Toward a multi-modal and multi-level analysis of Chinese aphasic discourse

项目描述（由申请人提供）：本项目拟构建汉语失语症患者的话语生成语料库，失语症患者是美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）列出的代表性不足的少数群体之一。该数据库将包括汉语失语症的独特语言特征、汉语失语症言语的韵律特征以及汉语失语症患者中风后的非言语行为。语料库的建立将为失语学家和临床医生研究汉语获得性语言障碍的理论和临床问题提供必要的基础。本研究的主要目的是改善包括北美地区在内的世界范围内的汉语失语症患者的评估和修复程序的规划。这可以通过与任何从事汉语习得性语言障碍工作的临床医生和研究人员积极分享本项目的主要成果来实现，即标准化评估程序、多媒体数据库和多层次编码系统。计划在香港进行为期4年的调查项目。香港是中国一个语言同质的中文社区。在项目的第一阶段（12个月），将制定一套语言测试和语音样本抽取方案，以适应汉语使用者的语言和文化需求。将收集180名以粤语为母语的普通人士的规范性数据。在第二阶段（15个月），180名以广东话为母语的失语者将接受测试。用国际通用的转录和标记系统编码的失语语言样本将为汉语失语症的语言学研究提供经验基础。项目的第三阶段（21个月）将涉及开发一个多模式和多层次的评估工具，以指导广东语失语症的诊断和干预计划。此外，还将对语言障碍和规范数据进行统计分析，探索一种考虑粤语失语叙事的言语和非言语行为的新分类体系。本研究建立的数据库将是亚洲语言中第一个用于研究失语症的数据库。这将在理论和临床方面都具有重要意义。在理论方面，本计划将协助语言学家、心理学家、神经语言学家及相关专业人士或学者存取此资料库进行研究。中文数据将允许跨语言比较和丰富中风后失语症的理论概括。参考本研究测量的多模态语言和非语言经验变量，也可以开发新的失语说话者分类方法。在临床方面，该数据库可作为语言病理学家和相关医疗保健专业人员临床教育的宝贵资源。通过对失语症中多模态语言和非语言行为的观察和分析，可以为粤语失语症叙事分析和失语症类型诊断提供新的评估工具。最后，本项目提出的语言与非语言行为的多层次沟通措施，可用于指导治疗设计，选择和优先处理治疗目标，系统监测治疗效果和效率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The current project proposes to construct a corpus of discourse production of Chinese speakers with aphasia, one of the underrepresented minority groups as listed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This database will encompass information on distinctive linguistic properties in Chinese aphasia, prosodic features of the Chinese aphasic speech, and non- verbal behaviors of Chinese speakers with aphasia as a result of stroke. The establishment of the corpus will provide the necessary foundation for aphasiologists and clinicians for research investigations into theoretical and clinical issues related to acquired language disorders in Chinese. The overarching goal of this study is to improve the planning of assessment and remediation procedures for Chinese speakers with aphasia worldwide, including those living in North America. This can be achieved by actively sharing the major deliverables of this project with any clinicians and researchers who work with Chinese speakers with acquired language deficits, i.e., a standardized assessment procedure, a multimedia database, and a multi-level coding system. A four-year investigative project that will be carried out in Hong Kong, a city with a linguistically homogenous Chinese-speaking community in China, is proposed. In Stage 1 of this project (12 months), a protocol for language testing and speech sample elicitation that is linguistically and culturally appropriate for Chinese speakers will be developed. Normative data from 180 native normal speakers in Cantonese will be collected. In Stage 2 (15 months), 180 native aphasic speakers in Cantonese will be tested. The aphasic language samples, coded in internationally-accepted transcription and tagging systems, will serve as an empirical basis for linguistic investigations of Chinese aphasiology. Stage 3 of the project (21 months) will involve development of a multi-modal and multi-level assessment tool for guiding diagnosis and intervention planning in Cantonese aphasia. In addition, statistical analyses of language-impaired and normative data will be carried out to explore a new classification system that considers verbal and non-verbal behaviors of aphasic narrative in Cantonese. The database that is constructed in the present proposed study will be the first of its kind in Asian languages for studying aphasia. It will be significant in the terms of both theoretical and clinical aspects. In terms of theoretical aspects, the project will facilitate linguists, psychologists, neuro-linguists, and related professionals or scholars to get access to this database for research purposes. The Chinese data will allow for cross-linguistic comparisons and enrich theory generalizations of post-stroke aphasia. With reference to the multi-modal linguistic and non-linguistic empirical variables measured in this study, new approaches to classify aphasic speakers can also be developed. In terms of clinical aspects, this database can serve as a valuable resource of clinical education for speech and language pathologists and related medical health-care professionals. The observation and analysis of multi-modal linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors in aphasia can lead to the development of a new assessment tool for analyzing aphasic narrative in Cantonese and diagnosing aphasia types. Finally, the multi-level communication measures of verbal and non-verbal behaviors proposed in this project will be available for guiding treatment design, selecting and prioritizing treatment targets, and monitoring treatment efficacy and efficiency systematically.