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

描述(申请人提供)：目前的项目建议构建一个汉语失语者语篇生成语料库，失语症是美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)列出的代表性较低的少数群体之一。该数据库将包含汉语失语症的独特语言特征、汉语失语症语音的韵律特征以及因中风而患失语症的汉语使用者的非言语行为的信息。语料库的建立将为失语症专家和临床医生研究汉语习得语言障碍的理论和临床问题提供必要的基础。这项研究的总体目标是改进世界各地失语症患者的评估和矫正程序的规划，包括生活在北美的失语者。这可以通过积极地将该项目的主要成果分享给任何与汉语习得性语言障碍患者合作的临床医生和研究人员来实现，即标准化的评估程序、多媒体数据库和多级编码系统。一项为期四年的调查项目将在香港进行，这座城市的语言在中国有着同质的华语社区。在这个项目的第一阶段(12个月)，将制定一项在语言和文化上适合说中文的人的语言测试和语音样本提取方案。将收集180名母语为粤语的母语人士的规范数据。在第二阶段(15个月)，180名以粤语为母语的失语者将接受测试。失语症语言样本以国际通行的转录和标注系统编码，将作为汉语失语学语言学研究的经验基础。计划的第三阶段(21个月)将包括开发一套多模式和多层次的评估工具，以指导粤语失语症的诊断和干预计划。此外，本文还将对语言障碍者和规范语料进行统计分析，以探索一种新的分类系统，该分类系统考虑了粤语失语叙事的言语行为和非言语行为。在这项拟议的研究中建立的数据库将是亚洲语言中第一个研究失语症的数据库。这在理论和临床方面都具有重要意义。在理论方面，该项目将方便语言学家、心理学家、神经语言学家和相关专业人士或学者访问该数据库进行研究。中国的数据将允许跨语言的比较，并丰富中风后失语的理论概括。参考本研究中测量的多模式语言和非语言经验变量，还可以开发新的方法来对失语者进行分类。在临床方面，这个数据库可以作为言语和语言病理学家以及相关医疗保健专业人员的临床教育的宝贵资源。对失语症中多通道语言和非语言行为的观察和分析有助于开发一种新的评估工具，用于分析粤语失语症叙事和诊断失语症类型。最后，本项目提出的语言和非语言行为的多层次沟通措施，将用于指导治疗设计，选择和优先治疗目标，并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.