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Published: 12 October 2022

Last Updated: 25 March 2024

Spoken language in the medical field: linguistic analysis, technological applications and clinical tools

University of Salento, Lecce (February 15th - 17th 2023)

The study of the spoken language is ideal in order to get information on the person, on the
sociolinguistic system s/he refers to, and thus on his/her linguistic identity, as well on the condition of the physiological system which allows speech production. The analysis of speech offers important information and the development of tools aimed at performing automatically such analysis can have an important impact on health and social services. The increasing number of individuals affected by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease which influence communication skills in different ways, suggests the importance of interdisciplinary studies whose aim is investigating voice and speech.

The Conference is organized with reference to the PRIN 2017 Project “Phonetic analysis of dysarthric speech by speakers of different varieties of Italian to develop clinical tools”, and it promotes the discussion among researchers of different scientific disciplines who share their common interest in the interdisciplinary investigation of speech, paying also attention to technology for clinical application. Whether it’s about the evaluation of the characteristics of normophasic speech or it regards the staging of a specific disease’s development, the analysis of speech, automatic or not, offers crucial information both on a theoretical and applied level. The more interdisciplinary perspective is adopted, the richer the analysis is, taking into consideration core concepts of theoretical linguistics, speech variation as well as the potentially relevant clinical factors and the technological impact. The aim of the conference is thus to provide an interdisciplinary context that fosters communication among scholars from different fields who are interested in the study of oral language.