Memory and context effects on representations of variation in phrasal intonation

记忆和语境对短语语调变化表征的影响

• 批准号: 1944773
• 负责人: Jennifer Cole
• 金额: $ 41.48万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1944773&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Memory; context; effects; representations; variation

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Meaning is communicated in spoken language through words and their arrangement in sentences, and also through the way the words and sentences are said — their intonation. In English, intonation conveys discourse meaning, marking the distinction between a question and a statement, expressing the speaker's uncertainty or surprise, or highlighting informative words. These meanings are conveyed through complex patterns in pitch and other acoustic features, across the words in the sentence. Understanding how an intonation system works requires a detailed description of the intonation patterns that speakers produce, and an account of the elements that are perceptually salient: Is the pitch pattern of every word in a sentence potentially meaningful, and if not, which intonational features and which regions of the sentence are more (or less) critical for conveying discourse meaning? A further question is whether listeners pay attention to subtle variation in intonational features as marking corresponding distinctions in broad categories like 'question' or 'information focus', or alternatively, whether they attend to coarse-grained distinctions in intonation as cues to the broad meaning categories, while perceiving fine-grained variation as cues to speaker identity or psychological state. Understanding the mapping between intonation and meaning is important for theories of speech communication, cognition, the brain, and language learning. It has applications in clinical domains related to speech, hearing, and the brain, and for enhanced computer speech technologies that can process expressive spoken language.The goal of this project is to identify the elements of phrasal intonation that are perceived in heard speech and encoded in long-term memory representations. These representations are tapped through tasks where listeners reproduce the intonation of a heard utterance. Experiments will test 24 distinct intonational "tunes" proposed for English in the Autosegmental-Metrical theory of English intonation. In eight experiments, the participant's task of reproducing intonation is manipulated in three ways: using model sentences with more complex intonational patterns and variable lexical and syntactic content; introducing a time delay or an intervening speech task between hearing the model sentence and reproducing the intonation pattern; with information about the immediately preceding discourse and social context that support the interpretation of intonational meaning. Analyses of dynamic acoustic measures will test the similarity of reproduced intonation patterns to corresponding stimuli, revealing the phonetic granularity of intonational representations along dimensions related to pitch, loudness, tempo, and voice quality, and whether individuals vary in the intonational features they reproduce. The findings will resolve long-standing questions about intonational representation, informing linguistic theories of intonation and its meaning, and advancing intonation research with a novel experimental paradigm that can be used in studies of other languages, with no requirements on written language or the explicit definition of intonational meaning.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.

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。在口语中，意义是通过单词和它们在句子中的排列来传达的，也通过说单词和句子的方式——它们的语调来传达。在英语中，语调传达话语意义，标志着问题和陈述句之间的区别，表达说话者的不确定或惊讶，或突出信息词。这些意义通过复杂的音调模式和其他声学特征在句子中的单词中传达出来。理解语调系统是如何工作的，需要对说话者产生的语调模式进行详细的描述，并对感知上显著的要素进行说明：句子中每个单词的音调模式是否有潜在的意义，如果没有，哪些语调特征和句子的哪些区域对传达话语意义更（或更少）关键？另一个问题是，听者是否会注意到语调特征的细微变化，从而在“问题”或“信息焦点”等大类中标记出相应的区别，或者，他们是否会注意到语调的粗粒度差异，作为对广义意义类别的线索，而将细粒度变化视为对说话者身份或心理状态的线索。理解语调和意义之间的映射关系对言语交际、认知、大脑和语言学习的理论都很重要。它在与语言、听力和大脑相关的临床领域以及能够处理表达性口语的增强计算机语音技术中都有应用。这个项目的目标是识别在听到的语音中被感知并编码在长期记忆表征中的短语语调元素。这些表征是通过听者重现所听到的话语的语调的任务来挖掘的。实验将测试英语语调自分音格律理论中提出的24种不同的语调“曲调”。在8个实验中，被试的语调再现任务通过三种方式进行操纵：使用语调模式更复杂、词汇和句法内容不同的模型句；在听示范句和再现语调模式之间引入时间延迟或中间言语任务；有关于前面的话语和社会背景的信息来支持对语调意义的解释。动态声学测量分析将测试再现的语调模式与相应刺激的相似性，揭示语调表征的语音粒度，以及与音高、响度、速度和音质相关的维度，以及个体是否在再现的语调特征上有所不同。这一发现将解决长期以来关于语调表征的问题，为语调及其意义的语言学理论提供信息，并为语调研究提供一种新的实验范式，该范式可用于其他语言的研究，而不需要书面语言或语调意义的明确定义。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。

项目成果

Hierarchical distinctions in the production and perception of nuclear tunes in American English

美式英语中核曲调的产生和感知的层次差异

• DOI: 10.16995/labphon.9437
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Laboratory Phonology
• 影响因子: 1.5
• 作者: Cole, Jennifer;Steffman, Jeremy;Shattuck-Hufnagel, Stefanie;Tilsen, Sam
• 通讯作者: Tilsen, Sam

Shape matters: Machine classification and listeners’ perceptual discrimination of American English intonational tunes

形状很重要：机器分类和听众对美式英语语调曲调的感知辨别

• DOI: 10.21437/speechprosody.2022-61
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: SpeechProsody
• 作者: Cole, Jennifer;Steffman, Jeremy;Tilsen, Sam
• 通讯作者: Tilsen, Sam

American English pitch accent dynamics: A minimal dynamical model

美式英语音调重音动态：最小动态模型

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
• 作者: Iskarous, K.;Cole, J.;Steffman, J.
• 通讯作者: Steffman, J.

American English pitch accent dynamics: A minimal model

美式英语音调重音动态：最小模型

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
• 作者: Iskarous, K.;Steffman, J.;Cole, J.
• 通讯作者: Cole, J.

Enhancement of intonational contrasts in American English

增强美式英语的语调对比

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
• 作者: Cole, J.;Steffman, J.
• 通讯作者: Steffman, J.