Syntax-Prosody in Optimality Theory

语法是支配句子结构的一套语言规则、原则和过程。韵律学涉及音节、被称为“音节”的音节韵律组，以及构成语调、语调、重音和语音节奏的更大的语言单位。语法-韵律界面是研究不同语言中句法结构如何以韵律形式实现的问题。语法韵律研究的根本问题是准确预测给定语言中的任何一种句法结构，该语言的语法将赋予它什么样的韵律解析。众所周知，语言在这方面表现出很大的差异。在这个项目中开发的工具和分析将使研究人员能够探索和解释在句法和韵律结构之间的关系中观察到的广泛的跨语言差异，从而扩展人类语言，认知和学习的基础科学。为了以一种严格而精确的方式解决这个问题，有必要考虑任何语法输入的完整的可想象的韵律结构候选集，迄今为止还没有开发出正式的工具来完成这项任务。自动化是必不可少的，因为随着长度和句法复杂性的增加，候选韵律结构的数量呈指数级增长：给定对反映广泛共享假设的合法韵律结构的特定理解，3个单词接受48种不同的解析，4个单词接受352种解析，5个单词接受2880种解析，等等。该项目的目标是开发一个软件程序SPOT（最优性理论中的语法-韵律），这是一个JavaScript应用程序，它提供了韵律候选词的详尽生成，并根据定义良好的约束层次对每个候选词进行自动评估。除了在语言学方面的直接目标之外，该计划在自然语言处理，语音技术（识别和生产，翻译）以及第二语言研究和教学（例如，解释第一语言和第二语言之间的句法和韵律结构差异）方面具有明确的应用可能性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Syntax is the set of linguistic rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences. Prosody deals with syllables, rhythmic groups of syllables known as "feet", and larger units of speech that contribute to intonation, tone, stress, and speech rhythm. The syntax-prosody interface is the study of how syntactic structures are realized in prosodic form in different languages. The fundamental problem in syntax-prosody research is to precisely predict, for any kind of syntactic structure in a given language, what kind of prosodic parse it will be assigned by the language's grammar. Languages are known to show wide variation in this respect. The tools and analyses developed in this project will enable researchers to explore and explain the extensive cross-linguistic variation observed in the relation between syntactic and prosodic structure, and will thereby extend the basic science of human language, cognition, and learning. In order to approach the problem in a rigorous and precise way, it is necessary to consider the full set of imaginable prosodic structure candidates for any syntactic input, a task for which no formal tool has so far been developed. Automation is essential since the number of prosodic structure candidates increases exponentially, as length and syntactic complexity increase: Given a particular understanding of what constitutes a legitimate prosodic structure that reflects widely shared assumptions, 3 words receive 48 different parses, 4 words 352, 5 words 2880, etc. The aim of the project is to develop a software program SPOT (Syntax-Prosody in Optimality Theory), a JavaScript application that provides both exhaustive generation of the prosodic candidates, and automatic evaluation of each candidate in terms of a well-defined hierarchy of constraints. Beyond its immediate goals in linguistics, the program has clear application possibilities in natural language processing, speech technology (recognition and production, translation), as well as in second language research and teaching (e.g., to explicate the differences in syntactic and prosodic structure between the first and the second language).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.