Emotion and attitude conveyed in speech by means of prosody

In order to adapt a dialogue-system to its users and their needs, the information provided by the speech of the user constitutes useful input for a model of the user. Generating an adequate system’s response involves synthesizing speech in an appropriate expression style. This paper focuses on methodological issues concerning the study of speech variations conveying emotion and attitude. First, such a study considered in the context of spoken communication involves expression as well as perception. It is argued that production studies are optimally supplemented with perception studies. Second, it is argued that interpreting speech data in the framework of a model of intonation provides a methodological background for investigating intonation phenomena conveying emotion and attitude in speech, against the background of intonation phenomena relevant to speech communication.