Collaborative Research: Investigations into tone and stress in a complex prosodic system

合作研究：复杂韵律系统中的音调和重音研究

• 批准号: 1757473
• 负责人: Ryan Bennett
• 金额: $ 15.88万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1757473&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Investigations; into; tone

The sound systems of human languages differ widely, as any student of foreign languages knows. One way in which languages differ is their use of stress and tone. English is a language which uses stress to distinguish word meanings: compare the word "record" when used as a verb ("to recórd") and as a noun ("the récord"). Other languages use stress to mark the edges of words. Similar patterns are found with tone: in Tokyo Japanese, for instance, the meaning of the word "hashi" depends on the pitch melody with which it is spoken (with a high-low melody it means "chopsticks", and with a low-high melody it means "bridge"). Languages which use just one of these features are very common. Less common, and less studied, are languages which use stress and tone together. Until such languages are studied in greater detail, we will not have a complete picture of the sound systems of human languages and the ways in which they can vary.This project investigates stress and tone in Uspanteko, a highly endangered Mayan language spoken by approximately 1000-3000 people in the central highlands of Guatemala. Uspanteko uses tone to distinguish word meanings, as in "síip" (high tone, means "tick") vs. "siip" (no high tone, means "gift"). Alongside tone, stress is used in Uspanteko to mark the edges of words. The primary aim of this project is to document and analyze the acoustic structure of stress and tone in Uspanteko. As the sound system of Uspanteko is typologically unusual, this project has the potential to contribute substantially to our understanding of cross-linguistic variation in the areas of stress and tone. One product of this research will be a large, annotated corpus of spontaneous speech in Uspanteko. The project also involves a substantial training component for linguistics students in the U.S. and Guatemala.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.

人类语言的语音系统差异很大，任何学外语的学生都知道。不同语言的区别之一是重音和语调的使用。英语是一种使用重音来区分单词含义的语言：比较单词“record”用作动词（“to recórd”）和名词（“the récord”）时的情况。其他语言使用重音来标记单词的边缘。音调也有类似的模式：例如，在东京日语中，“hashi”一词的含义取决于它所说的音调旋律（高低旋律意味着“筷子”，高低旋律意味着“桥”）。只使用其中一个特征的语言非常常见。不太常见，也不太被研究的是同时使用重音和声调的语言。在对这些语言进行更详细的研究之前，我们无法对人类语言的语音系统及其变化方式有一个完整的了解。本项目研究了Uspanteko的重音和音调，Uspanteko是一种高度濒危的玛雅语言，大约有1000-3000人在危地马拉中部高地使用。Uspanteko使用音调来区分单词的含义，如“siip”（高音，意思是“滴答”）与“siip”（没有高音，意思是“礼物”）。除了语气，重音在Uspanteko中用于标记单词的边缘。本项目的主要目的是记录和分析Uspanteko的重音和音调的声学结构。由于Uspanteko的声音系统在类型学上是不寻常的，这个项目有可能对我们理解重音和音调领域的跨语言变化做出重大贡献。这项研究的一个产品将是一个大型的，注释语料库的自发语音在Uspanteko。该项目还包括为美国和危地马拉的语言学学生提供大量培训。该奖项反映了NSF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。