Modeling Phonetic Structure Using Articulatory Dynamics

研究人员将继续开发语音结构的计算模型，并利用它来帮助理解发生在各种语言中的某些发音同化位置。该模型是基于一个特定的动态系统的方法，称为任务动态，抽象的语音手势的协调模式的发音架运动在语音生产的特点。包括给定话语的手势的相对定时和参数化由手势分数指定，手势分数由模型的语言手势分量生成。为了将该模型应用于同化，研究人员计划收集关于手势结构（由模型定义）所表现出的变化的数据，这些变化是各种条件的函数，例如英语，俄语，阿拉伯语和西班牙语的说话者的语速和韵律结构。他们将模拟观察到的变异模式。由于该模型提供了一个明确的，原则性的连接之间的手势规范和声音输出，它可以用来测试模式的变化如何引起的同化。

The investigators will continue the development of a computational model of phonetic structure, and employ it to help understand certain kinds of place of articulation assimilation that occur in various languages. The model is based on a particular dynamical systems approach called task dynamics, which abstractly characterizes speech gestures in terms of coordinated patterns of articulator movements during speech production. The relative timing and parameterization of the gestures comprising a given utterance are specified by a gestural score that is generated by the model's linguistic gestural component. To apply the model to assimilation, the investigators plan to collect data on the variation exhibited by the gestural structures (as defined by the model) as a function of variety of conditions, such as speaking rate and prosodic structure, from speakers of English, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish. They will model the observed patterns of variation. Because the model provides an explicit, principled connection between gestural specification and an acoustic output, it can be used to test how patterns of variation give rise to the percept of assimilation.