How to play prosodic dialogue games

How to play prosodic dialogue games

Citation for published version (APA):

Krahmer, E. J., & Swerts, M. G. J. (2000). How to play prosodic dialogue games. (IPO-Rapport; Vol. 1239). Instituut voor Perceptie Onderzoek (IPO).

Document status and date: Published: 24/10/2000

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IPO, Center for User-System Interaction PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven

Rapport no. 1239

How to play prosodic dialogue games

E.J. Krahmer M.G.J. Swerts

@Copyright 2000, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

How to play prosodic dialogue games

Emiel Krahmer and Marc Swerts IPO, Center for User-System Interaction,

Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O.Box 513,

NL-5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands,

{e.j.krahmer/m.g.j.swerts}©tue.nl

1

Introduction

In this note we describe - in as much detail as possible- how the "dialogue game" was played which we used to elicitate semi-spontaneous speech. So far this has been done for Dutch (Krahmer and Swerts 2000), Italian (Swerts et al. 1999) and, in a slightly different setting, for Japanese (Swerts et al. 2000). To make comparisons across languages possible it is of the utmost importance to keep the experimental parameters as constant as possible.

2

General overview

The game is played by two people. They are in the same room, sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a big screen. This means that the subjects cannot see each other, nor can they see what lies on the table in front of the other player. The speech is recorded.1

During one session, the two players (call them A and B) play eight short games. In each game, both players have an identical set of eight cards to their disposal, every card showing a geometrical figure (square or triangle) in a particular color (blue, red, black or yellow). 2 _{Beforehand, the eight cards} are divided in two sets of four cards each: one set of four cards is ordered as a stack, the other half is unordered. The stacks of A and B are disjoint: thus A's stack corresponded with the unordered set of B, and vice versa. Before each game, the experimenter puts the cards in the right position before both subjects (the stack of four cards is places as a stack in front of the subject, the other four cards are put in a row). Besides the cards, both A and B have a sheet of paper with the numbers 1 to 8 printed on it. A and B place the 1 _{Optimal recording conditions (stereo digital recording (e.g., DAT), soundproof studio)}

are obviously beneficial, but not absolutely necessary. 2_{But see section 4.}

cards in front of them on this sheet in the order in which they are introduced during the dialogue game. This implies that the end of the game both A and

B have the 8 cards in an identical order.

During the experiment it is essential to have the sets of cards for all 8 games in the right order before the actual games start. In this way the interruption between the games is kept at a minimum. During the actual

playing of a game, the experimenter is not in the room.

Initial set-up

I

I

8

A

~

g

8

8

_B

~

B

8

B

after A's 1st move

I BLACK I

8

8

8

~

B

A

~

_A

8

B

Here is a bird's-eye view on the experimental set-up of the elicitation task,

both the initial stage and the stage after A's first move (describing the card on the top of the stack ("blue square") are depicted. Notice that after A has made his first move, both A and B take the card with the blue square

and place it on the first place in the list with the digits 1 to 8. After this, B takes over and describes the card on top of his stack ("black traingle"). This prompts both A and B to put the card with the black triangle on the second

place in the list. Etc. The game is over when both players are out of cards.

There are no winners or losers.

3

The data

The data obtained using this dialogue game allow for an unambiguous

opera-tionalization of the relevant contexts. A property (colour or figure) is defined to be new (N) to the conversation if it is mentioned in the first turn of the

current dialogue game, it is given (G) if it was mentioned in the previous turn and finally a property is contrastive (C) if the object described in the previous turn had a different value for the relevant property.

By systematically varying the sequential order of the cards in front of the subjects, target descriptions are collected for all speakers in four contexts:

no contrast (all new, NN), contrast in the adjective (CG), contrast in the

noun (GC), all contrast (CC). The following table summarizes the situation. NN (beginning of game) B: "blue square"

cc

4

Detailed scenario

The cards contain squares (S) and triangles (T), in the colors blue (b), red

(r), green (g) and black (1).3 _{Target utterances are "blue square" and "red}

square". The scenario is fixed for all pairs of subjects. Target descriptions

are "blue square" (bS) and "red square" (rS). They are always uttered early

in the dialogue game. A and B alternate in making the first move. Here is

the precise scenario: for both subjects it is described which cards are in the stack in front of them. Thus: in the first game, A starts. A's stack (i.e.,

3_{There is of course nothing sacred about these figui·es and colours. The description}

here describes the Dutch settings. The properties were selected because the corresponding

nouns and adjectives are bisyllabic with lexical stress on the first syllable. In addition, all terms are completely unambiguous. If these properties are problematic in a particular language, colours and forms should be adapted. See references.

<bS,lT,bT,gS> has a blue square on top (in NN condition), followed by a black triangle (in a CC condition), a blue triangle (in a CG condition) and a green square (also in a CG condition).

GAME 1 player 1 A <bS,lT,bT,gS> player 2 B <rS,rT,lS,gT> GAME 2 player 1 B <bT,rT,gT,gS> player 2 A <bS,rS,lT,lS> GAME 3 player 1 A <rS,lS,gS,rT> player 2 B <bS,lT,gT,bT> GAME 4 player 1 B <lT,bT,lS,gT> player 2 A <bS,rS,gS,rT> GAME 5 player 1 A <bT,rT,gT,gS> player 2 B <bS,rS,lT,lS> GAME 6 player 1 B <rS,lS,gS,rT> player 2 A <bS,lT,gT,bT> GAME 7 player 1 A <lT,bT,lS,gT> player 2 B <bS,rS,gS,rT> GAME 8 player 1 B <bS,lT,bT,gS> player 2 A <rS,rT,lS,gT>

5

Checklist

What you need:

• An even number of subjects

• Two tables with a screen in between them • 2 microphones, recording facilities

• Two instructions (see appendix 1)

• 16 sets of 8 cards with coloured geometrical figures (see appendix 2)

6

References

E. Krahmer and M. Swerts (2000), On the Alleged Existence of Constrastive Accents, Speech Communication, to appear.

M. Swerts, C. Avesani, E. Krahmer (1999), Reaccentuation or Deaccen-tuation: a comparative study of Dutch and Italian, Proceedings 14th

International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPHS}, San Francisco,

M. Swerts, M. Taniguchi, Y. Katagiri (2000), Prosodic Marking of

Inform-ation Status in Tkyo Japanese, Proceedings Internation Conference on

Instructions

This

experiment consists of eight simple games.

Each

player

receives

eight cards

per

game,

of which four

are

placed

on a stack

in front of him/her

and

four lie next to

each

other in

a

row. The

cards

which lie in the

stack

of

one

player

,

are

in the row of the

other

player. On

each

card a geometrical

figure in

a

particular

color

is displayed

(for

instance

'

red

square' or

'g

reen triangle

'

). The

pur-pose of

th

e

game

is that

at the end

of the

game

both

players

hav

e

put

an

identical row

of cards on the

table.

To do this

,

you act as

follows:

after

a startsignal

,

one

of

the players d

esc

ribes the

card on

the top of his/h

er

stack

(for

example

, '

red

square').

Subsequently both

players

put the

card

with the red

square on

the first position

of

th

e

row to

be

made. Then the

other

player d

escr

ibes the

car

d

on top of

his/her

stack and

both play

e

rs put this

card on

th

e

second

place of the list. And

so on

until both

players

have put

all

the

cards on

the number

e

d list.

You will

start

playing two

games

to practice.

After

that

the

actual

exper

i1nent

starts.

If

you

have questions

,

you

can ask

the1n now (or during the practice

session).