In his time: A longitudinal study of disfluency in Lord Melvyn Bragg's speech
Citation
O''Loughlin, J. (2014) In his time: A longitudinal study of disfluency in Lord
Melvyn Bragg's speech, no. 53.
Abstract
This study investigates the fluency changes in broadcaster Lord Melvyn Bragg (MB) over time. The
literature suggests that people typically become more disfluent as they get older (Bortfeld et al.,
2001; Mortensen et al., 2006). This study aims to compare MB's observed disfluency at different
time points over the fifteen years of available recordings to look at the change in frequency and
type of disfluency.
Three time points were chosen in order to compare the effect that ageing would have on MB's
speech. His disfluencies were quantified and these quantities were monitored to see if they had
changed over the timespan. Speech was segmented and the resulting speech audio was edited
and analysed by studying the acoustic and provided waveform displays of his speech using
PRAAT. Disfluency types were annotated and specific intervals and points in the speech data were
marked.
The results are inconsistent with the literature and in particular in comparison to Bortfeld et al.'s
(2001) research on the impact of ageing on disfluency. MB was not found to be more disfluent as
he got older. It was predicted that MB would produce more filled pauses, repetitions and repairs as
well as producing more words over time. The changes found over time proved to be variable,
inconsistent and not significant. As this study was on a small scale, results cannot be accurately
generalised to reflect the ageing effects in MB's speech. Future research would ideally study a
broader sample of his speech.
This study highlights the various findings and implications that the ageing process has on the
fluency of a typical ageing individual.
Type
Thesis