Doctoral Dissertation Research: Category Structure of Pitch Accent in the Mid-Western Japanese Dialects

博士论文研究：中西部日语方言的重音范畴结构

• 批准号: 0921129
• 负责人: Kenneth de Jong
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0921129&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Category; Structure

Pitch is the resource used to distinguish notes in music, and it is also a ubiquitous aspect of the sound system of different languages. Languages use pitch for numerous functions, from marking off phrases and forming questions, as in English, to differentiating words. This study investigates pitch accent systems in six dialects of Japanese, which are known to rely heavily on pitch contrasts for the identification and differentiation of words. These dialects are notable for a particularly complex use of vocal pitch, called "shiki". Shiki have been described variously as local pitch specifications at the beginning of a word, and as a more global movement of pitch throughout a word. Since most current phonological representations of sounds rely on elements that represent sound locally, the dynamic and global aspects of shiki present something of a challenge to typical representational schemes. This research will determine the nature of shiki contrasts in different dialects that are known to exhibit different inventories of shiki. One other aspect of the dialects of central Japan is that they exhibit many different shiki and accent systems, forming a natural typological sample of the different ways in which shiki and accent types can be differentiated to mark different words. The study begins with the collection of recordings of different shiki-accent types in six different varieties scattered about the inland waterways of central Japan. These recordings are then submitted to acoustic analysis, with the construction of dynamic models of the time-course of pitch control. These models reduce the complex movement patterns to a set of parameters that can be examined for how they capture the word contrasts in the different dialects. It will also include a perceptual component in which these model parameters are used to create synthetic speech for perceptual evaluation by speakers of these dialects in a later field-work stage. The goal, then, is to determine those characteristics of the fundamental frequency F0 that speakers control in speech production and pay attention to in speech perception. The findings will inform the question of how linguistic systems use pitch and the typology of pitch systems cross-linguistically. The study will also contribute to our understanding of how speakers can maintain distinct shiki systems in different accents, since there are so many different and complex systems distributed over a relatively small geographic area. In addition, this research holds promise to open up new conceptualizations of the nature of pitch control, and how it should be represented in studies of pitch usage. This is relevant not only for studies of word contrasts in languages such as Japanese, but also intonational studies of languages such as English. Perhaps most importantly though, the study serves the valuable purpose of documenting several endangered dialects of Japanese. For example, the Ibukijima dialect, localized on a small island in the inland sea of Japan, is the only known dialect that maintains the same type of system as reconstructed for Old Japanese. However, the speakers of an authentic Ibukijima dialect are few in number and over seventy years of age. This study will document the speech of the dialect before this heritage is gone forever.

音高是音乐中用来区分音符的资源，也是不同语言语音系统中普遍存在的一个方面。 语言使用音高有很多功能，从标记短语和形成问题，如英语，到区分单词。 本研究探讨音高重音系统在六种方言的日本，这是众所周知的严重依赖于音高对比的识别和区分的话。这些方言以一种特别复杂的音高使用而闻名，称为“shiki”。Shiki被描述为单词开头的局部音高规范，以及整个单词中更全局的音高运动。 由于目前大多数语音的音位表征依赖于局部表征声音的元素，志的动态和全局方面对典型的表征方案提出了挑战。 这项研究将确定在不同的方言中的志贵对比的性质，已知表现出不同的志贵库存。 日本中部方言的另一个方面是，它们表现出许多不同的shiki和口音系统，形成了一个自然的类型学样本，其中shiki和口音类型可以区分为不同的单词。 这项研究首先收集了分散在日本中部内陆水道的六种不同类型的四季口音的录音。这些录音，然后提交声学分析，与结构的动态模型的时间进程的间距控制。 这些模型将复杂的运动模式简化为一组参数，可以检查它们如何捕捉不同方言中的单词对比。它还将包括一个感知组件，其中这些模型参数用于创建合成语音，以便在稍后的现场工作阶段由这些方言的扬声器进行感知评估。因此，我们的目标是确定说话人在言语产生中控制并在言语感知中注意的基频F0的那些特征。研究结果将为语言系统如何使用音高和跨语言音高系统的类型学问题提供信息。这项研究也将有助于我们理解说话者如何在不同的口音中保持不同的shiki系统，因为在一个相对较小的地理区域中分布着如此多的不同和复杂的系统。此外，这项研究有望开辟新的概念化的性质，音高控制，以及它应该如何表示在研究的音高使用。这不仅适用于日语等语言中的词语对比研究，也适用于英语等语言的语调研究。 也许最重要的是，这项研究为记录几种濒临灭绝的日语方言提供了有价值的目的。例如，位于日本内海一个小岛上的伊吹岛方言，是唯一一个保持与古日语重建系统相同类型的方言。然而，真正讲伊吹岛方言的人很少，而且年龄在70岁以上。这项研究将在这一遗产永远消失之前记录方言的语音。