Studies on the visual phonetic basis of some language sound patterns

某些语言声音模式的视觉语音基础研究

• 批准号: 1147583
• 负责人: Keith Johnson
• 金额: $ 30.02万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-15 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1147583&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Studies; visual; phonetic; basis; some

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.

多年来，语言学家一直用“声音”来研究和解释语言的声音系统。 我们对这一研究领域的称呼“语音学”和“音系学”甚至采用了希腊语中声音的词根：phon。 然而，语言是在面对面的交流中习得的，在这种交流中，孩子们观察和倾听成人的语言模型。 PI 发现，对声音变化的语音解释有时会失败，因为它们仅涉及语音的肌肉或声学特性，而忽略了说话的面孔的样子。拟议的研究确定了当前思维中的五个此类问题点，提出了可能涉及视觉语音信息的假设的基本原理，并概述了对这些假设的拟议测试。 最终目标是建立一个可行的语言变化理论，使预测未来趋势成为可能。该项目中的第一组三项视听感知研究将研究视觉语音线索在涉及发音位置的历史声音变化中的潜在影响。 其中包括对冠状辅音“无标记”状态的研究、同元辅音簇中声门塞音的出现以及次级唇音化在保存双唇音和唇齿音辅音中的作用。 第二组研究将再次使用视听语音感知实验，但在这组研究中，重点是美式英语中的方言变化，特别是处理元音和摩擦辅音的视觉语音提示的作用。 将进行两项视觉语音描述性研究，一项针对低元音，一项针对齿间摩擦音，为感知实验提供实证基础。该研究项目除了有助于理解人类如何感知口语以及视觉信息对语音感知的影响之外，还将为本科生和研究生提供宝贵的研究机会，将教育和研究结合起来。它将通过社区大学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出版物以及及时在网络上发布结果和原材料来广泛传播研究成果。