Collaborative Research: Prosodic structure: An integrated empirical and modeling investigation

这个项目研究语言的韵律结构如何塑造口语的发音。说话是一种复杂而独特的人类能力，它依赖于语言器官（舌头、嘴唇、下巴、软腭和喉头）和呼吸系统的精确协调运动。这些动作产生的声音被听者感知到，这些声音不仅传达了话语的“字典”内容，而且还传达了其韵律内容。韵律将音韵形式组织成连续较大的单位或短语，并使某些音节、单词和短语对听者更加“突出”（在感知上或节奏上重要）。理解形成韵律结构的过程，以及这些过程如何通过语言器官的协调来传递这种结构，对于促进我们对语言处理和交流障碍的理解，改进语音技术，以及提供关于语言和认知操作之间更一般关系的见解具有深远的意义。在这个合作项目中检验的中心假设是，控制时间和音调结构的控制过程彼此密切相关。这种联系被认为是从潜在的运动控制动力学中出现的，运动控制动力学协调语言器官的运动并指导语言的产生。为了验证这一假说，作者还提出了另外两个开放性问题，即存在于不同韵律和突出水平上的单元的性质，以及音节、韵律脚、单词和短语之间的关系：“韵律脚的结构和发音声学特性是什么？”以及“如何才能最好地理解各层次之间的关系？”这些问题是通过一系列发音研究（使用电磁发音学）和声学测量来调查的，这些研究将检查：1)时间和音调特性如何在短语边界相互作用，2)时间和音调特性如何在所有突出级别内和跨级别相互作用，以及3)运动控制动力学如何塑造脚部发音-声学结构的细节。这些研究将由一系列的计算模拟来补充，这将达到双重目的，即测试项目的假设，并指导该小组的任务动力学语音生成模型的韵律成分的进一步发展。

This project examines how the prosodic structure of language shapes the articulation of spoken utterances. Speaking is a complex, uniquely human ability that relies on precisely coordinated movements of the speech organs (tongue, lips, jaw, soft palate, and larynx) and respiratory system. These movements produce sounds that listeners perceive and that convey not only the 'dictionary' content of the utterance, but also its prosodic content. Prosody organizes phonological forms into successively larger units or phrases, and renders certain syllables, words and phrases more 'prominent' (perceptually or rhythmically important) to the listener. Understanding the processes that shape prosodic structure and how these processes act to transmit this structure through coordination of the speech organs has profound implications for advancing our understanding of language processing and communication disorders, for improving speech technology, and for providing insights regarding the more general relationship between linguistic and cognitive operations.The central hypothesis examined in this collaborative project is that the control processes governing temporal and tonal structure are intimately linked with one another. This linkage is viewed as emerging from the underlying motor control dynamics that coordinate the motions of the speech organs and guide speech production. In order to investigate this hypothesis, two additional open questions are addressed concerning the nature of the units that exist at different prosodic and prominence levels, and the relationships among syllables, prosodic feet, words and phrases: "What are the structural and articulatory-acoustic properties of prosodic feet?"; and "How can the relationships among the levels be best understood?" These questions are investigated through a series of articulatory studies--using electromagnetic articulography--and acoustic measurements that will examine: 1) how temporal and tonal properties interact at phrasal boundaries, 2) how temporal and tonal properties interact within and across all levels of prominence, and 3) how motor control dynamics shape the details of articulatory-acoustic structure at the foot level. These studies will be complemented by a series of computational simulations, which will serve the dual purpose of testing the project's hypotheses and guiding further developments of the prosodic component of the group's Task-Dynamics model of speech production.