DETECTION OF SUPRALEXICAL DYSFLUENCIES IN A TEXT READ BY CHILDREN WHOSTUTTER

When asked to read a text, people who stutter produce dysfluencies tha t can be divided into two types. These are (a) those dysfluencies that mainly influence production of individual lexical items and (b) those involving, either alone or in combination, omitting words, inserting incorrect words and repeating phrases. In case (a), the speech breakdo wns are termed lexical dysfluencies (LD). LD include word and part-wor d repetitions, prolongations, and broken words. The dysfluencies in (b ) are termed supralexical(SD). This class comprises interjections, rev isions, incomplete phrases, and phrase repetitions. If SD and LD are n ot distinguished, then the way certain dysfluent words should be categ orized is inherently ambiguous. For instance, there is no a priori way of deciding how to categorize an LD that occurs within a group of wor ds comprising an SD. The proposed solution to this problem involves lo cating and processing SD before LD. Doing this allows any LD that occu rs within a group of words that can also be designated as an SD to be assessed and removed from further consideration prior to location of i solated LD (the LD that occur within an SD are, then, subordinate to t he SD). A computer-based parser that locates SD in transcriptions of r ead text is described. Its performance is compared with that of human judges. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.