Analyse des variables temporelles du français spontané

Abstract

Abstract This paper reviews the inherent time variables of speech and then discusses the importance of these variables for spontaneous speech activities in French. A comparison with English shows that the French speak faster than the English, this being mainly due to the smaller number of pauses introduced into their discourse, not to the rate of articulation, nor to the length of pauses. Moreover, it follows from the analysis of the syntactic distribution of unfilled pauses that 75 % occur at the end of sense groups (60 % at the end of clauses) and that pauses inside clauses are shorter (median 0.40 sec) than final ones (median 0.50 sec). Finally, the investigation of secondary variables (other hesitation pauses) shows the importance of ‘articulation’ pauses (which consist of filled pauses and of drawls) and the prime role played by grammatical words in the categories: drawls, repetitions and false starts.

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