Professional Summary

Linguist and researcher specialized in prosody, speech acts, lexicography, and pragmatic linguistics. Over a decade of academic research experience focused on the analysis of speech structures and natural-sounding communication. Currently working as an independent consultant, offering strategic linguistic insights for AI voice teams developing TTS systems. My work includes corpus reclassification, prosodic pattern analysis, and practical recommendations for implementing prosodic features in synthetic voice systems.

Education

PhD in Philosophy with specialization in Linguistics
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany)
Master’s Degree in Humanities with focus on Linguistics
Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics

Research Interests

• Prosody and speech structure
• Speech acts and communicative functions
• Lexicography and pragmatic linguistics
• Corpus annotation and prosodic modeling
• Cross-linguistic prosody in Western languages

Technical Skills

• Praat (phonetic analysis)
• Prosodic transcription and annotation
• Linguistic data interpretation
• Conceptual modeling for TTS systems

Languages

• Spanish (Native)
• English (Professional working proficiency)
• German (Advanced)

Selected Publications

Widner, L. (Year). Die orthografische Realisierung von Mündlichkeit in sozialen Netzwerken: Spanische Internettexte aus Mexiko.

🔗 Please note: The link on this website that leads to the book listing and purchase is part of the commercial activities of D8C Books. This consulting service is offered independently by Dr. Lesly Widner.