Laboratory Phonology Conference, Yale University, June, 2002

美国国家科学基金会支持第八届实验室音韵学会议，该会议将由耶鲁大学语言学系和哈斯金斯实验室联合主办。本次会议将于2002年6月27日至30日在康涅狄格州纽黑文的耶鲁大学校园举行。人类通过语言进行交流的能力的研究传统上是由不同的科学家小组进行的，实验和理论，他们之间很少交流。实验科学家研究语音过程的声学和生理特征，而理论科学家研究世界语言中辅音和元音的模式。在过去的15年里，一系列关于实验室音韵学的会议促使这些群体之间的互动增加，这些会议旨在将语言模式更直接地与说话的身体活动联系起来。这种交叉授粉的研究成果已经对基础科学和应用（如语言障碍、发育迟缓和阅读障碍）产生了重要影响。第八届实验室音韵学会议将集中讨论人类语言之间的差异，这些差异对人类语言和语言的普遍属性有何影响，以及作为普遍属性基础的生物专业化的本质。许多研究表明，人类的言语和语言具有一定的特殊性，但对其确切性质没有达成一致意见。事实上，最近的两项研究得出了相反的结论。一方面，有证据表明，语音共性是由人类声道的结构和通过听觉通道交流的限制所形成的，这表明了一种声道-听觉专门化。另一方面，有证据表明，手工语言（手语）与口语具有一些重要的特性，这表明了一种更通用或抽象的专门化。这次会议将汇集研究口语和手语的顶尖科学家。它们的相互作用应该为人类言语和语言的专业化提供新的见解，激发研究手语和口语的新技术，并产生利用手语和口语潜在相似性的教学和学习新方法。

The National Science Foundation supports the Eighth Conference on Laboratory Phonology, which will be hosted jointly by the Yale University Linguistics Department and Haskins Laboratories. This conference will take place on the Yale campus in New Haven, CT, June 27-30, 2002. The study of the human capacity to communicate via speech has traditionally been carried out by separate groups of scientists, experimental and theoretical, with little communication between them. The experimental scientists examine the acoustical and physiological characteristics of the speech process, while the theoretical scientists study the ways that consonants and vowels pattern in the languages of the world. In the last 15 years, increased interaction between these groups has been spurred by a series of conferences on Laboratory Phonology, that seeks to relate language patterns more directly to the physical activities of talking. Research resulting from this cross-pollination has already had important implications for both basic science and applications such as speech disorders, developmental delays, and reading disabilities. The Eighth Conference on Laboratory Phonology will focus on differences among human languages, what those differences have to say about of the universal properties of human speech and language, and the nature of the biological specialization that underlies the universals. Much research has shown some specialization for human speech and language, but there is no agreement on its precise nature. In fact, two threads of recent research suggest conclusions in opposite directions. On the one hand, there is evidence that phonological universals have been shaped by the structure of the human vocal tract and the constraints of communicating through an aural channel, sugesting a vocal-aural specialization. On the other hand, there is evidence that manual (signed) languages share important properties with spoken languages, suggesting a more generic or abstract specialization. The conference will bring together leading scientists working on spoken languages with those working on signed languages. Their interaction should provide new insights into the human specialization for speech and language, spur new techniques for investigating both signed and spoken languages, and lead to new methods for teaching and learning signed and spoken languages that take advantage of their underlying similarities.