Speech Rate and Pause in Conversational Interviews

Abstract

Having established methods for the analysis of speech rate and silent pause duration, discussed the statistical techniques, and somewhat problematized the use of reading passage speech for determining social variation in speech timing, we turn now to examine a large dataset of recorded talk from conversational, sociolinguistic interviews in order to establish a quantitative picture of speech rate and pause patterns in spontaneous speech. The study presented in this chapter reflects the main analysis of speech rate and pause in this book. The following two chapters will attempt to expand on the insights gained here, with Chapter 8 changing focus from pause and speech rate as the dependent variables of analysis, the objects of inquiry, to tools for the investigation of other variable linguistic phenomena.