PMC

Representation of our model of emergence of vocal iconicity in relation to articulatory mechanisms of speech production, sound stability and sound preference in first language acquisition.

Vocal manipulations of smiling, tremor and roughness trigger similar emotional perceptions on both vocal and non-vocal music. Valence (a) and arousal (b) ratings for smiling, vocal tremor and vocal roughness manipulations of matched vocal (speech, scream; dashed lines) and musical stimuli (solid lines). For each manipulation and each sound type, ratings are given both for manipulated pairs (12–14 pairs consisting of one manipulated sound, evaluated in comparison with its non-manipulated variant; labelled as ‘smile’, ‘tremor’, etc.) and for control pairs (12–14 pairs consisting of one non-manipulated sound, evaluated in comparison with itself; labelled as ‘original’). Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals on the mean. (Online version in colour.)

The figure in the middle represents the concatenation of tubes that approximate the vocal tract. The upper panel represents, from left to right, the voiced source spectrum of fundamental frequency , the vocal tract transfer function for a tube of about 17.5 cm and the multiplication of both, corresponding to the resulting voiced sound. In the lower panel, a colored noise sound source characterizing the turbulent flow at the exit of the constriction at the section of the vocal tract and the resulting fricative sound, filtered by the vocal tract.

The source-filter framework of vocal production. Left: Spectrogram of a vocalization of the vowel /a/ illustrating f_o (fundamental frequency), and the first four formant frequenciesF₁, F₂, F₃, F₄. Right: Schema of the approximate locations of the vocal organs involved in the source and filter. Oscillation of the vocal folds in the larynx produces a source sound which determines the fundamental frequency (f_o) of the vocalization. Then the sound is filtered through the vocal tract, which determines the formant frequencies (F₁–F₄)