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

该项目研究语言的韵律结构如何塑造口语表达的清晰度。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。这些动作产生听者感知的声音，不仅传达话语的“字典”内容，还传达其韵律内容。韵律将语音形式组织成连续更大的单元或短语，并使某些音节、单词和短语对听众来说更加“突出”（在感知或节奏上重要）。了解塑造韵律结构的过程以及这些过程如何通过语音器官的协调来传递这种结构，对于增进我们对语言处理和沟通障碍的理解、改进语音技术以及提供有关语言和认知操作之间更一般关系的见解具有深远的影响。这个合作项目检验的中心假设是，控制时间和声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发音器官的运动并指导言语产生的潜在运动控制动力学中产生的。为了研究这一假设，解决了两个额外的开放性问题，涉及不同韵律和突出水平上存在的单位的性质，以及音节、韵律足、单词和短语之间的关系：“韵律足的结构和发音声学特性是什么？”；以及“如何最好地理解各个级别之间的关系？”这些问题是通过一系列发音研究（使用电磁发音学）和声学测量来研究的，这些研究将检查：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部和之间相互作用，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。这些研究将得到一系列计算模拟的补充，这将服务于测试该项目的假设和指导该小组的语音产生任务动力学模型的韵律部分的进一步开发的双重目的。

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.