Collaborative Research: Constituents and heads in prosody perception: A comparative study

这个项目调查了在口语中如何使用韵律来表示单词如何被组合成短语，以及每个单词和短语是如何为语篇提供信息的。在文本中，这些功能通过标点符号和文本增强(例如，粗体)来表示，但在口语中，音调、定时、响度、音质和语音的其他属性传达这样的信息。语言学家提出，所有语言的韵律背后都有一种普遍的结构，即中心成分(Hc)，它将音节和单词组合在一起，每个成分有一个突出的成分，称为中心成分。这些成分决定了语音如何协调(在物理层面上)，以及语音如何映射到决定话语意义的句法和语义结构上。韵律成分被用英语、西班牙语和法语来考察，这三种语言不仅在韵律(如语调和节奏模式)上有所不同，而且在韵律与句法和语义之间的联系上也不同。在伊利诺伊州、巴塞罗那和里昂进行的实验将展示，当听者看到语音特性(音高和时序)以及句法和语义特征不同的语音样本时，他们如何感知话语的韵律短语和突出模式。一种利用非专家听者和对话语音样本进行实时听觉转录的新方法旨在最佳地近似正常语言使用的条件。英语、西班牙语和法语的平行实验将提供关键证据，证明作为韵律形式基础的结构的中心成分的普遍性，并将揭示不同语言在韵律在传达语言意义方面的作用的差异。该项目的成果将有助于提供有关韵律在会话中如何发挥作用的宝贵基准数据，以及未来在临床环境中识别涉及韵律的言语障碍、在第二语言教学中以及在开发用于人机接口的语音技术方面的应用。

This project investigates how prosody is used in spoken language to signal how words are grouped into phrases and how each word and phrase contributes information to the discourse. In text these functions are signaled through punctuation and text enhancement (eg., boldface), but in spoken language pitch, timing, loudness, voice quality, and other properties of speech convey such information. Linguists propose that underlying the prosody of all languages is a universal structure, the Headed Constituent (HC), which groups syllables and words together, with one prominent element per constituent designated the Head element. These constituents determine how speech sounds are coordinated (at a physical level), and how speech is mapped onto syntactic and semantic structures that determine utterance meaning. Prosodic constituents are examined in English, Spanish, and French, three languages that are known to differ not only in their prosody (eg., intonation and rhythmic patterns), but also in the associations linking prosody to syntax and semantics. Experiments conducted in Illinois, Barcelona and Lyon will show how how listeners perceive the prosodic phrasing and prominence patterns of an utterance when presented with speech samples that differ in their phonetic properties (pitch and timing), and in syntactic and semantic features. A novel method of real-time, auditory transcription with non-expert listeners and conversational speech samples is intended to best approximate conditions of normal language use. Parallel experiments on English, Spanish, and French will provide critical evidence regarding the universality of the Headed Constituent as the structure that underlies prosodic form, and will also shed light on differences among languages in the role of prosody in communicating linguistic meaning. Project findings will contribute valuable benchmark data on how prosody functions in conversational speech, with future applications in clinical settings to identify speech disorders involving prosody, in second language teaching, and in development of speech technologies for human-computer interfaces.