9. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for converting text to speech, said method comprising the steps of: accepting text input; providing synthetic speech output corresponding to the text input; accepting instruction for at least one emotion-based paradigm wherein said step of accepting instruction comprises accepting at least one emoticon-based command from a user interface that indicates at least one emotion to impart to speech synthesized from at least a portion of the text input; and applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm, said step of applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm comprising: selecting at least one segment from a data store of audio segments, the selecting of the at least one segment being based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command to assist in imparting the at least one emotion to the speech synthesized from at least the portion of the text input; altering at least one prosodic pattern to be used in the synthetic speech output based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command.
9. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for converting text to speech, said method comprising the steps of: accepting text input; providing synthetic speech output corresponding to the text input; accepting instruction for at least one emotion-based paradigm wherein said step of accepting instruction comprises accepting at least one emoticon-based command from a user interface that indicates at least one emotion to impart to speech synthesized from at least a portion of the text input; and applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm, said step of applying the at least one emotion-based paradigm comprising: selecting at least one segment from a data store of audio segments, the selecting of the at least one segment being based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command to assist in imparting the at least one emotion to the speech synthesized from at least the portion of the text input; altering at least one prosodic pattern to be used in the synthetic speech output based at least in part on the at least one emoticon-based command. 13. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said step of applying at least one emotion-based paradigm comprises altering at least one of speed and amplitude in order to affect at least one of: prosody, intonation and intonation intensity in synthetic speech output.