A Comprehensive Study on the Diversity and Universality of Prosody

这个项目从不同的角度研究了日语和其他语言中韵律结构的各个方面。韵律结构的研究主要包括以下几个方面。1.东京日语和其他方言的词重音我们对东京、大坂和鹿儿岛的NHK、JR、BJM等字母缩略词的重音进行了田野调查，发现每个方言的词重音与音节结构存在一定的相关性。特别是东京和大坂日语中的非重音词和鹿儿岛日语中的B型重音的出现与音节结构有关。2.言语不流利我们收集并分析了成年口吃者和非口吃者的言语不流利数据。研究发现，两组日语学习者在出现不流利现象的语言/语音语境方面表现出基本相同的倾向。3.外国日语学习者的语音特征我们收集了外国日语学习者的自发语音数据，并分析了其中涉及的元音缩短效应。我们发现有几个语言因素导致了缩短效应。4.言语的声学和感知特性我们进行了实验，看看感知限制是否对日语中清元音的出现产生影响。5.日语拟态表达的语音结构分析了拟态表达的重音结构，并与语义结构相似的双音节复合词进行了比较。我们发现了模仿和dvandva表达之间的关键相似之处，关于他们的重音以及决定它的因素。

This project looked at various aspects of prosodic structure in Japanese and other languages from various perspectives. The main aspects of prosodic structure that have been studied include the following. Each heading is followed by results of research in that particular area.1.Word accent in Tokyo Japanese and other Japanese dialectsWe conducted fieldwork on the accent of alphabetic acronyms (e.g. NHK, JR, BJM) in Tokyo, Osaka and Kagoshima, and found that that there exists a certain correlation between word accent and syllable structure in each dialect. Particularly, syllable structure is responsible for the emergence of unaccented words in Tokyo and Osaka Japanese and B-type accent in Kagoshima Japanese.2.Speech disfluencyWe collected and analyzed speech disfluency data produced by both adult stutteres and non-stutterers. We discovered that both groups of speakers exhibit basically the same tendency with respect to the linguistic/phonetic contexts where disfluencies occur.3.Phonetic features of Japanese spoken by foreign learnersWe collected spontaneous speech data produced by foreign learners of Japanese and analyzed vowel shortening effects involved. We discovered that there are several linguistic factors that are responsible for the shortening effects.4.Acoustic and perceptual properties of speechWe carried out experiments to see if there is an effect of perceptual constraints on the occurrence of devoiced moras in Japanese. We obtained positive results to this hypothesis.5.Phonological structure of mimetic expressions in JapaneseWe analyzed the accent structure of mimetic expressions and compared it with that of dvandva compounds, which have similar semantic structure to mimetic expressions. We discovered crucial similarities between mimetic and dvandva expressions with respect to their accentuation as well as factors that determine it.