Research Topic (thematic issue): Science, Technology and Art in the Spoken Expression of Meaning

Nonverbal language is a rich source of indexical and symbolic information in speech communication and a demanding field for scientific, technological, and artistic investigation. There is no speech communicative interaction in which pragmatic meanings are not conveyed either by voice quality, speech prosody or body gestures. Structuring prosodic information in its varied forms is the means the speaker uses to give a particular meaning to her/his saying. The study of prosody of speech produced by a human speaker or a machine in real-life situations for informing, for allowing a dialogue in the context of human-human or human-machine interactions, for entertaining, for communicating and for impressing the listener can pave the way to a better understanding of how prosody shapes speech production and perception in diverse domains such as technology, art, and scientific investigation.

The main goal of this research topic is to shed light on how vocal and
visual prosodic information varies across the most diverse situations of real
life to express meaning. Work on emotional prosody, on vocal aesthetics,
on the prosody expression of different attitudes in real-life situations,
including human-machine interaction and art and entertainment, is the
privileged kind of investigation we welcome in this research topic.

Particular themes may include, but are not limited to:

1. Prosodic meaning in spontaneous situations.
2. Indexical meaning in spoken communication.
3. Prosody of speaking, declamation and singing styles.
4. Voices and talking heads in TTS systems.
5. Voices in oral poetry and synesthetic kinds of art.
6. Voices in the entertainment industry, especially in animations.
7. Voices in the cinema, theatre, TV, radio, and other media performances.
8. Vocal and visual prosody in linguistic, paralinguistic, and extralinguistic
features.
9. Vocal stereotypes, sound symbolism, and voice aesthetics
10. Sonorities and their synesthetic perceptual effects.
11. Sonorities and their effect on wellbeing, mental health, and related
areas.
12. Sonorities in sensory landscapes.
13. Sonorities in animal communication.
14. Sonorities and cross modalities.

Submission Deadlines

Link to submission: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/38820/science-technology-and-art-in-the-spoken-expression-of-meaning