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The effects of speakers' age on temporal features of speech among healthy young, middle-aged, and older adults

연령세대에 따른 말 산출의 시간적 특성: 말속도와 쉼을 중심으로

  • Kim, Yeji (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Lee, Song-min (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Choi, Min-kyung (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Jung, Sang-min (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Sung, Jee Eun (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Lee, Youngmee (Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University)
  • 김예지 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과) ;
  • 이송민 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과) ;
  • 최민경 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과) ;
  • 정상민 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과) ;
  • 성지은 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과) ;
  • 이영미 (이화여자대학교 언어병리학과)
  • Received : 2021.12.25
  • Accepted : 2022.01.17
  • Published : 2022.03.31

Abstract

The purpose of the this study is to observe the effects of healthy adults' age on temporal features of speech and identify which could differentiate older and young adults. We examined speech rates(i.e., overall speaking rate, articulation rate), occurrence of pause, and duration of pause per utterance by utilizing the National Institute of Korean Language's open corpus. We selected a total of 30 healthy adults (10 young, 10 middle-aged, and 10 older adults) in this study. There were significant differences among the groups in the overall speaking rate, articulation rate, total occurrence of pause, the occurrence of pause between syntactic words, total duration of pause, and duration of pause between syntactic words. The older and middle-aged adults showed slower speech rates and longer and more frequent pause than young adults. But there were no significant differences among the three groups in terms of pause within syntactic word. The overall speaking rate significantly differentiated older adults from young adults. These findings suggested that the effect of speakers' age was reflected in gradual changes in the temporal features of their speech.

본 연구의 목적은 정상 성인 화자의 연령세대에 따른 말 산출의 시간적 특성 간에 유의한 차이가 있는지를 분석하고, 말 산출 변수들 중에서 청년 화자와 노년 화자를 유의하게 분류할 수 있는 변수가 무엇인지 살펴보고자 하였다. 이를 위해 청년, 장년, 노년의 말속도(전체 말속도, 조음속도)와 발화당 쉼 빈도, 쉼 지속시간, 쉼의 실현 위치를 살펴보았다. 국립국어원에서 배포하는 오픈 코퍼스인 서울말 낭독 발화 말뭉치에서 청년층, 장년층, 노년층 각 10명씩 총 30명 화자의 발화를 선별해 말 산출의 시간적 특성을 분석하였다. 그 결과, 전체 말속도, 조음속도, 전체 쉼 빈도, 어절 간 쉼 빈도, 전체 쉼 지속시간, 어절 간 쉼 지속시간에 집단 간 유의한 차이가 발생했다. 사후 검정 결과, 장년층이 청년층보다, 노년층이 청년층보다 느린 말속도, 잦은 쉼 빈도, 긴 쉼 지속시간을 보였다. 반면 정상 성인에게서는 부적절한 쉼인 어절 내 쉼 빈도, 어절 내 쉼 지속시간에는 집단 간 유의한 차이가 없었다. 이중 청년층과 노년층을 유의하게 구별하는 변수는 전체 말속도로 나타났다. 노년층이 한 번 쉼을 가질 때 청·장년층과 비슷한 길이지만, 훨씬 더 빈번하게 가진다는 것을 보여주었다. 이러한 결과는 연령세대에 따라 말 산출의 시간적 특성에 변화가 나타난다는 것을 시사한다.

Keywords

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