Invariance of relative F{sub}0 change field of Chinese disyllabic words

摘要

In automatic voice response Systems where a large number of Chinese words are inserted into fixed sentences, the effects of intonation and tone to the fundamental frequency (F{sub}0) contours of the inserted words are required to be separate apart. We so define a word-level F0 range (WF{sub}0 R) and normalize F{sub}0 change fields (F{sub}0 CFs) of words in relation to it. If the normalized F{sub}0 CFs (relative F{sub}0 CFs) are stable, it is appropriate to describe the effect of tone in terms of F{sub}0 CFs and that of intonation by WF{sub}0R. From an analysis of four native speakers' utterances of 160 disyllable words in the initial, middle and final parts of three carrier sentences, conducted over 2 days, we show that: (1) Chinese speakers read words in the same sentence position with stable relative F{sub}0 change; (2) the relative F{sub}0 CFs in the middle position of a sentence are generally the same as those in the initial position, but slightly different from those in the final position; and (3) the relative F{sub}0 CFs reveal that the effects of tone on F{sub}0 contour show an individual independent trend.