Pragmatic Functions of Phonetic Reduction

Article: Phonetic Reduction is Associated with Positive Assessment and other Pragmatic Functions, Speech Communication, to appear

Nigel G. Ward, Raul O. Gomez, Carlos A. Ortega, Georgina Bugarini

Abstract: A fundamental goal of speech science is to inventory the meaning-conveying elements of human speech. This article provides evidence for including phonetic reduction in this inventory. Based on analysis of dialog data, we find that phonetic reduction commonly appears with several important pragmatic functions, including the expression of positive assessment, in both American English and Mexican Spanish. For American English, we confirm, in a controlled experiment, that people speaking in a positive tone generally use more reduced forms.

Full Article, pdf

Video Highlights: Reduction as a Secret Side-Channel in Human Speech: When Less Clear is More Positive.
Presented as a 5-Minute Linguist talk at the 2024 Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (abstract).

Supporting Details, Research Record, Resources:

• Technical Report
• Annotated Data: annotations and audio files
• Production Study: Full Data and Judgments, Sample utterances produced with both positive and neutral intent in the pilot study, more samples, notes on perceived reduction in the former, experiment data reformatted to support glmem analysis
• New Code: containing a model for predicting reduction levels across speech samples, and tools for training such models, etc. (python), and npy feature files for model training (redu-en-hubert-npy.zip, 761 MB)
• Old Code: for building predictive models of reduction (matlab and python), for analyzing correlations (matlab)

Audio Illustrations

English: Pragmatic Functions Solidly Associated with Reduction

PO (Positive Assessments)

Yeah, because I got the research position here, and I thought, it was a good, opportunity, because I want to do my Ph.D. (006@2:39)

I’ve seen Bleach, I’ve seen Akame ga Kill /that one’s so good; I love that one. That one’s like, a nice short one ... (043@2:28)

I want to work with the inmate population /*oh wow, that’s interesting (006@1:53)

I was in taekwondo . . . no, but. It was, it was pretty cool. I liked it. (033@0:15)

TC (Topic Closings)

. . . it’s like cloud services, it’s like AWS /oh, okay / that kind of stuff yeah yeah, you know, I don’t know, this is what happens I guess. (013@0:57)

Spanish: Pragmatic Functions Solidly Associated with Reduction

PO (Positive Assessments)

Spanish Audio:

Abrieron una seccion nueva de Star Wars, que *esta bien chida vato. (001@1:02)

English Translation:

They opened a new Star Wars section, which is so *cool dude. (001@1:02)

Spanish Audio:

...*si disfruto ver a bastantes amigos y todas las cosas. (001@4:15)

English Translation:

. . . *yes I enjoy seeing a lot of friends and all that. (001@4:15)

Spanish Audio:

Es que *estan ricos, ella los hace bien ricos. (008@0:17)

English Translation:

It’s just that *they are delicious, she makes them very delicious. (008@0:17)

TG (Turn Grabs)

Spanish Audio:

. . . Esas si estan hechas a mano y luego/ *pues es que no no es como que hechas a mano. . .(008@0:46)

English Translation:

. . . It’s just that those are made by hand and then well/ *It’s cause no not that like it’s handmade. . . (008@0:46)

Spanish Audio:

Pues tienes razon./ Si no / *O que te digo. . . (012@1:24)

English Translation:

Well, you’re right./ Yes / * Oh what do I tell you. . . (012@1:24)

Spanish Audio:

Que no ibas a aplicar a eso lo de / *pues si pero pues no me, como que no tiene. . . (012@3:26)

English Translation:

Weren’t you going to apply to that of/ *well yes but well it doesn’t, like it doesn’t have. . . (012@3:26)

DP (Downplayed Phrases)

Spanish Audio:

Esta vez si no va a venir, *porque, bueno si va a venir pero mi mama no, porque esta trabajando. (008@1:36)

English Translation:

This time he’s not going to come, *because, well he’s going to come but my mom isn’t, because she is working. (008@1:36)

Spanish Audio:

. . . Tiene siete o ocho, *pero como se llama , pero si el Jueves se supone que de hecho. . . (008@1:57)

English Translation:

. . . He’s seven or eight, *but what um , but Thursday is supposed to be in fact . . . (008@1:57)

English: Audio Illustrations of Reduction in Pragmatic Functions Possibly Associated with Reduction

UC (Uncertainty Markers)

maybe I’ll be a TA; *I’m not really sure yet (013@0:36)

yeah *I feel like I still need more time to even figure out ... (013@3:59)

TG (Turn Grabs)

nice.So you’re just going to be spending staying the whole summer there? (013@0:20)

we just barely know how to actually code. Because you’re taking Objects too now right? (013@3:46)

PW (Predictable Words)

what are your plans for after the semester’s *over? (013@0:08)

(listing his Fall classes) I’m taking Computer Security, *I’m taking uh . . Machine Learning... (013@1:18)

PF (Personal Feelings)

Are we going to go eat pasta? / I *don’t really want pasta right now (007@1:05)

I mean, hopefully, I don’t know, but. I don’t know but. Like, *I don’t want to be inspirational, I just want to do something. You know, like *I don’t want to . . . (006@9:54)

DP (Downplayed Phrases)

[I’ll be taking] Deep Learning, and, Advanced Algorithms ( which, that’s supposed to be really hard ). How about you? (013@1:26)

uhm, I'm *I’m going to visit some friends right after finals, but then I’m taking a class. (013@0:28)

I’m taking Computer Security, I’m taking Machine Learning ( no, sorry, uh Deep Learning . . . (013@1:24)

PC (Prosody Carriers)

all the summer classes I’ve taken, I’ve taken the whole summer. That’s fortunate for me, *you know (013@1:10)

and then you’ll do some stuff with *like numpy (013@2:44)

RE (Recapitulations)

Well, I’m planning to go to New York, I’m taking an internship with Amazon / that’s cool! / yes *I’m going there (013@0:17)

Spanish: Audio Illustrations of Reduction in Pragmatic Functions Possibly Associated with Reduction

Negative Assessment

Spanish Audio:

Lo unico malo pues lo que te digo, que este año casi *no voy a poder ir a Chihuahua. (001@5:49)

English Translation:

The only bad thing is what I’m telling you, that this year I'm *not really going to be able to go to Chihuahua. (001@5:49)

Spanish Audio:

[Tomando un examen] Bueno, me dijo, no tengo nada, y no encontre nada en mi mochila y dije aqui ya acabo, *ya me saque un cero (003@0:46)

English Translation:

[Taking an exam] Well, he told me, I don’t have anything, and I didn’t find anything in my backpack and I said, this is done, *I already got zero. (003@0:46)

Spanish Audio:

A mi *no me gusta el huevo con tocino. (012@0:02)

English Translation:

I *don't like egg with bacon. (012@0:02)

Spanish Audio:

*No me gusta es que no sabe igual. (012@0:19)

English Translation:

I don’t like it, it just doesn’t taste the same. (012@0:19)

English: Illustrations of Functions Typically not Reduced

Negative Assessment

like super dan–, well, dangerous , quote-unquote, well, it was dangerous (006@7:47)

I also learned a lot about what inmates, or mentally ill individuals are willing to do to their own bodies (006@4:22)

yeah, I reached my, I peaked back then, just all downhill from (033@0:11)

FI (Fillers, Interjections, and Backchannels)

. . . other classes. . *And, like, all my friends . . . (013@1:52)

. . . it’s like cloud services, it’s like AWS / I peaked back then, just *oh, okay / that kind of stuff (013@0:55)

English: Illustrations of how Perceptions of Reduction can Differ

Emphasis, as in

. . . she was . . . ripping the skin, 3/1 like back (006@6:29),

Creaky Voice, as in

Okay, who do you think would, would Goku win, or would One Punch Man 0/2 win?(043@0:12)

Keywords: pragmatic functions, phonetic reduction, hypoarticulation, prosody, corpus study, annotated data, English, Spanish, correlations, predictive model

Nigel Ward's website