Expression in Speech. Analysis and Synthesis.

All human speech has expression. It is part of the 'humanness' of speech, and is a quality listeners expect to find. Without expression, speech sounds lifeless and artificial. Remove expression, and what's left is the bare bones of the intended message, but none of the feelings which surround the message. The purpose of this book is to present research examining expressive content in speech with a view to simulating expression in computer speech. Human beings communicate expressively with each other in conversation: now in the computer age there is a perceived need for machines to communicate expressively with humans in dialogue.

Mark Tatham is Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. He researches the theory of the production and perception of speech within the general theory of linguistics. He has taught phonology, computational modelling, and speech aspects of neuro-psychology at the University of California and the University of Ohio.
Katherine Morton is a Fellow in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. She has published research in modelling speech production and perception within the overall framework of human communication, constrained by linguistic theory. She has taught experimental linguistics/phonetics at the University of Cambridge and the University of California.