TIMELY, Corfu, 2013 Abstract: Speech has conventionally been considered as the kind of thing that is done by one person at a time. Yet there are many situations in which we speak by saying the same thing at the same time: in classrooms, churches, temples, sports stadia, and on the street. Joint speaking has not yet been subject to scientific study, which is surprising, given its rich embedding in cultural and educational practices throughout the world. There are many questions we may ask in this domain. A laboratory variant of joint speaking, which I call Synchronous Speech, has revealed some characteristics of joint speech that are of potential interest to phoneticians and cognitive scientists. Speakers can speak fluently while remaining in very tight synchrony with a co-speaker, even when reading novel texts. This particular form of synchronized action has some characteristics that make it different from every other case in which people synchronize skilled action. I will suggest that we might begin to develop an account in which two synchronized speakers are usefully regarded as a transiently assembled single system, rather than as two entirely separate systems.
Transcript
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Abstract:
Speech has conventionally been considered as the kind of thing that is done by one person at a
time. Yet there are many situations in which we speak by saying the same thing at the same time: in
classrooms, churches, temples, sports stadia, and on the street. Joint speaking has not yet been
subject to scientific study, which is surprising, given its rich embedding in cultural and educational
practices throughout the world. There are many questions we may ask in this domain.
A laboratory variant of joint speaking, which I call Synchronous Speech, has revealed some
characteristics of joint speech that are of potential interest to phoneticians and cognitive scientists.
Speakers can speak fluently while remaining in very tight synchrony with a co-speaker, even when
reading novel texts. This particular form of synchronized action has some characteristics that make
it different from every other case in which people synchronize skilled action. I will suggest that we
might begin to develop an account in which two synchronized speakers are usefully regarded as a
transiently assembled single system, rather than as two entirely separate systems.
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Synchronized Speaking:
What speaking together can tell us about skilled action
Fred Cummins
University College Dublin
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Act 1:
On Speaking Jointly
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Joint Speech
Choral speaking
Chanting
Group recitation
Synchronous Speaking
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
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1.2
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
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Malaysian choral speaking
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
A ubiquitous human behavior . . .
Deeply ingrained in our practices of education
. . . of worship
. . . of protest
. . . of group display
Has not yet been studied scientifically.???
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
To do list . . .
* Why do people speak jointly?
* How does speaking jointly affect motivation,
identification, purpose, group behavior, etc etc?
* How does joint speaking affect prosody?
* Does text familiarity matter?
* Is joint speaking effective for teaching?
* How is joint speaking possible at all?
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Act 2:
On Speaking
Synchronously
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Synchronous Speech
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Synchronous Speech
Mean asynchrony, without practice: 40 ms
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Vision helps a little bit (about 20 ms at phrase
onset)
Synchrony is slightly worse at phrase onset (ca.
60 ms vs 40 ms medially)
Practice does not improve performance much
People find the task natural and surprisingly
easy
A few findings:
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
In English, (dyadic) prosody is largely unaltered,
and rate is relatively slow:
synchronous: solo:
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
This may provide a way of eliciting relatively
inexpressive speech.
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
In Mandarin Chinese, we often find an
exaggeration of syllable timing:
solo: synchronous:
Caution is required: we still don’t know how
speech is modified when spoken synchronously
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Act 3:
On Acting in Synchrony
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Is synchronized speaking different from other
forms of synchronized activity?
Technical note: “Synchronization” here means
doing the “same thing” at the “same time”.
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
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Synchronized swimming: not very synchronized
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Trampolining: much better!
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Diving: really tightly synchronized!
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Synchronized activity normally has one or both of
these:
[1] A beat or periodic timekeeper
(dancing, rowing, trampolining)
[2] Strong gravitational or inertial constraints
(diving, rowing, trampolining)
Synchronous speaking exhibits neither?????
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Despite rumours to the contrary,
Speech is NOT periodic
[1] A beat or periodic timekeeper
(dancing, rowing, trampolining)
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Speech is also curiously unfettered,
Occurring almost shielded from the world
[2] Strong gravitational or inertial constraints
(diving, rowing, trampolining)
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
Synchronous speech challenges our
accounts of joint action
We can not lean too heavily on periodicity or
inertial constraints in accounting for
synchronization
We need to incorporate an account of the skill
that is shared by speakers (rowers, divers, . .
.)
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Act 4:
Some Theoretical
Considerations
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Inner Speech Outer Speech Joint Speech
Vygotsky
Merleau-Ponty
Wittgenstein
Sheets-Johnstone
Fodor/Chomsky
Vacancy
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Theoretical accounts of synchronization
Psychological
Cognitivist
Dynamicist
Enactive
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Just what should be attributed to the actors as
individuals?
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... and what should be regarded as an irreducible,
emergent property of the interaction?
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Most psychological accounts regard the brain as a
predictive machine:
“Representation hungry” approaches
All explanation lies at the level of the individual
TIMELY, Corfu, 2013
I predict you predicting me predicting you predicting
me predicting you predicting me predicting you
predicting me predicting you predicting me predicting
