Limits and benefits of information-theoretic perspectives in spoken communication

Interspeech 2023 Satellite Workshop, Dublin, Aug 19, 2023

Information-theoretic factors have been identified and used to account for fine-grained phonetic variations in speech, as rational speakers and listeners can adapt speech to be efficient in transmitting information. However, information is constantly changing to reflect communication needs. As conversation unfolds, the distribution and density of information changes over time. It is therefore important to consider to what extent, and how, interlocutors track and predict these informational updates, which in turn guide linguistic and phonetic encoding. These encoding strategies may evolve over the course of a conversation under the rubric/assumption of efficient communication. This raises some methodological questions regarding the definition and measurement of features that encode information-theoretic factors, and what counts as ‘communicative efficiency’. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers examining the limits and benefits of information-theoretic perspectives in dynamic spoken communication contexts. We welcome submissions addressing these topics in the context of interactive conversational settings, in both human-human and human-computer spoken communication.


Abstract submission is closed.

Up-to-date workshop program


Conference organizers
Bistra Andreeva (Saarland University)
Omnia Ibrahim (Saarland University)
Bernd Möbius (Saarland University)
James Whang (Seoul National University)
Ivan Yuen (Saarland University)

Keynote speakers
Ann Bradlow (Northwestern University) confirmed
Okko Räsänen (Tampere University) confirmed

Contact: Please direct all inquiries to lbit2023@lst.uni-saarland.de


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