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Challenges of releasing audio material for spoken data : The case of the London–Lund Corpus 2

Pöldvere, Nele LU ; Frid, Johan LU orcid ; Johansson, Victoria LU and Paradis, Carita LU orcid (2021) In Research in Corpus Linguistics 9(1). p.35-62
Abstract
This article aims to describe key challenges of preparing and releasing audio material for spoken data and to propose solutions to these challenges. We draw on our experience of compiling the new London-Lund Corpus 2 (LLC-2), where transcripts are released together with the audio files. However, making the audio material publicly available required careful consideration of how to, most effectively, 1) align the transcripts with the audio and 2) anonymise personal information in the recordings. First, audio-to-text alignment was solved through the insertion of timestamps in front of speaker turns in the transcription stage, which, as we show in the article, may later be used as a valuable complement to more robust automatic segmentation.... (More)
This article aims to describe key challenges of preparing and releasing audio material for spoken data and to propose solutions to these challenges. We draw on our experience of compiling the new London-Lund Corpus 2 (LLC-2), where transcripts are released together with the audio files. However, making the audio material publicly available required careful consideration of how to, most effectively, 1) align the transcripts with the audio and 2) anonymise personal information in the recordings. First, audio-to-text alignment was solved through the insertion of timestamps in front of speaker turns in the transcription stage, which, as we show in the article, may later be used as a valuable complement to more robust automatic segmentation. Second, anonymisation was done by means of a Praat script, which replaced all personal information with a sound that made the lexical information incomprehensible but retained the prosodic characteristics. The public release of the LLC-2 audio material is a valuable feature of the corpus that allows users to extend the corpus data relative to their own research interests and, thus, broaden the scope of corpus linguistics. To illustrate this, we present three studies that have successfully used the LLC-2 audio material. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
audio-to-text alignment, anonymisation, corpus compilation, spoken corpora, prosody, Praat
in
Research in Corpus Linguistics
volume
9
issue
1
pages
28 pages
publisher
Spanish Association for Corpus Linguistics
external identifiers
  • scopus:85114329797
ISSN
2243-4712
DOI
10.32714/ricl.09.01.04
project
The London-Lund Corpus 2 of spoken British English (LLC 2)
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7f479b4e-f51e-40b3-b705-bb7fd5b029be
date added to LUP
2021-06-07 16:48:51
date last changed
2023-11-22 15:41:20
@article{7f479b4e-f51e-40b3-b705-bb7fd5b029be,
  abstract     = {{This article aims to describe key challenges of preparing and releasing audio material for spoken data and to propose solutions to these challenges. We draw on our experience of compiling the new London-Lund Corpus 2 (LLC-2), where transcripts are released together with the audio files. However, making the audio material publicly available required careful consideration of how to, most effectively, 1) align the transcripts with the audio and 2) anonymise personal information in the recordings. First, audio-to-text alignment was solved through the insertion of timestamps in front of speaker turns in the transcription stage, which, as we show in the article, may later be used as a valuable complement to more robust automatic segmentation. Second, anonymisation was done by means of a Praat script, which replaced all personal information with a sound that made the lexical information incomprehensible but retained the prosodic characteristics. The public release of the LLC-2 audio material is a valuable feature of the corpus that allows users to extend the corpus data relative to their own research interests and, thus, broaden the scope of corpus linguistics. To illustrate this, we present three studies that have successfully used the LLC-2 audio material.}},
  author       = {{Pöldvere, Nele and Frid, Johan and Johansson, Victoria and Paradis, Carita}},
  issn         = {{2243-4712}},
  keywords     = {{audio-to-text alignment; anonymisation; corpus compilation; spoken corpora; prosody; Praat}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{35--62}},
  publisher    = {{Spanish Association for Corpus Linguistics}},
  series       = {{Research in Corpus Linguistics}},
  title        = {{Challenges of releasing audio material for spoken data : The case of the London–Lund Corpus 2}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.32714/ricl.09.01.04}},
  doi          = {{10.32714/ricl.09.01.04}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}