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| AV俱乐部 graduate student Connie Adsett is a winner of one of two Andre Hamer Postgraduate Prizes. (Photo supplied) |
The rule is: 脭i脮 before 脭e脮 except after 脭c.脮
But that rule gets broken all the time. (Think 脪weird,鈥� 脪chief,鈥� 脪beige,鈥� etc.) Not to mention that syllables don脮t always break between double letters or begin with a consonant. The English language is full of exceptions.
Which is why rule-based text-to-speech computer programs tend to talk funny.
Computer scientist Connie Adsett is investigating how to minimize that problem by finding the best tools for automatically breaking words into their proper syllables instead of relying on a rules-based system.
Her research has been recognized with a top prize awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Each year, the federal funding agency awards two Andr沤 Hamer Postgraduate Prizes, and this year, both are going to AV俱乐部-affiliated researchers.
The other聽prize goes to PhD student Erin Johnson, who came to AV俱乐部 to continue working with her supervisor, Dr. Axel Becke, one of the聽most-cited聽chemists in the world.聽As a computational chemist, the Queen脮s University PhD student predicts how chemicals behave using modeling methods on the computer instead of doing experiments in the lab. Her current research focuses on refining existing modeling methods and developing new ones to increase their accuracy and efficiency.聽
脪There are a lot of good reasons for figuring out how to make the computer pronounce words better,鈥� continues Ms. Adsett, reached in England where she is a visiting student.
Text-to-speech technology is useful for people with certain disabilities. Blind people, for example, can have the contents of electronic documents read to them and those unable to speak can enter words that the computer will speak for them. And, it脮s not too far off to imagine that soon we脮ll be asking our handheld computers to read our email for us.
脪I guess I脮ve always been curious,鈥� says Ms. Adsett, who does her work at the NRC Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC-IBD) located at the Halifax Infirmary. Her supervisor is Dr. Yannick Marchand.
脪When you脮re in computer science, you脮re always dealing with programs that don脮t work and need fixing. It脮s such a high when you solve a problem and then go on to the next one.鈥�
Besides working on text-to-speech programs for the English language, the 23-year-old聽 graduate student says her research also focuses on programs for German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian and lesser-known languages, Basque, from northern Spain, and Frisian, spoken in the north of Holland and Germany. The languages were chosen because they have databases of words in which syllabification is known.
In the case of Frisian and Basque, databases exist thanks to the efforts of people trying to preserve traditional dialects.
脪It脮s because people are really dedicated to making these languages survive,鈥� she explains.