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Class javax.speech.Word

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--javax.speech.Word

public class Word

extends Object

The Word class provides a standard representation of speakable words for speech engines. A Word object provides the following information:

• "Written form" string: text that can be used to present the Word visually.
• "Spoken form" text: printable string that indicates how the word is spoken.
• Pronunciation: a string of phonetic characters indicating how the word is spoken.
• Grammatical categories: flags indicating grammatical "part-of-speech" information.

The written form string is required. The other properties are optional. Typically, one or more of the optional properties are specified. The Word class allows the specification of multiple pronunciations and multiple grammatical categories. Each pronunciation must be approporiate to each category. If not, separate Word objects should be created.

All the optional properties of a word are hints to the speech engine. Speech engines will use the information as appropriate for their internal design.

See Also:

VocabManager, getVocabManager

Field Summary

static long	ABBREVIATION Word is an abbreviation or acronynm.
static long	ADJECTIVE Grammatical category of word is adjective.
static long	ADVERB Grammatical category of word is adverb.
static long	AUXILIARY Grammatical category of word is auxiliary.
static long	CARDINAL Grammatical category of word is cardinal.
static long	CONJUNCTION Grammatical category of word is conjunction.
static long	CONTRACTION Grammatical category is contraction.
static long	DETERMINER Grammatical category of word is determiner.
static long	DONT_CARE Grammatical category of word doesn't matter.
static long	NOUN Grammatical category of word is noun.
static long	OTHER Other grammatical category of word not specified elsewhere in this class.
static long	PREPOSITION Grammatical category of word is preposition.
static long	PRONOUN Grammatical category of word is pronoun.
static long	PROPER_ADJECTIVE Grammatical category of word is proper adjective.
static long	PROPER_NOUN Grammatical category of word is proper noun.
static long	UNKNOWN Grammatical category of word is unknown.
static long	VERB Grammatical category of word is verb.

Method Summary

long	getCategories() Get the categories of the Word.
String[]	getPronunciations() Get the pronunciations of the Word.
String	getSpokenForm() Get the "spoken form" of the Word.
String	getWrittenForm() Get the written form of the Word.
void	setCategories(long cat) Set the categories of the Word.
void	setPronunciations(String[] pron) Set the pronunciation of the Word as an array containing a phonetic character String for each pronunciation of the word.
void	setSpokenForm(String text) Set the "spoken form" of the Word.
void	setWrittenForm(String text) Set the "written form" of the Word.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notifyAll, notify, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

UNKNOWN

public static final long UNKNOWN

Grammatical category of word is unknown. The value is zero - 0 - and implies that no other category flag is set.

DONT_CARE

public static final long DONT_CARE

Grammatical category of word doesn't matter.

OTHER

public static final long OTHER

Other grammatical category of word not specified elsewhere in this class.

NOUN

public static final long NOUN

Grammatical category of word is noun. English examples: "car", "house", "elephant".

PROPER_NOUN

public static final long PROPER_NOUN

Grammatical category of word is proper noun. English examples: "Yellowstone", "Singapore".

PRONOUN

public static final long PRONOUN

Grammatical category of word is pronoun. English examples: "me", "I", "they".

VERB

public static final long VERB

Grammatical category of word is verb. English examples: "run", "debug", "integrate".

ADVERB

public static final long ADVERB

Grammatical category of word is adverb. English examples: "slowly", "loudly", "barely", "very", "never".

ADJECTIVE

public static final long ADJECTIVE

Grammatical category of word is adjective. English examples: "red", "mighty", "very", "first", "eighteenth".

PROPER_ADJECTIVE

public static final long PROPER_ADJECTIVE

Grammatical category of word is proper adjective. English examples: "British", "Brazilian".

AUXILIARY

public static final long AUXILIARY

Grammatical category of word is auxiliary. English examples: "have", "do", "is", "shall", "must", "cannot".

DETERMINER

public static final long DETERMINER

Grammatical category of word is determiner. English examples: "the", "a", "some", "many", "his", "her".

CARDINAL

public static final long CARDINAL

Grammatical category of word is cardinal. English examples: "one", "two", "million".

CONJUNCTION

public static final long CONJUNCTION

Grammatical category of word is conjunction. English examples: "and", "or", "since", "if".

PREPOSITION

public static final long PREPOSITION

Grammatical category of word is preposition. English examples: "of", "for".

CONTRACTION

public static final long CONTRACTION

Grammatical category is contraction. English examples: "don't", "can't".

ABBREVIATION

public static final long ABBREVIATION

Word is an abbreviation or acronynm. English examples: "Mr.", "USA".

Method Detail

setWrittenForm

public void setWrittenForm(String text)

Set the "written form" of the Word. The written form text should be a string that could be used to present the Word visually.

getWrittenForm

public String getWrittenForm()

Get the written form of the Word.

setSpokenForm

public void setSpokenForm(String text)

Set the "spoken form" of the Word. May be null.

The spoken form of a word is useful for mapping the written form to words that are likely to be handled by a speech recognizer or synthesizer. For example, "JavaSoft" to "java soft", "toString" -> "to string", "IEEE" -> "I triple E".

getSpokenForm

public String getSpokenForm()

Get the "spoken form" of the Word. Returns null if the spoken form is not defined.

setPronunciations

public void setPronunciations(String[] pron)

Set the pronunciation of the Word as an array containing a phonetic character String for each pronunciation of the word.

The pronunciation string uses the IPA subset of Unicode.

The string should be null if no pronunciation is available. Speech engines should be expected to handle most words of the language they support.

Recognizers can use pronunciation information to improve recognition accuracy. Synthesizers use the information to accurately speak unusual words (e.g., foreign words).

getPronunciations

public String[] getPronunciations()

Get the pronunciations of the Word. The pronunciation string uses the Unicode IPA subset. Returns null if no pronunciations are specified.

setCategories

public void setCategories(long cat)

Set the categories of the Word. The categories may be UNKNOWN or may be an OR'ed set of the defined categories such as NOUN, VERB, PREPOSITION. For example:

     Word w = new Word("running");
     w.setCategories(Word.NOUN | Word.VERB);
 

The category information is a guide to the word's grammatical role. Speech synthesizers can use this information to improve phrasing and accenting.

getCategories

public long getCategories()

Get the categories of the Word. Value may be UNKNOWN or an OR'ed set of the categories defined by this class.