Doctoral Dissertation Research: Articulatory Dynamics of Sibilant Convergence & Change

博士论文研究：齿擦音收敛的发音动力学

• 批准号: 1749342
• 负责人: Alan Yu
• 金额: $ 1.33万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-02-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1749342&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Articulatory; Dynamics

The goal of this dissertation research is to contribute to the scientific understanding of sound change, focusing on the way in which some sound changes are asymmetrically distributed. That is, given that the phonetic motivations for a sound change may be present in multiple phonological environments (the adjacent sounds), why is the change observed in one environment and not the others? This project will address this question through an examination of /s/-retraction, an ongoing sound change in American English in which /s/ is pronounced as /sh/ in /str/ words (such that 'street' is pronounced as 'shtreet') but rarely in /spr/ and /skr/ words ('scream' is not pronounced as 'shcream' and 'spree' is not pronounced as 'shpree'). The results of this project will most directly influence the scientific understanding of /s/-retraction narrowly and sound change and its initiation and propagation more broadly, but can potentially contribute to developments in related fields and industries. By examining individual variation, these findings may offer insights into first and/or second language acquisition and may aid in the development of speech recognition systems that are faster and more accurate for a greater number of users, especially those with non-standard accents.This project will examine participants' production and perception of /s/ in these environments in order to better understand the observed asymmetries in /s/-retraction. For this project, participants will listen to auditory prompts containing /s/ in different phonological environments corresponding to visually presented images, and in turn give oral instructions for the computer to select the correct image. This design has two important components: firstly, it is a lexical decision task, meaning that the participant has to select the best meaning (represented by the images) given the possibly ambiguous or unexpected acoustic signal (auditory instructions). Secondly, the task encourages phonetic accommodation, the process by which a speaker begins to sound more like their interlocutor (the model talker giving instructions), which can provide insight into how sound changes propagate across a speech community. Throughout the experiment, three simultaneous measurements will be collected: audio recording, ultrasound imaging of the tongue, and eye gaze tracking. Ultrasound imaging will elucidate the varying articulations of /s/ in different phonological environments and will also provide novel evidence for the articulatory reality of phonetic accommodation. Eye gaze measurements will provide information about listeners' use of /s/ variation in real time. These measurements will be collected simultaneously in order to examine the relationship between participants' production and perception of /s/ in these environments.

本论文研究的目的是促进对声音变化的科学理解，重点研究一些声音变化的不对称分布方式。也就是说，考虑到声音变化的语音动机可能存在于多个语音环境中（相邻的声音），为什么在一个环境中观察到这种变化，而在其他环境中却没有？这个项目将通过检查/s/-缩回来解决这个问题，在美式英语中，/s/在/str/单词中被读成/sh/（例如‘street’被读成‘shtreet’），但在/spr/和/skr/单词中很少被读成/sh/ （‘scream’不被读成‘shcream’， ‘spree’不被读成‘shpree’）。该项目的结果将最直接地影响对/s/-撤回的狭义科学理解，以及更广泛地影响健全变革及其发起和传播，但可能有助于相关领域和行业的发展。通过研究个体差异，这些发现可能为第一语言和/或第二语言习得提供见解，并可能有助于开发更快、更准确的语音识别系统，以适应更多的用户，特别是那些带有非标准口音的用户。这个项目将研究参与者在这些环境中对/s/的产生和感知，以便更好地理解所观察到的/s/-收缩的不对称性。在这个项目中，参与者将在不同的语音环境中听到与视觉呈现的图像相对应的包含/s/的听觉提示，然后口头指示计算机选择正确的图像。这个设计有两个重要组成部分：首先，这是一个词汇决策任务，这意味着参与者必须在可能含糊不清或意想不到的声音信号（听觉指令）下选择最佳的含义（由图像表示）。其次，这个任务鼓励语音适应，说话者开始听起来更像他们的对话者（给出指示的模范说话者）的过程，这可以让我们深入了解声音变化是如何在语音群体中传播的。在整个实验过程中，将同时收集三项测量数据：音频记录、舌头超声成像和眼球注视跟踪。超声成像将阐明/s/在不同语音环境中的不同发音，也将为语音适应的发音现实提供新的证据。眼睛注视测量将实时提供听者使用/s/变奏的信息。这些测量将同时收集，以检查参与者的生产和感知/s/在这些环境之间的关系。