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Tommi Nieminen

University of Eastern Finland, Finnish Language and Cultural Research, Faculty Member

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Phone: +358 (0)2944 52 112
Address: Finnish language and cultural research
P.O. Box 111
FI-80101 Joensuu
FINLAND

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Northwestern University

Lyon III University - Jean Moulin

University of Helsinki

Universidade Estadual de Campinas

Amalia Arvaniti

Radboud University Nijmegen

Ann Marie Olivo-Shaw

Franziska Stuntebeck

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Eleni Tsiartsioni

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

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Papers by Tommi Nieminen

Looking for rhythms in conversational speech

by Mietta Lennes and Tommi Nieminen

Proceedings of the 16th …, Jan 1, 2007

Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The... more Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results suggest that stress, mora and possibly foot timing as rhythmic factors in Finnish are more relevant than traditionally assumed.

Hierarchical levels of rhythm in conversational speech

by Tommi Nieminen and Mietta Lennes

Speech Prosody, Jan 1, 2008

This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal str... more This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal structure of speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results strengthen our previous conclusions that stress, mora and possibly foot timing are all simultaneously present as rhythmic factors in Finnish conversational speech.

Visualising speech rhythm: A survey of alternatives

by Tommi Nieminen and Michael O’Dell

One of the requirements in of speech rhythm research is to be able to visualise the rhythm, or th... more One of the requirements in of speech rhythm research is to be able to visualise the rhythm, or the difference between given speech rhythms. This is especially important for didactic purposes. We give here a brief survey of the different visualisation models available and study their capabilities and limitations, and also experiment with our own model, the " bubble chart " visualisation.

Effects of anatomical differences on relative timing of tongue and lips

by Michael O’Dell, Martti Vainio, and Tommi Nieminen

XXVIII FONETIIKAN PÄIVÄT Turku 25.-26. lokakuuta 2013, Katri Jähi & Laura Taimi (eds.), 2014

In recent research regarding the relative timing of tongue and lip articulations in Finnish we fo... more In recent research regarding the relative timing of tongue and lip articulations in Finnish we found evidence that our
test subjects use two distinct patterns associated with consonant quantity. While quantity effects (eg. tongue movement
onset from /a/ to /i/ relative to lip closure onset in /tapi/ vs. /tappi/) were evident for all speakers, they were relatively
large for our male speakers and relatively small for our female speakers (compared to other effects). The Embodied
Task Dynamics (ETD) model we employed correctly predicted the quantity effect on lip-to-tongue coordination as a
result of exploiting a natural bifurcation in optimal timing plausibly associated with long vs. short /p/. Here we discuss
a possibility to replicate the two quantity related timing patterns exhibited by our subjects by systematically varying
anatomical parameters (such as jaw size and mass) in the ETD model.

How Long is a Stress Group?

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

In a recent article Barbosa suggested that for synthesis of natural sounding speech, the number o... more In a recent article Barbosa suggested that for synthesis of natural sounding speech, the number of syllables in a stress group could be determined dynamically based on the ongoing relations of a stress rhythm oscillator and a syllable oscillator. We consider the ramifications of this idea for understanding patterns in natural speech, utilizing and extending a previously developed model of hierarchically coupled oscillators.

Hazard Regression for Modeling Conversational Silence

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

It is often assumed that the participants of a conversation try to avoid simultaneous starts or l... more It is often assumed that the participants of a conversation try to avoid simultaneous starts or lengthy silences. For this reason, they may tend to synchronize rhythmically with each other’s speech. A model of conversational turn-taking based on the idea of coupled oscillators has been suggested by Wilson & Wilson [1]. However, the model has received only weak empirical support from previous studies where distributions of silence durations have been modeled directly. In the present study, we attempt to detect signs of oscillatory behavior during silence utilizing nonparametric hazard regression. In order to understand the shape of the estimated hazard rates, we postulate a latent stochastic process [2] with end of silence occurring when the process crosses a threshold. This finer-grained approach using Bayesian estimation yields a more detailed picture of synchronization between speakers and a more powerful test of oscillatory behavior.

Visualising Speech Rhythm : A Survey of Alternatives

by Tommi Nieminen and Michael O’Dell

Nordic Prosody : Proceedings of the XIth Conference, Tartu 2012, pp. 265-274, 2013

Modeling Turn-Taking Rhythms with Oscillators

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Mietta Lennes

Our aim in this paper is to explore ways of modeling the distribution of pause durations in conve... more Our aim in this paper is to explore ways of modeling the distribution of pause durations in conversation using oscillator models (Wilson, Wilson 2006), and to consider how these models might be integrated into our Coupled Oscillator Model of speech timing (COM (O’Dell, Lennes, Werner, Nieminen 2007; O’Dell, Lennes, Nieminen 2008; O’Dell, Nieminen 2009)).

Finnish Rhythmic Structure and Entrainment in Overlapped Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Mietta Lennes, and Tommi Nieminen

Nordic Prosody : Proceedings of the XIth Conference, Tartu 2012, pp. 421-430, 2013

Hierarchical Levels of Rhythm In Conversational Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Mietta Lennes

Barbosa et al.(2008), Jan 1, 2008

This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal str... more This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal structure of speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results strengthen our previous conclusions that stress, mora and possibly foot timing are all simultaneously present as rhythmic factors in Finnish conversational speech.

Assessing Rhythmic Differences With Synchronous Speech

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

isle.illinois.edu

In this study, we looked at speech rhythm in Finnish using the technique of synchronous speech de... more In this study, we looked at speech rhythm in Finnish using the technique of synchronous speech developed by Cummins. As predicted, synchronous reading resulted in a reduction of timing variation. The homogeneity achieved, however, did not necessarily represent average behavior, but often an extreme outside the range of performance in the solo reading. While the synchronous speech task was easy for speakers in general, there were clear differences in how difficult it was for speakers to synchronize their speech. These differences were not however related in an obvious way to differences between speakers themselves. It would appear that most of the work of synchrony was achieved at approximately the level of pause group; at finer levels speakers did not consistently adjust their timing to improve synchronization.

Reasons for An Underlying Unity In Rhythm Dichotomy

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Linguistica Uralica, Jan 1, 1998

MICHAEL L. O&amp;#x27;DELL &amp;amp; TOMMI NIEMINEN (Tampere) ... REASONS FOR AN UNDERLYI... more

Coupled Oscillator Model of Speech Rhythm

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Attempts to verify instrumentally tendencies toward stress timing or syllable timing have been le... more Attempts to verify instrumentally tendencies toward stress timing or syllable timing have been less than successful, leading many researchers to abandon the rhythm dichotomy as too simplistic. One empirical finding which suggests an underlying unity in the rhythms of different languages is a statistical tendency for duration of stress group to be a linear function of the number of syllables contained in it, with languages differing mainly in the constant term of the linear function. We use a robust mathematical model of simple coupled oscillators to argue that the linear relation observed may reflect a very general tendency of rhythmic systems organized in hierarchical interaction, regardless of concrete details, which may differ in complex ways. In addition, the oscillator model provides a rich conceptual tool for elucidating rhythmical differences in speech behavior.

Coupled Oscillator Model for Speech Timing: Overview and Examples

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

The present article is intended to sum up the past ten years of our research concerning the timin... more The present article is intended to sum up the past ten years of our research concerning the timing of speech and the development of a coupled oscillator model (COM) for speech timing. This enterprise started with our paper (O’Dell and Nieminen 1998) presented at the 1998 Finnic Phonetics symposium in Pärnu—the first of the series to be held in Estonia—and has since continued through several conferences and conference papers.

Looking for Rhythms in Conversational Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Mietta Lennes, and Tommi Nieminen

Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The... more Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results suggest that stress, mora and possibly foot timing as rhythmic factors in Finnish are more relevant than traditionally assumed.

Speech Rhythms as Cyclical Activity

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Utilizing a mathematical technique known as Average Phase Difference theory we derive some genera... more Utilizing a mathematical technique known as Average Phase Difference theory we derive some general predictions for interacting hierarchical speech rhythms such as syllable, stress group and breath group rhythms. We present additional data confirming various predictions of the coupled oscillator model.

Relative Timing of Bilabial Gesture in Finnish

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Martti Vainio

The Embodied Task Dynamic model of gestural sequencing predicts that an intervocalic consonantal ... more The Embodied Task Dynamic model of gestural sequencing predicts that an intervocalic consonantal lip closing gesture should come later if the tongue is moving from /i/ to /a/ rather than from /a/ to /i/ because this relation is more efficient in terms of production and perceptibility. We tested this prediction for Finnish /ipa/ and /api/ using EMA to track articulation. The results confirmed the predictions of the model for single /p/ and also revealed a significantly greater lag for geminate /pp/. This quantity effect is also born out by the model.

Narrating selves in academic writing

In teaching academic writing the goal is to help students write research texts that are generally... more In teaching academic writing the goal is to help students write research texts that are generally acceptable by the professional audience. This requires learning of many skills, not the least of which is being in charge of the many different ’voices’ (sources) in the text. To reach this practical goal I have experimented here with conceptual tools borrowed from literary narratology to visualize the interplay between voices.

Kohti lukijan genrejä: Johdatusta semioottiseen lajiteoriaan (2. laitos)

Cognition as cognition, cognition as semiosis, and the linguist’s comfort zone

Looking for rhythms in conversational speech

by Mietta Lennes and Tommi Nieminen

Proceedings of the 16th …, Jan 1, 2007

Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The... more Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results suggest that stress, mora and possibly foot timing as rhythmic factors in Finnish are more relevant than traditionally assumed.

Hierarchical levels of rhythm in conversational speech

by Tommi Nieminen and Mietta Lennes

Speech Prosody, Jan 1, 2008

This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal str... more This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal structure of speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results strengthen our previous conclusions that stress, mora and possibly foot timing are all simultaneously present as rhythmic factors in Finnish conversational speech.

Visualising speech rhythm: A survey of alternatives

by Tommi Nieminen and Michael O’Dell

One of the requirements in of speech rhythm research is to be able to visualise the rhythm, or th... more One of the requirements in of speech rhythm research is to be able to visualise the rhythm, or the difference between given speech rhythms. This is especially important for didactic purposes. We give here a brief survey of the different visualisation models available and study their capabilities and limitations, and also experiment with our own model, the " bubble chart " visualisation.

Effects of anatomical differences on relative timing of tongue and lips

by Michael O’Dell, Martti Vainio, and Tommi Nieminen

XXVIII FONETIIKAN PÄIVÄT Turku 25.-26. lokakuuta 2013, Katri Jähi & Laura Taimi (eds.), 2014

In recent research regarding the relative timing of tongue and lip articulations in Finnish we fo... more In recent research regarding the relative timing of tongue and lip articulations in Finnish we found evidence that our
test subjects use two distinct patterns associated with consonant quantity. While quantity effects (eg. tongue movement
onset from /a/ to /i/ relative to lip closure onset in /tapi/ vs. /tappi/) were evident for all speakers, they were relatively
large for our male speakers and relatively small for our female speakers (compared to other effects). The Embodied
Task Dynamics (ETD) model we employed correctly predicted the quantity effect on lip-to-tongue coordination as a
result of exploiting a natural bifurcation in optimal timing plausibly associated with long vs. short /p/. Here we discuss
a possibility to replicate the two quantity related timing patterns exhibited by our subjects by systematically varying
anatomical parameters (such as jaw size and mass) in the ETD model.

How Long is a Stress Group?

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

In a recent article Barbosa suggested that for synthesis of natural sounding speech, the number o... more In a recent article Barbosa suggested that for synthesis of natural sounding speech, the number of syllables in a stress group could be determined dynamically based on the ongoing relations of a stress rhythm oscillator and a syllable oscillator. We consider the ramifications of this idea for understanding patterns in natural speech, utilizing and extending a previously developed model of hierarchically coupled oscillators.

Hazard Regression for Modeling Conversational Silence

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

It is often assumed that the participants of a conversation try to avoid simultaneous starts or l... more It is often assumed that the participants of a conversation try to avoid simultaneous starts or lengthy silences. For this reason, they may tend to synchronize rhythmically with each other’s speech. A model of conversational turn-taking based on the idea of coupled oscillators has been suggested by Wilson & Wilson [1]. However, the model has received only weak empirical support from previous studies where distributions of silence durations have been modeled directly. In the present study, we attempt to detect signs of oscillatory behavior during silence utilizing nonparametric hazard regression. In order to understand the shape of the estimated hazard rates, we postulate a latent stochastic process [2] with end of silence occurring when the process crosses a threshold. This finer-grained approach using Bayesian estimation yields a more detailed picture of synchronization between speakers and a more powerful test of oscillatory behavior.

Visualising Speech Rhythm : A Survey of Alternatives

by Tommi Nieminen and Michael O’Dell

Nordic Prosody : Proceedings of the XIth Conference, Tartu 2012, pp. 265-274, 2013

Modeling Turn-Taking Rhythms with Oscillators

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Mietta Lennes

Our aim in this paper is to explore ways of modeling the distribution of pause durations in conve... more Our aim in this paper is to explore ways of modeling the distribution of pause durations in conversation using oscillator models (Wilson, Wilson 2006), and to consider how these models might be integrated into our Coupled Oscillator Model of speech timing (COM (O’Dell, Lennes, Werner, Nieminen 2007; O’Dell, Lennes, Nieminen 2008; O’Dell, Nieminen 2009)).

Finnish Rhythmic Structure and Entrainment in Overlapped Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Mietta Lennes, and Tommi Nieminen

Nordic Prosody : Proceedings of the XIth Conference, Tartu 2012, pp. 421-430, 2013

Hierarchical Levels of Rhythm In Conversational Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Mietta Lennes

Barbosa et al.(2008), Jan 1, 2008

This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal str... more This study continues our previous investigation into the rhythms contributing to the temporal structure of speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results strengthen our previous conclusions that stress, mora and possibly foot timing are all simultaneously present as rhythmic factors in Finnish conversational speech.

Assessing Rhythmic Differences With Synchronous Speech

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

isle.illinois.edu

In this study, we looked at speech rhythm in Finnish using the technique of synchronous speech de... more In this study, we looked at speech rhythm in Finnish using the technique of synchronous speech developed by Cummins. As predicted, synchronous reading resulted in a reduction of timing variation. The homogeneity achieved, however, did not necessarily represent average behavior, but often an extreme outside the range of performance in the solo reading. While the synchronous speech task was easy for speakers in general, there were clear differences in how difficult it was for speakers to synchronize their speech. These differences were not however related in an obvious way to differences between speakers themselves. It would appear that most of the work of synchrony was achieved at approximately the level of pause group; at finer levels speakers did not consistently adjust their timing to improve synchronization.

Reasons for An Underlying Unity In Rhythm Dichotomy

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Linguistica Uralica, Jan 1, 1998

MICHAEL L. O&amp;#x27;DELL &amp;amp; TOMMI NIEMINEN (Tampere) ... REASONS FOR AN UNDERLYI... more

Coupled Oscillator Model of Speech Rhythm

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Attempts to verify instrumentally tendencies toward stress timing or syllable timing have been le... more Attempts to verify instrumentally tendencies toward stress timing or syllable timing have been less than successful, leading many researchers to abandon the rhythm dichotomy as too simplistic. One empirical finding which suggests an underlying unity in the rhythms of different languages is a statistical tendency for duration of stress group to be a linear function of the number of syllables contained in it, with languages differing mainly in the constant term of the linear function. We use a robust mathematical model of simple coupled oscillators to argue that the linear relation observed may reflect a very general tendency of rhythmic systems organized in hierarchical interaction, regardless of concrete details, which may differ in complex ways. In addition, the oscillator model provides a rich conceptual tool for elucidating rhythmical differences in speech behavior.

Coupled Oscillator Model for Speech Timing: Overview and Examples

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

The present article is intended to sum up the past ten years of our research concerning the timin... more The present article is intended to sum up the past ten years of our research concerning the timing of speech and the development of a coupled oscillator model (COM) for speech timing. This enterprise started with our paper (O’Dell and Nieminen 1998) presented at the 1998 Finnic Phonetics symposium in Pärnu—the first of the series to be held in Estonia—and has since continued through several conferences and conference papers.

Looking for Rhythms in Conversational Speech

by Michael O’Dell, Mietta Lennes, and Tommi Nieminen

Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The... more Our exploratory study looks for units of temporal structure in conversational Finnish speech. The relative significance of different hierarchical levels of rhythm was evaluated using Bayesian inference on a linear regression model based on coupled oscillators. Results suggest that stress, mora and possibly foot timing as rhythmic factors in Finnish are more relevant than traditionally assumed.

Speech Rhythms as Cyclical Activity

by Michael O’Dell and Tommi Nieminen

Utilizing a mathematical technique known as Average Phase Difference theory we derive some genera... more Utilizing a mathematical technique known as Average Phase Difference theory we derive some general predictions for interacting hierarchical speech rhythms such as syllable, stress group and breath group rhythms. We present additional data confirming various predictions of the coupled oscillator model.

Relative Timing of Bilabial Gesture in Finnish

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Martti Vainio

The Embodied Task Dynamic model of gestural sequencing predicts that an intervocalic consonantal ... more The Embodied Task Dynamic model of gestural sequencing predicts that an intervocalic consonantal lip closing gesture should come later if the tongue is moving from /i/ to /a/ rather than from /a/ to /i/ because this relation is more efficient in terms of production and perceptibility. We tested this prediction for Finnish /ipa/ and /api/ using EMA to track articulation. The results confirmed the predictions of the model for single /p/ and also revealed a significantly greater lag for geminate /pp/. This quantity effect is also born out by the model.

Narrating selves in academic writing

In teaching academic writing the goal is to help students write research texts that are generally... more In teaching academic writing the goal is to help students write research texts that are generally acceptable by the professional audience. This requires learning of many skills, not the least of which is being in charge of the many different ’voices’ (sources) in the text. To reach this practical goal I have experimented here with conceptual tools borrowed from literary narratology to visualize the interplay between voices.

Kohti lukijan genrejä: Johdatusta semioottiseen lajiteoriaan (2. laitos)

Cognition as cognition, cognition as semiosis, and the linguist’s comfort zone

Assessing speech tempo and its influence on rhythm

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Petra Wagner

The effect of synchronous reading on speech rhythm

by Michael O’Dell, Tommi Nieminen, and Liisa Mustanoja

We apply the coupled oscillator model (COM, cf. O‘Dell & Nieminen 2009) of speech rhythm and anal... more We apply the coupled oscillator model (COM, cf. O‘Dell & Nieminen 2009) of speech rhythm and analysis techniques developed in O‘Dell et al. (2007; 2008) to a database of synchronously read Finnish speech (O‘Dell et al. 2010; see Cummins 2009 for an overview of the synchronous speech paradigm). Our data includes speakers reading the same text by themselves as well as synchronously in pairs. By analyzing both readings it is possible to assess the effects of synchronizing on the rhythm. The COM itself is based on synchronization of component rhythms and is thus well suited to modeling such effects. Our previous work has indicated that Finnish has a strong phrasal stress rhythm combined with a strong mora rhythm (O‘Dell et al. 2007:1203). On the other hand, while synchronous speech is known to reduce timing variability (Cummins 2004), our previous research has indicated that speakers reading synchronously synchronize primarily at the phrasal level, not at a finer grained level (O‘Dell et al. 2010). Results of the analysis will help with our current work to accommodate pausing behavior and incorporate interspeaker coupling into the COM.

Epenthetic Vowels in Finnish Dialects: An Articulatory Phonology Approach

by Tommi Nieminen and Michael O’Dell