Transcription of German Intonation

The Stuttgart System (WWW version, May 15, 1995)

Jörg Mayer, University of Stuttgart, Germany
joemayer@ims.uni-stuttgart.de

Many thanks to Ralf Benzmüller, Martine Grice (Saarbruecken) and Matthias Reyelt (Braunschweig) for discussions and data exchange!

Content

1 Introduction

The Stuttgart System is an attempt to integrate the phonological analysis of German intonation done by C. Fery [1] and the ToBI labelling conventions [2], [3]. The system was developed as a tool within our overall aim which is to create a prosodic module for Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) [4]. DRT is a model-theoretic approach to discourse semantics which describes the interpretation of discourses as a dynamic two-level process. Hence, since our inventory of symbols is primary motivated by phonological analysis and since the domain of processing these symbols is DRT, the criterion for describing fundamental frequency contours which is emphasized in our system is that only those intonational events should be labeled which are distinctive in the sense that one can assign them a function in the domain of discourse interpretation. A further consequence is, that the system reflects phonological pitch-accent linking rules which introduce a set of 'allotonic' accents. Beyond that a small set of default symbols enriches the standard ToBI notation. These default labels are filled in with phonetic content according to autosegmental spreading and alignment conventions.

2 Tone tier

2.1 Pitch Accents

2.1.1 Inventory

2.1.2 Standard accents

There are two basic pitch accents H*L and L*H.

H*L
a high target on the accented/tonic syllable followed by a falling pitch. If the accented syllable is the last syllable of an intonation unit (intonation phrase/intermediate phrase) the high target and the fall are realized on one syllable, namely the accented syllable. If there are syllables following the accented one within the same intonation unit, the high target is reached on the accented syllable followed by the first part of the fall which is continued on the next syllable. After H*L the F0 contour runs in the lower third of the speaker`s range parallel to the baseline until just before the next accented syllable or a phrase boundary.


Fig. 1 Example for H*L; utterance den hast du nicht; the vertical line indicates the onset of the accented syllable nicht which is the last syllable of the phrase.

L*H
a low target on the accented syllable followed by a rising pitch. If the accented syllable is the last syllable of an intonation unit (intonation phrase/intermediate phrase) the low target and the rise are realized on one syllable, namely the accented syllable. If there are syllables following the accented one within the same intonation unit, the low target is reached on the accented syllable followed by the first part of the rise which is continued on the next syllable. After L*H the F0 contour runs in the upper third of the speaker`s range (mostly parallel to the baseline) until just before the next accented syllable or a phrase boundary.


Fig. 2 Example for L*H followed by H*L; utterance die Pension Berlin ist doch links; vertical lines indicate word boundaries


Fig. 3 Example for L*H; utterance Wohnwagen; the vertical line indicates the boundary between Wohn (the accented syllable) and wagen.

Besides the two basic accents there are three additional 'special` pitch accents (cf. [1], ch. 3).

L*HL
(rise-fall/"late peak") a low target on the accented syllable followed by a rise and a fall to a low level. If the accented syllable is followed by at least two additional syllables within the same intonational unit the low target (the stared tone) is realized on the accented syllable. The rise is expected to start on the accented syllable and to be continued on the next syllable. The fall starts on the first syllable after the accented one and ends somewhere in the second syllable. If the accented syllable is followed by only one syllable within the same intonation unit the low target should be on the accented syllable, followed by a rise, which is realized patially on the accented syllable and partially on the postaccentual syllable and a fall on the postaccentual syllable. In the third possible case - the accented syllable is the last syllable in its intonation unit - both the rise and the fall are realized on one syllable starting at a low target at the beginning of the accented syllable.


Fig. 4 Example for L*HL; utterance wieso links; vertical line indicates word boundary.

HH*L
("early peak") a high target on the preaccentual syllable followed by a fall on the accented syllable. This accent type must be realized on at least two syllables: an accented syllable and a preaccentual syllable, which must be weak (i.e. not stressable). If there is no syllable following the accented one the fall is realized on the accented syllable. If there is a postaccentual syllable the fall is devided into two parts, one part on the accented syllable and the other part on the postaccentual syllable. In any case a high target on the preaccentual syllable must precede the fall. There can be a downstepped target on the accented syllable but in most cases it is a plain fall starting at the height of the preaccentual pitch (or even lower but in the upper third of the speakers range).


Fig. 5 Example for HH*L; utterance hab ich mir schon gedacht; the first vertical line indicates the beginning of ge, the second line the beginning of dacht; a high target is reached on the syllable ge (prefix), the fall is realized on dacht.

The last accent type which is covered by our labelling system is very restricted. It is designated for describing the so called stylized contours which are often used in vocatives (cf. [1], ch. 3.2.1).

H*M
('M' encodes a tone in the middle of the speakers range) a high target on the accented syllable followed by a high level tone followed by a fall to the middle of the speakers range on the last syllable of the intonation unit. Words bearing this accent type are normally final in their intonation unit. H*M is the only accent type with a stared tone that can undergo spreading [1]. This means that if there are postaccentual syllables these syllables are associated with the H instead of the trail tone M and only the last postaccentual syllable in the intonation unit is associated with M. This results in the high level tone realized on the syllables between the accented syllable and the last syllable. If there is only one sylllable to bear H*M the nucleus of this syllable is often duplicated, so that a high target can be realized on its first part and on its second part a mid target is realized.

Another (non-tonal) feature that may serve as an identifier of stylized contours is the considerable lengthening of the accented syllable and all postaccentual syllables until the boundary of the intonation phrase is reached.


Fig. 6 Example for H*M; utterance Angelika!; vertical lines indicate syllable boundaries; note the high level tone beginning on the accented syllable ge and continued on the postaccentual syllable li; the trail tone M is realized on the last syllable of the intonation phrase ka.


Fig. 7 Example for H*M; utterance Joerg!; the vertical line indicates the boundary between the first half and the second half of the nuclear vowel.

2.1.3 Linking

Linking rules (cf. [1]) permit that prenuclear pitch accents can split off their trail tone which is then either associated with the syllable before the next accented syllable (i.e. partial linking) or even completely omitted (i.e. complete linking). The application of these rules is dependend on speaking style, speaking rate, etc., and is claimed to be invariant to discourse interpretation. That is the linked/omitted trail tone will not change the meaning of the intonational contour. The linking processes are thus allotonic. The reason for introducing symbols that reflect these rules is to enable the labeler to annotate the application of such a rule so that there is not too much discrepancy between the labels and the actual contour.

H*
a high target on the accented syllable that is not followed by an immediate fall. The course of the F0 contour after the high target depends on the type of linking. In case of partial linking the contour should roughly be interpolated between the stared tone (the high target) and the partial linked trail tone L, which is associated with the syllable just before the next accented syllable. This results in a smooth fall starting on the accented or the postaccentual syllable and ending on the next preaccentual syllable. In case of complete linking the F0 course depends on the next accent. The contour should look roughly like an interpolation between the stared tone of the linked accent (H) and the stared tone of the next accent (H or L). So if H* is followed by for example H*L F0 between the accented sylables runs in the upper third of the speakers range, if H* is followed by L*H the contour falls between the two accented syllables.


Fig. 8 Example for H* ... H*L (underlying H*L ... H*L); utterance ...desto unruhiger wurden die Leute; the contour between the two accented syllables is high but slightly falling due to declination. (There are some instances of strong laryngalization: on desto the F0 algorithm fails, on the second syllable of Leute no pitch is detected at all.)


Fig. 9 Example for H* ... L*H (underlying H*L ... L*H); utterance ...aber zuckte resigniert mit den... .

..L
partial linking: the low trail tone of an underlying H*L accent; to be assigned to the next preaccentual syllable following the linked accent.


Fig. 10 Example for H* ..LH*L (underlying H*L ... H*L); utterance den hattest du das letzte mal auch nicht; note the laryngalization at the beginning of auch.


Fig. 11 Example of H* ..LH*L; utterance am Samstag den zehnten... .

L*
a low target on the accented syllable that is not followed by an immediate rise. The course of the F0 contour after the low target depends on the type of linking. In case of partial linking the contour should roughly be interpolated between the stared tone (the low target) and the partial linked trail tone H, which is associated with the syllable just before the next accented syllable. This results in a smooth rise starting on the accented or the postaccentual syllable and ending on the next preaccentual syllable. In case of complete linking the F0 course depends on the next accent. The contour should look roughly like an interpolation between the stared tone of the linked accent (L) and the stared tone of the next accent (H or L). So if L* is followed by for example L*H F0 between the accented sylables runs in the lower third of the speakers range, if L* is followed by H*L the contour rises between the two accented syllables.

..H
partial linking: the high trail tone of an underlying L*H accent; to be assigned to the next preaccentual syllable following the linked accent.

2.1.4 Downstep

For downsteped falling accents the system provides the symbol !H*L. (Downstep should be labeled though at present it is not sure whether it differs in meaning from H*L.)

!H*L
see H*L; the !H*L accent must be preceded by at least one pitch accent with a stared H tone (H*L, HH*L, H*). The high target of !H*L is still high compared with the surrounding lows but it is lower compared with a preceding high target.


Fig. 12 Example of !H*L; utterance als Lebensmittel nicht genuegend vorhanden waren; three falls in sequence, one not downsteped (on nicht) and one downsteped (on vorhanden).

2.1.5 Uncertainty

The system provides two symbols for different levels of uncertainty.

?
is a diacritic that may be applied to each accent type described above (it may also be applied to boundary tones; see below). ? should be added to a standard symbol if the presence of an accent (boundary) is clear but the accent (boundary) type is questionable.

*?
is used in cases, when the transcriber is uncertain even if there is a pitch accent at all.

2.1.6 Alignment

All pitch accents and the *? symbol are labeled approximately in the middle of the nucleus of the accented syllable (HH*L is also labeled in the nucleus of the accented syllable). Linked trail tones are labeled in the middle of the nucleus of the preaccentual syllable.

2.2 Boundary tones

Prosodic phrasing of utterances is described on two levels, intermediate phrases (ip) and intonation phrases (IP). These levels are ordered hierarchically: an intonation phrase contains at least one intermediate phrase, an ip contains at least one pitch accent.

2.2.1 Intermediate phrase boundary

There is only one default label to transcribe the presence of an intermediate phrase boundary.

-
(hyphen) indicates an intermediate phrase boundary (combined with ToBI break indices 2 or 3 / VM break index B2); ip boundaries at the end of an IP are not indicated, in this case only the IP boundary tone is labeled, the ip boundary is subsumed.

2.2.2 Intonation phrase boundary

For transcribing boundary tones at the end of intonation phrases three labels are provided.

H%
high boundary tone. To transcribe a clear rise on the last syllable of an intonation phrase. If the last syllable of an IP is accented both the pitch accent and the boundary tone are realized on the same syllable: if the last syllable is assigned H*L and the IP is assigned H% there should be a fall followed by a rise at the end of the IP. If the last syllable is assigned L*H and the IP is assigned H% there is just a rise at the end of the IP. If the nuclear accent (i.e. the last accent) is not phrase final two possibilities appear: if the trail tone of the nuclear accent is L the contour runs in the lower third of the speakers range and rises on the last syllable. If the trail tone is H the contour runs in the upper third and there should be an additional rise on the last syllable.


Fig. 13 Example for H*L H%; utterance ...auf einem Schild schon lesen koennen; rise on the last syllable which is not an accent.


Fig. 14 Example for L*HL H%; utterance ...dass diese Draengelei fuer ihn vielleicht ein Vergnuegen sei.


Fig. 15 Example for L*H H%; utterance ...ist schraeg nach rechts oben. Note the additional rise on the last (unaccented) syllable.

L%
low boundary tone. To transcribe a fall on the last syllable of an intonation phrase. If the last syllable of an IP is accented both the pitch accent and the boundary tone are realized on the same syllable. But since the German intonation system allows only falling nuclear accents previous to a low boundary tone this makes not much difference. If the nuclear accent (only falling accents in front of L%) is not phrase final F0 is low until the end of the phrase with an additional fall on the last syllable.


Fig. 16 Example for H*L L%; utterance ...und der Mann konnte jetzt von allen Seiten Schimpfwoerter hoeren. (jitter at the end is due to laryngalization and breathyness.)

%
default boundary tone for transcription of IP boundaries without or with only slight tonal movement. Interpretation by spreading of the nuclear accent's trail tone. IP ends with a high or low plateau, dependend on the previous trail tone, without considerable tonal movement on the last syllable.


Fig. 17 Example for L*H %; utterance wer spaeter kam, musste sich... .

2.2.3 Initial IP boundary

By default, pitch at the beginning of intonation phrases is expected to start in a low or middle part of the speakers range which is considered as being not a (initial) boundary tone and therefor is not trancribed. Only if pitch starts decidedly high and only when there is no other plausible explanation for an initial high pitch (e.g. a H accent on the first few syllables) the following label is used:

%H
phrase initial high pitch

For cases of disfluency there is an additional symbol (which should be used 'conservatively', i.e. not too frequently).

%r
for restarted new intonation contours when the last contour was interrupted without being finished due to some disfluency.

2.2.4 Alignment

The phrase final boundary tones are labeled at the very end of the phrase (ip or IP), i.e. at the end of the last syllable of the phrase. (So phrase final the boundary tone label, the transliteration label, and the break index label should have the same alignment point.) The initial boundary tone %H and the %r symbol are labeled at the beginning of the phrase, in front of the first syllable of the IP.

3 Break indices

On the 'nature' of the break index tier:

"Break idices represent a rating for the degree of juncture perceived between each pair of words and between the final word and the silence at the end of the utterance. They are to be marked after all words that have been transcribed in the orthographic tier. All junctures - including those after fragments and filled pauses - must be assigned an explicit break index value; there is no default juncture type." ([2]: 31)

Two equal valued models can be used to transcribe pauses in the Stuttgart system: ToBI standard [2] and the Verbmobil conventions [5].

3.1 ToBI conventions (cf. [2]: 31-38)

The five basic break indices are the following:

0
for word boundaries in clitic groups

1
for 'normal' phrase-medial word boundaries

2
for mismatch between tonal marks and disjuncture marks:

" a strong disjuncture marked by a pause or virtual pause, but with no tonal marks; i.e. a well-formed tune continues across the juncture
OR
a disjuncture that is weaker than expected at what is tonally a clear intermediate of full intonation phrase boundary" ([2]: 35).

3
indicates typical boundary strenght at intermediate phrase boundaries

4
indicates typical boundary strenght at intonation phrase boundaries

The indices 1, 2, and 3 may also be combined with the diacritic p:

1p
"an abrupt cutoff before an actual repair, or as if stopping to permit a repair or restart of some kind" ([2]: 36)

2p
"a hesitation pause or prolongation of segmental material where there is no phrase accent [ = ip boundary tone; JM] perceived in the intonation contour" ([2]: 36)

3p
"a hesitation pause or a pause-like prolongation where there is a phrase accent in the tone tier" ([2]: 36)

3.2 Verbmobil conventions (cf. [5]: 3-5)

(B0
option for word boundaries in clitic groups; not used by now)

B1
for 'normal' phrase-medial word boundaries

B2
indicates typical boundary strenght at intermediate phrase boundaries

B3
indicates typical boundary strenght at intonation phrase boundaries

B9
for hesitations, prolongations, cutoffs; comparable with the p diacritic in ToBI.

3.3 Alignment

Break indices are labeled at the end of the word before the break, i.e. they are aligned with the orthographic labels and - if there are any - with the tonal boundary labels.

4 Orthographic transcription

In the orthographic tier the words of the utterance are simply transcribed orthographically. The labels should be positioned exactly at the end of the actually trancribed word. For different reasons we have added the following symbols:

<P>
for pauses; to be labeled at the end of the pause.

<slip/disfl>
for slips of the tongue and other disfluencies

5 Miscellaneous

According to the ToBI standard [2] the miscellaneous tier is designated for transcribing different types of disfluencies. In addition, the Stuttgart System provides some labels to mark phonation type/voice quality.

5.1 Inventory

silence
(sil) for silent pauses

breath
for audible breathing

laugh
for laughing

cough
for coughing

disfluent
(disfl) other disfluencies

laryngalization
(laryng) for instances of laryngalization

creaky_voice
(crk_voc) for creaky voiced sections

breathy_voice
(brth_voc) for breathy voiced sections

harsh_voice
(harsh_voc) for harsh voiced sections

whispery_voice
(whisp_voc) for whispered sections

5.2 Alignment

Unlike events in the tone tier, the break index tier, or the orthographic tier all events in the miscellaneous tier must be marked for both their ends and their beginnings because there is no strict succession of miscellaneous events (normally only few intervalls of the actually labeled signal will be marked in the miscellaneous tier whereas in the other tiers the whole signal is successively transcribed). Two diacritics (both suffixes) serve to indicate beginning or end of the transcribed event:

<
beginning

>
end

For example
silence< ... silence>

(The miscellaneous labels should be used rather as rough pointers to the transcribed event than as precise demarcations.)

6 References

[1] Caroline Fery (1993), German intonational pattern. Tuebingen: Niemeyer.

[2] Mary E. Beckman & Gayle M. Ayers (1994), Guidelines for ToBI labelling. Version 2.0, February 1994.

[3] Julia Hirschberg & Mary E. Beckman (1994), The ToBI annotation conventions.

[4] Hans Kamp & Uwe Reyle (1993), From discourse to logic. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

[5] Matthias Reyelt & Anton Batliner (1994), Ein Inventar prosodischer Etiketten fuer VERBMOBIL. Verbmobil-Memo-33-94, Juli 1994.

[6] Martine Grice & Ralf Benzmueller (1994), Transcription of German using ToBI-tones - the Saarbruecken System. Ms., University of Saarbruecken.

[7] Joerg Mayer (1995), Transcription of German intonation - the Stuttgart System. Ms., University of Stuttgart.

7 Data reference

Data shown in figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15: Saarbruecken Map Task Corpus
Data shown in figures 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17: The Kiel Corpus of Read Speech, Vol. 1
Data shown in figure 11: German Verbmobil Corpus

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