Quantitative Target Approximation Model: Simulating Underlying Mechanisms of Tones and Intonations

This paper proposes a quantitative target approximation (qTA) model for simulating tone and intonation. Based on two theoretical models: the target approximation model (Y. Xu and Q.E. Wang, 2001) and the PENTA model (Y. Xu, 2005), the qTA model additionally incorporates several assumptions related to the underlying articulatory mechanisms, including (1) F₀ production can be represented by a second-order overdamped system, and (2) the system is controlled by a time-delayed feedback loop to sequentially approximate underlying pitch targets. We tested the model with the dataset from Y. Xu (1999). Two experiments were conducted to validate the model and to study the effect of tone, position, and focus. The results were satisfactory in term of the error rate and correlation