Speech-inherent functional onomatopoeia as a basis for emotional analysis of phones
Abstract
Speech sounds (phones) originate in the context of a biological process where the articulators shape the vocal tract into a cascade of cavities and constrictions. This shaping requires muscle activity and these go along with feelings − which the speakers perceive as sitting inside their speech organs (phonetic feelings). The actual feelings depend on the specific form elements that are shaped. Formation of large open cavities associates with a feeling of emptiness, narrow, partly closed cavities are accompanied by the feeling of being pressed, constrictions feel stressed, short thick partitions depressed, long stretched-out partitions filled, satisfied. Each speech sounds designates (symbolically) a specific feeling that is potentially present in the talkers’ perception while producing it. In other words, phones represent onomatopoeic acoustic descriptions of the talkers’ phonetic feelings. It is considered whether this effect may be exploited, for instance, for word recognition, speaker-emotion recognition, sound design, speech synthesis and sound-quality assessment.
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