discourse
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 1461
EP - 1467
AU - Xiaohong YANG
AU - Mingxing XU
AU - Yufang YANG
PY - 2014
DO - 10.1587/transinf.E97.D.1461
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E97-D
IS - 6
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - June 2014
AB - The research reported in this paper is an attempt to elucidate the predictors of pause duration in read-aloud discourse. Through simple linear regression analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression, we examined how different factors (namely, syntactic structure, discourse hierarchy, topic structure, preboundary length, and postboundary length) influenced pause duration both separately and jointly. Results from simple regression analysis showed that discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, topic structure, and postboundary length had significant impacts on boundary pause duration. However, when these factors were tested in a stepwise regression analysis, only discourse hierarchy, syntactic structure, and postboundary length were found to have significant impacts on boundary pause duration. The regression model that best predicted boundary pause duration in discourse context was the one that first included syntactic structure, and then included discourse hierarchy and postboundary length. This model could account for about 80% of the variance of pause duration. Tests of mediation models showed that the effects of topic structure and discourse hierarchy were significantly mediated by syntactic structure, which was most closely correlated with pause duration. These results support an integrated model combining the influence of several factors and can be applied to text-to-speech systems.
ER -