Doctoral Dissertation Research: Changes in Intonation: Perception and Production

不同人群的语言之间最显著的差异之一是他们的韵律，他们说话的节奏和旋律。人们可能会说不同群体的人听起来“唱歌”、“说话太快”或“声音很大”。或者，他们可能会说，他们可以根据声音的旋律来判断，例如，他们来自哪里，或者他们的种族或民族。然而，韵律的差异，以及这些差异如何随着时间的推移而变化，并没有像其他语言差异那样被研究得那么多。众所周知，人们可以用韵律来判断说话人的种族或民族，并以一种歧视性的方式使用这些信息，了解韵律差异的本质对于消除这种歧视很重要。这个项目考察了韵律，特别是中西部地区说话人的语调（旋律模式）。造成语调差异的一个重要因素是说话者的母语。此外，如果一个社区中有足够多的人说另一种语言，无论是作为第一语言还是传统语言，它都可以微妙地改变该社区的英语发音，甚至在不讲这种语言的人群中也是如此。这些变化可能会随着时间的推移而逐渐消失，但即使发生这种情况，该社区的人们可能仍然能够理解和模仿这些差异。在Brian D. Joseph博士的指导下，Rachel Steindel Burdin将利用在俄亥俄州代顿收集的生产和感知数据，调查这些在使用和理解受第一语言和传统语言影响的语调方面的变化。这个项目不仅会让我们了解语调是如何变化的，以及不同语言之间的互动过程，而且还会让我们对语言接触和语言变化的本质有更广泛的了解。

One of the most noticeable differences between the speech of different groups of people is their prosody, the rhythm and melody of their speech. People might say that different groups of people sound "sing song-y" or "talk too fast" or "sound loud." Or, they they might say that they can tell, for example, where they are from, or their race or ethnicity, based on the melody of their voice. However, differences in prosody, as well as how these differences might change over time, have not been studied as much as other linguistic differences. As it is known that people can use prosody to tell the race or ethnicity of a speaker, and use that information in a discriminatory way, understanding the nature of prosodic differences is important to combatting that discrimination. This project examines the prosody, specifically, the intonation (melodic patterns) of speakers in the Midwest. One important aspect that can cause differences in intonation is a speaker's first language. Moreover, if enough people in a community speak another language, either as a first language or heritage language, it can subtly change the sound of English in that community, even among people who don't speak that other language. These changes might fade away over time in speech production, but even if that happens, people in that community might still be able to understand, and imitate, those differences. Using both production and perception data gathered in Dayton, Ohio, Rachel Steindel Burdin, under the direction of Dr. Brian D. Joseph, will investigate these changes in the use and understanding of first and heritage language-influenced intonation. This project will not only give us insight into how intonation can change and into the processes that are in play in interactions between different languages, but it will also give us valuable insight into the nature of language contact and language change more generally.