SSHOC Speech-to-text Workshop - Linking Social Survey and Linguistic Infrastructures through speech interviews

Survey Infrastructures systematically interview tens of thousands of individuals across Europe each year. Respondents are selected at random from all walks of life, and the hour-long interviews provide a range of data which has value for researchers and subsequently policy makers.

While complex life histories or events may be coded into the structured taxonomies required for cutting-edge sociological research, a large proportion of the information conveyed in an interview is lost. A respondent's tone of voice, linguistic fluidity, and depth of vocabulary for example can provide insights about cognitive function, socio-economic status or verbal reasoning skills.

Making use of this lost data requires the integration of social survey and linguistic infrastructures. Such integration underpins the EOSC vision. As such, the basis for the work within SSHOC on analysing voice recorded interviews seeks to provide both a proof of concept and a framework for future research that explores this approach.