Prosody and Articulatory Dynamics in Spoken Language

描述（由申请人提供）：随着言语产生的研究越来越多地与语言学理论相结合，越来越清楚的是，分段发音不能独立于语言结构来理解。韵律结构--突出和短语组织--是高级语言组织的一个方面，它的影响被认为是普遍存在于低级发音行为中的。本研究计划的长期目标是了解语言结构如何影响说话过程中发音运动的时空实现。具体来说，我们调查的韵律结构的一个方面-短语结构-和语音生产的动态系统模型内的控制和协调的清晰度之间的关系。我们采用三管齐下的方法：实验，理论和计算。实验使用发音运动学数据和伴随的计算建模的结果将提供一个配置文件的方式，其中发音手势的图案是由韵律的背景下形成的。理解这些言语产生单位的组织作为话语的信息组成的函数，对于发展抽象语言结构如何在口语中传达的统一解释至关重要。婴儿的语言习得和受损人群的语言障碍都表明韵律和口语的认知控制之间存在重要联系。发展数据的收购和感知的韵律坚定地表明，韵律结构的实现构成了学习和语言特定的知识，接口与音段实现。此外，由于神经系统疾病导致的成人言语产生缺陷通常以韵律和发音不规则的多样性为特征。韵律的发音生产的研究计划概述，因此，重要的是我们对语言习得和语言故障的理解。

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 linguistic structure. Prosodic structure - prominence and phrasal organization - is one aspect of high-level linguistic organization and its effects are seen to pervade low-level articulatory behavior. The long-term objective of the proposed research program is to understand how linguistic structure conditions the spatiotemporal realization of articulatory movement during speaking. 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. Both language acquisition by infants and language breakdown in impaired populations suggests an important connection between prosody and the cognitive control of spoken language. Developmental data on the acquisition and perception of prosody firmly indicate that the realization of prosodic structure constitutes learned and language-specific knowledge that interfaces with segmental realization. Furthermore, adult speech production deficits due to neurological disorders are often characterized by a diversity of prosodic and articulatory irregularities. The outlined research program on the articulatory production of prosody is thus important to our understanding of both language acquisition and language breakdown.