Studies on the visual phonetic basis of some language sound patterns

多年来，语言学家一直在研究和解释语言的语音系统的“声音”。 我们在这一领域的研究“语音学”和“音系学”甚至使用了希腊语中的声音词根：phon。 然而，语言是在面对面的交流中习得的，在这种交流中，儿童既看又听，就像成年人模仿语言一样。 PI发现，语音学对声音变化的解释有时会失败，因为它们只涉及语音的肌肉或声学特性，而忽略了说话的面孔是什么样子。拟议的研究确定了五个这样的问题点，在当前的思维，提出了假设，视觉语音信息可能涉及的基本原理，并概述了这些假设的测试。 最终的目标是一个可行的语言变化理论，这将使人们有可能预测未来的trends.The第一组的三个视听感知研究在这个项目将探讨潜在的影响，视觉语音线索在历史上的声音变化，涉及发音的地方。 这些研究包括冠状辅音的“无标记”状态，从同源辅音群中出现声门塞音，以及二次唇化在保存双唇和唇齿辅音中的作用。 第二组的两项研究将再次使用视听语音感知实验，但在这一组的重点是在美国英语的方言变化，具体处理视觉语音线索的作用，元音和摩擦辅音。 本研究将进行两个视觉语音描述性研究，一个是关于低元音的研究，一个是关于齿间摩擦音的研究，为感知实验提供实证基础，除了有助于理解人类如何感知口语以及视觉信息对言语感知的影响之外，这项研究计划将为本科生和研究生提供宝贵的研究机会，使教育和研究融为一体。它将通过社区学院学生的参与，扩大代表性不足群体的参与。 它还将通过在专业期刊上发表文章和及时在网上发表结果和原始材料，广泛传播研究成果。

Over the years linguists have studied and explained the sound systems of language in terms of "sounds". Our words for this area of study "Phonetics" and "Phonology" even employ the Greek root for sound: phon. Yet, language is acquired in face-to-face communication in which children watch as well as listen as adults model language. The PI has found that phonetic explanations of sound change sometimes fail because they refer only to muscular or acoustic properties of speech neglecting what talking faces look like. The proposed research identifies five such problem spots in current thinking, presents the rationale for hypothesizing that visual phonetic information may be involved, and outlines proposed tests of these hypotheses. The ultimate goal is a workable theory of language change that will make it possible to predict future trends.The first set of three audiovisual perception studies in this project will examine the potential impact of visual phonetic cues in historical sound changes involving place of articulation. These include studies on the "unmarked" status of coronal consonants, the emergence of glottal stop from homorganic consonant clusters, and the role of secondary labialization in the preservation of bilabial and labiodental consonants. The second set of two studies will again use audiovisual speech perception experiments but in this set the emphasis is on dialect variation in American English, dealing specifically with the role of visual phonetic cues for vowels and fricative consonants. Two visual phonetic descriptive studies, one on low vowels and one on interdental fricatives will be conducted and to provide the empirical basis for the perception experiments.In addition to its contribution to the understanding of how humans perceive spoken language and the effect that visual information has on speech perception, this research project will integrate education and research by providing valuable research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students. It will broaden the participation of under-represented groups through the involvement of students at community colleges. It will also result in the broad dissemination of research through publications in specialist journals and timely web publication of results and raw materials.