How to use Suzuki-kun

Overview

With Suzuki-kun: Prosody Tutor, (1) the accent kernel position will be predicted and shown and (2) the pitch contour for when the sentence is read aloud will be displayed for the sentence entered into the text box. The pitch contour will be displayed without a strong focus being put on any of the words. Thus, this cannot handle question sentences or sentences expressing surprise. The performance is not 100% because morphological analysis, accent estimation, and accent boundary estimation are used.

Instructions

First, input the text in the text box. Input a "/" to signify phrase breaks. The symbols ", 、 . 。 ,. ! ? ?!" and the line break will be treated as phrase boundaries. Also, ". 。? ! ?! " and line break signify the end of a sentence. All other symbols will be removed for the analysis. Next, if you click "Prosody Prediction", the H (high) and L (low) pattern for the accent and the pitch contour will be displayed.

One thing to keep in mind is that Suzuki-kun cannot deal with word-focus, question sentences, emotional expressions, and so on.

Explanation of the options

Pitch Contour

With this, the pitch contour settings can be configured.

With "Show Mountain/hill Contour" an approximate pitch contour will be displayed. It displays a mountain-like contour for phrases with accents and a hill-like contour for those without.

With "Pitch Contour with Accent (Beginner)", only the first accent in the phrase and initial-high (Type 1) accents are shown. Native Japanese speakers are said to be sensitive to these kinds of mistakes. "Mountain-hill Contour" displays the contour for beginners with a smoother curve than "Pitch Contour with Accent (Beginner)".

With "Pitch Contour with Accent (Advanced)", the accent predicted for each accent phrase is shown in the pitch contour to approximate the pitch contour of the utterance with more accuracy.

Accent Above Text

With this, the settings for accents to be displayed can be configured.

For beginners, the first accent of the phrase and initial-high accents for words with over three morass are shown in the pitch contour. Japanese speakers are said to be sensitive to these kinds of mistakes. For advanced learners, all predicted accent boundaries and accents are shown in the pitch contour. Thus, the pitch contour can meet the needs of both beginning and advanced learners. The accent is shown with the H (high) and L (low) pattern and the words are written in hiragana.

Pitch Contour Display Options

With these options, the parameters for the Fujisaki Model can be set. It may be best for people who are not familiar with the Fujisaki Model to ignore these settings. To return the settings to the initial state, select the "Reset" button.

Display Type

On clicking "Print-view", the menu and input boxes will disappear and Print-view will be displayed.