Collaborative Research: Prosodic Structure: An Integrated Empirical and Modeling Investigation

合作研究：韵律结构：综合实证和建模研究

• 批准号: 1551695
• 负责人: Louis Goldstein
• 金额: $ 11.11万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2022-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1551695&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Prosodic; Structure; Integrated

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.

这个项目研究语言的韵律结构如何塑造口语的发音。说话是一种复杂的、人类独有的能力，依赖于言语器官（舌头、嘴唇、下巴、软腭和喉）和呼吸系统的精确协调运动。这些动作产生的声音，听众感知和传达不仅是“字典”的内容的话语，但它的韵律内容。韵律将语音形式组织成连续的更大的单元或短语，并使某些音节，单词和短语对听者来说更加“突出”（感知或节奏上重要）。理解形成韵律结构的过程以及这些过程如何通过言语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，对于改善言语技术，并提供了关于语言和认知操作之间更一般关系的见解。在这个合作项目中检验的中心假设是，支配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协调言语器官运动和指导言语产生的潜在运动控制动力学中出现的。为了研究这一假设，两个额外的开放性的问题，解决存在于不同的韵律和突出水平的单位的性质，以及音节，韵律脚，单词和短语之间的关系：“什么是韵律脚的结构和发音声学特性？“;以及“如何最好地理解各层次之间的关系？“这些问题是通过一系列的发音研究-使用电磁关节描记术-和声学测量来研究的：1）时间和音调属性如何在短语边界相互作用，2）时间和音调属性如何在所有突出水平内相互作用，以及3）运动控制动力学如何塑造足部水平的发音声学结构的细节。这些研究将通过一系列的计算模拟来补充，这将有助于测试该项目的假设和指导该小组的任务动力学模型的语音产生的韵律组件的进一步发展的双重目的。