Studies on the visual phonetic basis of some language sound patterns

多年来，语言学家从“音”的角度研究和解释了语言的语音系统。我们对这一研究领域的词汇“语音学”和“语音学”甚至使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获得的，在这种交流中，孩子们既看也听，就像成人模范语言一样。PI发现，对声音变化的语音解释有时会失败，因为它们只涉及语音的肌肉或声学特性，而忽略了说话的脸看起来像什么。这项研究指出了当前思维中的五个这样的问题点，提出了假设可能涉及视觉语音信息的理论基础，并概述了对这些假设的拟议测试。这个项目的最终目标是建立一种可行的语言变化理论，使预测未来的趋势成为可能。本项目中的第一组三项视听感知研究将考察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。这些研究包括冠辅音的“无标记”状态、声门塞音从同源辅音簇中的出现，以及次级唇化在双唇辅音和唇齿辅音保存中的作用。第二组两项研究将再次使用视听语音感知实验，但在这组研究中，重点是美国英语中的方言变异，特别是视觉语音线索对元音和摩擦辅音的作用。我们将进行两项视觉语音描述性研究，一项是关于低元音的研究，另一项是关于牙齿间摩擦的研究，为感知实验提供经验基础。除了有助于理解人类如何感知口语和视觉信息对言语感知的影响外，这项研究项目还将把教育和研究结合起来，为本科生和研究生提供宝贵的研究机会。它将通过社区学院的学生参与，扩大代表不足群体的参与。它还将通过在专业期刊上发表出版物和及时在网上公布结果和原材料，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.