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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。意思是通过单词及其在句子中的排列，以及单词和句子的发音方式--语调--用口语传达的。在英语中，语调传达语篇意义，标明疑问句和陈述句之间的区别，表达说话人的不确定或惊讶，或突出信息性词语。这些意义是通过复杂的音高模式和其他声学特征在句子中的单词之间传达的。理解语调系统是如何工作的，需要详细描述说话者产生的语调模式，并解释感知上突出的元素：一个句子中每个单词的音调模式是否具有潜在的意义，如果没有，句子的哪些语调特征和哪些区域对传达话语意义更关键(或更不关键)？另一个问题是，听者是否注意到语调特征中的细微变化，将其标记为在广泛的类别中的相应区别，如“问题”或“信息焦点”，或者，他们是否注意到语调中的粗略差异作为对广泛意义类别的线索，而将细粒度的变化感知为说话人身份或心理状态的线索。理解语调和意义之间的映射对于言语交际、认知、大脑和语言学习的理论都是很重要的。它在与语音、听力和大脑相关的临床领域，以及可以处理有表现力的口语的增强型计算机语音技术中都有应用。本项目的目标是识别在所听语音中感知并在长期记忆表征中编码的短语语调的元素。这些表征是通过听者重现所听到话语的语调的任务来实现的。实验将测试英语语调自动音段-韵律理论中提出的24个不同的语调“调子”。在八个实验中，受试者的语调再现任务有三种操作方式：使用具有更复杂的语调模式和不同词汇和句法内容的模式化句子；在听到模式化句子和再现语调模式之间引入时间延迟或介入性言语任务；使用支持语调意义解释的前一语篇和社会语境的信息。对动态声学测量的分析将测试复制的语调模式与相应刺激的相似性，揭示与音高、响度、节奏和声音质量相关的维度上语调表征的语音粒度，以及个体在复制的语调特征方面是否存在差异。这些发现将解决长期存在的关于语调表征的问题，提供关于语调及其意义的语言学理论，并以一种新的实验范式推进语调研究，该范式可以用于其他语言的研究，不需要书面语言或对语调意义的明确定义。这一奖项反映了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。

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.