Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of listener experience in perception of conditioned dialect variation

尽管人类通常认为我们在交谈时理解他人的能力是理所当然的，但任何使用过像Siri或Alexa这样的语音助手的人都会意识到，理解语音实际上是非常困难的。造成这种困难的一个原因是，不同的说话者有不同的口音，所以两个说话者可能会发音不同(例如，美式英语和英式英语中的‘car’发音不同)，而不同的单词发音相同(例如，美式英语中的‘GLOSS’发音可能与伦敦人的‘Glass’发音相同)。虽然人类通常能够适应这些口音差异，但人们对这种适应是如何工作的知之甚少。另一个谜题是人类如何适应社交口音：听者不仅可以在理解一种新口音的程度上有所提高，还可以在使用该口音的细微之处来理解说话者的社交特征方面有所提高。例如，许多美国人无法区分英格兰北部和南部的口音，或者上层阶级和工薪阶层的英国口音，但一旦搬到英国，就可以学会区分这些口音。同样，人们对这种适应是如何运作的知之甚少。这个项目调查了听者如何随着时间的推移适应口音--从他们对口音的理解程度和他们对这种口音的社会知识来看--并探索了这两种适应类型之间的关系。长期适应口音的调查是通过比较生活在美国的美国人和生活在英国的美国人处理英国南部英语的方式来进行的。该项目的重点是美式英语中以“Short-a”(猫的元音)发音，而在英国南部的英语中以“long-ah”(父亲的元音)发音的单词，如“baath”、“gras”和“pass”。它调查了：(1)美国人对英国南部英语中哪些单词有“long-ah”的了解程度？(2)随着他们对英国英语有更多的经验，这一知识是如何变化的？以及(3)这告诉了我们关于他们对英国口音的心理表征是什么？在美国和英国的美国人以及一组英国受试者将被招募参加几项感知实验。关键项目将包括与Long-ah单词相似的单词，但在英式英语中以“Short-a”发音。例如，在美式英语中‘gras’和‘gas’押韵，因此，如果‘gras’在英式英语南部发音为long-ah，那么人们可能会认为‘gas’也发音为long-ah--但实际上，英国南部的人将‘gas’发音为ort-a。美国人知道Short-a是正确的英式发音吗？还是他们错误地把‘gras’泛化成了‘gas’？如果美国人听到“gas”和long-ah连用，他们会认为这个词听起来优雅而英国化吗？还是他们知道这个词听起来像是有人在装腔作势？比较不同程度接触英式英语的听众对这些问题的回答，将告诉我们听众在适应时会做出什么样的语言概括，这将为理解人类如何如此容易地适应新的口音提供重要的一步，并可能为语言处理方面的技术进步提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Although humans often take for granted our ability to understand other people when they talk, anyone who has ever used a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa will be aware that understanding speech is in fact enormously difficult. One reason for this difficulty is that different speakers have different accents, so two speakers might pronounce the same word differently (e.g. 'car' in American versus British English), while pronouncing different words identically (e.g. 'gloss' in American English can sound identical to a Londoner's 'glass'). While humans are typically able to adapt to these accent differences, little is known about how this adaptation works. A further puzzle is how humans adapt to accents socially: listeners can improve not only in how well they understand a new accent, but also in how well they use the subtleties of that accent to pick up on a speaker's social characteristics. For example, many Americans cannot distinguish between accents from the north versus south of England, or between upper-class and working-class British accents, but upon moving to the UK can learn to make such distinctions. Again, little is understood about how this adaptation works. This project investigates how listeners adapt to accents over time--both in terms of how well they can understand an accent and in their social knowledge about that accent--and explores the relationship between these two types of adaptation.Long-term adaptation to accents is investigated by comparing how Americans in the US versus Americans living in the UK process southern British English. The project focuses on words like 'bath', 'grass', and 'pass' which are pronounced with "short-a" (the vowel in 'cat') in American English but with "long-ah" (the vowel in 'father') in southern British English. It investigates: (1) how well do Americans know which words have "long-ah" in southern British English? (2) how does this knowledge change as they gain more experience with British English? and (3) what does this tell us about their mental representations of British accents? Americans in the US and UK, along with a control group of British participants, will be recruited for several perception experiments. Crucial items will include words that are similar to long-ah words, but pronounced with "short-a" in British English. For example, 'grass' and 'gas' rhyme in American English, so if 'grass' is pronounced with long-ah in southern British English, one might expect 'gas' to also be pronounced with long-ah--but, in fact, southern British speakers pronounce 'gas' with short-a. Do Americans know that short-a is the correct British pronunciation, or do they incorrectly generalize from 'grass' to 'gas'? If Americans hear 'gas' with long-ah, do they think it sounds refined and British--or do they know that it sounds like someone faking an accent? Comparing the answers to these questions for listeners with different amounts of exposure to British English will tell us what kinds of linguistic generalizations listeners make as they adapt, which will provide an important step in understanding how humans are so easily able to adapt to new accents, and may inform technological advances in language processing.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.