There is still much to learn about speakers’ similarities and differences in the field of Forensic Phonetics, especially with respect to consonant acoustics. The present master’s thesis presents...Show moreThere is still much to learn about speakers’ similarities and differences in the field of Forensic Phonetics, especially with respect to consonant acoustics. The present master’s thesis presents analyses of acoustic features of three sibilants /s, z, ʃ/ in British English. It focuses on analysing the static and dynamic features of those segments to see if they can cue speaker-specific information. The analyses have been carried out on twenty male speakers from the DyViS corpus. This research focuses on both static features (intensity, centre of gravity, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis) and dynamic features (centre of gravity depending of F2 vowel onset and offset) from speaker-specific perspective. The results obtained demonstrate the high speaker-specificity of centre of gravity, standard deviation and intensity. However, we have to be careful with the last one, because it is dependent on the recording circumstances. As for skewness and kurtosis, they show speaker-specificity for /z/, but results are weaker for /s/ and /ʃ/. This master’s thesis has shown that spectral and acoustic properties of the three sibilants analysed /s, z, ʃ/ in English present promising results regarding speaker-specificity.Show less
In dit werk wordt een perceptie-experiment beschreven dat is uitgevoerd om meer te weten te komen over hoe sprekerspecifieke informatie wordt waargenomen bij het discrimineren van sprekers. Er is...Show moreIn dit werk wordt een perceptie-experiment beschreven dat is uitgevoerd om meer te weten te komen over hoe sprekerspecifieke informatie wordt waargenomen bij het discrimineren van sprekers. Er is onderzoek gedaan naar wat de invloed is van verschillende klinkers en het al dan niet leggen van focus op een woord op de perceptie van deze informatie. Participanten werd gevraagd om telkens te luisteren naar opeenvolgende geluidsfragmenten van stemmen en daarna te beslissen of deze geluidsfragmenten twee verschillende of twee dezelfde stemmen bevatten. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat de klinker /a/ meer sprekerspecifieke informatie bevat voor de luisteraar dan de /u/. Hoe de factor focus zich gedraagt, verschilt per antwoord dat participanten hadden moeten geven; bij de correcte keuzes voor zelfde-spreker is het effect dat focus heeft op de perceptie van sprekerspecifieke informatie duidelijker zichtbaar dan bij de correcte keuzes voor verschillende-spreker.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Previous studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech....Show morePrevious studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech. However, little is known about how accent and speech rate interact. In order to investigate this phenomenon further, this thesis examines how Dutch listeners judge utterances on a seven-point scale when presented with auditory stimuli in two accents of Dutch (Standard Dutch and Moroccan Dutch) and two speech rates (normal and slow). Contrary to previous studies indicating that non-standard language is perceived as less credible, the results of this study revealed that listeners generally perceive both accents as equally credible at a normal speed. Slower speech was judged as less credible in both varieties, but Standard Dutch was given lower ratings overall. The results suggest that what has previously been established for slow speech in languages such as English also holds true for Dutch, and may have adverse consequences for individuals in contact with the law.Show less
