Kinematic Signatures of Prosody in Lombard Speech

Human spoken interactions are embodied and situated. Better understanding of the restrictions and affordances this embodiment and situational awareness has on human speech informs the quest for more natural models of human-machine spoken interactions. Here we examine the articulatory realization of communicative meanings expressed through f0 falling and rising prosodic boundaries in quiet and noisy conditions. Our data show that 1) the effect of environmental noise is more robustly present in the post-boundary than the pre-boundary movements, 2) f0 falls and rises are only weakly differentiated in supra-laryngeal articulation and differ minimally in their response to noise, 3) individual speakers find different solutions for achieving the communicative goals, and 4) lip movements are affected by noise and boundary type more than the tongue movements.