Dr. Malte Belz

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik

Mein Forschungsinteresse gilt den phonetischen und prosodischen Eigenschaften gesprochensprachlicher Phänomene, sowohl für die Mutter- als auch die Lernersprache Deutsch, die ich mit experimentellen und korpusbasierten Methoden auf akustischer und artikulatorischer Ebene untersuche. Neben Untersuchungen gelesener Sprache bin ich besonders an spontansprachlichen Dialogen interessiert.

Projects

C06 Seemingly free (morpho)phonetic variation

Contact

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 24, 10117 Berlin

(030)2093-9693

malte.belz@hu-berlin.de https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4645-0085

Publications & Presentations

    Publications

  • Lange, Robert; Sell, Bianca Maria; Terada, Megumi; Belz, Malte; Mooshammer, Christine; Lüdeling, Anke  (2024) Schwa realisation in verbal inflection in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech  In: Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract Word-final schwa in German inflectional suffixes shows varying realisations in spontaneous speech – from full realisations with varying duration to no realisation. While previous research has identified numerous social, distributional, and grammatical factors influencing the variation of phonetic variables in general, it remains unclear how fine-grained functional differences in different registers specifically affect schwa realisation. In this corpus-based study, we compare schwa realisation in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech – free conversation and task-based dialogues – which differ only in their communicative goal and therefore have different functional requirements. We find that schwa is rarely realised, though slightly but significantly more often in free conversation than in task-based dialogue. Other factors also promoting schwa realisation across both situations are less frequent verbs and sequences, and IP-final position.
  • Lange, Robert; Sell, Bianca Maria; Terada, Megumi; Belz, Malte; Mooshammer, Christine; Lüdeling, Anke  (2024) Schwa realisation in verbal inflection in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech  In: Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft [DOI] [ViVo]
    Abstract Word-final schwa in German inflectional suffixes shows varying realisations in spontaneous speech – from full realisations with varying duration to no realisation. While previous research has identified numerous social, distributional, and grammatical factors influencing the variation of phonetic variables in general, it remains unclear how fine-grained functional differences in different registers specifically affect schwa realisation. In this corpus-based study, we compare schwa realisation in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech – free conversation and task-based dialogues – which differ only in their communicative goal and therefore have different functional requirements. We find that schwa is rarely realised, though slightly but significantly more often in free conversation than in task-based dialogue. Other factors also promoting schwa realisation across both situations are less frequent verbs and sequences, and IP-final position.
  • Belz, Malte; Ebert, Melissa; Müller, Miriam; Sun, Jianqi; Terada, Megumi; Xia, Qiang  (2023) Einfluss videobasierter Kommunikation (Zoom) auf die Vokalqualität  In: P&P 18. Universität Bielefeld [DOI] [ViVo]
    Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum, Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum
  • Belz, Malte; Ebert, Melissa; Müller, Miriam; Sun, Jianqi; Terada, Megumi; Xia, Qiang  (2023) Einfluss videobasierter Kommunikation (Zoom) auf die Vokalqualität  In: P&P 18. Universität Bielefeld [DOI] [ViVo]
    Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum, Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum
  • Belz, Malte  (2023) Reduced vowel space in video conferences via Zoom: Evidence from read speech  In: JASA Express Letters [DOI] [ViVo]
    This exploratory study compared vowel space area (VSA) in face-to-face situations and video conference situations using the software Zoom. Twenty native German participants read word lists recorded before and after spontaneous conversation. The overall VSA in Zoom was reduced significantly by 11.9%, with a more reduced VSA before and less reduction after the spontaneous conversation. Of nine peripheral vowels in German, /aː iː yː/ showed a significantly reduced Euclidean distance to the centroid of the vowel space. The observed hypoarticulation is discussed in light of the experimental setup, situational differences, and less involvement in Zoom than in face-to-face situations.
  • Belz, Malte  (2023) Reduced vowel space in video conferences via Zoom: Evidence from read speech  In: JASA Express Letters [DOI] [ViVo]
    This exploratory study compared vowel space area (VSA) in face-to-face situations and video conference situations using the software Zoom. Twenty native German participants read word lists recorded before and after spontaneous conversation. The overall VSA in Zoom was reduced significantly by 11.9%, with a more reduced VSA before and less reduction after the spontaneous conversation. Of nine peripheral vowels in German, /aː iː yː/ showed a significantly reduced Euclidean distance to the centroid of the vowel space. The observed hypoarticulation is discussed in light of the experimental setup, situational differences, and less involvement in Zoom than in face-to-face situations.
  • Sell, Bianca Maria; Belz, Malte  (2022) Picture materials of anthropomorphic animals for the use in speech production and perception experiments [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    These picture materials consist of 10 sets à 4 drawn similar yet slightly different pictures. The picture materials were designed as stimuli for the use in speech production and perception experiments and depict different anthropomorphic animals in curious situations. All pictures are available as JPEG and PNG files.
  • Sell, Bianca Maria; Belz, Malte  (2022) Picture materials of anthropomorphic animals for the use in speech production and perception experiments [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    These picture materials consist of 10 sets à 4 drawn similar yet slightly different pictures. The picture materials were designed as stimuli for the use in speech production and perception experiments and depict different anthropomorphic animals in curious situations. All pictures are available as JPEG and PNG files.
  • Belz, Malte; Mooshammer, Christine; Zöllner, Alina; Adam, Lea-Sophie  (2021) Berlin Dialogue Corpus (BeDiaCo): Version 2 [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    BeDiaCo contains topic-led and task-led spontaneous dialogues of 36 participants as well as read word lists. The main corpus BeDiaCom contains 16 subjects not known to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation. The subcorpus BeDiaCov contains 20 subjects known and familiar to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation and, additionally, in a spatially separated videoconference situation. The corpus contains audio and TextGrid files and is annotated by employing a multi-layer architecture. In addition to a diplomatic transliteration and its phonetic segmentation, further annotation levels contain, for example, annotation values for filler particles, intonation phrases, dialogue structure, word types, and the realization of inflection.
  • Belz, Malte; Mooshammer, Christine; Zöllner, Alina; Adam, Lea-Sophie  (2021) Berlin Dialogue Corpus (BeDiaCo): Version 2 [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]
    BeDiaCo contains topic-led and task-led spontaneous dialogues of 36 participants as well as read word lists. The main corpus BeDiaCom contains 16 subjects not known to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation. The subcorpus BeDiaCov contains 20 subjects known and familiar to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation and, additionally, in a spatially separated videoconference situation. The corpus contains audio and TextGrid files and is annotated by employing a multi-layer architecture. In addition to a diplomatic transliteration and its phonetic segmentation, further annotation levels contain, for example, annotation values for filler particles, intonation phrases, dialogue structure, word types, and the realization of inflection.
  • Belz, Malte; Zöllner, Alina; Terada, Megumi; Lange, Robert; Adam, Lea-Sophie; Sell, Bianca Maria  (2021) Dokumentation und Annotationsrichtlinien für das Korpus BeDiaCo [DOI] [ViVo]
    BeDiaCo contains topic-led and task-led spontaneous dialogues of 36 participants as well as two read word lists per subject. The main corpus BeDiaCom contains 16 subjects not known to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation. The subcorpus BeDiaCov contains 20 subjects known and familiar to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation and, additionally, in a spatially separated videoconference situation. The corpus contains audio and TextGrid files and is annotated by employing a multi-layer  architecture. In addition to a diplomatic transliteration and its phonetic segmentation, further annotation levels contain, for example, annotation values for filler particles, intonation phrases, dialogue structure, word types, and the realization of inflection.
  • Belz, Malte; Zöllner, Alina; Terada, Megumi; Lange, Robert; Adam, Lea-Sophie; Sell, Bianca Maria  (2021) Dokumentation und Annotationsrichtlinien für das Korpus BeDiaCo [DOI] [ViVo]
    BeDiaCo contains topic-led and task-led spontaneous dialogues of 36 participants as well as two read word lists per subject. The main corpus BeDiaCom contains 16 subjects not known to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation. The subcorpus BeDiaCov contains 20 subjects known and familiar to each other in a co-present face-to-face situation and, additionally, in a spatially separated videoconference situation. The corpus contains audio and TextGrid files and is annotated by employing a multi-layer  architecture. In addition to a diplomatic transliteration and its phonetic segmentation, further annotation levels contain, for example, annotation values for filler particles, intonation phrases, dialogue structure, word types, and the realization of inflection.

    • Presentations