Effect of French Liaison and Social Identity on Word Recognition

语言在个人表达其社会身份的方式中起着重要的作用。此外，听众对发音的变化很敏感，并利用他们对语言线索的知识来识别熟悉的声音，并将未知的谈话者识别为社会中特定社会群体的成员。本研究旨在探讨听者根据其对说话者社会身份的期望来调整其言语感知系统的能力。本研究所探讨的社会标记发音变体是法语口语中的连读过程。连读辅音出现在单词的最后位置，虽然当下面的单词以辅音开头时，它们永远不会发音，但当下面的单词以元音开头时，它们可以发音。一系列的实验将测试法国听众是否根据说话者的年龄（即，年长的谈话者产生更多的联络）和谈话者的社会阶层（即，较高社会阶层的谈话者产生更多的联络），并测试法国听众是否在言语感知中使用这些信息。参加者将听一些短句，这些短句中有或没有连读辅音。分析将包括计算连读辅音的存在或不存在对下面的元音开头词的词识别的影响。这些短语将由各个法语使用者自发产生的演讲组成。在听说话者的短语之前，参与者将被呈现有关说话者的年龄，社会阶层或两者的信息。虽然所有的参与者都会听到相同的录音，但他们会收到关于谈话者社会身份的不同信息。例如，一些参与者将被告知给定的说话者是较高社会阶层的成员，而其他参与者将被告知同一说话者是较低社会阶层的成员。预期结果是，连读辅音的存在或不存在将影响单词识别的后续元音开头的单词根据说话人的信息，被试收到。换句话说，参与者会根据他们对说话者社会身份的期望来调整他们的言语感知系统。通过测试社会期望对词汇识别的影响，本研究有效地连接了心理语言学和社会语言学的研究领域。这个项目的广泛影响是多方面的，因为我们生活在一个我们经常接触到不同口音，方言和语言的人的世界里，我们每天都受到社会陈规定型观念的挑战。我们都可以从学习社会标记的发音变体如何影响我们的感知中受益。参与这项研究的人将通过汇报过程直接受到影响，而其他人将从研究结果的传播中受益。例如，这项研究的结果将为自动语音识别研究提供信息，帮助法语教师教授联络过程，并激发培训计划，教授个人语言刻板印象对语音感知的影响。

Language plays an important role in the way individuals express their social identities. In addition, listeners are sensitive to variation in pronunciation and employ their knowledge of language cues in order to recognize familiar voices and identify unknown talkers as members of particular social groups within society. This research project explores listeners' abilities to tune their speech perception systems according to their expectations of talkers' social identities. The socially marked pronunciation variant investigated in this study is the process of liaison in spoken French. Liaison consonants occur in word final position, and while they are never pronounced when the following word begins with a consonant, they can be pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel. A series of experiments will test whether French listeners internalize the variation in liaison use according to talker age (i.e., older talkers produce more liaison) and talker social class (i.e., talkers of higher social classes produce more liaison), and test whether French listeners use this information in speech perception. Participants will listen to short phrases which either do or do not contain liaison consonants. Analyses will include a calculation of the effect which the presence or absence of the liaison consonant has on word recognition of the following vowel initial word. The phrases will consist of spontaneous speech produced by various French speakers. Before listening to a talker's phrases, participants will be presented with information about the talker's age, social class, or both. Although all participants will listen to identical recordings, they will receive different information about the talkers' social identities. For example, some participants will be told that a given talker is a member of a higher social class, while other participants will be told that the same talker is a member of a lower social class. The expected outcome is that the presence or absence of liaison consonants will affect word recognition of the following vowel initial word according to the talker information the participants received. In other words, participants will tune their speech perception systems according to their expectations of the talkers' social identities.The intellectual merit of this research lies primarily in its contribution to speech perception research. By testing the effects of social expectations on word recognition, this study effectively bridges the fields of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. The broader impacts of this project are many, as we live in a world in which we regularly come into contact with speakers of different accents, dialects, and languages, and in which we are challenged daily by social stereotypes. We can all benefit from learning about how socially marked pronunciation variants affect our perception. Participants in this study will be impacted directly through the debriefing process, while others will benefit from the dissemination of the research results. For instance, results from this study will inform automatic speech recognition research, aid French language instructors teaching about the liaison process, and inspire training programs which teach individuals about the impacts of language stereotypes on speech perception.