Speech and Communicative Timing Across Languages and Linguistic Contexts

对话伙伴之间的言语时机是非常复杂的；尽管如此，以一种特定语言为母语的人在说话和交谈时都有很强的时间感。例如，通过Skype或Zoom进行对话时的“延迟”可能会大大扰乱对话的流畅性，即使在连接期间实际上没有丢失任何单词。这个项目调查了说话者在谈话中如何知道何时计划他们的话语，以及在不同的语言和文化中交际时间是如何变化的。该研究还调查了人们如何将手势和头的时间与他们的讲话同步。该项目的潜在影响包括改善人机交互的自然性，提高外语培训的有效性，以及对言语和语言障碍患者的治疗干预。最近的研究表明，会话时间模式在不同语言的使用者之间有系统的差异。该项目旨在通过调查不同语言和社会语言背景的人群之间的相互作用时间模式，为这些发现开发一个解释性模型。使用音频和视频记录，语音计时将在个人层面上进行检查，根据演讲者如何将他们的语音与节拍器对齐，以及他们如何为自己的共同语音手势计时。该项目还将调查两对说话者之间的对话时间，探索对话伙伴之间的相对讲话时间和手势标志。项目的研究结果将引起语言学家和语言科学家的兴趣，因为它们将为跨语言和跨文化的语言和共同语言手势时间模型提供信息。研究结果也将对研究语言和相关能力（如音乐和节奏娱乐）在人类发展的更广泛背景下的作用的科学家感兴趣。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。

Speech timing between conversation partners is highly complex; nonetheless, native speakers of a given language have a strong sense of proper timing when they speak and converse. For example, a 'delay' during a conversation over Skype or Zoom can disrupt the flow of conversation considerably, even if no words are actually lost during the connection. This project investigates how speakers know when to plan their utterances during conversation, and how communicative timing varies across different languages and cultures. The research also examines how individuals time gestures of the hands and head along with their speech. The project's potential impacts include improving the naturalness of human-machine interactions, boosting the effectiveness in foreign language training, and therapeutic interventions for those with speech and language disorders.Recent research suggests that conversational timing patterns vary systematically across speakers of different languages. This project seeks to develop an explanatory model for such findings by investigating interactional timing patterns among populations of varying linguistic and sociolinguistic backgrounds. Using audio and video recordings, speech timing will be examined at the individual level in terms of how speakers align their speech to a metronome, and how they time their own co-speech gestures. The project will also investigate conversational timing between pairs of speakers, exploring relative timing of speech and gestural landmarks between conversation partners. Project findings will be of interest to linguists and speech scientists as they will inform a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural model of speech and co-speech gestural timing. Findings will also be of interest to scientists studying the role of language and related abilities (such as music and rhythmic entrainment) in the broader context of human development.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.