A kinematic study of phonetic reduction in American Sign Language

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究旨在检查美国手语（ASL）中的常规化和自发性符号降低，这是流利手语中出现的语音降低形式。虽然一个符号在身体上的位置是一个语音参数，使它与其他符号区分开来，但在语音层面上，位置可以是非常可变的。例如，以引用形式在前额或太阳穴处产生的特定符号在流畅的手语中通常被降低到语音上不同的位置（例如，下巴）。降低也会自发地发生在位于前额或太阳穴的其他迹象，当有增加的签署速度或coarticulatory压力。本研究的目的是比较这两种现象，常规和自发的符号降低，并分析其发生的频率和他们的物理程度和形状的速度和语音环境的影响。将从本地ASL签名者收集运动学数据，因为他们以引用形式产生位于前额或太阳穴的签名。手势的速度和手势的上下文将被操纵，以增加的发生和程度的常规和自发的标志降低。我们建议，无论是发生和程度的语音降低的影响，一个标志的发音结构，这是什么允许一个标志被降低，但仍然作为同一个标志的可理解性。特别是，根据已记录的常规符号降低的具体情况下，我们预测，一个简单的路径移动到头部的标志将移动到较低的位置在头部，而标志，包括一个额外的标志内部的运动将成为解离的头部，并在签署的空间在身体的前面。本研究在发音音系学的框架下考察手语，旨在理解发音目标和手势在手语模态中的本质。 项目叙述：这项研究是相关的NIH的公共卫生使命，因为它有助于发展的生理为基础的措施，标志的生产和感知，这反过来又将有助于区分正常的语音变化，在标志生产的变化，由于语言或运动障碍的聋人签名。此外，它为分析目标肢体运动提供了独特的背景，这与人类运动障碍的理解有关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study seeks to examine conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering in American Sign Language (ASL), which are forms of phonetic reduction that occur in fluent signing. Although a sign's location on the body is a phonological parameter that differentiates it from other signs, location can be extremely variable at a phonetic level. For instance, particular signs that are produced at the forehead or temple in citation form are conventionally lowered in fluent signing to phonologically-distinct locations (e.g., the jaw). Lowering also occurs spontaneously in other signs located at the forehead or temple, when there is increased signing speed or coarticulatory pressure. The goal of this study is to compare these two phenomena, conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering, and analyze the frequency of their occurrence and their physical extent and shape as an effect of speed and phonetic context. Kinematic data will be collected from native ASL signers as they produce signs that are located at the forehead or temple in citation form. Signing speed and sign context will be manipulated in order to increase the occurrence and extent of both conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering. We propose that both the occurrence and extent of phonetic lowering are influenced by a sign's articulatory structure, and this is what allows a sign to be lowered and yet remain intelligible as the same sign. In particular, based on the specific cases of conventionalized sign lowering that have been documented, we predict that signs with a simple path movement to the head will move to lower locations on the head, whereas signs that include an additional sign-internal movement will become dissociated from the head and be produced in the signing space in front of the body. This study examines signed language within the framework of articulatory phonology, with the aim of understanding the nature of articulatory targets and gestures in the sign modality. Project Narrative: This study is relevant to NIH's public health mission, because it contributes to the development of physiologically-based measures of sign production and perception, which in turn will help differentiate normal phonetic variation in sign production from variation due to language or motor disorders in Deaf signers. Further, it provides a unique context for analyzing targeted limb movements, which is relevant to the understanding of human motor disorders.