Prosodic Features of Utterances in Task-Oriented Dialogues

Abstract

This paper describes some characteristic patterns and prosodic features of utterances in task-oriented cooperative dialogues. To analyse utterances in natural conversation systematically, we first define some basic analysis units in conversation and taxonomies for dialogue structure. We then analyse how well prosodic features can be correlated with dialogue structures. The results show that by controling the pitch range, speakers indicate the topic structure and utterance perspective. We then investigate two major patterns of utterances: supportive utterances preceding the main utterance (pre-supportive pattern), and subordinative utterances following the main utterance (post-supportive pattern). The results show that in the topic-shifting context, the speaker tends to use the pre-supportive pattern, while in the topic-continuation context, post- supportive patterns are mainly used. Moreover, in topic-shifting dialogues, the supportive utterances are shorter, and acknowledgment/confirmation exchange is made more frequently than the case of topic-continuation dialogues. Finally, we discuss how these results can be utilized for prosodic parameter generation.