Annotating disfluency in speech corpora

Verdonik, Darinka (author)

The paper investigates disfluencies in speech, defined as phenomena that typically disrupt the flow of speech and do not contribute to its primary propositional content. These phenomena typically include filled and silent pauses, self-repairs, repetitions, and related features. Rather than being treated as errors, disfluencies are conceptualized as an integral component of spoken interaction. A review of the most influential annotation schemes reveals that no single framework has been established as a generally accepted standard. Combining an inductive, data-driven approach with a critical analysis of existing categorizations, the study proposes a tailored, multi-layer annotation scheme. This scheme covers a broad range of phenomena previously identified as disfluencies in earlier frameworks. The evaluation demonstrates that the scheme is sufficiently clear and unambiguous, offers well-defined and appropriate categories, and is comparable to other contemporary schemes. The study contributes to the development of spoken-language resources for Slovenian and provides a foundation for future linguistic, psycholinguistic, and technological research.

• Language: English
• Keywords: filled pause, repetition, self-repair, spoken language, prosody
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 09.10.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 135-168
• Numbering: Letn. 14, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190073
• UDC: 811.163.6
• ISSN on article: 2335-2736
• DOI: 10.4312/slo2.0.2026.1.135-168
• COBISS.SI-ID: 294614275
• Publication date in RUL: 21.10.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Slovenščina 2.0 : empirične, aplikativne in interdisciplinarne raziskave
• Publisher: Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Trojina, zavod za uporabno slovenistiko, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2335-2736
• COBISS.SI-ID: 264547328

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Označevanje netekočnosti v govornih korpusih

Abstract

Prispevek obravnava netekočnosti (angl. disfluencies) v govoru, to so pojavi, ki prekinjajo tok govora in ne prispevajo nujno k propozicijski vsebini. Tipično vključujejo zapolnjene in tihe premore, samopopravljanja, ponavljanja ipd. Netekočnosti ne obravnavamo kot napake, ampak kot sestavni del govorne interakcije. Po pregledu najvplivnejših označevalnih shem ugotovimo, da se nobena ni uveljavila kot splošno sprejeti standard. S kombinacijo induktivnega pristopa, izhajajočega iz empiričnih podatkov, in kritičnega pregleda obstoječih kategorizacij razvijemo prilagojeno večplastno označevalno shemo. Ta vključuje širok nabor pojavov, ki so bili prepoznani kot netekočnosti v predhodnih shemah. Evalvacija kaže, da je shema primerno jasna in enoumna, da ima definirane ustrezne kategorije in je primerljiva z drugimi sodobnimi shemami. Raziskava prispeva k razvoju govornih virov za slovenščino ter nudi osnovo za nadaljnje jezikoslovne, psiholingvistične in tehnološke študije.

• Keywords: zapolnjeni govor, ponavljanje, samopopravljanje, govorjeni jezik, prozodija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J7-4642
• Name: Temeljne raziskave za razvoj govornih virov in tehnologij za slovenščino