The role of production processes in determining word duration

说话的节奏和时机在交流中起着重要的作用。例如，说话者倾向于在“A stitch in time节省9”这句中比在“the number I am thinking of is 9”这句中更快地说出单词“9”。时间上的一些差异是由我们想要帮助听者理解我们的愿望所驱动的：“9”这个词在第二句中比在第一句中更难以预测，所以我们把它拉长，给听者更多的时间来理解它。或者，说话者可以在第一句中缩短9，因为这样更容易发音。说话时放慢或加快语速可能会给生产系统足够的时间来计划和生产准确、连续的语音。这个项目考察了演讲中出现的计划类型，以及它们可能影响我们说话速度的不同方式。这个项目的结果可能最终导致对语言障碍患者更好的干预，并在设计听起来更自然的人工语音系统方面取得进展。语言研究人员的一个难题是理解影响说话者如何实现特定单词的因素。例如，一个给定单词的长度至少在一定程度上是由该单词在话语中的信息量决定的（例如，它的可预测性有多强，它提供了多少新信息，等等？）人们不太了解的是每个单词的时间和持续时间背后的具体因素和机制。这个项目测试了一个假设，即不同水平的语言规划对发音时间和单词持续时间有不同的影响，研究者称这个理论为？两个域假说。根据这一假设，词汇和概念规划影响开始发音一个单词的时间，而与语音顺序相关的规划过程影响产生单词本身的时间。初步研究表明，在对单词顺序进行编码的过程中？S音很复杂，单词被拉长了。另一方面，当这种语音编码顺利进行时，单词就会变短。初步实验还表明，词汇启动效应会影响开始一个单词的时间。S发音，而不是单词？持续时间。提出的实验使用事件描述范式来测试两域假设的预测，并将更好地理解计划的哪些方面影响单词持续时间。

The rhythm and timing of our speech plays an important role in communication. For example, speakers tend to say the word nine more quickly in the sentence A stitch in time saves nine than in the sentence The number I am thinking of is nine. Some of these differences in timing are driven by our desire to help the listener understand us: the word nine is less predictable in the second sentence than it is in the first, so we lengthen it to give our listeners extra time to understand it. Alternatively, speakers may shorten nine in the first sentence because it is easier to say. Slowing down and speeding up during speaking may give the production system the time it needs to plan and produce accurate, continuous speech. This project examines the types of planning that occur during speech and the different ways they may affect our speaking rate. The results of this project may eventually lead to better interventions for individuals with speech disorders and to advances in designing artificial speech systems that sound more natural.A puzzle for language researchers is understanding the factors that affect how speakers actualize specific words. For example, the length of a given word is driven, at least in part, by how informative the word is in the discourse (e.g., how predictable it is, how much new information it provides, etc?). What is less well understood are the specific factors and mechanisms that underlie the timing and duration of each word. This project tests the hypothesis that different levels of linguistic planning have differential effects on time to articulation and word duration, a theory the investigator calls the ?two-domain hypothesis.? Under this hypothesis, lexical and conceptual planning influence the time to begin articulating a word, while planning processes related to phonological ordering affect the timing of producing the word itself. Preliminary work suggests that when the process of encoding the order of a word?s sounds is complex, the word is lengthened. On the other hand, when this phonological encoding proceeds smoothly, the word is shorter. Preliminary experiments also suggest that lexical priming affects the time to begin a word?s articulation, but not the word?s duration. The proposed experiments use an event-description paradigm to test the predictions of the two-domain hypothesis and will lead to a better understanding of which aspects of planning influence word duration.