Effect of French Liaison and Social Identity on Word Recognition

语言在个人表达其社会身份的方式中起着重要的作用。此外，听者对发音的变化很敏感，并利用他们的语言线索知识来识别熟悉的声音，并将不熟悉的说话者识别为社会中特定社会群体的成员。这个研究项目探讨了听者根据他们对说话者社会身份的期望来调整他们的语言感知系统的能力。本研究研究的社会标记语音变体是法语口语中的连读过程。连读辅音出现在单词的最后位置，当后面的单词以辅音开头时，它们不发音，但是当后面的单词以元音开头时，它们可以发音。一系列的实验将测试法语听众是否内化了根据说话者年龄（即年长的说话者产生更多的联系）和说话者社会阶层（即高社会阶层的说话者产生更多的联系）而产生的联系使用的变化，并测试法语听众是否在言语感知中使用这些信息。参与者将听一些包含或不包含连音辅音的短语。分析将包括计算连接辅音的存在或不存在对以下元音开头单词的单词识别的影响。这些短语将由讲法语的人自发地说出的话组成。在听谈话者的短语之前，参与者会被告知谈话者的年龄、社会阶层或两者的信息。尽管所有的参与者都会听相同的录音，但他们会收到关于谈话者社会身份的不同信息。例如，一些参与者将被告知，一个给定的谈话者是一个较高的社会阶层的成员，而其他参与者将被告知，同一谈话者是一个较低的社会阶层的成员。预期的结果是，连接辅音的存在或不存在将根据参与者收到的谈话者信息影响对以下元音起始词的单词识别。换句话说，参与者会根据他们对说话者社会身份的期望来调整他们的语言感知系统。这项研究的智力价值主要在于它对语音感知研究的贡献。通过测试社会期望对词汇识别的影响，本研究有效地连接了心理语言学和社会语言学的研究领域。这个项目的广泛影响是多方面的，因为我们生活在一个经常与不同口音、方言和语言的人接触的世界，我们每天都受到社会刻板印象的挑战。我们都可以从学习社会标记的发音变体如何影响我们的感知中受益。本研究的参与者将通过汇报过程直接受到影响，而其他人将从研究结果的传播中受益。例如，这项研究的结果将为自动语音识别研究提供信息，帮助法语教师教授联络过程，并启发培训计划，向个人传授语言刻板印象对语音感知的影响。

Language plays an important role in the way individuals express their social identities. In addition, listeners are sensitive to variation in pronunciation and employ their knowledge of language cues in order to recognize familiar voices and identify unknown talkers as members of particular social groups within society. This research project explores listeners' abilities to tune their speech perception systems according to their expectations of talkers' social identities. The socially marked pronunciation variant investigated in this study is the process of liaison in spoken French. Liaison consonants occur in word final position, and while they are never pronounced when the following word begins with a consonant, they can be pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel. A series of experiments will test whether French listeners internalize the variation in liaison use according to talker age (i.e., older talkers produce more liaison) and talker social class (i.e., talkers of higher social classes produce more liaison), and test whether French listeners use this information in speech perception. Participants will listen to short phrases which either do or do not contain liaison consonants. Analyses will include a calculation of the effect which the presence or absence of the liaison consonant has on word recognition of the following vowel initial word. The phrases will consist of spontaneous speech produced by various French speakers. Before listening to a talker's phrases, participants will be presented with information about the talker's age, social class, or both. Although all participants will listen to identical recordings, they will receive different information about the talkers' social identities. For example, some participants will be told that a given talker is a member of a higher social class, while other participants will be told that the same talker is a member of a lower social class. The expected outcome is that the presence or absence of liaison consonants will affect word recognition of the following vowel initial word according to the talker information the participants received. In other words, participants will tune their speech perception systems according to their expectations of the talkers' social identities.The intellectual merit of this research lies primarily in its contribution to speech perception research. By testing the effects of social expectations on word recognition, this study effectively bridges the fields of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. The broader impacts of this project are many, as we live in a world in which we regularly come into contact with speakers of different accents, dialects, and languages, and in which we are challenged daily by social stereotypes. We can all benefit from learning about how socially marked pronunciation variants affect our perception. Participants in this study will be impacted directly through the debriefing process, while others will benefit from the dissemination of the research results. For instance, results from this study will inform automatic speech recognition research, aid French language instructors teaching about the liaison process, and inspire training programs which teach individuals about the impacts of language stereotypes on speech perception.