Prosody and Articulatory Dynamics in Spoken Language

描述（申请人提供）：随着语音产生的研究与语言学理论的结合越来越紧密，越来越清楚的是，分段发音不能独立于韵律结构而被理解；这种结构包括但不限于口音和短语组织。语言的这些高水平韵律方面渗透在低水平发音行为中。尽管这些影响普遍存在，但在发音模式的水平上，只有极少数的韵律特征被确定。该研究计划的长期目标是了解语言结构如何影响语音的时空实现。具体来说，我们研究了韵律结构的一个方面——短语结构——与语音产生的动态系统模型中发音的控制和协调之间的关系。我们采用三管齐下的方法：实验、理论和计算。使用发音运动数据的实验和伴随的计算模型的结果将提供一个轮廓的方式，其中发音手势的模式是由韵律环境塑造的。理解这些言语生产单位的组织作为话语信息组成的功能，对于发展抽象语言结构如何在口语中传播的统一描述至关重要。因此，该研究项目将为影响发音水平语言产生的障碍，如失用症，提供有价值的见解，并将有助于更好地理解语音识别和合成的韵律，对那些有沟通障碍的人也很重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As research in speech production becomes more integrated with linguistic theory, it has become increasingly clear that segmental articulation cannot be understood independently of prosodic structure; such structure includes, but is not limited to, accent and phrasal organization. These high-level prosodic aspects of language pervade low-level articulatory behavior. Despite the pervasiveness of these effects, only a very few prosodic signatures have been identified at the level of articulatory patterning. The long term objective of the proposed research program is to understand how linguistic structure conditions the spatiotemporal realization of speech. Specifically, we investigate the relation between one aspect of prosodic structure -- phrasal structure -- and the control and coordination of articulation within a dynamical systems model of speech production. We adopt a three-pronged approach: experimental, theoretical, and computational. Experiments using articulatory kinematic data and concomitant computational modeling of their results will provide a profile of the manner in which patterning of articulatory gestures is shaped by prosodic context. Understanding the organization of these units of speech production as a function of the informational composition of utterances is critical to developing a unified account of the how abstract linguistic structure is communicated in spoken language. Hence, the research program will provide valuable insight into disorders, such as apraxia, that affect language production at the articulatory level, and it will contribute to a better understanding of prosody for speech recognition and synthesis purposes, also of importance to those with communication disorders.