Showing papers on "Naturalness published in 1978"

Technique for the perceptual investigation of F0 contours with application to French.

Abstract: Two experimental techniques were used in this study: (1) an analysis of F0 contours of French sentences containing words likely to express the speaker’s attitude (modals, negative, adverbs, quantifiers) and (2) listener’s judgements of the naturalness of synthetic sentences in which the F0 contour was systematically manipulated. The F0 contours were characterized by schematic patterns [J. Vaissiere Res.Lab.Electron., Q.Prog.Report No. 115, MIT, 251–262 (1975)]. For all the sentences that were studied, the configurations of patterns frequently observed in the analyzed corpus were judged most natural when synthethized. This result suggest that the features of the F0 contours most relevant to naturalness are preserved in the pattern representation. Three types of patterns were distinguished: (1) a prominent, demarcative pattern (P2); (2) a prominent, nondemarcative pattern (PE); (3) nonprominent, nondemarcative patterns. A P2 pattern often occurred at the end of a syntactic constituent. Listeners’ judgements showed that a P2 at the end of a syntactic constituent is rarely required for naturalness, but a P2 in contradiction to syntax causes unnaturalness. Prominent patterns (P2 or PE) often occurred on negatives, adverbs, and quantifiers. However, the presence or absence of a prominent pattern on these words does not affect naturalness.

"Naturalness" of atomic parity conservation within left-right—symmetric unified theories

Abstract: The question of ''naturalness'' of atomic parity conservation for left-right--symmetric unified theories is examined. It is shown that the previously proposed patterns of spontaneous symmetry breaking do not offer a ''natural'' solution for such parity conservation. It may, however, be possible to secure this naturally if left-right--symmetry breaking in the neutral sector has a dynamically radiative origin.