Language learning, communication and the emergence of phonotactic constraints

语言学习、交流和语音限制的出现

• 批准号: ES/X014312/1
• 负责人: Mitsuhiko Ota
• 金额: $ 51.82万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX014312%2F1
• 关键词: Language; learning; communication; emergence; phonotactic

All spoken languages make words by combining speech sounds. For example, the English words "tap", "pat", "apt", "at", and "tat" all use the same 3 sounds in different combinations. This combinatoriality contributes to the extraordinary expressive power of human language, allowing us to create thousands of distinct words out of a few tens of speech sounds. But not all combinations of sounds in the language are equally permitted. For instance, no words in English can begin or end with the sequence "tp". Such constraints on permissible sound sequences are known as phonotactics. While phonotactic constraints can be idiosyncratic to each language, some occur across multiple languages. One constraint that is thought to be universal is called Similar Place Avoidance: Consonants separated by vowels are unlikely to have the same or similar place of articulation (i.e., part of the mouth where the consonant is produced). For example, there are fewer than expected words in English like "bop" and "mob" that contain two consonants produced by the lips. Why do languages have phonotactics at all, rather than just allowing maximally free recombination? And why do certain constraints such as Similar Place Avoidance crop up repeatedly? One prominent claim in the literature is that the explanation lies in learning bias, or the tendency for us to learn certain rules for sound combinations more readily than others. Such biases are thought to be part of every learner's underlying knowledge of phonology, enforcing a preference for patterns that are simpler or easier to produce/perceive. This explanation has been tested in many studies that examined how easily new phonotactic constraints can be learned. However, the results have not always been consistent with the prediction that patterns that are commonly found across languages should be easier to learn than those that are uncommon. It appears, then, that learning bias is not the only reason why some phonotactics recur in the world's languages.In this project we explore a new way to explain the ubiquity of some phonotactic constraints. Our approach is different from previous accounts in two important aspects. Firstly, we consider the impact of communication as a critical factor. As well as being learned, languages are also used to communicate, and sound sequences that work well in communication should proliferate. Successful communication requires us to minimise confusability by maximising contrasts between words. There is some evidence that the repetition of similar consonants within a word can lead to misidentification of the word, suggesting that this effect may be behind constraints like Similar Place Avoidance.Secondly, we consider phonotactic constraints to be generalisations about the shapes of words in a language, the composition of which can change in a particular direction as words are learned and used to communicate between speakers. We predict that the direction of such change reflects the interaction between learning (i.e., which types of words are easier to learn) and communication (i.e., which types of words are more accurately recognised).We will examine this theory through 3 sets of experiments, testing whether words violating Similar Place Avoidance are better (or worse) learned by adults and infants, whether they are more (or less) likely to be misidentified, and whether they decrease in number in a vocabulary when they are learned and used in communication across different groups of people.Our project will provide important insights into how language learning and communication account for the presence of phonotactic constraints in general, and Similar Place Avoidance in particular. Findings from the project will also contribute to our understanding of a larger question central to language and cognitive sciences: Where do fundamental characteristics of human language come from?

所有口语语言都通过结合语音来制作单词。例如，英语单词“ tap”，“ pat”，“ apt”，“ at”和“ tat”都在不同的组合中使用相同的3个声音。这种组合性有助于人类语言的非凡表达力，使我们能够用几十个语音的语音创建数千个不同的单词。但是，并非同样允许语言中的所有声音组合。例如，英语中没有单词可以以“ tp”序列开始或结尾。对允许的声音序列的这种约束称为语音。虽然对每种语言的音调约束可能是特殊的，但有些会发生在多种语言中。一种被认为是通用的约束称为类似的地方回避：由元音隔开的辅音不太可能具有相同或相似的关节位置（即产生辅音的一部分口腔的一部分）。例如，英语中的单词少于“ BOP”和“ MOB”，其中包含嘴唇产生的两个辅音。为什么语言完全具有音调能力，而不仅仅是允许最大的自由重组？为什么某些限制因素（例如类似的地方回避）反复出现呢？文献中的一个突出主张是，解释在于学习偏见，或者我们比其他人更容易学习某些声音组合规则的趋势。这种偏见被认为是每个学习者对语音学知识的一部分，从而偏爱更简单或更易于产生/感知的模式。在许多研究中已经测试了这种解释，这些研究检查了如何很容易学习新的音调约束。但是，结果并不总是与以下预测一致：与不常见的模式相比，跨语言通常发现的模式应该更容易学习。因此，似乎学习偏见并不是某些语言在世界语言中重复出现的唯一原因。在这个项目中，我们探索了一种新的方式来解释某些语音限制的无处不在。我们的方法与以前的两个重要方面不同。首先，我们将沟通的影响视为关键因素。除了被学到的语言外，语言也被用于交流，在交流中运作良好的声音序列也应该扩散。成功的沟通要求我们通过最大化单词之间的对比来最大程度地减少混淆性。有证据表明，一个单词中类似的辅音的重复可能导致单词的错误识别，这表明这种效果可能是在诸如避免相似位置之类的约束背后。第二，我们认为phorotactic的约束是对一种语言中单词形状的概括，而在某种语言中的组成可能会在某种方向上发生变化，因为这些方向可能会在某种方向上学习，以便在讲话之间进行交流和使用讲话者之间的交流。 We predict that the direction of such change reflects the interaction between learning (i.e., which types of words are easier to learn) and communication (i.e., which types of words are more accurately recognised).We will examine this theory through 3 sets of experiments, testing whether words violating Similar Place Avoidance are better (or worse) learned by adults and infants, whether they are more (or less) likely to be misidentified, and whether they decrease in number in a vocabulary when they are learned并将其用于跨不同人群的交流。我们的项目将提供重要的见解，以了解语言学习和沟通如何说明一般情况下的声音限制，尤其是相似的地方避免。该项目的发现还将有助于我们对语言和认知科学中心的更大问题的理解：人类语言的基本特征来自何处？