Dr James Grama and Dr Simón González Seminar
Date: Tuesday, 11 September 2018, 11:00am - 12noon
Venue: The Australian Hearing Hub, Level 3, Room 3.610, Macquarie University
Speakers: Dr James Grama and Dr Simón González, Australian National University
Host: Associate Professor Felicity Cox
Topic: Expanding the study of linguistic variation through forced alignment
Venue: The Australian Hearing Hub, Level 3, Room 3.610, Macquarie University
Speakers: Dr James Grama and Dr Simón González, Australian National University
Host: Associate Professor Felicity Cox
Topic: Expanding the study of linguistic variation through forced alignment
Abstract
Forced-aligners have revolutionized sociophonetics. By automating the process of segmenting a time-aligned, orthographic transcription into individual phonemes, they have vastly increased the size of datasets utilized in phonetic work, thereby enhancing the power and robustness of sociophonetic analyses. While there are several different forced-aligners available, few systematic comparisons between them have been conducted. In this talk, we consider some of the major force-aligners being used in linguistics today (namely FAVE, LaBB-CAT, MAUS and MFA). We review and compare the motivations behind the development of each aligner, their primary uses, strengths, and limitations.